Longest roadrunner "demise" scene?

April 25, 2007 11:00 PM

Which Roadrunner scene contains the longest set piece / rube goldberg style series of events leading to Wile. E's comeuppance?

I remember seeing a roadrunner cartoon a long time ago with a very, very long scene involving Wile.E being thrown into at least one chasm, quite possibly two, somehow being catapulted out of one into an over hang which then collapses....and so on. I remember it being at least 2 minutes long, but I could be wrong.

Is there any way of determining which the longest "demise" sequence ever suffered by the coyote is?

posted by Jon Mitchell to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

That's a tough one Jon Mirchell. If memory serves, pretty much every episode included scenes of Coyote falling into a chasm. (help!)

As for the longest demise sequence, there were quite a few episodes in which the Acme product introduced in the beginning bedeviled Coyote throughout the entire episode and ultimately ended in his annihilation. That's one of the things that made Roadrunner so much fun to watch. As soon as Coyote opened the can of Acme Instant Hole, you knew he would live to regret it again and again.
posted by three blind mice at 11:31 PM on April 25, 2007

A review of the, uhh, 'literature' shows that the longest, most-complicated scene I have access to is one of about two minutes duration involving a steam roller, a fake detour leading to a fake tunnel, and a cannon (attached to the tunnel, naturally). Basically, the Coyote rigs the steam roller to chase the Road Runner, intending it to take the 'in case of steam roller' detour into the cannon. The expected result occurs.

There's another pretty long scene in which the Coyote is dragged along by the rope of his harpoon gun for quite some distance. In the end he miraculously ends atop a cliff, whereupon the Road Runner sneaks up behind him only to announce that he "doesn't have the heart," presumably to scare the Coyote into jumping off the cliff.

I couldn't find anything matching your description exactly, although there are only 11 Coyote & Road Runner episodes in the Golden Collection, Volume 2.
posted by jedicus at 11:43 PM on April 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Oh, and a bit of googling turned up some Coyote & Road Runner trivia pages but none of them had 'longest scene' or anything like it.
posted by jedicus at 11:44 PM on April 25, 2007

I have volume 1 of the Golden Collection. I haven't picked it up in quite some time and can't even remember if there are Road Runner cartoons on it, but if there are I'll watch them tomorrow and take notes if nobody beats me to it :)
posted by crinklebat at 2:40 AM on April 26, 2007

It's not "Roadrunner" cartoons, it's Wile E. Coyote Super Genius cartoons! Please get it right next time, it is quite insulting for that extra to get top billing on MY show!
posted by wile e at 4:12 AM on April 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

There have been at least a couple where he rigged something up in the beginning of the episode and it didn't work, so he promptly forgets about it and tries a bunch of other schemes (which also fail). Then near the end of the show, he'll have a nearly perfect idea, and he's just about to catch the roadrunner when he runs past his original trap, which promptly ensnares him (/blows him up, /etc.)

The genius is that not only Wile E. has forgotten about it by this time, but that you, the viewer, have also forgotten about it.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:18 AM on April 26, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is an awesome question. I immediately thought of this episode, which can be seen here. There's a long sequence of catapult mishaps, from about 3:56 until the end.

Of course, you could always find a forum dedicated to animation or classic cartoons, and ask the participants. This one looks pretty good?
posted by sleevener at 12:34 PM on April 26, 2007

I seem to recall a passage from the book Chuck Jones Conversations in which Mr. Jones talks about having once thought up an idea for a gag that would last the entire running length of a cartoon (7-8 minutes, or whatever). I can't remember if he ever actually made the cartoon or not, but the information is there in the book, should you choose to seek it out.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:26 PM on April 26, 2007

In "Lickety-Splat", the Coyote drops a bunch of dart bombs from a balloon. Not only do they foil him in that scene, but EVERY scheme thereafter fails due to an errant dart bomb.
posted by evilcolonel at 3:33 PM on April 26, 2007