Westworld is HBO’s latest hot show, kicking up a bit of interest in ostensibly straightforward Westerns that play with the conventions of their genre. And while we wouldn’t normally associate comedy with the show’s particular brand of brain-twisting mystery and brutal violence, it ends up working surprisingly well.
That’s courtesy of video editor Dominick Nero—who’s worked with us in the past—who put together a surprisingly effective version of HBO’s robot fantasy using clips from Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles for Cafe. Mixing goofball pastiche and serious robo-melodrama shouldn’t work—and yet it does, from the faux-philosophizing of Hedley Lamarr, to the ruffians trashing an entirely fictitious version of Rock Ridge. Who knew that a fake Western that shatters its own fourth wall in the most elaborate way possible would be a good fit for HBO’s metafictional hit?