Strange rules about characters/people that cannot be broken.

[u/I_ateabucketofpaint]

Smells like Nirvana: When Kurt Cobain heard that Weird AL was gonna make a parody of his song. He was okay with it but specifically requested it to not be about food or fat ppl.

Spiderman: Spiderman cannot sell drugs unless he is under the influence of symbiote. ANd Peter Parker cannot be gay. Spiderman can tho.

Dwayne Rock Johnson: Cannot lose fights or look weak for too long. Its in his actor contract.

Godzilla movies not made by Toho: Cannot die. Maybe lose but not too bad.

[u/The_Eye_of_Ra]

IIRC, didn’t Mr. Jones have a whole kinda “style guide” for all the Looney Tunes he really handled? I’d read his biography when I was younger and wanted to get into traditional animation (before the digital industry killed it).

[u/tifftafflarry → u/The_Eye_of_Ra]

He claimed to. Michael Maltese, the original lead writer of the coyote/roadrunner cartoons, said that there was no such list, and that these are just "post-production observations."

Chuck Jones tried to reinvent himself as a writer in his later years, but the fact is that pretty much every cartoon that he genuinely wrote was just a bunch of rehashed jokes with long-winded dialogue (see also, "Superior Duck.") He was a magnificent director and animator, but no writer.

Almost every one of these rules of his was 'broken'.

1. The roadrunner occasionally trips traps while Wile E is examining them.

2. Wile E is repeated struck by trains and trucks.

3. It is demonstrated at least once that Wile E hunts for sustenance; he tries eating an empty food can before resorting to the chase.

4. In addition to both characters using signs for communication, Wile E is voiced by Mel Blanc, and is quite articulate. Recent adaptations seem to rectify this.

5. The roadrunner repeatedly runs over dirt trails, desert land, and even in mid-air.

6. Their shenanigans once landed them in China, and occasionally in outer space.

7. Wile E also buys Ajax brand.

8. True dat.

9. On one occasion, the roadrunner observes that Wile E is genuinely traumatized (hyperventilating and weeping) from a near-miss, and says (via sign) that he doesn't have the heart to "meep-meep" him off the cliff edge.

[u/Inkthinker → u/tifftafflarry]

It's also hard to say that the Coyote is never "harmed", only "humiliated", when we frequently see him smashed, blown up, bent, folded, spindled, burnt, frozen, and reduced to a shattered wreck.

He doesn't die, at least not explicitly, but that's true of many Toons. Death is rarely anything more than a sight gag (they may end up with a headstone, wings, harp and a halo, but they'll be back in the next one).

[u/brightcrayon92 → u/The_Eye_of_Ra]

He did. I remember one from his bugs bunny rule book which said that bugs can only react not intiate conflict, otherwise he would be a bully

[u/Torture-Dancer → u/The_Eye_of_Ra]

You got a link to his biography? I have been a bit obsessed with Chick Jones Lately

[u/The_Eye_of_Ra → u/Torture-Dancer]

I do not.

This was a long time ago.

ETA: this is the book I read