YMMV / Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner

• Accidental Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Rudy Larriva Road Runner shorts sometimes veer into this territory, with their Deranged Animation and ominous background music cues.
  • Then there's the final scene of the 1980 short, "Soup or Sonic", where we get to see a glorious shot of the giant Road Runner (complete with extra detail) from the shrunken Wile E.'s perspective, accompanied by an ominous timpani drumroll. As if that wasn't enough, the bird then bends down to his tiny nemesis and lets out a deeper-pitched "Beep beep!" that ends up sounding almost demonic, along with Wile E. reflected in his eyes! The giant fly's Slasher Smile from the same cartoon is unnerving.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is the Road Runner a genuinely clueless, happy-go-lucky bird who is unaware of Wile E.'s every attempt to catch him, or is he much more intelligent than he appears to be and is aware of what Wile E. wants to do with him?
• Audience-Alienating Era: The cartoons directed by Rudy Larriva are often regarded to be the worst of the series. The animation and music is inferior to that of the shorts that came before and after it, while their pacing is tediously slow. It can take minutes for a gag to be set up and resolved.
• Award Snub: Despite being amongst the most iconic characters in the Looney Tunes cast and their cartoons being so influential, the duo only got ONE nomination for an Academy Award, specifically for Beep Prepared.
  • Unlike other cartoons that got similarly nubbed, they failed to make it to the final list in Jerry Beck’s The 50 Greatest Cartoons, with their first cartoon, Fast and Furry-ous, only making it to the runners up list, meaning it didn’t get enough votes.
• Base-Breaking Character: The Road Runner himself to a degree, who is either loved by people for his speed, guile, and his adorable "Beep beep!" sound, or is somewhat hated for always winning over the Coyote because of how they sympathize with him.
• Bizarro Episode:
  • Some of the shorts not created by Jones due to different aesthetics and heavier breaks in formula. "The Solid Tin Coyote", "Sugar and Spies", and "The Whizzard of Ow" are particularly unique in the fact that, rather than being an episodic compilation of interchangeable schemes, Wile sticks to refining one consistent and unusual gimmick the entire short.
  • In addition, Wile had a smaller stint against Bugs Bunny. In contrast to the most silent Road Runner shorts, here Wile was a much more verbose and overconfident antagonist that spoke in an eloquent Mid-Atlantan accent and took great pleasure crafting his own inventions than relying on ACME. Although the result of going up against Bugs was the same, especially since Bugs was so crafty and Wile E. so smug.
• Death of the Author: While Chuck Jones' "Rules" of how the series was written is somewhat well known, his contemporary Friz Freleng considered his account of the series rules apocryphal, saying he made up the rules long after the original shorts were finished. Considering how often some of the "rules" were broken in the original shorts, there may be some grain of truth in that. Writer Mike Maltese also confirmed that there were no "rules" when they made the original shorts either.
• Epileptic Trees: Cracked presents the theory that Wile E. Coyote has a clone army, and the coyote who talks is the real one. It's surprisingly plausible. Someone left an equally plausible comment suggesting that the Road Runner is either a clone himself or in cahoots with the original Coyote, acting as bait/an incentive for the clones to test ACME products.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Shipping between the Road Runner and Coyote is far more common than you might think.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Jones created the shorts as a parody of the Tom and Jerry cartoons and how simplistic he considered their formula to be. Later on, Jones would take over producing the Tom and Jerry series (and would ironically lament he had a more difficult time grasping it than his own interpretation).
• Intended Audience Reaction: Feeling sympathy for Wile E. Coyote was the point of the shorts from the start.
• Memetic Mutation: "Stop! In the name of humanity!"^ExplanationStill images or GIF's of a horrified Wile E. Coyote holding a sign saying the aforementioned phrase have been used in comment sections to plead people they're responding to to calm down with perceived inflammatory or squicky comments.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The Road Runner's "BEEP BEEP!" sound.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Robert McKimson and Rudy Larriva^note "The Wild Chase" by Friz Freleng doesn't count as it's more of a Speedy Gonzales cartoon which just happens to feature the Coyote and Road Runner frequently broke the 9 rules Chuck Jones created for the shorts, most notably the rule where the Road Runner can only harm the Coyote by saying "beep-beep".
• Rooting for the Empire: An odd intentional example. The first rule of the skits was that the audience's sympathies must always lie with Wile E. Coyote — not tough, considering what a Butt-Monkey he became, even by Looney Tunes standards.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While it still doesn't stack up to the Chuck Jones shorts, "Sugar and Spies," the final Golden Age Road Runner short, is seen as an improvement from the infamous "Larriva Eleven".
• Ugly Cute: Wile E. Coyote has yellow eyes encircled by red bags and bushy brows, and of course a long, crooked snout. Yet he ends up being endearing due to his bad luck, sheer determination and the fact that he only really wants a fair meal.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: There are actually a few fans who DON'T feel sorry for Wile E. Coyote, despite one of the rules.

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