Rule 7: All materials, tools, weapons or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the ACME corporation. Rule 8: Whenever possible, make gravity the coyote’s greatest enemy Rule 9: The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

Rules 7, 8, 9

Rule 1: The Road Runner cannot harm the coyote except by going “Beep-Beep.” Rule 2: No outside force can harm the coyote – only his own ineptitude or the failure of the ACME products. Rule 3: 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)

Rules 1, 2 & 3

Rule 4: No dialogue ever, except “Beep-Beep!” Rule 5: The Road Runner must stay on the road – Otherwise, logically, he would not be called a road runner. Rule 6: All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters – the Southwest American Desert.

Rules 4, 5, 6

The listed rules come from Jones autobiography, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, which was published in 1999. The rules have circulated around in various tweets and articles.

All of them together

Every imaginary universe, be it sci-fi, fantasy or a novel, needs consistent rules that make sense in that context. Part of the charm of cartoons like Loonie Toons is the consistency of the worlds on top of which a healthy dose of unexpected twists and turns are sprikled. And that's how you get great comedy.Chuck Jones, co-creator of some of the Loonie Toones cartoons had a set of 9 rules for the dinamic duo, which are respected in every episode.

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner‘s universe

A recent exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, however, revealed a set of rules defining the creation of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote sketches. Check out the awesome list of rules after the jump.