Now, it can be argued that
Created | Updated Apr 5, 2007
the comedy form is the ultimate western.
Or the comedic Western is the ultimate form...
Or, as far as films go, it don't go further South nor more pear-shaped than a funny western.
The difference between a funny western and a comedic one is like the difference between a funny fellow standing in the middle of a spotlight wondering which way to the men's lavatory and a professional clown attempting to show him the way. A bad western, particularly of the straight-laced variety, can be enormously entertaining if it is so straight that it's bent over from it's own sense of usefulness. Kinda like a chop-socky Hong Kong flick that seems to have been made in fifteen minutes using someone else's sets, costumes and actors during the lunch break from another film, only different.
There is an element of self-parody in every Western, so it takes guts, determination and sheer chutzpah to create a parodic Western.
"The Shoe of Winatou" is one. "Blazing Saddles" and "Cat Ballou" are others. "They call me 'Trinity'" and it's sequals are definitely of note, with Terence Hill and Bud whatshisface pulling off some of the most hilarious moments in film since Hepburn and Tracy and Burton and Burton. But the star attraction, the big bamboo, the mother of them all, is "My Name Is Nobody".
That's all I have to say on that subject.