Title - Stop! Look! and Hasten!
Director - Chuck Jones
Released - 1954
Reason for Placement --
In the Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner toons, there was always a formula to the gags: Wile E. sets trap, trap somehow fails, repeat as necessary. Some of the best WEC/RR shorts used a different approach to this method, including Stop! Look! and Hasten!
About half-way through the short, Wile E. sets up a steel door that will shoot up from the ground when he releases it. However, when the Road Runner runs past it, the door doesn't budge. Wile E. goes out to take a look, trying to pull it up and even starts jumping on it. Normally, this is where we expect to see the punchline of this gag, but interestingly enough, nothing happens. Wile E. just abandons the door and runs after the Road Runner.
For the last trap, Wile E. eats an entire box of "leg muscle vitamins" so he can catch up to the Road Runner (insert your own Barry Bonds joke here). The vitamins work, and Wile E. chases after the Road Runner, going so fast that he literally leaves a streak of fire on the ground!
And that's when we get the payoff: just as they run over the steel door, it finally shoots up... just in time for poor Wile E. to slam head-first into it!
Does anyone remember the cartoon classic where a cat rings a bell and gets jumped by a gang of cats every time a bell rings?
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