16 November: Wile E Coyote

On this date in 1949 Wile E. Coyote first appeared, in Fast and Furry-ous by Warner Bros. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Their original intention was to make a parody of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but Wile and Roadrunner became popular in their own right.
2. The character was based on a passage in a book by Mark Twain, called Roughing It, in which Twain describes a coyote he sees on his travels: a "long, slim, sick, sorry-looking skeleton", a "living, breathing allegory of the desire to want. He's always hungry. He is always poor, out of luck and friendless." Wile's tail was inspired by Japanese drawings of tsunamis.
3. In early drafts the character was named "Don Coyote", a pun on Don Quixote, but by the time he reached the screens, he was Wile E Coyote, a pun on wily.
4. In the comic books based on the cartoons, his middle name is revealed to be Ethelbert.
5. To aid his efforts to catch the Road Runner, Wile uses a seemingly endless supply of gadgets from a fictitious company called ACME (derived from Greek meaning the peak, zenith, or prime). The gadgets invariably fail, leaving Wile with soot on his face or crushed by boulders. Whether this is a result of operator error or faulty merchandise is debatable. When they do work, they work against Wile, for example, when Road Runner swallows a whole bottle of earthquake pills and nothing happens, but then Wile spots the small print: "Does not work on road runners", and the Dehydrated Boulder, which becomes so large when he adds water that it crushes him, or a Burmese Tiger trap which, rather than catches Road Runner catches an actual Burmese tiger. People have asked how come a coyote, with no Money, can afford to buy all this stuff. The theories that have been put forward are: Wile is an employee of ACME, possible as a beta tester for the products or that Wile has a relative, Calamity Coyote, who has an unlimited ACME credit-card account. In an advert for Looney Tunes, Wile is asked why he carries on purchasing ACME products when they never work, and his reply is, "Good line of credit." That said, National Lampoon ran a series telling the story of a lawsuit Wile E. filed against the Acme Corporation over the faulty items with Road Runner appearing in court as a witness for the plaintiff. Coyote lost the suit.
6. Wile E. Coyote lives next door to Bugs Bunny, another character he would like to eat if he could. In another series of cartoons he set traps for Bugs, including an exploding female rabbit, a flying saucer and fake Carrots filled with nitroglycerin. Needless to say, he could never catch Bugs, either. While there is no dialogue in the Road Runner Cartoons, in the Bugs Bunny ones, Wile can speak. He is voiced by Mel Blanc, and in a sure sign that he is a villain, he has a British accent and refers to himself as "Wile E. Coyote: Super Genius".
7. There are 9 rules that the plots must adhere to. Except when they don't. The rules are listed below.
8. In the opening sequences, there is a point where the action freezes and captions appear with faux Latin names for the characters. These are different in every cartoon and Wile's have included: Carnivorous vulgaris, Eatibus anythingus, Famishus-famishus and Apetitus uncontrolibus. On one occasion the actual taxonomic name for the Coyote is used: Canis latrans (translates as "barking dog").
9. Wile never falls into the canyon until he realises he has run off the edge of it, and will hang in midair until he notices. Then he falls. This has found its way into vernacular as a "Wile E. Coyote moment".
10. Wile does actually catch Road Runner once, in a cartoon called Soup or Sonic. However, Wile has shrunk in size and only when he's got out his knife and fork and tied on a napkin does he realise he cannot eat the giant bird. You can watch the scene at https://www.weirdfacts.com/en/fun-facts-a-stuff/3305-did-wile-e-coyote-ever-catch-the-road-runner.

The Rules

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going ‘Beep-Beep!’
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic. (‘A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.’ — George Santayana).
4. No dialogue ever, except ‘Beep-Beep!’ Wile E Coyote can, however, communicate by holding up a sign with captions.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — otherwise, logically, he would not be called Road Runner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All materials tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

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