Zoom and Bored

Zoom and Bored is a 1957 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
== Title ==
The title is a pun on "room and board."
== Plot ==
The Coyote and Road Runner begin to chase, freezing momentarily for the credits and Latin names to be shown: COYOTE: Famishus vulgaris and ROAD RUNNER: Birdibus zippibus. From here, Road Runner speeds off, leaving the coyote to fall on the ground. Wile E. recovers quickly, kicks up some dust, and begins to chase Road. However, Road Runner leaves so much dust in the road that his pursuer cannot see where he is going. Eventually, except for his ears, Wile E. is completely enclosed in the dust. Road Runner pulls next to Wiley and beeps, alerting the coyote to his surroundings. Wile E.'s expression becomes foreboding, as both are apparently suspended in midair. As the dust clears, the coyote pokes his hands and feet through the bottom of the cloud, and then looks down to see nothing but air below him. The dust completely clears, showing that Road is perched on the edge of a cliff and the coyote on the wrong side of him. The poor coyote, once again, is subject to gravity. Determined not to let this happen again, Wile E. climbs up a very high escarpment and surveys his surroundings for Road Runner...who happens to have pulled up right behind him and now beeps such that the coyote falls back down. Dusting himself off, the coyote gets up and walks out onto the road until Road beeps a second time and sends his rival directly into a low-slung rock plateau.
#As he hasn't studied it enough, Wiley follows the instructions of The Art of Roadrunner-Trapping: 1. Dig hole in road; 2. Camouflage hole; 3. Wait patiently; and 4. Eat Roadrunner. However, he never gets past the first step, as the jackhammer he uses vibrates enough to pull the coyote into the hole. When the power cord stretches enough to pull the plug out, the coyote climbs out and finds himself vibrating sporadically. To "punish" the book, Wile E. walks over to it and prepares to tear it in half, but one of the vibrations does the job for him.
#Still trying to stop Road in his tracks, Wile E. builds a brick wall on the mountain roads and waits, with one last leftover vibration from the jackhammer incident. Soon, he hears Road braking in front of the wall. When his ears recover from the sonic assault and the dust cloud settles, he quizzically looks around the corner of the wall to see his own rear end. Wile E. makes random movements, which are imitated by his rear. After looking behind and ahead of him, Wile E. finally determines that this is a duplicate of himself and rolls dynamite under his "doppelganger"'s rear. The firework promptly explodes, and Wile laughs until he realizes it is his own tail on fire. He leaps directly into the air in pain and falls down to the ground.
#Wile E., knowing about the "birds and the bees," leaves out bird seed for Road Runner while he prepares to release a jar of bumblebees from a distance. But when Wile pulls the lid off, instead of attacking the munching Road Runner next to them, the swarm flies 400 feet in the distance towards the coyote and repeatedly stings him.
#Wile E. now prepares a second bird-seed trap, this time hoping to squash the flightless bird with an anvil. Of course, when Wile walks onto the board to drop the anvil, it breaks under his weight and falls towards Road Runner, who simply steps to the side out of danger. The board halves fall on top of the resulting large hole to create a convenient bridge for Road Runner back to his lunch.
#Having had enough of the simple traps, Wile E. builds a long ramp and lights a bomb which should blow up Road Runner when it gets to the bottom. But as soon as he lights the fuse, the bomb goes off.
#Now, the coyote prepares a giant catapult in the road; however, the boulder is too heavy for the catapult to sling at the passing the bird and flattens its owner.
#Finally, Wile E. hopes to fire at Road Runner with a harpoon. The rope, however, is around one of the coyote's feet, and drags the coyote's rear over a cactus and under several rocks, then directly into open space. The coyote sees the pickle he is in and recovers in time to grab the very end of the rope. Unfortunately, the rope continues into a very thin pipe, then out onto the road and directly into a chicken race with a truck. Wile E. smashes directly through the truck, even, and then the spear finally impales a rock face, but this leads to the coyote being swung down into the path of a train and bumped all the way up to the edge of a precipice, ragged and exhausted while gasping for air and whimpering. Road Runner pulls up directly behind him, but instead of beeping, the bird shows a soft side by holding up a sign saying: "I just don't have the heart." He dashes back the way he came, and the sign spins to "'Bye!"
== Availability ==
W UK10551 LooneyTunesVideoShowNo16The.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 16
Lt salute cj.jpg|(1985) VHS A Salute to Chuck Jones
ROAD RUNNER VS WILE E COYOTE.jpg|(1994) LaserDisc Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If At First You Don't Succeed...
StarsOfSpaceJam RoadRunnerAndCoyote.jpg|(1996) VHS Stars of Space Jam: Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Rrltcollectionfhafuawf.jpg|(1996) VHS Looney Tunes Collection Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Bumper03.jpg|(1996) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 3)
Bumper05.jpg|(1997) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 5)
Spacerrcoyote.jpg|(1997) LaserDisc Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Lt wecarr 2003.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote and Road Runner (2003)
Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales UK VHS.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales
Golden Collection box 2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc Two
lt cbrr1.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
lt cbrr1 vcd.jpg|(2005) VCD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
lt spotlight 7.jpg|(2009) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 7, Disc 1
lt bbot wc.jpg|(2011) DVD Wile E. Coyote
lt 3fcbo.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of
lt sosj rr dvd.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam: Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote (remastered with DVNR)
lt sosj cv1.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1
=== Streaming ===
Lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - )
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - )
Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes ( - ) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* On ABC, sequences 2 and 5 above were cut.https://web.archive.org/web/20240224055624/https://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-u-z.aspx
== Notes ==
* The scene where Wile E. is tricked off a cliff twice and the jackhammer gag were reused for the first scenes in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie.
* Cartoons were scheduled for a five-week production cycle, according to producer Eddie Selzer. Chuck Jones did the Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Opera, Doc?" in seven weeks instead. To cover up for the extra time spent, he had his entire unit doctor their time cards to make it appear as if they had been working on this cartoon for two weeks before production of "What's Opera, Doc?" actually started.
* Wile E. and Road Runner start running after each other before the color rings fade out.
* The lobby card refers to this short as a Looney Tunes cartoon.
* The gag where Wile E. tries to use bees to attack the Road Runner is similar to the wildcat gag from "Don't Give Up the Sheep" and "A Mutt in a Rut".
== Gallery ==
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Wile E. Coyote Crying Zoom and Bored.jpg|Wile E. whimpering and panting after getting hurt
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754.jpg|Lobby card
=== Best of Backgrounds ===
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== References ==
== Further reading ==
* Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.
== External links ==
* "Zoom and Bored" at the SFX Resource
Category:1957
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Road Runner Cartoons
Category:Wile E. Coyote Cartoons
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons animated by Abe Levitow
Category:Cartoons animated by Richard Thompson
Category:Cartoons with effects animated by Harry Love
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with no dialogue
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist