Acme Corporation

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The Acme Corporation is a fictional corporation that exists in the Looney Tunes universe. It made its first appearance in a Buddy cartoon (Buddy's Bug Hunt), and it also appeared in the Egghead cartoon Count Me Out in which Egghead purchases a "Learn How To Box" kit from Acme. The Acme Corporation was featured most prominently in the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoons.

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The name is ironic since the word acme actually means the best or pinnacle. Generally, the products from the fictional Acme Corporation are very generic and fail.

The company name is never clearly defined, but one explanation is that it exists as a version of the conglomerate which produces everything and anything imaginable (leading to the backronym "A Company that Makes Everything"), no matter how elaborate or extravagant. Another explanation is simply that the cartoons' creators capitalized on the popular early twentieth century trend of real companies using Acme in their name (to create name recognition, and so that they would appear at the front of the phone book).

In Warner Bros. cartoons, Acme products were most commonly purchased (by mail order) by Wile E. Coyote who ordered many weapons in his failed attempts to catch the Road Runner. They were also commonly seen in Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons. Acme products usually tend to backfire in a comedic fashion; the National Lampoon magazine ran a feature in which a fictitious "lawsuit" against Acme catalogued the repeated failure of Acme products and Coyote's frequent resulting physical injuries (an online version is listed in the external links below).

The Tiny Toons Adventures series expanded on Acme's influence, with the entire setting of the show taking place in a city called "Acme Acres". The show's young protagonists attended "Acme Looniversity." Calamity Coyote often bought products from the fictional Acme company in his quest to catch the road-runner Little Beeper. In one episode, the company revealed its slogan, "For fifty years, the leader in creative mayhem."

In the cartoon Pinky and the Brain, the duo lived in "Acme Labs."

The 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit attempted to explain Acme's inner workings in greater detail. The movie's plot is centered on the murder of Marvin K. Acme, the multi-millionaire founder and CEO of Acme Incorporated. His motto was, "If it's Acme, it's a gasser!"

In an episode of Animaniacs, Albert Einstein was having trouble coming up with his E=mc² equation, and Yakko, Wakko and Dot came in and wrote the word "ACME" backwards (Wakko wrote the "A" in "ACME", which looked like a "2") and Einstein proceeded to include an "=" between the "M" and the "E", ending up with "E=mc²".

Most recently, the 2003 movie showed the head offices of Acme, revealed to be a multinational corporation whose executive officers were led by a Bond-esque supervillain called "Mr. Chairman."

At one time, Acme was an in-house brand name used by Sears-Roebuck to sell, among other things, anvils.

Acme is also a brand of supermarkets in the Philadelphia area.

There is also a London-based vendor of computer cases and accessories named Acme Technology.

There is also a Fort Worth based brick company called Acme Brick Company (well known for having three holes running through the bricks, supposedly to give added thermal insulation), now owned by the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate.

Cultural references

In the 1921 Harold Lloyd film Never Weaken a box of Acme Soap Flakes is speared on the road by Lloyd's character in front of a horse dragging a water pourer along the street, causing everyone to slip on the soapy road.

In the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit the title character is accused of the murder of a Marvin Acme, owner of the ACME Company. Many of the film's scenes involve Acme products, and much of the film is set in the Acme factory.

In the movie Last Action Hero with Arnold Schwarzenegger, some bad guys throw Acme dynamite at the hero Jack Slater.

In the movie Cyberjack with Michael Dudikoff, the terrorist get into the heavily guarded building in a disguise of Acme Cleaning Company.

In the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, ammunition boxes labeled "ACME EXTRA" are in the background in the ammo shop scene where Tuco (Eli Wallach) builds himself a customized revolver.

In the movie The Meaning Of Life by Monty Python, 'ACME' is written on the sails of the Permanent Assurance building as it sails away in the short feature presentation.

Acme is a brandname found on a wide variety of fictional products in Gary Larson's Far Side comics, although on some the logo shown is "A1".

In most of the recently-produced Disney cartoons seen in the series House of Mouse, Disney created their own answer to Acme, a fictional company called "Ajax."

In MGM's Tom and Jerry short O-Solar-Meow, Tom buys a jet pack from "Ajax".

In some Microsoft Office installations, there is an ACME.EXE, that just launches the setup.

An order for a rocket launcher by Wile E. Coyote with Acme is used as the example in United States Patent 5774670, Persistent client state in a hypertext transfer protocol based client-server system. In other words, the Web Cookie.

In the computer game Superfrog, the circus world features transportation pipes labelled "ACME Big Sucking Thing".

In the Babylon 5 second season episode "The Geometry of Shadows", Garibaldi rescues Ivanova by gaining access to the quarters where she is held hostage by pretending to be a door-to-door salesman for "Acme Corporation". Garibaldi is a big Looney Tunes fan and refers to watching Looney Tunes episodes as his "second favorite thing in the universe".

In an episode of The Sopranos Tony makes a reference to Acme, as an anonymous company, or generic company

In another episode of The Sopranos, in a dream, an "Acme Cola" machine appears.

Acme has been mentioned twice on Drawn Together. In the episode "Requiem for a Reality Show", they are the makers of a liposuction machine. In the episode "The Lemon-AIDS Walk", they run a medical supply store in the mall. It would appear that in the Drawn Together universe, the Acme Corporation exists as a medical supplier.

In the Family Guy episode "PTV", Peter mentions that he hasn't had a business since a mail-order operation. Wile E. Coyote is seen waiting to return a large Acme slingshot.

In the Carmen Sandiego computer games, the player works for a company called Acme.

In the Super Mario Adventures comic serial, Mario and Luigi buy a Yoshi language translation book published by Acme.

In the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" Guy Noir's (A radio private eye on the show) office is on the 12th floor of the ACME building.

In the Pink Panther cartoon series several episodes feature Acme named firms or organizations (lab, store etc) and various Acme products.

In the Warner Bros. animated movie The Quest for Camelot, the archvillain's plan centers on a small vial that turns people and animals into robotic monsters. A close-up of the bottle reveals it is labelled 'ACME'.

In Terry Pratchett's young adult novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, Maurice notices a calendar from the Acme Poison Company in a ratcatcher's office.

External links

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