Talk:Wacky Races

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[edit] Anime homages to Wacky Races

I'm aware of at least three Japanese animated shows that produced a Wacky Races-style special. During the '80s, AIC produced Scramble Wars, starring the super deformed versions of characters from Bubblegum Crisis, Gall Force and other shows that AIC created. Sunrise did the same, as part of the SD Gundam OVA series of self-parodies of Sunrise's Gundam series. This is perhaps the most direct homage to Wacky Races, as the episode transforms one of the characters, the mad ace Yazan Gable, into a Muttley-esque character, complete with dog-like snout and hushed laugh. Recently, in 1993, Tatsunoko released a Wacky Races-styled OVA special featuring the characters from the popular and long running Time Bokan franchise and it's spinoffs, Yattaman, Zendaman, and Otasukeman.--YoungFreud 16:37, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Race results

Are these race results accurate? They could probably do with being sourced. I'm not convinced that they're correct. MLA 16:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wow....

...I've often thought some wikipedians had too much time on their hands. Now I'm sure of it. I applaud the someone somewhere who watched every series and noted down who won.

Still, going with number of firsts, resolving ties with number of seconds and then thirds, a final win-list reads thusly:

1) The Bulletproof Bomb 2) The Compact Pussycat 3) The Turbo Terrific 4) The Arkansas Chugabug 5) The Bouldermobile 6) The Buzzwagon 7) The Crimson Haybailer 8) The Creepy Coupe 9) The Convertacar 10)The Army Surplus Special 11)The Mean Machine

Phew, poor Dick Dastardly... at least he won a few... Annihilatenow 16:16, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Didn't ReBoot have a Wacky Races-type game in one of episodes (where Enzo had to prove he's about as good as Bob?), with the 'Player' having a Penelope Pitstop sprite and one of Enzo's critcs and Enzo's dog taking on the Dick Dastardly and Muttley role?

Actually, Dastardly and Muttley never finished in the top three. The same results appear on the Wacky Races DVD set in one of the special features. As for ranking the cars, different rankings are possible by assigning points for each 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finish. I'll illustrate two point systems below:

Car #: 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10


7-4-1: 00 56 39 34 40 41 25 50 36 38 49

Rank: 11 01 06 09 05 04 10 02 08 07 03


5-4-3: 00 56 45 38 40 43 19 46 36 34 51

Rank: 11 01 04 07 06 05 10 03 08 09 02

While the rankings differ, In each case the Bouldermobile comes out the big winner, with the Army Surplus Special finishing a disappointing 10th and the Mean Machine dead last ("Drat and double drat").

Glenn L 2007 March 25 00:35 UTC

[edit] Seperate articles for the racers?

Articles already exist for some drivers such as The Slag Brothers, The Gruesome Twosome, Professor Pat Pending, Luke and Blubber Bear.

And some articles appear to have been started, but were changed to redirects to this article (Red Max, Sergeant Blast & Private Meekly, Ant Hill Mob, etc).

I'm not bothered either way, but it seems that either they should all have seperate articles, or none of them. (Dick Dastardly, Muttley, and Penelope Pitstop being the obvious exceptons though). Psychonaut3000 16:45, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I thought the same thing when I looked at Category:Wacky Races, most of those articles are only one line. I'll set up a merge proposal because the minor characters should really redirect to this page. Pufnstuf 03:50, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] bad guy won

I'm pretty sure the Mean Machine won at least one race where they did not cheat for some reason that I cannot recall.

i remember the bad guy winning in one episode

Get the 2004 DVD set. Play disc 1 and view the 2nd race with the Special Feature selected. In the final minutes the bottom of the screen scrolls the number of times each contestant finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the 34-race series. The totals match what is posted in the Wikipedia article. And no, "the bad guy" never officially finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any of the 34 races.

Glenn L 7:06 5 May 2007 (UTC)

If memory serves, Dick Dastardly and Muttley crossed the finish line first in only one race. Dastardly got tired of getting blown up by his own dirty tricks, so he spent the rest of the episode racing "clean". He edged out either Prof. Pat Pending or Penelope Pitstop by a nose...but later, when a photo of the finish was reviewed, DD was found to have extended the front grill of the Mean Machine using an illegal mechanical device, and so was disqualified. Dpiranha 20:41, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

The above minor characters should be merged back here, most of the articles are small, and none of these characters are particularly notable outside of Wacky Races. I have omitted the 3 major characters as they starred in other series and are far more notable. Also WP:N states Minor characters (and places, concepts, etc.) in a work of fiction should be merged with short descriptions into a "List of characters." This list should reside in the article relating to the work itself, so this merge is in line with that policy. Pufnstuf 04:08, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

The other good reasons for merging are that having seperate, tiny articles for each minor character forces Wikipedia users to visit another 5 pages just to see the same information that is already detailed in this article. The only additional thing the character stubs have are a some images of the cars, so I've merged those images into the driver list here. It's been 11 days and no one's contested this proposal, so I'm going to merge them now. Pufnstuf 23:19, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fender Bender 500 in the UK

I have no source for this but I am sure that when the programme Fender Bender 500 (see : here and here) was shown in the UK it used the title Wacky Races. For years I went on about how I'd seen episodes of Wacky Races in which the competitors were the big name Hanna-Barbera characters (Yogi, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, etc.) but could never find any proof. Also (like the user above) I knew that I'd seen episodes where the bad guys won. Of course, whenever I watched repeats of Wacky Races quite obviously I saw the proper programme. For a while I suspected that they'd maybe changed the format in a later series but eventually I discovered that what I had seen was actually this Fender Bender 500, in which the big names compete and the Dastardly and Muttley won races. As far as I can tell Wake, Rattle, and Roll was never shown in the UK, leaving me to believe that they shown just this cartoon segment and recycled the Wacky Races title. Certainly I have no recollection of the name Fender Bender 500 ever being used. Can anyone confirm this? I've searched the internet but can't find anything to back up my claim. The programme was shown in the morning (possibly before The Big Breakfast) in the early 90s if this helps. --Thetriangleguy 16:06, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Utter lack of quality should be mentioned?

I think that some sort of mention should be made about the mediocrity and banality of this cartoon series - it has a lot in common with a porno movie. There's essentially no plot, just a series of unfunny, boring one-off jokes one after the other. This is important because I believe that in the pantheon of Saturday morning cartoons, this very series may mark a nadar. T.V. Guide at the time agreed, and when I get my sources together I will update the article. george 12:30, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

It's been many years, but I remember TWR as being clever, original, and entertaining. It was a pure slapstick cartoon inspired by old-school, two-reel slapstick shorts from the likes of the Keystone Cops and the Three Stooges, not to mention The Great Race. So calling it plotless or repetitive kind of begs the response: "Um, yeah, your point being?" :) Moreover, it spawned two sequels and appears on a couple of notable Best Cartoons Ever lists, most recently in a comprehensive U.K. poll in 2005. Having said all this, I can't imagine how adding a Critical Reception section, pro and con, to this simple little article about a quirky 40-year-old cartoon would serve any encyclopedic purpose whatsoever. Please let it be. Dpiranha 20:28, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
The only thing "porno"-like about Wacky Races is the fact that the Turbo Terrific looks like a giant cock and balls, which is even more terrible when you consider the 'stretching' power it had in the early episodes. -- TripcodeMel (talk) 22:50, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Lukeandblubberbear.gif

Image:Lukeandblubberbear.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 21:12, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Category:Fictional racecar drivers

Dick Dastardly and Penelope Pitstop are in Category:Fictional racecar drivers. What do people think of the idea of adding the other Wacky Racers (e.g. Ant Hill Mob, Red Max, Professor Pat Pending etc) into the category as well? DH85868993 (talk) 12:00, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Dick muttley.jpg

Image:Dick muttley.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 21:01, 13 February 2008 (UTC)