In light of the recent barrage of Simpsons output, it’s nice to know that some things about the long-running show are still a bit of a mystery. In this case, the enigma is John Swartzwelder, one of the show’s longtime writers and a veritable JD Salinger/Hunter S. Thompson of the Simpsons world. With a weird and absurdist view on things, Swartzwelder is perfectly suited for writing animated comedies, where pretty much anything that will make you laugh your ass of goes.

A lesser-known fact is that Swartzwelder wrote a live-action pilot that, until this week, few had seen. Swartzwelder’s 1996 pilot Pistol Pete was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and is a time capsule of an established talent, in the vein of Lookwell and Heat Vision and Jack. Absurdly anachronistic, chock full of bad acting and rough cuts, there are shades of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. But where Darkplace deliberately lambastes, Pistol Pete falls short in its reverence for the classic western source material and lack of self-awareness. Either way, the pilot is a fun watch, if only to see Simpsons-world comedy in a real world setting.