I love cartoons. I love them an inexplicable amount. They instil a certain type of nostalgia within me, and I can clearly remember every single episode of Loony Tunes, Sailor Moon, Dexter's Lab etc etc...
So forgive if this post is less than formal, as I will probably be wildly, obnoxiously (albeit eloquently) fangirling throughout it.
Road Runner Rules
Dialogue - or lack thereof.
This cartoon managed to enthral me countless times as a child, it was so, befuddlingly entertaining, that I managed to overlook it's lack of dialogue for a good 10 years without noticing it. When someone finally pointed it out to me, I remember shooting my best incredulous look their way and mentally ripping apart their soul, because it did not matter. This show is brilliant! Dialogue is of no import.
So with this in mind, at my current age of 16, I went online and re-watched a few of my favourite episodes, and it occurred to me rather strikingly, that it still does not matter. Even as a considerably more intelligent human being than I was at around 9 years old, the lack of dialogue in this specific animation is such an inherent aspect of the show, that I am completely happy with inferring everything that I could ever want to know, purely from the character's wonderfully animated expressions.
But actually, did you know that Wile E. Coyote could talk? He usually speaks by holding up signs. However, in some cartoons, especially in cartoons where tries to catch Bugs Bunny (e.g. “Operation: Rabbit”) instead of the Road Runner, he can actually talk. He has a British accent and he refers to himself as “Wile E. Coyote: Super Genius”.
The Coyote never catches the Road Runner...except when he does that one time.
We all know that these two are condemned to be in a perpetual cat&mouse chase for the rest of their lives.
The Coyote never ever catches the Road Runner, right?
WRONG - allow me to elaborate:
Allow me to draw your attention to the episode of which I speak - 'Soup or Sonic', aired May 21st 1980, here is some picture evidence:
Okay, so granted, he does 'capture' the Road Runner's right leg. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT. This episode is well known for this fact, and also followed by the Coyote's breaking of the fourth wall with this ingenious act:
I digress.
Gravity will be his downfall - oh...wait.
Our friendly doomed Wile E. Coyote spends as much time running as he does falling off of very high cliffs, getting blown up, and just generally having his dreams crushed (I could find something profound about this fact but I'm afraid it will taint my entire childhood if I think upon it too much)
Here are some examples:
And my personal favourite :
But it will always be his own stupidity and mistakes that cause him to never achieve his lifelong goal of being able to eat that stupid Road Runner (really I don't think if Wile E. got the actual opportunity, that he would eat him, they'd probably be best buddies after the years they spent chasing each other)
Acme Corporations.
The company name in the Road Runner cartoons is ironic, since the word 'Acme' is derived from Greek ακμή/acmē, meaning the peak, zenith or prime, and products from the fictional Acme Corporation are both generic and failure-prone.
The Anvil is one of my favourites.
Other well-loved tropes.
One of my favourite tropes of this show are the ever-changing variety of parodic-scientific names given to the characters within almost every episode:
Running with a knife and fork/bib is also one of my favourite things, also a body-shaped hole in a cliff, bird sounds at a head injury etc etc...all of this will never get old!
What if these rules were applied to a 'live-action' show?
Well, they have been!;
But now, I'd like to talk about a different show, the show 'Supernatural'. It's a popular show, and my absolute favourite show ever. Recently, they aired an episode titled 'Hunteri Heroici' (inspired by the parodic-latin names in Roadrunner), in which their episode followed all of the rules of an episode of Road Runner, brilliantly, I will give examples:
Anvil:
Cliche' 'heart-beating-out-of-chest' deal:
Suspended in midair before dramatic fall:
Drawn Black holes on walls lead to the other side:
No actual gunfire happens:
And of corse, actual cartoon! In the South-American setting of Road Runner:
The odd, made up Latin names mid-chase:
Do I even need to name this one? It's brilliant:
With this episode of Supernatural, I can argue that,cartoons are arguably highly influential, and their idioms and tropes are timeless and very nostalgia-inducing. I love cartoons and everything about them.
I do in fact have a favourite ever cartoon episode, which will feature in the next post, but for now:
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