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[[quoteright:247:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AmericanAstronautDVD.jpg]]

''The American Astronaut'' is a 2001 SpaceWestern ScienceFiction musical written by, directed by, and starring Cory [=McAbee=].

The story centers around space captain Samuel Curtis ([=McAbee=]), who finds himself in the middle of a ChainOfDeals to give the Venusians a new king and earn a few bucks while being chased by the mentally-unbalanced Professor Hess who sabotages his plans.

In this original take of SciFi, space is mostly guided by roughnecks and all spaceships seems to be easy repaired with hammers, giving it a feeling of UsedFuture for truckers, which goes along pretty well with the awesome music, this can only be described as a ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' musical with ''[[Film/FlashGordonSerial Flash Gordon]]'' serial props.

Also by the same people (and in the same vein) is ''Film/StingraySam''.
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!!''The American Astronaut'' includes examples of:
* AbsentAliens: An entire solar system of populated planets and not a single non-human life form.
* AlliterativeTitle: The '''A'''merican '''A'''stronaut
* ArcWords: "It's my birthday."
* AxeCrazy: Professor Hess goes from zero to mass murder with little (if any) provocation.
* BerserkButton: You don't dare to forget Professor Hess' birthday, you just don't...
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Hess. Curtis explains that Hess intends to kill him once he forgives him for [[NoodleIncident whatever happened between them]], but not before. The Boy is suitably confused as to why anger = safety and forgiveness = murder.
** Reinforced by Hess's final monologue, about how he hoped to see Bodysuit grow into a fine young man, ''so that Hess could finally kill him.'' "But sons usually disappoint their fathers..."
* BodyHorror: The reason the miners from the space barn can't return to Earth.
%%* TheCaptain: Sam Curtis.
%%* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler: Bodysuit]]
* ChainOfDeals: Sam must return the late king of Venus to his family on Earth. To do so, he must provide Venus with a new king, so he will give the owner of Jupiter a woman and he will give in return The Boy Who Actually Saw A Woman's Breast. The woman in turn is a clone of Eddy, the owner of the Ceres Crossroads who wanted a cat.
* {{Dieselpunk}}: Best described as 50's sci-fi with the luster worn off.
* DisintegratorRay: Wielded by Professor Hess; it turns people into a pile of ash.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Boy Who Saw a Woman’s Breast.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Professor Hess is a friendly fellow right up until you get on his bad side, at which point he will kill you.
* IndyPloy: Curtis seems fond of these ones.
%%* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace
%%* KnightErrant: Curtis.
* LadyLand: Venus is a planet with nothing but Southern belles, occasionally recruiting a man to repopulate their numbers.
* GenreMashup: "surely the best, worst, and only, black-and-white comedy-western-sci-fi rockabilly punk surrealistic musical."
* LyricalDissonance: Curtis woos the Queen of Venus with "The Girl With The Vagina Made of Glass". Despite being played as if it's a SerenadeYourLover scene, the lyrics are incredibly raunchy.
* MarsNeedsWomen: Jupiter needs women and Venus needs men.
%%* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Professor Hess.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: A SpaceCowboy ScienceFiction Musical!
* NoWomansLand: The entire planet of Jupiter is an all-male mining CompanyTown whose sole entertainment is listening to The Boy Who Saw a Woman’s Breast describe ("briefly and arrogantly") his encounter with said body part.
* OneGenderRace: Venusians are all women, except for their king they need to mate with. Jupiter men are actually hired and brought from all over the space system.
%%* OhCrap
* PlanetOfHats: Everyone on Jupiter is a miner, everyone on Venus is a SouthernBelle and Ceres is just a small bar.
%%* TheProfessor: Hess.
* RapidFireNo: Sam's response to the Boy asking if [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext he's scared of the yetis in Rio]].
* SchizoTech: Rayguns, spaceships, portable cloning devices and yet we still use razor blades to shave.
* SouthernBelle: All the gals on Venus, seriously.
* SpacePirate: The Blueberry Pirate. Who steals [[OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap fruit]].
%%* SpaceWestern
* TheUnintelligible: Bodysuit, due to wearing a ''Film/PulpFiction''-style gimp suit, cannot speak coherent words.
* TheUnreveal: The audience is left in the dark about Sam and the Professor’s shared past when the movie enters into a slideshow-like montage of Sam and the Boy just as Sam begins to explain. Nevertheless, they both seem to find the story ''hilarious''.
* UsedFuture: This version of space consists mostly of grease monkeys, miners and hard-boiled thieves.
* VillainousBreakdown: It is not unusual for Professor Hess to fall into this every once in a while.
* WeWillUseManualLaborInTheFuture: Miners on Jupiter all look like they’ve been digging coal in West Virginia in the 1920s, for example. Even spaceship repair involves a lot more hammers than software.
* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Ceres' Crossroads, set on Ceres.
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