Acme Corporation


The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that features prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote animated shorts as a running gag featuring outlandish products that fail or backfire catastrophically at the worst possible times. The name is also used as a generic title in many cartoons, especially those made by Warner Bros., and films, TV series, commercials and comic strips.
The company name in the Road Runner cartoons is ironic, since the word acme is derived from Greek meaning the peak, zenith or prime, yet products from the fictional Acme Corporation are often generic, failure-prone, or explosive.

Origin

Acme means "pinnacle", so the name was sometimes used to symbolize the best. An early global Acme brand name was the "Acme City" whistle made from mid 1870s onwards by J Hudson & Co, followed by the "Acme Thunderer", and "Acme siren" in 1895. The name became particularly popular for businesses in the 1920s, when alphabetized business telephone directories such as the Yellow Pages began to be widespread: A name at the beginning of the alphabet would be listed first, and a name implying "the best" was even better. There was a flood of businesses named Acme; some survive to this day, including Acme Brick, Acme Markets, and Acme Boots. Early Sears catalogues contained a number of products with the "Acme" trademark, including anvils, which are frequently used in Warner Bros. cartoons. The ubiquitousness of the name became something of a joke.
Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones has said the name Acme was chosen because of its prevalence:
The name Acme also had other connotations for people in Los Angeles at the time. During the time the Warner Bros. cartoons were being produced, the traffic lights in Los Angeles were manufactured by the Acme Traffic Signal Company. The traffic lights paired "Stop" and "Go" semaphore arms with small red and green lights. Bells played the role of today's amber or yellow lights, ringing when the flags changed—a process that took five seconds. The Acme semaphore traffic lights were often used in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for comedic effect due to their loud bell which was often followed by screeching tires and many sight gags.
Although it can be so used, it is a misconception that ACME was intended by cartoonists to be an acronym standing for such things as "A Company Making Everything", "American Companies Make Everything" or "American Company that Manufactures Everything".

Fictional depiction

The company is never clearly defined in Road Runner cartoons but appears to be a conglomerate which produces every product type imaginable, no matter how elaborate or extravagant—most of which never work as desired or expected. In the Road Runner cartoon Beep, Beep, it was referred to as "Acme Rocket-Powered Products, Inc." based in Fairfield, New Jersey. Many of its products appear to be produced specifically for Wile E. Coyote; for example, the Acme Giant Rubber Band, subtitled "".
While their products leave much to be desired, Acme delivery service is second to none; Wile E. can merely drop an order into a mailbox, and have the product in his hands within seconds.

Appearances

The name "Acme" is used as a generic corporate name in a huge number of cartoons, comics, television shows, such as in early episodes of I Love Lucy and “The Andy Griffith Show”, and film, from the silent era onward in such titles as Buster Keaton's silent film Neighbors and Harold Lloyd's Grandma's Boy. Acme is also briefly featured in the Walt Disney Donald Duck episode Cured Duck released in 1945.
Examples which specifically reference the Wile E. Coyote cartoon character include:

Animated films and TV series