Top 10 Western Comedies
Editor’s Notes: A Million Ways to Die in the West is now open in wide theatrically release.
The western has been around since the beginning of the movies and the western comedy has been around since there were conventions for them to pick on, which it turns out was pretty quickly. Silent comedians Buster Keaton, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Stan Laurel (before teaming with Oliver Hardy) and many others made spoofs and just general comedies set in the west.
The trend continued heavily into the 40’s and 50’s with Bob Hope doing at least three, Gary Cooper doing one and Jack Benny doing at least somewhat of one. They started to die out in the 60’s and 70’s, despite some of the best ones showing up then. That was more indicative of the relative death of the western which meant less call for western comedies. If the primary product was no longer in demand, a spoof of it would be even less so.
