"Beep beep!"
(Fast and Furry-ous, 1949)
The Road Runner never speaks, never schemes and never loses. He simply runs, pausing only to eat birdseed or to stick out his tongue before vanishing in a cloud of dust. Chuck Jones described him as a force rather than a personality, and that is the point: the comedy belongs to Wile E. Coyote, whose elaborate plans collapse against the bird’s effortless speed. Together they created one of the purest chase formulas in film, built on timing, silence and gravity.
| Species: | Roadrunner |
|---|---|
| First appearance: | Fast and Furry-ous (released September 17, 1949) |
| Created by: | Chuck Jones (director) and Michael Maltese (writer) |
| Original voice: | "Beep beep" performed by background artist Paul Julian |
| Signature lines: | "Beep beep!" |
| Frequent co-stars: | Wile E. Coyote |
| Chuck Jones cartoons: | 27, from 1949 to 1994 |
Jones and writer Michael Maltese created the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in 1948, and the pair debuted in Fast and Furry-ous in 1949. Jones conceived the series partly as a parody of chase cartoons, stripping the format to its essentials: one pursuer, one target, a desert and an endless supply of mail-order gadgets.
The bird’s famous sound was a happy accident. Background artist Paul Julian made a “beep beep” noise while feeling his way down a hallway at the studio known as Termite Terrace, and Jones had him record it. Jones directed the series through the 1960s, revisited it in Freeze Frame (1979) and Soup or Sonic (1980), and closed it with Chariots of Fur in 1994.
Jones’s advice to students who wanted to draw the Road Runner was to draw a cloud of dust first, then attach the bird. The design is lean: a small body, long neck, large tail and wings that hardly look functional. Jones noted that the body and neck are true to the real bird, while the head and crest are his own invention, and the legs are stretched-out chicken legs. A high forehead keeps him looking young.
When students asked whether real roadrunners go “beep beep,” Jones liked to report that an ornithologist told him they do not.
The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote marked their 75th anniversary in 2024, celebrated by the gallery with a commemorative collection. Jones later described a set of rules he followed for the series, such as the Coyote’s failures always coming from his own plans or Acme products. The series influenced decades of chase comedy, and “Acme” became shorthand for an all-purpose supplier.
“The Road Runner did not change a lot visually over the years; he has very little personality, as he is a force. I tell students that the secret of drawing the Road Runner is learning how to draw dust; just draw a cloud of dust and hook a Road Runner onto it. Many people do not know there is such a creature as a roadrunner outside Warner Bros. cartoons. An ornithologist at the University of Iowa, who is a roadrunner expert, told me that the first question asked by her students every year is, “Does the true roadrunner really go ‘beep-beep’?” and they do not believe her when she tells them that it doesn’t.
My Road Runner is a rare case in which the animated animal is almost exactly like its living model. It has a small body, a long neck, a large tail, and wings that look as if they should work but don’t. The head shape of the real roadrunner is slightly different, and it does not have such a prominent crop (except when excited), but the body and neck are pretty accurate. My Road Runner has legs like elongated chicken legs, and a high forehead gives the bird a youthful look. It has a chest and a pelvis, just as we do, and the backbone extends a little at the tail.
The Road Runner’s immortal “beep-beep” was an accidental find, inspired by the sound Paul Julian made as he blindly tried to clear a route for himself along a Termite Terrace corridor. It seemed unimaginable to ask anybody but Paul to record this sound, so we invited him into the studio”
– Chuck Jones, Chuck Reducks (1996)
Every piece in our Road Runner collection is certified by the Chuck Jones family. Browse originals, limited editions and prints below, or contact our art consultants with any questions.
