What's up with the guy who shoots himself in the sac?

I have no idea either, but I loved it.

I would watch it again and again. - blinkmaneast90, IMDb

humor. purely for humor

I'm betting stuff like that happened more often than you'd think. After all, the gun twirling, lightning quick draw, never miss gunman is a Hollywood fantasy. The truth of the matter is that the guy who remained as cool as possible, took his time and carefully aimed before shooting was the guy who usually won a gunfight. In fact, the REAL truth is that most "gunfights" had the loser going down with a bullet in the back.
The gunfighters squaring off in the middle of the street in the center of town , dust coming up from their boots as they slowly walked towards each other, cool, calm, collected with steely eyed determination as they bravely stared each other down is another part of that same Hollywood mythology.
Truth is, the guy who tried to do the "quickdraw" usually missed and ended up dead as the other guy took his time making sure his aim was true. A more dark, sad truth is that it was much easier to bushwack somebody. Ambush was a far easier chore with a much greater chance of success and most of them thar gunslingers buried up on Boot Hill had holes in their backs. Drive-by shootings are not a new phenomenom, it's just that back then they were called "ride-by shootings" (Trot-by? Gallop-by?)
The guy trying to do the fast draw was far more likely to end up with a miss, hitting someone else (innocent bystander) or injuring themselves.
Nerves (and the accompanying sweaty, shaky hands), cheap red-eye (that had them feeling indestructible, but seeing double) and weapons of the day that weighed a freakin' ton and were so poorly made as to be dangerous to the shooters health made it very unlikely to end in a favorable outcome when trying to outdraw someone.(not everyone could afford a well made Colt Peacemaker. Most folks were more likely to own a "Saturday Night Special" of the day that was just as likely to blow up in your face as protect you)
Those on-end nerves, sweaty palms, shaky drunken reflexes and cheap shoddily made weapons very likely had many a cowpoke shootin' themselves in the foot or the outer thigh as they tried to get the weapon unholstered and probably more than a few who shot 'emselves in the nards and took up singing soprano (Or Castrati. COWStrati? ew! I'm ashamed<G>)

By-the-By. The guy in Judge Roy Bean that "shot himself in the nut sac" had me laughing my ass off too. (at least after I got through being VERY surprised at what he had done) Yes, probably done mostly for a laugh, but I think also to set the tone of just how "wild" the wild west was and the wild things that could happen. This was a VERY different look at the Western/Horse Opera/Oater and I think they wanted to set the tone and show that this was not your typical John Wayne, Randolph Scott type Western where it's all black hats and white hats and no "shades of gray hats".
This movie was made in that time period when America and American values were being questioned and people were tearing apart the beauty in the mythology of story telling and looking for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth at the expense of telling a good story. Many movies became self-righteous, pendantic and boring because of it, but a few like "The life and Times...." really hit the mark. A great flick.

That actually happens more often than you would think. There are cases reported yearly in the US where someone is either playing 'Quick Draw' or pulling their pistol and shooting themselves in their 'gun'.. sort of speak! Type "accidental shootings in the groin" in your search browser to see just how many people are now proud owners of a 'snub-nose' weapon.

All the westerns and other films I've seen where guys just stuck their guns in their pants, and I've been waiting for something like that to happen.

"I'm not reckless . . . I'm skillful!"