History WesternAnimation / WileECoyoteAndTheRoadrunner

* ''Coyote vs. Acme'' (TBA)

* IneffectualSympatheticVillain: Rule Number 10: The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote. [[note]]It worked, of all people, on [[Series/SledgeHammer Sledge Hammer...]][[/note]]

Between the mid-60's to the early-80's, the duo appeared in a series of comic books published by Creator/GoldKeyComics that ran for 105 issues. In those comics, the Road Runner was given the name Beep Beep (yes, seriously) and had a family consisting of a wife named Matilda and three unnamed identical sons. Both coyote and roadrunner also talked more often than they did in the theatrical cartoons, with the latter in particular speaking in Creator/DrSeuss[=-esque=] rhyme, which also applies to his sons and Matilda. Other than that, the premise of Wile E. trying to catch the roadrunners remained.

* BornUnlucky: No matter how hard the Coyote tries, his plans to catch that Roadrunner end up backfiring on him spectacularly, including the devices he orders from [=ACME=]. He is also the epitome of the ButtMonkey in Western animation. One of the laws of the cartoons is that "the audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote." For a coyote to want to eat a roadrunner is perfectly natural in the order of things and to top it all off, he is regularly portrayed as skinny and starving. Furthermore, if a device ''does work'' as advertised, Wile E. ends up taking the bait. That said, one of the rules that Chuck Jones created said that the coyote’s ineptitude could hurt him even in the Road Runner cartoons, so he’s a downplayed example of this.

* DelayedReaction: Wile usually realizes very late that he's walking on thin air. Once he does he falls down.

* EvilVirtues: Wile E. Coyote has a '''Determination''' that puts Sisyphus to shame. Nothing can make him give up on catching that roadrunner.

* ColossusClimb: Averted. In the cartoon ''Soup or Sonic'', [[ThrowTheDogABone Wile E. finally catches the Road Runner]]. The episode's running gag involving size changing pipes leaves the Road Runner normal sized, but unfortunately for the Coyote he has become tiny, very tiny. He doesn't bother trying to scale the huge bird ([[OhCrap even he can appreciate he's massively outgunned]]) and instead asks the audience what is he supposed to do now.

Basically, this is what happens if ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' was [[RecycledWithAGimmick set in the desert]], and replaced the cat and mouse with a [[ThoseWilyCoyotes coyote]] and a roadrunner.[[note]]Yes, a real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadrunner bird species]] (essentially a type of cuckoo) of the Southwestern US and Mexico.[[/note]] And with even less successful results for the chaser.

** The only exceptions seemed to be ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'', where he gets run over by a truck in one scene; the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' segment, "Little Old Slappy from Pasadena", where Slappy outruns him in her car and runs over Wile E. Coyote, and as he holds up an "I quit" sign with his foot, Buttons (who had been launched into the air in an earlier gag) lands on top of him with Mindy unharmed as usual; and the ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' episode, "Instant Replay", where Taz easily catches him and prepares to eat him, but throws him away when Bull Gator and Axel show up.

Basically, this is what happens if ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' was [[RecycledInSpace set in the desert]], and replaced the cat and mouse with a [[ThoseWilyCoyotes coyote]] and a roadrunner.[[note]]Yes, a real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadrunner bird species]] (essentially a type of cuckoo) of the Southwestern US and Mexico.[[/note]] And with even less successful results for the chaser.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Road Runner's Beep Beep!

* FlatCharacter: The Road Runner is deliberately this, to focus our attention on the VillainProtagonist. He rarely does anything except run, eat, and say [[CatchPhrase "beep beep!"]], and even his facial expression never changes in any of the Jones cartoons and most of the ones that followed.

** He also changes it into a thoughtful frown as he seemingly forgets his {{Catchphrase}} in "The Whizzard of Ow".

* ThisIsGonnaSuck: Wile E. often did this voicelessly or via a little sign. If a gigantic boulder was going to crush him, he usually opened a tin⁸y parasol in response.

* RacingTheTrain: In the cartoon "Zipping Along," the establishing scene features the bird zipping along a train, although he the road and never attempts to beat the train to the crossing.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Seriously, the Trope could practically be called "Wile E. Coyote Syndrome" it happens to him so often.

* [[IncrediblyLamePun Beep]] [[BeamMeUpScotty Me Up, Scotty]]: We all know it's "BEEP BEEP!" Yet for some strange reason, it ''still'' sounds like "MEEP MEEP!"

** The only exceptions seemed to be ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'', where he gets run over by a truck in one scene, and the ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' segment, "Little Old Slappy from Pasadena", where Slappy outruns him in her car and runs over Wile E. Coyote, and as he holds up an "I quit" sign with his foot, Buttons (who had been launched into the air in an earlier gag) lands on top of him with Mindy unharmed as usual.

-->--'''George Newman''' (Music/WeirdAlYankovic) effectively summarizing the cartoons in ''Film/{{UHF}}''.

->''"Okay, right now I'd like to show you one of my favorite cartoons. It's a sad, depressing story about a pathetic coyote who spends every waking moment of his life in the futile pursuit of a sadistic roadrunner, who mocks him and laughs at him as he's repeatedly '''crushed''' and '''maimed!''' Hope you '''enjoy''' it!"''

* BornLucky: '''''NOTHING''''' ever goes wrong for Road Runner. Sometimes the laws of physics and even reality bend over for him, such as when Wile E. painted a cliff wall to look like a road, and Road Runner ''proceeds to run right into the painted road and disappears into the horizon.'' And no surprise, Wile E. tries to follow and crashes into the wall.

* AmusingInjuries: Coyote suffers a multitude in every short.

* DecoyProtagonist: Despite often being referred to as “Roadrunner cartoons,” Roadrunner himself is never actually at the forefront of the plot. The stories always follow [[VillainProtagonist Wile E Coyote]] and his failed attempts at killing his ArchEnemy.

** Similarly, the gigantic sheet of fly paper is labelled "ACME Giant Fly Paper," and works perfectly... at catching a giant fly. Said fly even gives a ''nasty'' SlasherSmile before wrapping the coyote in said fly paper.

* SmugSnake: Wile E. thinks of himself as a "super-genius", but is actually the epitome of the villainous ButtMonkey in Western animation. No matter how hard he tries, the Coyote's plans always backfire on him, including the devices he orders from [=ACME=]. Furthermore, if his traps ''do work'' as planned, the Coyote is the one taking the bait. He even provides the trope image.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Every so often, the Coyote actually manages to get some sort of Acme product, plan or thing to work as it should -- [[DidntThinkThisThrough only for it to backfire horribly because it was a plain stupid idea.]] And occasionally some of these plans aren't even met with cartoon logic, but a realistic application of how physics might make something fall apart.

* ThoseWilyCoyotes: He's never wily enough, though.

* ColossusClimb: Averted. In the cartoon ''Soup or Sonic'', [[ThrowTheDogABone Wile E. finally catches the Road Runner]]. The episode's running gag involving size changing pipes leaves the Road Runner gigantic, but unfortunately for the Coyote he has become tiny, very tiny. He doesn't bother trying to scale the huge bird ([[OhCrap even he can appreciate he's massively outgunned]]) and instead asks the audience what is he supposed to do now.

* FlatCharacter: The Road Runner is deliberately this, to focus our attention on the VillainProtagonist. He rarely does anything except run, eat, and say [[CatchPhrase "beep beep!"]], and even his facial expression never changes (though the only time this is [[AvertedTrope averted]] is in WesternAnimation/TheSolidTinCoyote... ''every time'' Road Runner sees the eponymous gestalt).

* RhymesOnADime: In some ''Looney Tunes'' comic books from the 80's where ''both'' characters talk, the Road Runner does this.