48 | Film & History
Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous
Deconstruction and Reinforcement of
Generic Conventions in the
Western Parody
Matthew R. Turner
Ohio University
Almost as long as the Western has existed as a genre in
film, there has been a sub-genre of Western comedies to parody
the generic conventions inherent in the form. From as far back as
the 1920s with Buster Keaton, continuing down to the present
with Jackie Chan, the Western has been a target of satire and a
rich source for comedy. Comedy relies, to a large extent, on the
reversal of expectations. Because of the highly formalized and
codified conventions of the Western, it becomes a prime target
for reversals of those expectations. By studying a representative
sample of Western parodies from the 1940s through 2000, this
paper will examine how Western parodies subvert the conventions
of the Western in ways that breathe new life into the genre.
Although the Western parody undermines the conventions of the
archetypical Western, it should be classified as a Western subgenre.
While the Western parody mocks conventions of the Western,
it ultimately reinforces them through its acceptance of a shared
set of codes.
Although many different definitions have been created for
the phenomenon that is the Western film, it is difficult to find one
that is comprehensive enough to include theWestern parody. Mitry
describes aWestern as a “film whose action, situated in theAmerican
West, is consistent with the atmosphere, the values, and the
conditions of existence in the Far West between 1840 and 1900”
(qtd. in Altman 30). Although this definition is generally appropriate,
it becomes somewhat problematic when it is applied to the
Western parody. While the geographic localization of the Western
in the definition is appropriate, the Western parody does not
seem to be consistent with the atmosphere and values of theWestern.
The Western is a complex set of codes and images, and although
the Western parody does not reflect the prevailing dramatic
mood of the Western, it does still adhere to the setting and incorporates
the codes that constitute the traditional Western even if it
is only for comedic and satiric purposes.
Origins of Western Parody
A parody is a comical imitation of a genre that uses its existing
codes to examine the subject in a humorous way. Parody
often exists simultaneously in conjunction with satire, but can be
distinguished from satire, which is designed more specifically to
point out vices, follies, or problems with conventional beliefs while
parody is generally more lighthearted. Despite Western parodies’
tendency to undermine or make fun of the codes of the Western,
they are still situated within the Western genre. That Western
parodies are a sub-genre of the Western is supported by Cawelti’s
argument that parodies are an inevitable part of the life cycle of a
genre:
One can almost make out a life cycle characteristic of
genres as they move from an initial period of articulation
and discovery, through a phase of conscious
self-awareness on the part of both creators and audiences,
to a time when the generic patterns have become
so well-known that people become tired of their
predictability. It is at this point that parodic and satiric
treatments proliferate and new genres gradually
arise. (244)
Here Cawelti suggests that genres eventually become stale and
new genres arise to take their places. Harries, in a slightly different
take on the subject, believes that “film parody can be seen as
a source of renewal by breathing new life into worn-out canons
without specifically burying that tradition” (123). The continued
popularity of the Western and the Western parody seems to indicate
that the latter is the case.
It seems obvious that the Western needs to have established
generic conventions before those conventions can be parodied.
For this to occur, something like the life cycle of the genre that
Turner | Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous Deconstruction and Reinforcement of Generic Conventions in the Western Parody
Vol. 33.2 (2003) | 49
Cawelti describes must have happened to theWestern, and it seems
that this progression through the cycle happened quite quickly.
The first Western parodies take place early in the history of film.
Fenin describes the existence of satires of the Westerns by Mack
Sennett and Douglas Fairbanks as early as the 1910s. Buster
Keaton was in comedies with Western settings, specifically The
Paleface (1922) and Go West (1925). Laurel and Hardy also got
into the Western parody movement in 1937 with their film Way
Out West. Numerous others have contributed their own Western
parodies including: Abbott and Costello in Ride ‘Em Cowboy
(1942); Bob Hope in Paleface (1948), Fancy Pants (1950), and
Son of Paleface (1952); and Martin and Lewis in Pardners (1956).
Fenin describes these films as opportunities for “comedians to go
through their established patterns against Western backgrounds”
(254). Indeed a look at these films shows that the focus of many
of these comedies was on the comedian, rather than a specific
focus on making a parody of the genre.
Parody Goes West
Although the purpose of a Western parody is often to gently
satirize the generic conventions of the Western, Western parodies
exhibit their own conventions and clichés
in that satirization. A representative sample
ofWestern parodies including GoWest (1940),
Cat Ballou (1965), Blazing Saddles (1974),
Rustlers’ Rhapsody (1985), and Shanghai
Noon (2000) was chosen for study not only
for their variety, but for the similarities between
the films as well. This will allow for a
more careful study of the conventions that
Western parodies use to satirize the Western.
This will also show that the Western parody
is actually a sub-genre of the Western with its
own set of rules and codes.
The Marx Brothers’film, GoWest is one
of the important earlyWestern parodies. Even
though the film is still largely focused on the
brothers and their comic personas, there is evidence
that a more systematic parody of the genre is taking place.
Fenin states that the film is “making short work of Western plot
and dialogue clichés. Even the inevitable romantic interest was
played for its cliché value” (254). Indeed, the film satirizes everything
from saloons to shootouts in a very self-conscious style.
The basic comic premise of the film lies in a common conflict in
Westerns. It is a clash that occurred between Westerners and Easterners
when the Easterners came west. Typically the Easterner
will stick out because his attitudes and beliefs conflict with the
reality of the West. In this case, the Easterners stick out even
more because they are the Marx Brothers. The plot is fairly formulaic,
centering on a young couple that the brothers help to protect
from an unscrupulous saloon owner who wants to strike it
rich by stealing the deed to their land and selling it to the railroad.
Far from falling into the clichés of theWestern, however, the brothers’
satire constantly overpowers and deconstructs the generic
conventions. Harpo refuses to shoot or get shot in a showdown;
instead he produces a whiskbroom and brushes off his adversary.
Although the threat of violence exists in the film, it has no real
power over the brothers.
A later and more subtle parody of the Western shows up in
the1965 film Cat Ballou. The film is much more serious in its
adherence to Western codes than many other Western parodies. It
plays up the comic possibilities of the genre, but does not
deconstruct the genre as later films like Blazing Saddles and Rustlers’
Rhapsody do. One reason that this film tends to play the
Western mostly straight may be that it is an adaptation of a serious
novel, The Ballad of Cat Ballou, by Roy Chanslor. According
to Manchel, the film satirized the Western formula, but still
followed “the conventional revenge theme” (134). Cat Ballou’s
father is murdered for not selling out to the railroad and she becomes
an outlaw, forming a gang in order to get her revenge. While
the film is at times serious, it does not try for the gritty realism of
many Westerns. It is still situated firmly within the comic mode.
A good example of this comic restructuring
of the Western is the dance scene in the film.
While no doubt an homage to John Ford and
his dance scenes, the film uses the dance in a
very different way. For instance, Ford’s sequences
tend to interrupt the main narrative
in films like My Darling Clementine (Pye
194), but in Cat Ballou the dialogue and action
during the dance forward the plot and
set up some important later developments
(such as Cat meeting the villainous sheriff for
the first time and her enlisting the two inept
outlaws to protect her father). In addition,
Ford’s dance scenes tend to emphasize community
and civilization, while the dance scene
in Cat Ballou ends in a brawl with everyone,
including women and children, participating
in the violence. This is a clear comic inversion
of Ford’s established codification of the dance.
The Western parody that is widely considered to be the
magnum opus of the genre is Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. The
film follows Bart, a black man, as he is elevated from railroad
worker to sheriff of a small Western town. The townspeople have
demanded a sheriff for protection from outlaws, who are really
employees of the railroad company that wants their land. The
villains get Bart appointed as sheriff hoping that the racist townspeople
would be further disheartened and abandon the town. In
the film, Brooks systematically dissects all the clichés of theWestern
in a deconstructionist attack on its very premises. While an
in-depth study of all the techniques that Brooks uses in his satire
Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin) from Cat Ballou.
CourtesyofPhotofest.
Matthew R. Turner | Special In-Depth Section
50 | Film & History
of the Western would be too lengthy here, it is appropriate to say
that he uses every gag and trick in the book and even invents
some as he goes along. There are no conventions that are sacred
and no joke too easy or too obscure for him to use in his satire.
The last extended sequence of the film, in particular, is notable
for its deconstruction of the Western and its use of metafilmic
inversions. During the final fight scene, the camera pulls back to
reveal the studio lot where the film is being shot. The combatants
break into other sets and eventually the villain and the two heroes
end up in a movie theater watching the film Blazing Saddles. After
the final shootout, the two main characters watch themselves at
the end of the film. Rushing states that the film was “recognized
for a while as the final statement of the meaninglessness of the
Western myth” (22). As is evidenced by the number of popular
and critically successful Westerns and additional Western parodies
since Blazing Saddles, it seems that the Western continues to
prove to be a viable genre.
Perhaps the most unduly overlookedWestern parody is Hugh
Wilson’s Rustlers’Rhapsody. The film appears to have garnered
relatively little critical or popular attention during its release in
1985 and continues to remain relatively obscure in the video market.
This is somewhat puzzling since the film is a complex and
clever examination and satire of the Western that “specifically
targets the ‘singing cowboy’ sub-genre” (Harries 33). There are
several possible reasons for the film’s relative obscurity. One reason
that the film was not popular could be due to its rather narrow
focus. Harries explains that “many viewers might recognize that
Rustlers’Rhapsody is a parody of the Western genre, but few may
notice its spoofing of a particular sub-genre of the Western – the
‘singing cowboy’Western” (108). Because it so narrowly focuses
on this particular (and no longer popular) sub-genre, it seems that
many viewers would not be able to appreciate the subtle undermining
of generic conventions particular to the “singing cowboy”
Western. An in-depth examination of how Rustlers’ Rhapsody
satirizes this sub-genre is in order.
Rustlers’Rhapsody follows Rex, the clean-cut singing cowboy,
as he protects sheepherders from cattlemen and the railroad
company. The film identifies itself with
the “singing cowboy” sub-genre by introducing
the hero, “Rex O’Herlihan the
Singing Cowboy.” This is his moniker
throughout the film. He introduces himself
as “Rex O’Herlihan the Singing
Cowboy” and even signs a letter home
to his mother as “The Singing Cowboy.”
The opening voice-over narration also
specifically references the “singing cowboy”
movies. The simplistic and clearcut
conventions of the “singing cowboy”
movies are central to the film. There is
no trace of the later development of the
Western anti-hero with his questionable morals. Rex is as cleancut
and squeaky-clean as any Boy Scout and adheres closely to
Gene Autry’s “Ten Commandments of the Cowboy”:
1. A cowboy never takes unfair advantage—even of an
enemy.
2. A cowboy never betrays a trust.
3. A cowboy always tells the truth.
4. A cowboy is kind to small children, to old folks and to
animals.
5. A cowboy is free from racial and religious prejudices.
6. A cowboy is helpful and when anyone is in trouble he
lends a hand.
7. A cowboy is a good worker.
8. A cowboy is clean about his person and in thought,
word and deed.
9. A cowboy respects womanhood, his parents and the
laws of his country.
10. A cowboy is a patriot. (qtd in Rushing 18)
Examples of Rex’s adherence to this code are numerous. He never
draws first, even when his life is in danger. He only shoots bad
guys in the hands. (His target practice consists of shooting wooden
cutouts of hands holding guns.) He helps out others even when it
means telling the bad guys that they could hurt each other when
they surround him and threaten to shoot him. He is even seen
rescuing a cat from a tree. Rex is also a clean and snappy dresser
who does his own washing and ironing and has a wagon that serves
no other purpose but to carry his prodigious and immaculately
clean wardrobe. He, in short, embodies all the ideals of the good
cowboy in a highly exaggerated manner.
The hero’s relationship to the villain is also simplistically
portrayed, as in earlierWesterns. Fenin describes the cliché which
is being satirized in Rustlers’Rhapsody: “In these films, the hero
battles outlaws (bank robbers, cattle rustlers, stagecoach bandits)
simply because good must fight evil—and triumph. Motivation
for both sides is simple and clear-cut” (31). The humor in the
film relies on the fact that not only the
audience, but also the characters in the
film are aware of the generic clichés that
control the action. Characters are introduced
as “the town drunk,” “the evil
cattle baron,” “the prostitute with the
heart of gold,” and the like. Rex states
that each Western town is identical, and
to prove his point he tells the town drunk
that they have “a very pretty, but somehow
asexual schoolmarm.” Rex’s
knowledge, of course, shocks the drunk,
but shows Rex’s awareness of and subordination
to the codes of the Western.
Rex O’Herlihan, The Singing Cowboy from Rustlers’
Rhapsody.
CourtesyofPhotofest.
Turner | Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous Deconstruction and Reinforcement of Generic Conventions in the Western Parody
Vol. 33.2 (2003) | 51
Rex is not the only one aware of the conventions of the
Western. The evil Colonels in the film recognize that they cannot
beat Rex because he is good and they are evil. To beat Rex, they
decide to hire another good guy, the idea being that the “goodest”
good guy will win. Bob Barber, the other good guy, dresses all in
white and informs Rex about some of the generic codes of the
Western. “In order to be a good guy you have to be a confident
heterosexual.” This creates a problem for Rex, because he is not
confident in his heterosexuality. He still lives the code of the
Western that states: “The frontier hero protects women but does
not become too intimately involved with them, lest he lose his
individuality” (Rushing 23). Rex suffers from a lack of confidence,
but is eventually able to defeat the enemy through his recognition
of the conventions of the genre. (He knows that his
sidekick always gets killed, so he protects him with a bulletproof
vest.) Rustlers’ Rhapsody, through its subtle manipulation and
reversal of the generic codes of the Western, creates a very effective
satire and self-reflexive look at the Western.
Tom Dey’s Shanghai Noon is an interesting departure from
many of the other Western parodies. Like Cat Ballou, it attempts
to play the story relatively straight, but is interesting in that it is
primarily a vehicle for Jackie Chan’s Kung Fu comedy. It also
provides an interesting interaction between the West with one set
of conventions and clichés, and the Far East with its own set. It is
aware of the Western genre and tends to look at things through
the lens of an Eastern perspective. The cultural conflict and interplay
is an interesting addition to the Western parody genre.
Shanghai Noon also consciously transposes the Western by
showing a markedly different landscape from other Western parodies.
While ostensibly set in the arid West, the movie was filmed
inAlberta, Canada, showcasing green and mountainous landscapes
rather than red deserts. This setting combined with the location
shooting in the Forbidden City in China lends a very different
feel to the film. This film perhaps represents an evolution in the
Western parody that treats the Western humorously, but modifies
it in a way that breaths new life into the genre.
The Western Parody as a
Sub-Genre
When these parodies are examined together, certain patterns
begin to emerge. These patterns indicate that the Western
parody is in itself a generic form. Most Western parodies (in the
act of mocking Western codes) end up creating their own set of
generic codes to which they more or less adhere. In the act of
parodying Western clichés, these films tend to reinforce the ideas
that are already present in Westerns, but do so in a new way.
One of the most immediate and obvious characteristics that
Western parodies share is their reliance on and reference to earlier
Westerns. While this is also true in straight genre Westerns,
which often refer to specific earlier Westerns, this tendency appears
to be more dramatic in the parody, which, by definition, has
to have an existing text to parody. This reference to earlier Westerns
takes place in several forms.
Reliance on Established Western
Conventions
One of the most immediately obvious references to earlier
Westerns is in the title of the films. Each of the films studied
somehow refers to an earlier Western film, often in a comedic
way. GoWest, as mentioned earlier, takes the same title as a Buster
Keaton film and notably refers to Horace Greeley’s famous quote
“Go West young man.” The title from Cat Ballou came from the
book on which it was based, The Ballad of Cat Ballou. Blazing
Saddles is a deliberately strange juxtaposition of words from other
titles. It could be referring to any of a number of earlier films
including Blazing Arrows (1922), Blazing Barriers (1937), Blazing
Six Shooters (1940), Blazing Across the Pecos (1948), Hearts
and Saddles (1917), Empty Saddles (1936), Songs and Saddles
(1938), or Saddles and Sagebrush (1943). Rustlers’ Rhapsody
hearkens back to many early Western titles, three of which are
particularly similar: Rustlers’ Ranch (1926), Rustlers’ Roundup
(1933), and Rustlers’Ransom (1950). Shanghai Noon is a reference
to Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952). The title Shanghai
Noon not only conjures up images of Zinnemann’s landmark
Western, but also emphasizes the cross-cultural dynamics that the
film presents.
In addition to borrowing titles, Western parodies borrow
settings and numerous conventions which they appropriate and
transform for comedic purposes. In doing this, they reinforce the
conventions and their presence as central elements of the Western.
Tudor argues that such conventions are necessary for the
humor of the Western to work (5-6). He describes a sequence
from Cat Ballou where Lee Marvin’s character transforms himself
from a drunk to a classic gunfighter. “Starting very humorously
with Marvin struggling into a corset, the transformation not
only alters him but brings out a response in us as piece by piece
the stereotyped image appears” (6). One way in which generic
conventions are transformed is by exaggeration. They become so
extreme that they become humorous.
Another method for the satirizing of conventions is to demythologize
them. Cawelti explains this process by describing
how “a situation that we are ordinarily accustomed to seeing in
rather romanticized terms can be suddenly invested with a sense
of reality. This is how the famous campfire scene in Blazing
Saddles operates” (236). The campfire scene becomes humorous
because the Western convention of the campfire is serene, often
accompanied by the lonely sound of a harmonica. In Brooks’
film, however, he recognizes that the evening meal would have
probably consisted of beans and exaggerates the effect of those
beans on the characters’ digestive systems. Because viewers exMatthew
R. Turner | Special In-Depth Section
52 | Film & History
pect the typical camp scene, but are
greeted with the sound of flatulence, the
situation becomes comic. The humor from
the reversal is, no doubt, augmented by
the uncomfortable laughter that flatulence
jokes traditionally receive.
Many of the Western conventions
are satirized in the Western parody.
Among the most important in both the
Western, and consequently the Western
parody, is the classic shootout. Violence
is a central element in the Western and
continues to be one in the Western parody.
“But it is hard to think of a western in which there is at least no
threat of violence. [. . .] Because the guns are there as part of the
formal structure, there will be, characteristically, a dilemma that
either can only be resolved by violence or in which the violence
would be a solution” (Buscombe 16). In theWestern parody, however
(as an exaggerated version of the invincibility of the Western
hero), the violence is typically much less threatening to the heroes
because of its comic treatment. The shootout is, of course,
the climactic representation of this violence:
At a certain mystical point in the interaction between
two opposing forces, the western version of the duel
becomes morally acceptable; both the villain and the
hero know immediately when this point comes, as
they do not exist as psychological entities apart from
the code–rather, they embody the code. (Wright 43)
An examination of the Western parody’s treatment of the duel
will reveal how this sub-genre deconstructs while simultaneously
reinforcing this convention.
Go West provides Harpo, the silent Marx brother, an opportunity
to get into a duel with the villain. They square off in typical
fashion, but when they pull their weapons, Harpo has a small
whiskbroom which he uses to brush the dust off of his adversary.
Then, in typical Marx Brothers fashion, as a topper, the brush
fires off a round
of ammunition.
Mel Brooks uses
the shootout to
defeat the villain.
Although the
death scene is
played up for its
comic effect, it
still represents
the victory of the
good over evil
and determines
the outcome of the film. Rex’s character
defeats the other good guy in the final
shootout of Rustlers’ Rhapsody. During
the shootout it is revealed that the other
good guy is, in reality, a bad guy, thus reinforcing
the notion that the good guy always
wins the shootout.
The shootout in Shanghai Noon is a
bit more complex. There are actually two
major shootouts between the cowboy Roy
O’Bannon and his nemesis Marshall
Nathan Van Cleef. The first is interrupted
by Chan’s character, Chon, who throws a
sheriff’s badge like a Chinese throwing star into the Marshall’s
hand. O’Bannon complains about this interruption of the duel
because he recognizes that a code of the West has been violated.
The Chinese character’s interruption of the shootout emphasizes
the interaction and cultural conflicts that this film tries to portray.
The second duel occurs at the end of the film. While the action
leading up to this shootout is also comic, the shootout definitively
defeats the Western bad guy. (The Eastern bad guy is defeated in
an extended Kung Fu battle.) In these films, the shootout is parodied,
but ultimately plays a crucial role in the outcome of the plot.
Thus the convention of the shootout is simultaneously undercut
and reinforced.
Each of the films has the railroad as an important part of the
plot, usually associated with the villain. Go West and Blazing
Saddles are centered on a piece of land through which the railroad
is going to pass. The heroes in both Cat Ballou and Shanghai
Noon are train robbers and the final climactic scene in Go
West is a chase involving a train. In Rustlers’ Rhapsody one of
the evil Colonels is bringing the railroad to town and the Chinese
villain in Shanghai Noon is also a railroad baron. Again these
elements are typical of Westerns and the parody uses these conventions
in mostly conventional ways, reinforcing its adherence
to the Western generic code.
Riding Off Into the Sunset
Typically, these films have the hero or heroes riding off into
the sunset, the traditional exodus of the cowboy when justice has
been served. The ending in Shanghai Noon is conventional. Roy
and Chon ride off into the setting sun although they are ostensibly
after some train robbers. The ending was included specifically
to conform to the genre since there is no plot or
theme-mandated reason for them to ride off into the sunset. The
ending of Cat Ballou also has the gang riding off into the sunset,
this time to escape to freedom. Cat and her love interest, Clay, lie
together in the back of a hearse wagon as they ride into the distance.
Rex points out the sunset and comments on how great it is
at the end of Rustlers’Rhapsody. He must not get too attached to
the people and must go on to do good elsewhere. Wilder and
Campfire scene from Blazing Saddles.
CourtesyofPhotofest.
Marx Brothers Go West.
CourtesyofPhotofest.
Turner | Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous Deconstruction and Reinforcement of Generic Conventions in the Western Parody
Vol. 33.2 (2003) | 53
Little’s characters in Blazing Saddles are similarly motivated to
leave at the end of the film. They mount their horses and ride
down the hill where they are met with a limousine. The limousine
then drives them out into the setting sun.
Conventions of the
Western Parody
Western parodies will go a great deal further than borrowing
conventions from the Western. In order to ensure authenticity
or tie themselves more tightly to the drama they will often use
sets, costumes, and even actors from other Western films. Parts
of Cat Ballou, for instance, were filmed on the same set as High
Noon (Callan and Hickman). Rustlers’Rhapsody employs a similar
technique to associate the film with its Western antecedents.
“One of the frontier sets utilized was originally built by Sergio
Leone in Almeria, Spain almost twenty years prior for his own
series of ‘spaghettiWesterns’” (Harries 43). Both Blazing Saddles
and Rustlers’ Rhapsody have a character that is an imitation of
Marlene Dietrich’s can-can singing character in Destry Rides
Again (Harries 45, 47) and Rustlers’Rhapsody also clothes Rex’s
sidekick in “Smiley Burnett’s sidekick outfit from the early Roy
Rogers film, Under Western Stars” (Harries 47).
Western parodies also tend to cast many Western genre actors
to ally themselves more closely with the Western and sometimes
use those similarities for comic purposes. John Carroll and
Robert Barrat from Go West each had appeared in several Westerns.
Lee Marvin, Arthur Hunnicutt, and Bruce Cabot from Cat
Ballou all had many roles in serious Westerns under their belts.
Slim Pickens from Blazing Saddles is also a very familiar face in
the Western. Rustlers’ Rhapsody does some interesting things
with this idea. Bob Barber is played by JohnWayne’s son, Patrick
Wayne. His presence conjures up the memory of his father who
is, in many ways, synonymous with the Western. Jackie Chan’s
character in Shanghai Noon is named “Chon Wang” which is pronounced
almost identically to “John Wayne.” His partner Roy
says that this is a terrible name for a cowboy, providing a nicely
ironic moment. One of the villains in Shanghai Noon, Marshall
Nathan Van Cleef is a homage to Lee Van Cleef, another familiar
icon in the Western.
Western parodies also tend to follow a convention of establishing
the humorous tone of the film early on, usually in the opening
credit sequence. Go West opens with a title quoting Horace
Greeley’s famous phrase “Go West Young Man, Go West.” The
subtitle states “This is a story of three men who made Horace
Greeley sorry he said it.” Blazing Saddles opens with the burning
of the Warner Brothers logo symbolizing how it will burn or destroy
all Western clichés (Harries 61). The opening to Rustlers’
Rhapsody starts in black and white, but then has a jarring change
to color and a comic turn of events when the bad guys that Rex is
chasing turn around and start chasing him.
Most of these films also use a comic technique that dissociates
the film with its Western conventions and makes the viewer
aware of its construction as a film. The introduction of anachronistic
elements (or elements from outside of the film’s historical
period) to the film or to the dialogue calls attention to the conventions
by associating them with chronologically disparate elements.
Harries explains this phenomenon: “Through the method of inversion,
parodic dialogue can be created by inverting the syntactic
time period and the lines delivered to generate a heightened
level of historical disjuncture” (58). In other words, by introducing
elements to the films that do not belong in its historical time
frame, the film establishes its non-realistic and comic nature.
Groucho Marx in Go West dances in a style much later than
the Western era to which he supposedly belongs. He also makes
references to filmic conventions: “Any resemblance between these
two characters and living persons is purely coincidental.” He even
refers to events in the future. “Telephone? This is 1870. Don
Amici hasn’t invented the telephone yet.” (This line refers to The
Story of Alexander Graham Bell which came out the previous
year and starred DonAmici as Bell.) Blazing Saddles has numerous
examples of anachronisms. Harvey Korman’s character,
Hedley Lamarr (a reference to actress Hedy Lamarr, in itself an
anachronism), hires a group of thugs to drive out the townspeople.
This group includes Hell’s Angels and Nazis. He also makes reference
to the possibility of getting an Academy Award for best
supporting actor. The film contains many other anachronisms
too numerous to mention here.
Rustlers’ Rhapsody also employs anachronisms for comic
purposes. The town Rex goes to does not conform to the stereotypical
Western town name, but instead is called “Oakwood Estates,”
a very modern suburban sounding name. Rex, at one point,
reminds his sidekick that he holds the copyright on his theme
song.
The music in Western parodies is often comic and many
times anachronistic. Sheriff Bart, in Blazing Saddles has a jazz
theme played by an orchestra in the middle of the desert and the
townspeople sing commentary on the movie, complete with profanity,
as one of their church hymns. In Rustlers’Rhapsody, Rex
eats a hallucinogenic root and imagines back-up singers and instruments
which appear on the soundtrack. Cat Ballou includes
two balladeers who, like a Greek chorus, sing a commentary on
the action of the film.
Closely related to the anachronisms of the films are their
self-reflexive qualities. Each of the films is highly aware of the
generic conventions of the Western and often openly acknowledges
them. Harvey Korman’s character at one point in Blazing
Saddles states, “I hate that cliché.” Sheriff Bart’s plea for help by
stating “You’d do it for Randolph Scott” not only connects the
film with a high profileWestern actor, but also shows Bart’s awareness
of the genre he is in and its construction as a film. Within the
context of the film he is aware that he is an actor in the same way
Matthew R. Turner | Special In-Depth Section
54 | Film & History
that Randolph Scott is an actor, and that they are both playing in
a Western film. Rex in Rustlers’Rhapsody keeps repeating, “Believe
me I know,” because he is intimately aware of the conventions
of the Western. He seems to have a sixth sense that allows
him to know when he is going to have a showdown with the bad
guys, and that sixth sense is his intimate knowledge of the genre.
In addition to all the generically specific techniques that
these films use for comedic purposes, the films also rely heavily
upon cross-genre comedic techniques. Several of the films use
fast motion projection to capture the comedic image of early silent
films. They often use traditional build up of jokes, reversals
of expectation, non-sequiturs, and witty word play. All of these
elements are non-genre specific tools in the parody of the Western,
but, nevertheless, indicate a pattern or set of conventions in
the Western parody.
The Western parody mocks the codes and conventions of
the Western. Nevertheless, in the act of subverting those conventions
and calling attention to their constructedness, the Western
parody creates its own set of conventions that are closely allied to
and often rely heavily upon the conventions of the Western. The
Western parody admits that the paradox of a code that is arbitrary,
but nevertheless binding, is inherently humorous. This satiric attitude
however does not let it stray too much from the generic
form. Whether the cowboy rides off into the sunset on a horse or
in a limousine, he still rides off into the sunset.
Works Cited
Altman, Rick. “A Semantic/SyntacticApproach to Film Genre.” Grant 26-40.
BlazingSaddles. Dir. MelBrooks. Perf. CleavonLittle,GeneWilder,MelBrooks,
HarveyKorman,MadelineKahn,andSlimPickens. Videocassette. Warner,
1974.
Buscombe, Edward. “The Idea of Genre in theAmerican Cinema.” Grant 11-25.
Callan, Michael and Dwayne Hickman. Cat Ballou Audio Commentary. DVD.
Columbia, 2000.
Cat Ballou. Dir. Elliot Silverstein. Perf. Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan,
DwayneHickman,NatKingCole,andStubbyKaye. 1965. DVD. Columbia,
2000.
Cawelti, John G. “Chinatown and Generic Transformation in Recent American
Films.” Grant 227-245.
Fenin,GeorgeN.andWilliamK.Everson. TheWestern:FromSilentstotheSeventies.
NewYork: Grossman, 1973.
Go West. Dir. Edward Buzzell. Perf. Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx,
John Carroll, and Diana Lewis. Videocassette. MGM, 1940.
Grant, Barry Keith, ed. Film Genre Reader II. Austin: Texas UP, 1995.
Harries, Dan. Film Parody. London: BFI, 2000.
Hilger, Michael. From Savage to Nobleman: Images of Native Americans in Film.
Lenham, MD: Scarecrow, 1995.
Manchel, Frank. CamerasWest. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Pye, Douglas. “The Western (Genre and Movies).” Grant 187-202.
Rushing, Janice Hocker. “The Rhetoric of the American Western Myth.”
Communication Monographs. 50 (1983): 14-32.
Rustlers’Rhapsody. Dir. HughWilson. Perf. PatrickWayne,Tom Berenger, G.W.
Bailey, Marilu Henner, Andy Griffith, Fernando Rey, and Sela Ward.
Videocassette. Paramount, 1985.
Shanghai Noon. Dir. Tom Dey. Perf. Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, and Lucy Liu.
DVD. BuenaVista, 2000.
Tudor,Andrew. “Genre.” Grant 3-10.
Wright, Judith Hess. “Genre Films and the Status Quo.” Grant 41-49.
Matthew Turner received a B.A. in English
and a B.A. in Communications from Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University in
1998. After working as a video producer and
editor, he received an M.A. in
Telecommunications from Ohio University in
2001 and is currently working on his doctorate
in Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University.
His research interests include film, theater,
visual arts, and philosophy, specifically as
seen through the lens of comedy. His dissertation research
continues to focus on comedy and comedic theory and philosophy.
Turner | Cowboys and Comedy: The Simultaneous Deconstruction and Reinforcement of Generic Conventions in the Western Parody