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Season 4, Episode 3: The Legend of Slue-Foot Sue

The stories of Pecos Bill are what's known as "fakelore."  A guy named Tex O'Reily claimed that he had collected stories about Pecos Bill, which were told by cowboys (much in the same way stories were told about Paul Bunyun by loggers) in the Southwest during westward expansion.  However, there weren't any cowboys telling stories about Pecos Bill, and it seems O'Reily made them up and presented them as if they were folklore.

I have to applaud this.

Pecos Bill was a cowboy known for his supernatural riding, roping, and shooting abilities.  Some examples of his adventures: He fell out of his family's covered wagon as an infant and was raised by coyotes until reunited with his human brother, who eventually convinced Bill that he wasn't really a coyote.  He roped and rode a tornado.  His horse was named Widow Maker because no other man could ride him, but then sometimes he rode a cougar instead.  His lasso was a snake named Shake.  And so on.  I like Pecos Bill stories.  They're all really silly.

I based this episode on the time Pecos Bill met Slue-Foot Sue.  And that goes like this:
Pecos Bill was camped by the Red River when Slue-Foot Sue rode by on a giant catfish.  Pecos Bill was so impressed that he proposed on the spot and shortly thereafter they got married.  As soon as they got married though, she asked her groom to do her a favor, and he said, "Anything!" and she said, "Let me ride your horse."  Now, as I said, Pecos Bill's horse was the wildest horse ever, and Pecos Bill was the only one who could ride him without being killed.  So it was with a heavy heart that he let Slue-Foot Sue ride the horse.  The horse immediately bucked her so high she bumped her head on the moon (or had to duck to avoid hitting the moon).  Now, since she was in her big, poofy wedding dress, when she hit the ground again she bounced, and just kept on bouncing for days and days, crying and screaming the whole time.  One version of the story says that Pecos Bill lassoed her down, rescuing her, but she was so shaken that she refused to ever see Pecos Bill again and demanded an annulment.  Another version said that after two weeks of not eating, Slue-Foot Sue was on the verge of starving to death, and Pecos Bill shot her to put her out of her misery.  Yet another says that she actually landed on the moon and lives there now, and coyotes howl at the moon in remembrance.  Whichever way, Pecos Bill never loved again.

I think that's a pretty raw deal narratively for someone skilled enough to ride a giant catfish to get bucked off the horse immediately and then cry about it.  Something about it doesn't make sense to me.  I feel like she should dust herself off and say, "That is truly the greatest horse."  Or if she were to cry, it would be from embarrassment rather than from the trauma of bouncing in a big, poofy dress.  Something is fishy here, and I started thinking how maybe someone adjusted the story and why they would do that.  Who would gain from Slue-Foot Sue's portrayal as a damsel in distress?