# why doesn't Woody from Toy Story have a gun? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847 "2009-11-17T00:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/41 "2011-01-22T20:33:33Z")
He had to have a gun at some point because one of his catch phrases is “reach for the sky”. Why would the bad guy reach for the sky if there wasn’t a gun aimed at hi ? QED. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/42 "2011-01-22T21:17:22Z")
> [@D18](#): > > He had to have a gun at some point because one of his catch phrases is “reach for the sky”. Why would the bad guy reach for the sky if there wasn’t a gun aimed at hi > ? QED. That was actually just a motivational phrase. You know, for the kids. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/43 "2011-01-22T23:13:24Z")
This was probably mentioned before, but if so, I missed it: There’s no gun in the TS2 footage of the original [Woody’s Roundup](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMAdan0lwtI&feature=related)TV show. The footage doesn’t make it real obvious, but it’s not hidden or fudged either. I think there should have been a gun in the puppet show. As for why there’s no gun in the rest of the movie, it would just be a complicating factor, without any benefit. Having the newly arrived Buzz think he was facing an armed adversary certainly would have changed the dynamic of the introduction scene. The writers could have handled it and written some decent gags, but then they would have had to deal with the issue of how come the gun hasn’t gotten lost (which it would have, the way Andy played with his toys.) ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/44 "2011-01-23T05:41:16Z")
Clearly, Woody didn’t have a gun so that he would be entirely defenseless against zombie threads. It’s a dark, dark, choice. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/45 "2011-01-23T06:22:51Z")
I’ll accept the “Didn’t want to deal with it” reason but, when you think about it, it’s demonstrated that Buzz’s “laser” doesn’t work so why would you expect a molded plastic (or solid zinc for an older toy) gun to work? Of course maybe that takes us right back to “didn’t want to deal with it” so they don’t have to spell out “This is a FAKE gun! Woody can’t shoot the mutant toys with it!” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/46 "2011-01-23T07:54:59Z")
Woody is an English cowboy. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/47 "2011-01-24T03:41:12Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’ll accept the “Didn’t want to deal with it” reason but, when you think about it, it’s demonstrated that Buzz’s “laser” doesn’t work so why would you expect a molded plastic (or solid zinc for an older toy) gun to work? I don’t think anyone expects that it would work (although maybe I missed a earlier comment.) In the first movie, it wasn’t there because it would have got lost before the movie started. In the second movie, they left it out of the marionette sequence because otherwise Woody would not have been a legimate museum quality collectible. (He’s not “complete.”) Maybe the collector guy had an original Woody pistol to make the display perfect, but that seems damn unlikely, and it would require several lines of explanation. And Woody would have to ditch the gun at some point, because he can’t show up at Andy’s house with a new accessory. So… no gun, no where, no how. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/48 "2011-01-24T23:23:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Didn’t Buzz Lightyear have a raygun or something? So it doesn’t seem like it would be PC-ness gone amok if Buzz had a gun but Woody didn’t. Except laser guns are okay, it’s only firearms that are EEEEEEEEEEEEEEvil. Witness GI Joe cartoons from the 80’s where all this authentic looking weaponry the toys came with (and which were treated as real firearms in the excellent comic books) all shot laser beams instead of bullets. > [@Simplicio](#): > > I’m pretty sure kids TV these days includes plenty of violence and associated weaponry. Maybe, but this anti-gun crap still happens. The guy in charge of Transformers Animated a few years back wouldn’t let Optimus Prime have a gun (even a frickin laser gun, like he’s always had) because “heroes don’t use guns” or some nonsense. So instead he got a big ass battle axe. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/49 "2011-01-25T00:47:02Z")
Yes, chopping your enemies up is so much more humane and P.C. than zapping or shooting them. I suspect the Pixar designers gave Woody a holster both because (a) every sheriff would be expected to have one, and (b) it gave them a place to put the match. But leaving it empty all the time - especially once he’s restored to original condition for the Japanese toy museum in TS2 - is just silly. Better not to ever have given him one at all; the match could always be stuck in his hand-stitched back pocket (although it would stick out quite a bit). ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/50 "2011-01-25T02:19:52Z")
Damn it, what has America become when kids toys don’t have guns? Next they’ll ban My First Electric Chair, the Suicide Sally doll, and the Funny Uncle board game. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847/51 "2011-01-25T03:07:24Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > I don’t think anyone expects that it would work (although maybe I missed a earlier comment.) I was referring to **GuanoLad** ’s comment: > [@](#): > > I think it said that it was a story choice, because if you introduce a gun, even a toy one, it is almost forced to become a plot point I was just remarking that there isn’t much to do with an inanimate chunk of zinc to advance the plot. _Unnnlesssss_… Woody pistol-whipped someone. That’d be pretty interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-woody-from-toy-story-have-a-gun/517847.md?page=2)