oscaralbert Review of Beep, Beep

Beep, Beep (1952)

The cartoon that gave the World PacMan and Charlie Brown's shirt . . .

[7/10 · 17 May 2016]

. . . mispronounces the most important word in the Scrinkopian Heritage. To first address the basics about BEEP, BEEP, an early entry in Warner Bros. documentation of America's Resident Masochist, Wile E. Coyote's Life and Times, Mr. Coyote is blown up three times, suffers two Death Plunges, gets crushed twice by spring-loaded devices, and finally is mangled by a train--all par for his course of self-destruction. However, in the middle of this episode, the action detours off-road to enter a "cactus mine," and viewers are presented with a crude beta version of PacMan. Rough as this is, it's far more sophisticated than that subsequent "pioneering" Video Game, Pong. Not content with virtually inventing on-screen gaming, the mine scene segues into a familiar-looking visual motif: the jagged line design on Charlie Brown's iconic top. Unfortunately, the Scrinkopian Culture suffers what is essentially a Death Blow, as their ONLY verb--Mweep Mweep--gets mispronounced here as "Beep Beep." Since Roadrunners were the main staple of the Scrinkopian Diet, and BEEP, BEEP was their first exposure to Abstract Art & Thought, their minds were totally blown by this goof, leaving them in the exact same fix as the inhabitants of Planet Clare.