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Chuck Jones’ Rules for Writing Road Runner Cartoons
Mental Floss ^ | March 4, 2015 | Rich Barrett

Posted on 03/04/2015 9:35:28 PM PST by beaversmom

This tweet from film director Amos Posner blew up across social media
yesterday. It's a photo taken at the What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck
Jones exhibit at the American Museum of Moving Image in New York:

Jones' rules, first made public when he published them in his 1999
autobiography Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, are
probably pretty familiar to animation students and Road Runner and Wile E.
Coyote fanatics. They are a fascinating testament to the need for clearly defined
systems within a wacky creative process.

Fun fact: In an interview for the book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation
in its Golden Age
, Michael Maltese, a writer who worked for Jones on the
Roadrunner series, said that he had never heard of these rules.

Here's a slightly longer version of the rules that Jason Kottke shared a few
years back:

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "meep, meep."

2. No outside force can harm the Coyote -- only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.

3. The Coyote could stop anytime -- if he were not a fanatic.

4. No dialogue ever, except "meep, meep" and yowling in pain.

5. The Road Runner must stay on the road -- for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner.

6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters -- the southwest American desert.

7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.

8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.

9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.

11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Humor; Music/Entertainment; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: animation; cartoon; cartoons; chuckjones; roadrunner; wileecoyote
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1 posted on 03/04/2015 9:35:28 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom

It’s awesome if legit. Didn’t the road runner defy gravity on occasion and be roadless while Wiley eventually plummeted after he suddenly realized his situation? It’s been a while since I watched.

Freegards


2 posted on 03/04/2015 9:41:36 PM PST by Ransomed
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To: beaversmom

Photoshop Boo-Hoo Boehner’s face onto Wiley Coyote, use the same procedure to put Obama’s face, or Harry Reid (or pretty much any ol’ Dem) place that face on the Road Runner.
New Game: Use Ted Cruz or Scott Walker as Road Runners, but on a brand new trail.


3 posted on 03/04/2015 9:42:29 PM PST by lee martell (The sa)
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To: beaversmom
"Meep meep" BUMP
4 posted on 03/04/2015 9:43:46 PM PST by Pajamajan ( Pray for our nation. Thank the Lord for everything you have. Don't wait. Do it today.)
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To: beaversmom
Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.

-- sub-rule:
In any situation in which gravity is not already present, its effects are only manifest at the instant Coyote becomes aware of his gravitational circumstances.

5 posted on 03/04/2015 9:44:20 PM PST by FredZarguna (Every time you type "LOL" the entire Internet knows you're a dumbass.)
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To: beaversmom

Just watching The Lady Killers, 1955, Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness. The annoying little old lady Mrs. Wilberforce is to Tweety Bird’s owner in Looney Tunes as Ralph Kramden in Jackie Gleason’ s Honeymooners was to Fred Flintstone.


6 posted on 03/04/2015 9:44:37 PM PST by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: beaversmom

da coyote...did catch him once.


7 posted on 03/04/2015 9:44:38 PM PST by skinkinthegrass ("Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." Hedy Lamarr)
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To: Ransomed

Yes. And he also ran through tunnels the coyote painted on mountainsides, and the coyote couldn’t.


8 posted on 03/04/2015 9:47:57 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: beaversmom
The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

--sub-rule: Any actual harm caused by gravity, explosives, trains, malfunctioning ACME® devices, or misadventure is merely temporary.

9 posted on 03/04/2015 9:48:04 PM PST by FredZarguna (Every time you type "LOL" the entire Internet knows you're a dumbass.)
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To: skinkinthegrass

“da coyote...did catch him once.”

and having no purpose left in life Wily Coyote sank into deep depression


10 posted on 03/04/2015 9:48:29 PM PST by Pelham (The refusal to deport is defacto amnesty)
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To: CharlesOConnell

Interesting. :)


11 posted on 03/04/2015 9:50:49 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: Pelham
and joined SHILLARY and Jack Daniels... 😉
12 posted on 03/04/2015 9:52:14 PM PST by skinkinthegrass ("Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid." Hedy Lamarr)
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13 posted on 03/04/2015 9:53:04 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: Pelham; skinkinthegrass
lol...

Warning: Language and subject matter may be offensive to some:

Wile E. Coyote

14 posted on 03/04/2015 9:57:38 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom

Hmmm... I never felt sympathy for the coyote.


15 posted on 03/04/2015 9:57:40 PM PST by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: beaversmom

Great man, met him a few times and Linda his daughter is a doll.


16 posted on 03/04/2015 10:09:54 PM PST by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
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To: beaversmom

It's tough when the cartoon model for
your President is a COMPLETE ALIEN.


17 posted on 03/04/2015 10:11:19 PM PST by CharlesOConnell (CharlesOConnell)
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To: longfellow; okie01
Great man, met him a few times and Linda his daughter is a doll.

Nice!

See post #4 here of a personal experience FReeper okie01 had with Mel Blanc.

From this FR link:

Mel Blanc, The Man of 1000 Voices [1981] - AMAZING TALENT !! (Video via You Tube)

18 posted on 03/04/2015 10:20:28 PM PST by beaversmom
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To: Secret Agent Man

That has to do with the situational awareness thing too... the coyote is aware his own paintings of tunnels are not real, therefore he cannot run through the tunnel. The roadrunner is unaware the tunnel is painted on a solid wall, therefore by faith he can run through mountains.


19 posted on 03/04/2015 10:33:09 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: beaversmom
Wile DID catch him once. However, due to circumstances, Road Runner was a giant and a relatively tiny Wile was holding on to his leg while holding up a sign which said (paraphrased), "Ok, guys, I've got him. Now what?)

That was truly one of the funniest of the Wile/Road Runner cartoons which one won't see on current television because the great Warner Brother cartoons of that era have too much violence and might turn the young viewers of today into serial killers. Or something like that.

20 posted on 03/04/2015 10:34:29 PM PST by Robwin
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