The Road Runner shorts are very simple in their premise: the Road Runner, a flightless cartoon bird (loosely based on a real bird, the Greater Roadrunner), is chased down the highways of the Southwestern United States by a hungry toon coyote, named Wile E. Coyote (a pun on "wily coyote"). Despite numerous clever attempts, the coyote never catches or kills the Road Runner (although The Solid Tin Coyote does nab the roadrunner, he throws the coyote into his cavernous mouth following the "EAT, STUPID" command, and in Soup or Sonic, after running in and out of pipes that would magically resize the pair, the coyote is getting ready to eat the Road Runner, when he suddenly realizes that he is miniature and his prey is gigantic, to which he then looks at the camera and holds up the signs "All right, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him - now what do I do?"). All of his elaborate schemes end up injuring himself in humorous instances of highly exaggerated cartoon slapstick violence.
