Acme
| Acme Corporation | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Acme ACME Acme Rocket-Powered Products, Inc. |
| Location | Varies by media |
| Objective | Selling products |
| Leader | Varies |
| First appearance | LT: Buddy's Bug Hunt (1935) |
The Acme Corporation, known simply as Acme and stylized as ACME, is a corporation that appears in the Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies theatrical shorts, and the Looney Tunes franchise in general. They are featured prominently in cartoons starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, in which they manufacture products that have the tendency to either fail or backfire.
Appearances
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TV series
Movies
Shorts
Comics
Video games
History
Original shorts
Acme is never clearly defined within the theatrical shorts themselves, but appears to be a conglomerate that sells consumer goods. They appear to manufacture every type of product imaginable, regardless of how elaborate or strange they get. Their name was first mentioned in the 1935 short Buddy's Bug Hunt, on a box of corks labelled "Acme Corks" in the background. An Acme product was not used in a Warner Bros. cartoon until Porky's Poppa (1938), in which an elderly pig was forced to use a mechanical, Acme-branded cow when his previous one started to no longer produce milk.[1] The company's logo would be used again in the Chuck Jones short The Good Egg (1939), with an Acme Toaster that hatches chickens; it would later become synonymous with Jones' cartoons.[1]
In the cartoons starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, their products are used specifically by former as a means to catch the bird. In the short Beep, Beep, it was referred to as "Acme Rocket-Powered Products, Inc.", based in Fairfield, New Jersey. Acme's delivery service is usually done via mail orders.
Outside of Chuck Jones' shorts, Acme also appeared in numerous cartoons directed by other people. In the Friz Freleng short Bugs and Thugs (1954), Rocky and Mugsy drive a '52 Acme car with California license plates,[1] as described by Bugs Bunny over an emergency telephone call. In Robot Rabbit, Elmer Fudd calls Acme Pest Control for a robot solely made to capture Bugs.
Interestingly, Acme's customer base seems to have also extended beyond planet Earth, including Marvin the Martian, who uses a few products such as their branded disintergration gun.
Behind the scenes
- The company name is derived from Greek (ἀκμή, English transliteration: akmē), meaning summit, highest point, extremity or peak.[2] The name itself is ironic, since in the Road Runner cartoons, many of their products tend to be generic, failure-prone or explosive.[3]
- During the 1920s, the name was commonly used on the Yellow Papers and other alphabetized phone directories, in the names of businesses in order to be listed, and implied being the best.[4]
- The company name was also used in works outside of Warner Bros. It was used in film starting in the silent era, beginning with the Buster Keaton film Neighbors (1920), and for the Harold Floyd film Grandma's Boy (1922).
In popular culture
- In the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Acme's business model is given a detailed, theoretical explanation with a plot centering around the murder of the company's founder within the film, Marvin Acme. Many scenes involve several Acme-branded products and the film's climax is set in an Acme warehouse.
- In the Parker Lewis Can't Lose episode "Future Shock," Frank uses an Acme Sound Gun to find Larry.
- In the March 20, 1993 (Miranda Richardson/Soul Asylum) episode of Saturday Night Live, Rob Schneider appeared in the Weekend Update sketch defending cartoons after the FFC ruled out that they should not be considered educational. Schneider jokingly argues that where would kids be if they weren't ordering dangerous, ineffective mail-order products from Acme.
- In the 1993 film Wayne's World 2, Wayne and Garth have moved into the abandoned Acme Doll Factory.
- In the Clarissa Explains It All episode "The Last Episode," Sam receives a rejection letter from the Acme School of Engineering.
- In the Sister, Sister episode "Little Man Date," Tamera can be heard watching an unspecified Wile E. and Road Runner cartoon from her TV, during which she asks Lisa to call the Acme Tool Company to drop an anvil on her for being depressed and embarrassed from not having a date Saturday night.
- In the Drawn Together episode "Gay Bash," the Love Tester is a product produced by Acme.
Dead Ringers (radio)
- "Episode Two" (series 5): Elton John is replaced by Phil Collins in singing for Disney's animated movies, so the former goes to other cartoons who need the "Elton John magic," such as Wile E. Coyote buying skates from Acme, set to the tune of "Candle in the Wind."
- In "Episode Four" (series 9): Politician Iain Duncan Smith wants cartoon characters to stop sneaking into the UK through "the channel" of Nickelodeon. He claims that dozens of road runners enter the country at night, dodging the customs officers by painting their own entry holes in tunnels. Another politician Ann Widdecombe claims they are connected to the terrorist organization Acme.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 E.O. Costello. "ACME". The Warner Brothers Cartoon Companion. Archived from original on July 12, 2011.
- ↑ "Acme". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
- ↑ "The Origin of the Looney Tune's "ACME" Corporation Name". todayifoundout.com. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
- ↑ Soniak, Matt (January 10, 2013). Where Did the Looney Tunes “Acme Corporation” Come From?. Mental Floss. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
