beep beep
In his book Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times Of An Animated Cartoonist,[11] Chuck Jones claimed that he and the artists behind the Road Runner and Wile E. cartoons adhered to some simple but strict rules:
- The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "beep, beep."
- No outside force can harm the Coyote - only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.
- The Coyote could stop anytime - if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: "A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim." - George Santayana).
- No dialogue ever, except "beep, beep" and yowling in pain.
- The Road Runner must stay on the road - for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner. This rule was broken in Beep, Beep, in a sequence where Wile E. chased the Road Runner into a cactus mine. And also in "Fastest with the Mostest" when Coyote lures Road Runner to the edge of a cliff.
- All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the southwest American desert.
- All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation. There were sometimes exceptions when the Coyote obtained other items from the desert such as boulders to use in his attempts.
- Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy (e.g., falling off a cliff).
- The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
- The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
- The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner. (The robot that the Coyote created in The Solid Tin Coyote caught the Road Runner so this does not break this rule. The Coyote does catch the Road Runner in Soup or Sonic but is too small to eat him. There is also two CGI shorts on The Looney Tunes Show were he caught the bird, but was not able to eat him because the Road Runner got away in both shorts.)
source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wile_E._Coyote_and_The_Road_Runner