FYI, never stand on a moving rocket.
Whoa, Be-Gone! is a 1958 Chuck Jones-directed cartoon from the Merrie Melodies series, starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.After an unsuccessful chase with a rocket and a fall down a canyon, Wile E. Coyote devises new plans to get the Road Runner on his menu, like a plank and a rock, a Sniper Rifle (with a trampoline for support), a huge rubber band tied between two rocks, fireworks inside a barrel, a high wire structure while donning a helmet with a caster wheel, TNT rigged below a bridge, and finally, ACME Tornado Seeds.
Tropes:
- Acme Products:
- Wile E. orders an ACME-brand giant rubber band ("for tripping road-runners") and ties it around two rocks on either side of the road. However, one twang of the band and it recoils and causes the boulders to smash into him on both sides.
- Near the end of the cartoon, Wile E. uses some ACME Tornado Seeds in hopes of trapping his prey in a huge tornado. Unfortunately, all of the water in his water pistol falls out from the bottom and onto the entire jar of seeds, creating a tornado which catches the Coyote instead.
- Binomium ridiculus: Wile E. is called "famishius vulgaris ingeniusi" while the Road Runner is called "birdius high-ballius". Accompanying the taxonomy are two red arrows pointing to each of the duo.
- Bowdlerization: On ABC, two scenes were cut note :
- Wile E. getting electrocuted by the wire on which he was trying to balance his wheel-head. The scene faded to black right before the wire lands on the power lines, ending the scene just after Wile E. hits the ground.
- Wile E. trying to drop a barrel rimmed with dynamite on the Road Runner, only to have the barrel crash on top of him. The edit made it appear that the barrel exploded before it could fall on Wile E.
- In addition, ABC and CBS both cut the very end of the cartoon where the Road Runner pulls down a window shade with the "That's All, Folks!" title card on it. CBS cut this scene entirely, while ABC would alter the scene so that the Road Runner is simply pulling down a black screen.
- Death Glare: Wile E. strikes one to the Road Runner as he has his first date with gravity.
- Exploding Barrels: Non-video game example. Wile E. attaches some fireworks to the bottom of a barrel lid, hammers the lid onto the barrel and swings it above the road so that he can drop it on the bird. Before he can get it all the way up, part of the cliff that he's standing on crumbles and he swings below the barrel. Noticing the rope is about to break, he desperately tries (and fails) to climb up, and is soon dropped onto the road and trapped by the barrel falling on him. He manages to make it out of the barrel and hides... except that the fireworks are still attached to the lid on his head! Cue the explosion.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Four for the price of one.
- First, he goes after the Road Runner when the latter has taken off in a massive dust cloud, only to run through the cloud and into thin air. This shot doesn't Fade to Black but rather right into the next scene.
- Second, he tosses a rock on the seesaw to reach the other side of the canyon where the Road Runner is, but the rock is so heavy that it smashes through the cliff and causes the Coyote to slide through the board and fall down.
- Third, he sets up a trampoline in case he has another date with gravity, goes back up the cliff and operates a rifle to shoot his prey. Turns out that the Road Runner is right behind his nemesis, so Wile E. turns around and falls yet again because there is no surface on where he's standing. He's pretty smug about it though, as he remembers the trampoline at the bottom, but unfortunately, the trampoline is not strong enough to break his fall and he smashes right through it.
- And last but not least, he sets up a wire over a cliff so he can slide down to the Road Runner with the help of a helmet that has a caster wheel. Before he can slide down though, the wire snaps and leaves Wile E. to take another plunge.
- Harmless Electrocution: Following a failed attempt to slide down a wire, Wile E. gets electrocuted when it lands on the power line and into the hole caused by his fall.
- Homing Boulders:
- The vibration of the rubber band causes both boulders around which it was tied to smash into the Coyote at once.
- The explosion of the bridge on which the Road Runner was to pass results in an assortment of fragments, all of which land on the Coyote.
- Hope Spot: As he disengages himself from the wall of the tunnel he crashed into, the Coyote notices the rocket making its way out and lifts his behind back up to avoid impact. While climbing down from the tunnel, he observes its disappearance and takes his eyes completely off the road. Too bad for him a truck is coming.
- Impact Silhouette:
- Wile E. has his first date with gravity after running through a dust cloud left by the Road Runner, though we do not see the first imprint until he falls down a second time (courtesy of a failed attempt with the seesaw), creating another imprint of himself that overlaps the first one. Later, when he plummets a third time and thinks the trampoline will save him, he leaves another one right through the trampoline.
- By the time he manages to get his balance on the wire where he will slide down to the Road Runner, it snaps and he has his fourth date with gravity. Adding insult to injury, the wire drapes over a power line while one end settles into a hole shaped like Wile E., giving him a painful shock.
- Land Mine Goes "Click!": At the end of the cartoon, Wile E., trapped in a tornado, wanders into a mine field and is soon subjected to every explosion set off by the mines.
- Plunger Detonator: Wile E. rigs the bottom of a bridge with TNT and waits for the Road Runner to pass by so he can press down on the detonator and blow up the bridge. However, the clever bird stops short of the bridge before it detonates, leaving its remains to bury Wile E.
- Rocket Ride: Wile E. chases the Road Runner on one at the start of the cartoon, but when he is about to strike the bird, he hits the top of a tunnel while the rocket turns around and almost hits its owner. And given Wile E.’s track record, even if he hadn’t hit the top of the tunnel, he would probably have still missed the Road Runner!
- Seesaw Catapult: The Coyote's objective in the scene that immediately follows his first fall. He positions the center of a plank atop one rock. Standing on the back edge of the plank, he attempts to launch himself by using another rock. Instead, that rock smashes clean through the area where the front end of the plank is, and the Coyote ends up sliding into the opening for another drop.
- Sniper Rifle: Wile E. uses one after setting up the trampoline that might come in handy if he falls off the cliff again. When he finds out that the bird is right behind him and he turns around to aim at him...
- That's All, Folks!: The Road Runner pulls down the "That's all folks!" card (with the script already written) like a window shade to conclude the short.
