He takes very great pains in preparing that tin can for dinner. Shades of Chaplin’s shoes in The Gold Rush, maybe. The human harpoon! That’s a great one. This whole series could be seen as an extended exploration of the formal possibilities of off screen space, as well as the sometimes menace of the often idealized realist frame (cf. Brian Henderson’s “Towards a Non-Bourgeois Camera Style [1971], as demonstrated, say, by Dreyer [1932] and Jansco [passim!]; André Bazin is the idealist: “The Evolution of the Language of Cinema”). Each production is a complete clinic. It’s really remarkable.
Here are two excellent variations on the cannonball, and the harm it can do. Sounds! At one point we find the Coyote reading a book called How to Tar and Feather a Road Runner. It is in its 10th printing.