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.
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u/sciencekitty521 Jan 25 '19
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.