The Myth of Wile E

Beckett Writes Bugs Bunny

Fortunately, the moment our hero landed, good old cartoon logic came through for him again.

The spider was okay.

In cartoons, no one ever dies of falling. Not permanently, anyway. Wile E. Coyote, for instance, often falls off cliffs that are many miles high. He even leaves a deep, coyote-shaped crater in the ground. But he doesn't die, because in cartoons there is absolutely no escape from fate. Not even death frees cartoon characters from their existential quandaries. It's as if Beckett writes Bugs Bunny.

Having fallen off the cliff for the umpteenth time, Wile E. is flattened, dazed, and bedraggled, but he always manages to pull himself together and in a matter of seconds he's good as new. He must endure. His sole purpose is to doggedly (or rather, coyotedly) pursue something that can never be caught. Therefore his dilemma is tragic.

But despite his absurd situation, he never quits or despairs, and therefore he is noble. He's like Sisyphus, trying to get that rock up a hill for all eternity. Except that Sisyphus's predicament wasn't made all the more cruel by the likes of Acme Co.

You see, poor Wile E. is always mail-ordering false hope, in the form of Acme Mega-Dynamite, Acme Instant Train Tunnels, and Acme Rocket Skates. I suppose these items have been proven effective in extensive clinical studies and endorsed by attractive celebrities. But the products always fail to fulfill their Roadrunner-catching promises.

But Wile E. is never deterred. We know that our ever-faithful consumer will succumb once again to advertising, and order yet another over-hyped and ultimately disappointing product from Acme Co.

So I guess his dilemma is not just tragic and noble, but also capitalistic.