10 Rules for Road Runner Cartoons

Via Kottke.org I find myself reading the Laws and Rules of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner and thinking about creativity.

1. 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 Acme products.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — IF he was not a fanatic. (Repeat: “A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.” —George Santayana).
4. No dialogue ever, except “beep, beep”.
5. Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All 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.
10. The audience’s sympathy must remain with the Coyote.

So what does that have to do with AdHack?

Because Chuck Jones, the artist who created the Road Runner and Coyote cartoons, worked within these rules to create wildly inventive and original stories. The rules became as important as the invention. The structure supported the originality.

So what are the rules you use in your storytelling? It could be videos, images, writing. Any media.

For instance, when I’m writing something I always try to have the first sentence tell the whole story in short. I try to make the first sentence the promise and the rest of the piece the delivery.

Tags:
creativity, images, Jason Kottke, Loony Tunes, originality, Road Runner, rules, structure, Video, Wile E. Coyote, writing

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I think this is really funky, Ten Rules for Roadrunner & Coyote cartoons. It helps me as part of a school project I chose at the moment is to create a cartoon where they create a truce. These rules give me a basic outline of what I can and can’t do. Well done!!