One notable exception to this formula was death number 1000 which was titled Premature Endings. The victims of the show are usually presented as being either horrifically awful or horrendously incompetent people who apparently “get what they deserve”. After that, the death was given a number and a title which is usually a pun of some sort.
Then a team of professionals (pathologists, toxicologists, etc.) explain exactly how the unfortunate victim died. The show recreates unusual deaths and the narrator presents them in a lighthearted way. This was a television show that ran from to Jon Spike TV. Is this completely disrespectful or can it count as legitimate comedy?įirst, let’s take a look at 1000 Ways to Die. Examples of this are the television show 1000 Ways to Die and the Darwin Awards website. There are, however, ones who mock death and ridicule the deceased. People grieve and mourn over the loss of a loved one and will feel compassion when someone else is going through that pain. “A Million Ways to Die in the West” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for scatological humor.Death is usually regarded as a tragic event.
You might call the movie “Revenge of the Übernerd.” “A Million Ways to Die in the West” seems serious about only one thing: its contempt for the gun-crazed macho ethos exalted in countless Hollywood westerns. That symbol even gets its own Broadway-style production number when a male chorus bursts into a revised version of Stephen Foster’s “The Moustache Song.” Harris threatens to steal the movie with his portrayal of this vain, preening fop, a hissable baddie whose mug is plastered with a ridiculous, curling handlebar. But Louise has gravitated to the slick, mustachioed Foy (Neil Patrick Harris), the richest man in town.Ī mustache, it turns out, is the ultimate male status symbol. Anna takes a shine to the meek Albert after he saves her in a bar fight, teaches him to shoot (he’s an inept student) and promises to help him win back Louise.
Lorey Sebastian/Universal PicturesĬharlize Theron plays Anna, the abused, gunslinging wife of Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson), a notorious outlaw and leader of a gang that robs stagecoaches. This flighty comedy, which imagines itself a son of “Blazing Saddles,” demolishes the heroic mystique of the Old West with the nose-thumbing glee of a rambunctious brat who has just crawled out of a fetid mud puddle.Ĭharlize Theron plays an outlaw’s abused, gunslinging wife. MacFarlane playing Albert Stark, a cowering sheep farmer with a dirty mind, in his silly western spoof, “A Million Ways to Die in the West,” set in Arizona in 1882. It is primal farce, which, if we haven’t learned to accept it, will leave us permanently wrinkling our noses while the rest of the world goes on sniffing and chortling.Īnd so we have Mr.
Like his fellow naughty boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who share his attitude of deadpan sarcasm, he knows full well that the human appetite for good-natured humor about bodily excretions and the messy area between the navel and the thighs is here to stay.
After all, he has succeeded beyond any sane person’s wildest dreams at building a comedy empire by holding a stinky finger to the racing pulse of the collective id. You can’t blame Seth MacFarlane, that one-man comedy juggernaut, for wanting to add movie star to his list of credentials.