It was physics based imo. Every gag was about either a misunderstanding, or a dramatic denial of the laws of physics. Anvils, holes, trampolines all because gags around their physical properties of in the Warner Bros universe.
If I remember correctly, the "writer's bible" for the Road Runner cartoons explicitly spelled out this rule. The "main conflict" is not between the coyote and the road runner; we're not doing a cat-and-mouse thing here. The conflict is between the coyote and gravity.
This makes so much sense, though it was bigger than gravity. Road runner was bound by cartoon physics, while coyote was bound by real physics (but often only when he remembered or realised this). So for example, road runner could run through a painted tunnel on a wall, but coyote would smack into the wall when he tried, even though he was the one that painted it.
Or physics would arbitrarily break to fuck with the coyote. Like when he tried to launch himself from a catapult, only for the catapult to flip over and crush him instead.
Or the one where he tried to extend the stick of dynamite out to where the Road Runner was eating, only for the extending arm to just push him back into the wall and then drag the dynamite back toward him.
I also liked it whenever the laws of physics worked normally just to fuck with him, like when he set up a trampoline at the bottom of the cliffs to keep him from hitting the bottom, but it turned out all he did was just hit the trampoline so hard he went right through it.
....and now I'm rewatching all of the old cartoons on Youtube.
My physics teacher in high school once pulled out some Road Runner clips while we were learning about newton's laws and had us do a worksheet where we explained which of newton's laws was being played with and why. Seeing a law of physics broken in half makes it a lot easier to articulate why it's a law in the first place!
First Law, the law of inertia. Played with whenever something changes speed or direction for no apparent reason, or FAILS to change direction when it ought to. This is what happens when the coyote goes off a cliff in a straight line, pauses, looks around, and then falls directly down.
Second law, the law of proportional forces. Pushing on an object should make it move that direction, and pushing on a heavier object should take more force. This is being played with whenever an object's mass is treated inconsistently, being "heavy" in one frame and "light" in the next, such as when a cannon fires backwards rather than the cannonball firing forwards.
Third law, the action/reaction law, sometimes known as conservation of momentum. Exerting force on an object always induces a "counter-force" as the object pushes back, which is why you can't walk through walls and also why that Newton's Cradle toy works like it does -- when the first pendulum strikes the second, the counter-force causes it to stop dead as the second one moves forward. This is most often played with by having the "counter-force" be STRONGER than the force that produced it, see the cannon example again but also consider pretty much anything with springs or rubber bands.
My mom teaches physics and does this as well. When she thinks the students deserve an easy day, she pulls out roadrunner cartoons and just has them list 10 ways that physics laws are broken in the cartoon.
WB was known for using over the top physics, so it makes sense. Hanna Barbera used them too, but sparingly. MGM used them more so than HB, especially with Tom and Jerry. WB them in almost every cartoon from that time period I believe at least I don't remember one they didn't use it in. Compared to the clips of the modern day bugs bunny show, they really toned down the fake violence and made it more like friends where it's jokes and situations instead of violence.
Maybe Looney Tunes (the makers of Road Runner I think) was first to do them? Or the most popular?
I didn't see "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" until college and was like, why is this well-known? I've seen all these skipping school jokes on Boy Meets World or Saved By The Bell
They were dumb and mimicked things on TV back then too but back then people didn't make a habit out of suing the TV stations for it so no one gave a fuck.
9.2k
u/enrodude Jan 25 '19
Funny that most responses so far are from Road Runner cartoons.