this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
904 points (98.7% liked)

memes

10170 readers
2608 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm aware of the NCIS scenes, what else you guys got?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Makes me wonder where the trope came from…

People definitely used to do pistol duels at prearranged times, but maybe that fell out of favor in the West?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Honestly almost all of it comes from a single duel Wild Bill Hicock had, and also a bunch of bullshit that a traveling huckster named Buffalo Bill Cody just sort of made up for fun in his touring wild west shows.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Actually yeah now that you mention it, it does sound like something out of a renaissance festival where they're setting up a scheduled show lol.

"Dirty Dave I'm calling you out! You and I are going to have a duel to the death! At 12:00 in the town square! Right in front of the Hootenanny Stage! Be there to see who is the winner! Tips welcome!"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

An ancestor of mine wrote a memoir of growing up in an Old West mining town. He saw one gunfight. In the early morning, a man saw the front door of his house open and another man walk out. Not happy to find that another gentleman's bacon had been in his grill, he demanded satisfaction. That led to an impromptu duel which the offended husband won. My ancestor was walking to school when it all went down.

That was probably an exceptional situation, since the town in question was notoriously violent and corrupt.