Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a list of references to Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner in popular culture:

Contents

[edit] TV

[edit] The Simpsons

  • In the 1992 episode entitled "Homer Alone", Homer chases Bart around the house. During the chase, they are each freeze framed and subtitled with their mock Latin names. In this case, the titles read "BART (Brat'us Don'thaveacow'us)" and "HOMER (Homo Neanderthal'us)".
  • In the 1993 episode entitled "Bart's Inner Child", Homer is trying to push a trampoline off a cliff; this is an obvious reference to Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner.
  • The 1997 episode entitled "Realty Bites" featured attempts by Snake to recover his car from Homer; one of these is to set up a wire across a road to decapitate Homer as he drives by. The wire is supplied by "Acme".

[edit] Other TV

  • There was a Soviet Union equivalent of the Road Runner series, titled "Ну погоди!" (Pronunciation—Nu pogodi!), which in English means "Just you wait!". In the series, a big bad wolf tries unsuccessfully to capture a little hare. The action is in more of a silent gag movie style and lacks the Road Runner series' various technological gadgets, but has many more cultural references in its humor than the more stark Road Runner cartoons. Some of the episodes were animated in black and white.
  • In 2001, the season four episode "Revenging Angel" of sci-fi television series Farscape featured extended cartoon sequences in which John Crichton and Ka D'Argo were rendered as Road Runner- and Wile E. Coyote-esque characters. In these sequences, which were hallucinations experienced by Crichton, D'Argo purses Crichton using a variety of familiar gags, such as OZME-brand rockets, explosive "froonium," and fake wormholes painted onto rock walls.
  • During the 1988 Yes and No election in Chile, TVN (the national television network) transmitted the Road Runner cartoons instead of the election results, upheld until about 02:00 the next day.
The Road Runner as he appeared in Family Guy
  • In an episode of Family Guy entitled "I Never Met the Dead Man," there is a scene where Peter Griffin's driving skills comes into question. Brian says "Remember that trip you had to the south-west?" A Family Guy style flashback occurs with the Road Runner running up the road and Peter running him over. Peter is then seen in the car and says "Oh jeez, Did I just hit that ostrich?" and Wile E. Coyote is seen in the passenger seat saying "He's fine, keep going!" In a later episode ("PTV"), Peter flashbacks to when he was previously running a mail-order operation for ACME equipment. He talks to Wile E. Coyote, who is trying to return a giant slingshot that failed to work. Wile E. also has a wife in this segment.
  • In an episode of the TV series Cheers, the cast engages in a brief debate about the relationship between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, speculating as to whether the Coyote is genuinely hungry, or just a fanatic. Interestingly enough, George Wendt (who played Norm Peterson on Cheers) engaged in a very similar debate in the movie Man of the House. Cliff: It's kind of existential. It's not that the Coyote is hungry and wants to eat a roadrunner, he wants to eat that particular Road Runner. (later) Cliff: I'm tellin' ya, Norm, no way could a normal coyote survive a gunpowder sandwich. Norm: Oh, and that proves the Coyote's the Anti-Christ, huh?
  • In an episode of the 1990's Spider-Man animated series, Mysterio, in order to escape the scene of a crime, creates what appears to be a hole in a wall, then disappears through it. Spider-Man attempts to follow, but only hits the solid wall as the hole miraculously disappears. Spider-Man remarks that he can't help feeling like "a certain coyote". (In the cartoons, the Road Runner frequently ran through fake tunnels painted on walls, but the Coyote would slam into the wall when he tried to follow.)
  • In 1997 on the Dexter's Laboratory season two episode "Road Rash" in which Dexter gets a bike and races Dee Dee, there is a scene where Dexter leaves out free jewelry the same way Wile E. Coyote leaves out bird seed for the Road Runner. Also, Dee Dee sticks out her tongue and beep-beeps like the Road Runner. For most of the time throughout the episode, she simply says "Can't catch me!" There are also multiple instances in which Dexter falls off a ledge of sorts in a scene very much like that when Wile E. Coyote falls into a canyon, complete with the poof of smoke.
  • A 2004 episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo? featured a cameo of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The coyote chases the Road Runner alongside the Mystery Machine in the beginning of the episode, complete with the appropriate sound effects. Wile E. uses a rocket pack to chase the bird.
  • The 1994 Hanna-Barbera TV movie Arabian Nights featured a running gag during the scene where Sinbad (portrayed by Magilla Gorilla) and an evil captain try to steal a gigantic bird egg from the top of a large tree. The captain falls from the tree a couple of times, and when he does, he falls in the style of Wile E. Coyote falling off the cliffs (complete with the same camera angle and the small cloud of dust on the ground when he lands). To make this illusion complete, the classic Looney Tunes sound effects are added and the music is scored in the style of Carl Stalling's numerous Looney Tunes scores.
  • A 2004 episode of the animated comedy Drawn Together features Wooldoor Sockbat rushing around frantically, to Spanky Ham's annoyance. The pair stop in a freezeframe with parenthesized Latin names below their own real ones: Spanky is "Pornus Interruptus", and Wooldoor is "Ritalinus Shouldatakus."
  • In 2005 on the Teen Titans season four episode, "Episode 257–494", which featured the heroes trapped in a television world, there was a scene where Beast Boy, morphed into a perfect Wile E. Coyote look-alike and described "Animalus Switcheroonus", was chasing Control Freak, or "Couchus Potaticus". In the subsequent sequence, the disguised Beast Boy fell off a cliff just as Wile E. Coyote frequently does, complete with the "Help" sign. Control Freak then performed Road Runner's signature beeping noise before dashing offscreen.
  • In an episode of Bounty Hamster, the title character is seen flipping through an Acme catalogue when Wile E. Coyote shows up and comments that after forty-five years, he's finally learned not to buy from the same brand.
  • An animated Wile E. Coyote also appeared as a defendant on (live action) Night Court where he was told by Judge Stone to "Leave that poor little bird alone".
  • An episode of MADtv featured a sketch where Wile E. Coyote was in court against Acme corporation due to faulty and mislabeled products. He was being represented by Elmer Fudd.
  • An episode of The Fairly OddParents called "Back to the Norm" has Mr. Crocker setting up a trap similar to one of Wile E.'s by painting a tunnel onto a wall so Timmy will smack into it and a rock at the top will fall on him. Timmy somehow makes it through the tunnel and pedals away. Crocker tries to go through the tunnel but stops, saying he won't fall for the trick and pats the wall, causing a vibration and he gets crushed by the rock.
  • In an episode of the Disney Channel program, Phil Of The Future, Pim Diffy tries to play pranks on a substitute teacher in her class only to be out-tricked by the substitute. In one scene a worried Pim, seeing her prank going to backfire on her, holds up a sign that reads "Yikes!" in reference to Wile E. Cayote's cartoon antics.
  • In the 2001 cartoon, Aaagh! It's the Mr. Hell Show, one of the episode's openers featured a classic Wile E. Coyote chase with the Road Runner. After the coyote fails, the roadrunner comes to say its catchphrase and a hitman's gun comes onto the screen and shoots the roadrunner in the head, killing him. The Coyote then gets up and pays the hitman, it which the hitman says "You want a job done right, you hire a professional!".
  • Matthew, a character on the 1990s television series NewsRadio, once referred to Wile E. Coyote as "a latter-day Sisyphus".
  • On the January 16, 2007 episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon Stewart and John Oliver were discussing the upcoming Iraq troop surge. To argue that the surge will work simply based on belief, John talked about "a coyote who was achieving success in pursuit of a desert fowl", showing a clip of Wile E. Coyote riding off a cliff. John said that the coyote made one 'tragic' mistake—"he looked down". In response, he told Jon not to "look down", instead of what people like Jon would have to offer—holding up a sign that said "Yikes!", similar to ones used in the cartoons.
  • In the Class of 3000 episode, Westley Side Story. Eddie gives a coyote $100, then Philly Phil asks "what's a coyote gonna do with $100." Eddie answers "If cartoon memory serves correctly he'll spend it on Acme Rocket Skates". Later the same coyote is seen riding the rocket skates, the frame freezes, and a subtitle appears saying "Coyote (jokus callbakus)". Later the coyote zooms past Kim and Kam in his rocket skates and flies off a cliff. He stops in mid air and holds up a sign saying "Help" then the coyote falls down the cliff and a puff of smoke appears where he crashes.
  • An episode of Rocko's Modern Life features a sentient food processor that Rocko has abandonned in the desert. As it wanders around aimlessly, a roadrunner sprints past with a coyote in pursuit. On a second pass, the roadrunner trips over the food processor and falls out of shot. As the appliance walks into the space where the roadrunner landed, it can be seen that it is now being cooked by the coyote, who happily waves to the oblivious food processor.

[edit] Music

  • Bo Diddley recorded a song titled "Road Runner" with the female background singers singing "beep-beep".
  • The 1986 Album Bares y Fondas from the Argentine rock group Los Fabulosos Cadillacs included a track called Tus tontas trampas (Your silly traps) which is a cover from the Latin American intro for "The Roadrunner Show". It is sung from the Roadrunner's perspective on how the Coyote is going to kill himself in his attempts to catch him. This song was popular on all ages, and can still occasionally be heard in Argentine rock radio stations.
  • The heavy metal band Twisted Sister parodied both Road Runner/Coyote cartoons in several of their videos.
  • The Great Divide's album Revolutions featured a song titled "Wile E. Coyote" as something of a pep talk to the Coyote, including the line 'You're just an old coyote, but every dog has his day.'

[edit] Film

  • In the 1998 film Armageddon, upon hearing they need to slingshot behind the moon to build up speed before landing on the Earthbound asteroid, Rockhound comments he saw that maneuver before in Coyote and Roadrunner. He exclaimed that "it didn't work out so well for the coyote." Immediately after which Truman, the NASA chief administrator, dubs it the "Roadrunner Thrust Maneuver".
  • In the 1995 film Man of the House staring Chevy Chase, during a camping trip, all the characters discuss what "they have always wondered". Among the topics, the question of why the Coyote spends all his time and money trying to catch the Road Runner when he could "use the same money to buy all the fried chicken he could eat" is posed.
  • In Weird Al Yankovic's film UHF, a depressed George Newman introduces a Road Runner cartoon on "Uncle Nutsy's Clubhouse" as a "sad and depressing tale of a pathetic coyote in the futile pursuit of a sadistic roadrunner, who mocks and laughs at him as he's repeatedly crushed and maimed."

[edit] Sport

[edit] Literature

  • Writer Ian Frazier parodied the Coyote/Acme relationship in his humorous short story Coyote v. Acme, which appeared in the February 26, 1990 issue of The New Yorker. The story takes the form of a product liability lawsuit filed by Wile E.'s attorney against the Acme corporation, detailing the numerous injuries the company's shoddy goods had caused the hapless coyote. Frazier's piece has been reproduced on many web sites, often in modified form and often without attribution. The story was later published, with other short pieces by Frazier, in Coyote v. Acme (hardcover: ISBN 0-374-13033-7, paperback: ISBN 0-312-42058-7).
  • In a two-issue story in the comic The Dreaming in 1997, the Coyote of Native American myth seeks to become a more significant player in the cultural subconscious. By the end of the story, he has become Wile E.
  • Issue five of Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man contains a story about a thinly-veiled Wile E. Coyote, in which the character decides to leave the "cartoon world" as an attempt to escape the seemingly endless cycle of violence.

[edit] Other

  • Economist Paul Krugman describes the tendency of certain currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, to maintain higher valuations than they realistically should as the "Wile E. Coyote Effect."
  • An on-line story written by participants in (customers of) Genie, "Carrot Juice, Earl Grey", included Wile E. Coyote recognizing Wesley Crusher as a fellow genius and offering to mentor Wesley, as well as providing Wesley with access to the Acme catalog.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/l/Wile_E._Coyote_and_Road_Runner_in_popular_culture_abf7.html"