{"id":15119,"date":"2014-06-25T11:43:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qgp.ykq.mybluehost.me\/cinephiled\/?p=15119"},"modified":"2014-06-25T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:49:29","slug":"comedy-westerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinephiled.com\/comedy-westerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Killed the Western Comedy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"three-amigos\"<\/a>Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West<\/em><\/span>\u00a0could be described as a film that attempts to bring back a ‘dead genre.’ It’s been suggested that there hasn’t been a good Western\u00a0comedy since <\/span>Blazing Saddles<\/em> in 1974. That was 40 years ago … forty! Four decades!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0I could think of a few decent exceptions;\u00a0<\/span>The Frisco Kid<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>The Three Amigos<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Maverick<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Shanghai Noon<\/em>, but I find the sentiment to be mostly true.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And a quick glance at the reviews for A Million Ways to Die in the West<\/em> reveals that the drought continues.<\/p>\n

So why did the Western\u00a0comedy\u00a0genre die?\u00a0<\/span>The sheer number of Westerns made in the ’60s and ’70s is pretty staggering, and some humorous Westerns were not full-on comedies. A film like <\/span>Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid (1969)<\/em> isn’t exactly a comedy, but it holds some great comedic elements. The only commonality between it and <\/span>Blazing Saddles<\/em> is probably the wardrobe and horses. Mel Brooks took <\/span>Blazing Saddles<\/em> to a different place, relying more on satire and ludicrous jokes, and less on a dramatic plot. This concept wasn’t new, it’s only that Brooks did it masterfully, and his comedic timing was perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2754.original\"<\/a>To find the seeds of what made a film like Blazing Saddles<\/em> possible, and then to potentially mark the end of a genre, you have to go back to the silent era and the birth of the Western\u00a0comedy. Buster Keaton put the genre on the map with The Paleface,<\/em>\u00a0the 1922 movie about a man who wanders into a Native American village. Keaton had made a few other Western comedy-style short films prior to <\/span>The Paleface<\/em>, but this one was significant enough to be remade into a full-length talkie in 1949 with Bob Hope. Hope’s version won an Oscar for best song — <\/span>Buttons and Bows —<\/em>\u00a0which garnered lots of record sales. Later, in 1968, Don Knotts reprized the role in <\/span>The Shakiest Gun in the West<\/em>. This version was highly popular as well, due largely to the comedic genius of Knotts, who was already a household name from his time on <\/span>The Steve Allen Show<\/em>\u00a0and <\/span>The Andy Griffith Show<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n