History Film / TheBalladOfBusterScruggs

* HollywoodDateless: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," Alice Longabaugh, played by the attractive but very dressed-down Creator/ZoeKazan, has apparently had difficulty finding suitors. From what we see, however, there's a pretty strong implication that her brother had something to do with this, either by deliberately stymying any potential relationships until he thinks it will benefit him, or by incidentally destroying her confidence so much that she puts men off by seeming too timid and vacant. Also, in an age when socioeconomic status and family connections matter a great deal, it's possible that anyone who might be interested in her would be put off by having Gilbert (a financially incompetent jerkass) as a brother-in-law; when Knapp proposes to her he's pretty open about the fact that he's borderline desperate himself, and having children who will take care of him in his old age is his main consideration.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:"The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", "Near Algodones", "Meal Ticket", and "The Gal Who Got Rattled"]] all end with a main character's death. Really, [[spoiler:"All Gold Canyon"]] is the only short that ends on something of a high note.

* AfterlifeExpress: In "The Mortal Remains", it is strongly implied that [[spoiler:the stagecoach in which the passengers are riding]] may be this.

** Death. Every vignette has at least one person dying in some way or form to highlight the vicious and harsh nature of the Wild West. The only exception is "Mortal Remains", and even then it involves a corpse tied to the top of the coach [[spoiler:and ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]]) three people being taken to the afterlife by the Devil and the Grim Reaper(four if you count the corpse)]].

** Death. Every vignette has at least one person dying in some way or form to highlight the vicious and harsh nature of the Wild West. The only exception is "Mortal Remains", and even then it involves a corpse tied to the top of the coach [[spoiler:and ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]]) three people being taken to the afterlife by the Devil and the Grim Reaper]].

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: The man Buster Scruggs sings a song about after killing him has his name spoken as ''Surly'' Joe, but, since the song lyrics say "a cedilla on the C of Curly Joe", it's implied that his name is actually written as ''Çurly'' Joe. However, the "ç" that sounds like "s" as in "surly" is only used in Portuguese and French, and the English language only uses the cedilla in a few words loaned from French itself.

** Çurly/Surly Joe, one of Buster Scrugg's victims who unambiguously had it coming -- he pulls a gun on Buster for [[DisproportionateRetribution refusing to play a hand of cards]], despite the saloon being a TruceZone and knowing that Buster had willingly handed over his own weapons.

* HollywoodDateless: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," Alice Longabaugh, played by the attractive but very dressed-down Creator/ZoeKazan, has apparently had difficulty finding suitors.

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: The man Buster Scruggs sings a song about after killing him is referred phonetically as ''Surly'' Joe, but, since the song lyrics say "a cedilla on the C of Curly Joe", it's implied that his name is actually written as ''Çurly'' Joe. However, the English language does not use the cedilla at all; the "Ç" that sounds like "S" as in "surly" is only used in Portuguese and French.

MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:

* CherryTapping: In the duel with Curly/Surly Joe's brother, Buster Scruggs decides to shoot his final bullet behind his back, while aiming with the aid of a hand mirror, just to show off.

** When Buster Scruggs is caught without his guns by an armed Curly/Surly Joe, he admits that he has to get "downright Archimedean" in his tactics.

* TheDeterminator: Curly/Surly Joe's brother is a rather tragic example. When his brother is killed, he challenges Buster to a showdown. After Buster casually shoots off every finger on his right hand, he still tries to draw his gun with the left. It goes about as well as you'd expect.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Curly/Surly Joe turns out to have a brother, who tearfully challenges Buster Scruggs to a showdown. Buster kills him, too, though not before maiming him [[{{Fingore}} one finger at a time]].

* {{Fingore}}: Buster Scruggs shoots off each of the fingers on Curly/Surly Joe's brother's hand, starting with his trigger finger.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Buster asks the brother of Curly/Surly Joe "Do you want a count?" before they start their duel, and he answers in the negative, prompting Buster to immediately draw and shoot him. Just minutes later, the Kid does the exact same thing to Buster.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Buster Scruggs is shot by the Kid before he has a chance to ready himself, having done the exact same thing to Curly/Surly Joe's brother moments beforehand.]]

* TheRedBaron: Buster Scruggs [[IHaveManyNames has many nicknames]], but his favorite is "the San Saba Songbird". The Artist is called "Harrison, the Wingless Thrush" on the Impresario's posters.

** Curly/Surly Joe, one of Buster Scrugg's victims who unambiguously had it coming -- he pulls a gun on Buster for [[DisproportionateRetribution refusing to play a hand of cards]], despite the saloon being a TruceZone and knowing that Buster had willingly handed over his own weapons.

* BerserkButton: Buster has a very patient demeanor, all things considered. However, the one time we do see him briefly lose his cheerful facade is when Curly/Surly Joe's brother either intentionally or unintentionally calls him by the wrong moniker. Scruggs is called the "West Texas Twit" rather than the "West Texas Tit" (a bird). This may have been the reason why Buster's duel with the brother is so drawn out and painful.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: The undertakers look practically jaded as they [[spoiler:carry Buster Scruggs’ body away.]]

** David Krumholtz as a random French gambler who warms to Buster Scruggs.

* AfterlifeExpress: In "The Mortal Remains", it is strongly implied that [[spoiler: the stagecoach in which the passengers are riding]] may be this.

** [[spoiler:Buster Scruggs is killed by the Kid, a younger musical gunslinger.]] The text on the final page of the short story implies that [[spoiler:the Kid]] will meet his own match in time, perpetuating the cycle.

* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: Buster Scruggs takes [[spoiler:his death]] surprisingly well. [[spoiler:Despite being surprised that he was shot so fast, after his spirit leaves his body he carries on singing, accepting the limitations in life that led to his death.]]
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:

* TheMusical: "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" parodies old Western musicals. "All Gold Canyon", "The Mortal Remains", and "Meal Ticket" also feature singing, though they aren't musicals as such.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Buster Scruggs lives by this trope, which is all the more noticeable because his speech is so verbose and elaborate in the face of terse and unlettered cowboys and outlaws, particularly when they've been shocked into silence by the violence they've just seen.

* ShootTheRope: In "Near Algodones," a cattle rustler rescues the Cowboy this way, but it takes a few shots.

* VisualPun: The back of the book that frames the whole movie has an illustration of a mule's butt seen from behind. This is only shown to the viewers once they've reached ''the tail end'' of the movie.

* AmbiguousSituation: It is never revealed whether the chicken from "Meal Ticket" can actually do math, or whether it was some kind of trick.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The Artist in "Meal Ticket" never says a word or makes a sound when he's not on stage. His face is aware, but he always seems blank. Is he an IdiotSavant? A ShellShockedVeteran? Or maybe his living situation has put him in near-catatonic depression that only lifts when he performs?

* "Meal Ticket": A limbless orator (Harry Melling) and his impresario (Creator/LiamNeeson) find their fortunes dwindling.

** Buster Scruggs, a friendly and golden-throated singing cowboy who cheerfully and mercilessly guns down anyone who threatens him and is a wanted outlaw in at least one county. Fittingly for the trope, he objects to being labeled a "misanthrope" on his wanted poster, since he does not hate his fellow man. How "evil" he is may be debated, as we never see him harm anyone who wasn't threatening to kill him, but he's shockingly sanguine about wandering into deadly situations and then shooting his way out. [[spoiler:His fate in the afterlife is also weird, as he's seen becoming [[WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath an Angel complete with harp and wings as he's seen fluttering his way into Heaven]]]].

** The Artist in "Meal Ticket" [[spoiler:is replaced by a counting chicken.]]
* AmbiguousDisorder: The Artist in "Meal Ticket" never says a word or makes a sound when he's not on stage. His face is aware but he always seems blank. Is he an IdiotSavant? A ShellShockedVeteran? Or maybe his living situation has put him in near-catatonic depression that only lifts when he can perform?

* AmbiguousSituation: It is never revealed whether the chicken could actually do math, or whether it was some kind of trick.

* AnthologyFilm: The film is comprised of six short films set in TheWildWest. Four are based on short stories written by the Coens over a 25-year period. "All Gold Canyon" is a direct adaptation of a short story by Creator/JackLondon. "The Gal Who Got Rattled" is credited as being InspiredBy a story by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Edward_White Steward Edward White]].

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: In "Near Algodones," all of the Cowboy's bullets bounce harmlessly off the Bank Teller's improvised armor despite it being made of common pots, pans and a washboard. In RealLife the bullets would have gone straight through. And even if they ''did'' ricochet, the force of the bullet impact would still be considerable.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: In the opening pages of "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", it notes that Buster is a half day's ride from Medicine Hat; then fades to scenery that is clearly Utah/New Mexico. A half day's ride from Medicine Hat, Alberta might get you 15 miles south, still clearly within the prairies (unless the writers meant Mexican Hat, which is a small place in Utah).
* AsYouKnow: Mr. Arthur shouts out "dog hole!" whenever an attacker's horse stumbles on one, mostly for the benefit of audience members who don't understand why horses keep tripping. In character, it also works as a gleeful, know-it-all cry every time an enemy falls.

** Curly/Surly Joe, one of Buster Scrugg's victims who unambiguously had it coming - he pulls a gun on Buster for [[DisproportionateRetribution refusing to play a hand of cards]], despite the saloon being a TruceZone and knowing that Buster had willingly handed over his own weapons.

* BadGuyBar: Buster Scruggs frequents two during his short: a seedy cantina and a crowded saloon.
* BerserkButton: Buster has a very patient demeanor all things considered. However, the one time we do see him briefly lose his cheerful facade is when Curly/Surly Joe's brother either intentionally or unintentionally calls him by the wrong moniker. Scruggs is called the "West Texas Twit" rather than the "West Texas Tit" (a bird). This may have been the reason why Buster's duel with the brother was drawn out and painful.

** "Meal Ticket": The scant and apathetic audience members silently starting to stand after the artist's penultimate performance, only to awkwardly sit back down when he begins his final speech for the collections segment.
** "All Gold Canyon": The prospector is shot near the end of the story. After shooting him, the murderer sits by and rolls a cigarette. [[OverlyLongGag We proceed to watch him silently smoke the cigarette, snuff it out and save the rest for later]]. And then when the man drops down into the hole, the prospector finally gets up and kills the man who shot him.

* BountyHunter: The Englishman and the Irishman in "The Mortal Remains" are said to be bounty hunters, [[BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord though they dislike the term]] (they prefer "Reapers").

* BuryYourDisabled: [[spoiler:The Artist in "Meal Ticket"]] is drowned in a river. The death happens offscreen, so the audience can [[NothingIsScarier only imagine what it was like]]. [[spoiler:Previous scenes go out of their way emphasize how dependent the Artist is on the Impresario physically -- but also how the Impresario has no talent or apparent skills himself, making him equally dependent on the Artist... until the very moment he thinks he has a working replacement]].
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: the undertakers look practically jaded as they [[spoiler:carry Buster Scruggs’ body away.]]

** Creator/StephenRoot as the bank teller in "Near Algodones."
** Grandma Turner, a character from the Coens' previous western ''Film/TrueGrit'', makes an appearance at the beginning of "The Gal Who Got Rattled."

* ChekhovsGun: Mr. Arthur says that he and Miss Longabaugh can't flee the Indians because of the numerous gopher holes around. When the Indians attack, many of them get thrown when their horse stumbles on a gopher hole.
* ChekhovsSkill: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," Billy Knapp describes Mr. Arthur as a "crack shot." He ultimately makes use of his marksmanship in the end.
* CherryTapping: Buster Scruggs decides to shoot his final bullet behind his back, while aiming with the aid of a hand mirror, just to show off.
* TheChewToy: The Cowboy from "Near Algodones."

** Both Buster and the Kid in "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" defeat their dueling opponents by drawing before their opponents are ready. Although both are sporting/honorable enough to ask their opponent if they need a count first, only firing when the answer is no.
** The bank teller in "Near Algodones" keeps ''three'' scatterguns behind the counter aimed directly at anyone who might try to rob him, the Cowboy was just lucky enough that the first one missed (and smart enough to get out of the way of the other two.)
** [[spoiler:The prospector in "All Gold Canyon" is much older ''and'' is weakened by a gunshot wound, so he plays dead until the claim jumper gets down into the hole with him and then throws dirt in his eyes when he starts to get the advantage.]]
* ComedicSociopathy: Buster is a sadist who kills an entire group of cowboys in a bar. Buster then goes to a town, kills another person in an almost cartoonish manner and then blows another man’s five fingers before killing him. The worst part is that almost all the deaths are presented in a hilarious way, but the results are realistically bloody and painful.
* CompanionCube: The prospector in "All Gold Canyon" speaks to the vein of gold he's trying to find, addressing it as "Mister Pocket."

** In ''The Mortal Remains'' the Englishman presents himself as an effete dandy, and his Irish companion seems rather daft as well. They turn out to be [[spoiler: two sadistic bounty hunters. It's also suggested that they may be more than that in a MaybeMagicMaybeMundane situation that implies that the Englishman is the Devil and the Irishman the Grim Reaper]].
* CrowdSong: Buster gets the pianist to start playing and the crowd to join in the chorus of a song mocking the man he's just killed. Justified, though, in that he sings it to the tune of "Little Joe the Wrangler", a popular song of the time.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Buster Scruggs is a "singing cowboy" in the vein of Creator/RoyRogers and similar actors in the cowboy craze of TheForties and TheFifties (which was also homaged by the Coens through the character of Hobie Brown in their earlier ''Film/HailCaesar''). Placed in the universe of a not-meant-to-be-child-friendly "realistic" Western movie, he comes across as a maniac, and ''that'' is without taking into account the barrage of senseless murders he does (he's quick to say that he "doesn't hates his fellow man" as his WantedPoster claims he does, but he sure does look like TheSociopath if he leads a whole saloon into a sing-and-dance number right after he killed a guy).
* DeconstructiveParody: Buster Scruggs is essentially Creator/RoyRogers from Hell. He's a "white hat" singing cowboy dressed all in sparkling white. His depiction takes apart the whole "singing cowboy" archetype by showing how utterly ''insane'' (and terrifying) someone would come across as in real life if he killed a man and then sang a musical number about it ([[KickTheDog right in front of the guy's brother]], no less.)

* TheDeterminator: Curly/Surly Joe's brother is a rather tragic example. When his brother is killed, he challenges Buster to a showdown. After Buster casually shoots off every finger on his right hand, he still tries to draw his gun with the left. It goes about as well as you'd expect

* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: In "The Mortal Remains," The Irishman's song "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unfortunate_Rake The Unfortunate Lad]]" is about a man who becomes "disordered" by his lover and dies. He says he would have taken "salts or pills of white mercury" had he known about it earlier. Based on these clues, you can infer that the man got syphilis.

** Buster Scruggs is introduced as a chipper singing cowboy, but he shows his true colors when he picks a fight with a group of outlaws and cheerfully guns them down, leaving one to bleed out.

** [[spoiler:Buster Scruggs]] calmly states [[{{Understatement}} "Well that ain't good"]] when he's on the receiving end of a BoomHeadshot.

** [[spoiler:Mr. Arthur of "The Gal"]] pulls a similar trick when an Indian wallops him in the head from horseback, drawing the attacker to dismount and lean over his body, at which point he swings his arm up and shoots him in the head. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:Alice is fooled as well, leading her to follow Arthur's earlier direction to kill herself before the native can come for her]].

* GracefulLoser: [[spoiler: The title character]], after being shot.

* {{Greed}}: The prospector in "All Gold Valley." He's looking for gold, happily despoils the valley to find it... and he throws away nuggets in his quest to find the elusive "pocket" of gold, in a careless and wasteful manner. However, it is subverted in one subtle but key aspect; when given the chance to plunder a bird's entire nest of eggs, he takes pity on the mother and takes only what he needs to feed himself. [[spoiler: It appears that this little bit of grace is enough to absolve him in the eyes of karma, as he is one of the few characters in the movie who lives to profit from his adventures.]]

* {{Hammerspace}}: Buster Scruggs produces his hand mirror from nowhere on two occasions. It disappears whenever he's not using it.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: In "All Gold Canyon", it's revealed that a man has been following the Prospector letting him do all the hard work in finding the gold so that he can kill him and steal it once he's found. [[spoiler: Subverted; the Prospector isn't seriously wounded when the man shoots him, plays possum and gets the drop on the man, killing him.]]
* HaveAGayOldTime: Done intentionally, one of Buster Scruggs' many nicknames is "The West Texas Tit" (as in the bird.)
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Buster asks the brother of Curly/Surly Joe "Do you want a count?" before they start their duel, who answers in the negative, prompting Buster to immediately draw and shoot him. Just minutes later, the Kid does the exact same thing to Buster.

* HollywoodToneDeaf: Realistically downplayed in "All Gold Canyon." When Music/TomWaits's prospector character sings to himself, he sounds merely unskilled and out-of-practice, not exaggeratedly obnoxious or comically awful.
* HopeSpot: The Cowboy in "Near Algodones" gets two: After he's [[spoiler:sentenced to hang, he's given a VillainousRescue by a Comanche attack... but the Comanches just leave him to die. Then he's rescued by a cattle herder... only to be arrested and sentenced to hang for rustling the herd]].

** The Indians in "The Gal Who Got Rattled" don't hit a thing, though they ''are'' galloping on horseback while shooting.

* IncurableCoughOfDeath: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," [[spoiler:Gilbert coughs in an early scene. In the next scene, he's coughing uncontrollably. In the scene after that, he's dead... the caravan-master says he died of cholera, but cholera doesn't affect the lungs. It's likelier he caught something from the doctor at his former boarding-house]].

** "Near Algodones" takes place in it, given [[spoiler:the Indian attack that interrupts the lynching]].

* IntellectualAnimal: Gallus Mathematicas, the chicken in "Meal Ticket," can supposedly do basic math.
* IronicEcho: Buster's question to the man he dueled, and the latter's answer, before shooting off his fingers and then killing him. It was reversed when it was asked of him by the Kid, and was Buster's answer, before he was fatally shot.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mr. Arthur, the gruff trail hand with NoSocialSkills featured in "The Gal Who Got Rattled", proves himself to be a brave, caring human being when he single-handedly defends Alice from a group of marauding Indians. [[spoiler: He's saddened when he fails to save her life, as much for her as for Mr. Knapp, as foreshadowed in the opening illustration for the chapter.]]
* JustAFleshWound: [[spoiler:The prospector]] gets shot in the back, but it goes through and through and "didn't hit anything important." This allows him to [[spoiler:fight his attacker, mine the rest of the gold and start the trek back to civilization]].

* KarmicJackpot: When he's hungry and looking for a meal, the prospector takes only a single egg from a nest, after seeing the mother owl watching from a neighboring tree. Later, [[spoiler:he miraculously survives a gunshot wound unharmed, kills his assailant and is able to claim his bounty. He's the only protagonist of any of the segments who unambiguously ends the film better than when he began.]]

* LackOfEmpathy: A key characteristic to Buster is that he doesn't really care for other people's pain and suffering. [[spoiler:When he guns down the cantina he leaves one bandit alive who is clearly shot in the lungs but Buster refuses to finish him off, instead saying he'll leave the animals to kill him. During the penultimate duel in the story he shoots off every finger and the thumb of his opposing duelist. While his opponent is clearly in great pain and agony, Buster just ignores him and talks to the audience while planning out how he is going to finish him off.]]

* MagicBullets: Averted. Everytime a bullet passes *through* someone, it hits what is directly behind. In the first story, daylight even briefly shines through the hole-in-the-man, before he falls and the audience sees the hole-in-the-shutter behind.

** In "All Gold Canyon," the Prospector takes all of the eggs from a bird's nest to eat. When he spots the mother owl watching him, he relents and gives back all but one of the eggs. Later, [[spoiler:he's shot in the back, but the bullet miraculously doesn't "hit anything important"]]. It's left ambiguous as to whether the Prospector is spared by karma, the supernatural intervention of the owl herself, or simple luck.
** With its mysterious and quasi-supernatural overtones, "The Mortal Remains" could just be a normal stagecoach ride but is implied to be [[spoiler:a voyage into the afterlife]].

*** The Englishman looks a bit like Mephistopheles, with a narrow mustache and Van Dyke. He describes himself and the Irishman as "reapers" and "harvesters of souls," saying that he never takes in his quarry alive. With the other passengers' complete attention, he states that his job is to distract their quarry. He adds that as a storyteller, he "lives forever." While staring fixedly at the other passengers, he also says that he likes to watch his quarry as they "negotiate the passage." The Irishman calls him "boss."

** [[AnimalMotifs Birds]]/[[FeatherMotif Feathers]]. In "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" and "Meal Ticket," a main character has a bird themed-nickname. In "All Gold Canyon," the Prospector pointedly chooses not to rob an owl of all her eggs. "Meal Ticket" prominently features a chicken who does sums. In "Near Algodones" and "The Gal Who Got Rattled," feathered Indians attack.
** Water. Buster Scruggs opens the film singing "Cool Water." "Near Algodones" begins with the Cowboy standing next to a well with a sign reading "Bad Water." "Meal Ticket" is implied to end with [[spoiler:the Artist being thrown into a river]]. "All Gold Canyon" takes place beside a river. "The Gal Who Got Rattled"'s final scenes take place after the caravan stops at a river. "Mortal Remains" in its entirety is an allegory for [[spoiler: crossing the River Styx into the afterlife]].

* TheMusical: "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" parodies old Western musicals. "All Gold Canyon," "The Mortal Remains" and "Meal Ticket" also feature singing, though they aren't musicals as such.

** In "The Gal Who Got Rattled", Mr. Arthur successfully fends off a small war party of Indians by himself, with only the lay of the land (in the form of the help of a field full of prairie dog holes) to help him. A downplayed example since he only kills eight of them and nearly dies in the process.
** Going by how casual he is about his actions, as well as his reputation, Buster Scruggs is implied to be this. Though we only see him kill seven men on-screen.

* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: The Kid who challenges Buster Scruggs did so specifically because Buster has the reputation of being the best singing gunfighter, and the Kid wants that title for himself. The text on the page notes that there is AlwaysSomeoneBetter, and whoever is the best at any particular moment should be aware of this.

** The prospector realizes that he's stealing eggs from an owl, so he puts all but one back. [[spoiler:This might be why he's injured but not killed by the bullet to the back]].

* {{Pride}}: Buster Scruggs exhibits this in spades. He even carries around a [[RuleOfSymbolism fancy silver mirror]] for show-offy trick shots. [[spoiler: Looking at his reflection is his last act as a living man, though once he passes, he suddenly [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] it by showing humility, taking his defeat in stride and admitting that there's [[AlwaysABiggerFish always someone better]] out there waiting to take the spotlight away.]]
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: [[spoiler:An outlaw, Buster Scruggs and Alice Longabaugh]] each receive one, self-inflicted in the latter's case.
* TheRedBaron: Buster Scruggs [[IHaveManyNames has many nicknames]], but his favorite is "the San Saba Songbird." The Artist is called "Harrison, the Wingless Thrush."
* TheSavageIndian: The Native Americans in "Near Algodones" and "The Gal Who Got Rattled" are presented as unsympathetic, often faceless aggressors, almost like a tidal wave of death and destruction that attacks for no reason or purpose. This is very much what one would expect from the pulp westerns that the film is inspired by. The one exception is a mentioned-only character, the former lover of the trapper, who was a Hunkpapa Lakota. They apparently got on well despite her not speaking English and the trapper not speaking Sioux.
* SceneryPorn: "All Gold Canyon" is by far the most scenic of the shorts, and treats the viewers of some nice shots of the wildlife and nature untouched by man.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Buster Scruggs lives by this trope. All the more noticeable because his speech is so verbose and elaborate in the face of terse and unlettered cowboys and outlaws, particularly when they've been shocked into silence by the violence they've just seen.

** "The Gal Who Got Rattled" [[spoiler:dies a senseless death while an aging trail boss gets to live another day.]]
** All of which puts the audience in just the right mindset to assume that "The Mortal Remains" is about [[spoiler:characters who are already dead and on their way to the afterlife, though that twist ultimately never comes]].
* ShootTheDog: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," when the other homesteaders in the caravan complain of President Pierce's barking, Mr. Knapp offers to literally shoot the dog himself to spare Miss Longabaugh the worry. [[spoiler:He fails]].

* ShootTheShaggyDog: "The Gal Who Got Rattled," the longest of the entries. [[spoiler: The audience watches Miss Longabough endure one terrible loss after another, but she gradually builds herself up, adapts, and makes new plans for life in Oregon... and then a ''stupid'' twist of fate puts her in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she ends killing herself needlessly.]]

* ShownTheirWork: "The Gal Who Got Rattled" never explains it, but when Miss Longabaugh states that her brother had fixed political beliefs, Billy Knapp correctly deduces that he's a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughface doughface]] (a Northern sympathizer of the South) because his dog is named President Pierce, a noted doughface.
* SicklyGreenGlow: Throughout the tail end of "The Mortal Remains", the cast and the wagon is cast in a bright green light as night falls and they approach destination. The colors really add to the ambiguity of [[spoiler:everyone going to the afterlife or not]], considering the ominous ornate doors that greet them at the fort are the same color.
* SilenceIsGolden: There are long stretches of silence in several shorts. In "Meal Ticket," the Impresario and the Artist never speak to each other.

** Creator/TomWaits is a singer, songwriter, and musician with decades of experience in his field, which is probably why the Prospector sounds so convincingly bad when he sings. He unintentionally switches keys, can't hold long notes very often, and his voice cracks frequently, all of which makes sense for a character with a life that's so hard on the body.
* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: According to the woman in "The Mortal Remains", they are "Upright and Not Upright." For the Englishman and the Trapper, it's "Dead or Alive."

* {{Understatement}}: [[spoiler: The title character]] observing "[[CaptainObvious That don't look good]]" after being ''shot in the head.''

* VillainousRescue: In "Near Algodones," the Cowboy is rescued from execution by an Indian attack. They don't cut the rope, though, and so he's left to choke for longer. However, he ''is'' rescued by a cowboy who later turns out to be a cattle rustler. [[spoiler:And gets hanged for cattle rustling]].

* WantedPoster: Buster Scruggs shows off one of his, but [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne objects]] to being labeled a misanthrope on the basis that he doesn't hate his fellow man.

* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In "The Gal Who Got Rattled," Gilbert has named his dog President Pierce as an apparent tribute to the man.

* DeconstructiveParody: Buster Scruggs is essentially Creator/RoyRogers from Hell. He's a "white hat" singing cowboy dressed all in sparkling white. He inverts Rogers' famous quote about never having met a man he didn't like by claiming that he never hates his fellow man no matter how obnoxious. His depiction takes apart the whole "singing cowboy" archetype by showing how utterly ''insane'' (and terrifying) someone would come across as in real life if he killed a man and then sang a musical number about it ([[KickTheDog right in front of the guy's brother]], no less.)

** Water. Buster Scruggs opens the film singing "Cool Water." "Near Algodones" begins with the Cowboy standing next to a well with a sign reading "Bad Water." "Meal Ticket" is implied to end with [[spoiler:the Artist being thrown into a river]]. "All Gold Canyon" takes place beside a river. "The Gal Who Got Rattled"'s final scenes take place after the caravan stops at a river.

** Buster Scruggs, a friendly and golden-throated singing cowboy who cheerfully and mercilessly guns down anyone who threatens him and is a wanted outlaw in at least one county. Fittingly for the trope, he objects to being labeled a "misanthrope" on his wanted poster, since he does not hate his fellow man. How "evil" he is may be debated, as we never see him harm anyone who wasn't threatening to kill him, but he's shockingly sanguine about wandering into deadly situations and then shooting his way out. [[spoiler:His fate in the afterlife is also weird, as he's seen becoming an Angel complete with harp and wings as he's seen fluttering his way into Heaven]].

* "The Mortal Remains": Five strangers (Creator/SaulRubinek, Creator/TyneDaley, Creator/ChelcieRoss, Creator/BrendanGleeson, and Jonjo O'Neill) converse on a stagecoach ride.

** Surly Joe, one of Buster Scrugg's victims who unambiguously had it coming - he pulls a gun on Buster for [[DisproportionateRetribution refusing to play a hand of cards]], despite the saloon being a TruceZone and knowing that Buster had willingly handed over his own weapons.

* BerserkButton: Buster has a very patient demeanor all things considered. However, the one time we do see him briefly lose his cheerful facade is when Surly Joe's brother either intentionally or unintentionally calls him by the wrong moniker. Scruggs is called the "West Texas Twit" rather than the "West Texas Tit" (a bird). This may have been the reason why Buster's duel with the brother was drawn out and painful.

** When Buster Scruggs is caught without his guns by an armed Surly Joe, he admits that he has to get "downright Archimedean" in his tactics.

* TheDeterminator: Surly Joe's brother is a rather tragic example. When his brother is killed, he challenges Buster to a showdown. After Buster casually shoots off every finger on his right hand, he still tries to draw his gun with the left. It goes about as well as you'd expect

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Surly Joe turns out to have a brother, who tearfully challenges Buster Scruggs to a showdown. Buster kills him, too, though not before maiming him [[{{Fingore}} one finger at a time]].

* {{Fingore}}: Buster Scruggs shoots off each of the fingers on Surly Joe's brother's hand, starting with his trigger finger.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Buster asks the brother of Surly Joe "Do you want a count?" before they start their duel, who answers in the negative, prompting Buster to immediately draw and shoot him. Just minutes later, the Kid does the exact same thing to Buster.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Buster Scruggs is shot by the Kid before he has a chance to ready himself, having done the exact same thing to Surly Joe's brother moments beforehand.]]

* BerserkButton: Buster has a very patient demeanor all things considered. However the one time we do see him briefly lose his cheerful facade is when Curly Joe's brother either intentionally or unintentionally calls him by the wrong moniker. Scruggs is called the "West Texas Twit" rather than the "West Texas Tit" (a bird). This may have been the reason why Buster's duel with the brother was drawn out and painful.

** When Buster Scruggs is caught without his guns by an armed Curly Joe, he admits that he has to get "downright Archimedean" in his tactics.

* TheDeterminator: Curly Joe's brother is a rather tragic example. When his brother is killed, he challenges Buster to a showdown. After Buster casually shoots off every finger on his right hand, he still tries to draw his gun with the left. It goes about as well as you'd expect

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Curly Joe (dubbed Surly Joe by Scruggs in the song he uses to win over the crowd) turns out to have a brother, who tearfully challenges Buster Scruggs to a showdown. Buster kills him, too, though not before maiming him [[{{Fingore}} one finger at a time]].

* {{Fingore}}: Buster Scruggs shoots off each of the fingers on Curly Joe's brother's hand, starting with his trigger finger.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Despite there being no other humans around for miles, the Prospector takes only a single egg from an owl's nest because he [[PetTheDog knows that to do otherwise would be cruel to the mother.]]

* WoundedGazelleGambit: [[spoiler:The Old Prospector pretends to be killed by the single shot from the claim jumper to lure him into the pit.]]