Cowboys might be the most iconic type of American. The hat! The pistols! The white man! THESE are the markers of a true cowboy, in our minds. But what if that's one prominent myth about the Old West? And what if it's one member of a rogues' gallery of bullshit you've been told about life in the late 1800s west of the Mississippi River? On this episode of The Cracked Podcast, outlaw podcaster Alex Schmidt forms a posse with incredible comedy writers Jenny Jaffe and Elliott Kalan. They'll gun down myth after Old West myth, drawing on everything from historical records to Jenny & Elliott's experiences creating an animated TV comedy set in cowboy times. They'll also explore weird myths about our cultural myths, figure out which modern celebrity has the best outlaw name, and re-imagine what a great Western story can be.

Footnotes:

Fox Buys Animated Western Comedy 'Saloon' From 'Daily Show' & 'Rugrats' Writers, SideCar (Deadline)

Jenny Jaffe's website

The Flop House podcast (Maximum Fun)

Horse Meets Dog by Elliott Kalan

THE WEST: Frederick Jackson Turner (PBS)

1890 Census (National Archives)

Bass Reeves Finally Gets His Hollywood Moment in HBO's 'Watchmen' (Texas Monthly)

6 Ridiculous History Myths (You Probably Think Are True) (Cracked)

5 Ridiculous Myths Everyone Believes About the Wild West (Cracked)

5 Badass Characters You're Picturing Totally Incorrectly (Cracked)

Cowboy Culture: A Saga Of Five Centuries by David Dary (University Press of Kansas)

Mexican Pointy Boots (VICE / YouTube)

Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West (Smithsonian)

New York City Had Its First Weekend Without A Shooting In 25 Years (NPR / WBEZ)

Politics And Pistols: Dueling In America (PBS History Detectives)

Duel! (Smithsonian)

How Flintlock Guns Work (How Stuff Works)

5 Best Cap And Ball Black Powder Revolvers Ever Made (Guns.com)

Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre And The Violence Of History by Karl Jacoby (Penguin Random House)

Autry Museum of the American West

High Noon (1952) (IMDb)

"Welcome Sheriff" clip from 'Blazing Saddles' (1974)

Eli Wallach dies at 98; actor best known for two classic westerns (Los Angeles Times)

Woman Suffrage in the West (National Park Service)

January 1, 1919 Map: States grant women the right to vote (National Constitution Center)

5 Times Hollywood Ruthlessly Beat A Profitable Idea To Death (Cracked)

Western Music Expert Doug Green Revisits The Era Of The Singing Cowboy (NPR)

Country Music: A Film By Ken Burns Episode 2 "Hard Times" (PBS)

clip of The Simpsons version of 'Paint Your Wagon'

A Brief History of the Spahn Movie Ranch, an Important Location in Quentin Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' (SlashFilm)

The Phantom Empire (1935) (IMDb) -- the science fiction underground civilization serial featuring Gene Autry

the two Roy Rogers movies featuring Soviet uranium plotlines: Under Nevada Skies (1946) and Bells of Coronado (1950)

MST3K: The Painted Hills (Shout Factory)

Riders Of Destiny (1933) (IMDb) -- the first of two John Wayne singing cowboy movies