Pig Josh can be unlocked in Showdown Mode if the player either gets an Excellent rating on the mission "Carnival Life" or purchases Pigs Feet from the General Store after completing the mission "Freak Show". Josh runs faster than the other characters and his special ability allows him to blow an enemy up close, without dealing any damage to himself. Like other heavy built characters, he can pick and throw around opponents.
There's no denying Pig Josh can draw a crowd, but no one can stand his company off the stage. He mostly keeps to his wagon between shows, feeding bits of bloody meat to his trained buzzards. Heaven knows what he blows up to get that meat.
Pig Josh was a rotund demolitions expert with more than a few swine-like traits, who enjoyed traveling from town to town along with his "troupe", demonstrating his talents with dynamite.[1] Not much is known about Pig Josh's early life, but according to the game manual, Josh was a demolition expert in the Confederate army. After the Civil war ended, Josh had to find another way to put his demolition skills to good use and joined Professor Perry's Circus, amazing people with his skill of handling Dynamite and training vultures. When Perry moved on with his operations, Pig Josh was left behind at the old fairgrounds, though mainly due to the latter blowing up the wall of a "bath house", which resulted in the circus being kicked out of Brimstone.[2] Eventually, he started using his skill with TNT to destroy and kill people instead of amazing them with daring feats and tricks. Because of this, and the recent bombing, a wanted poster of him was hung inside the Brimstone jail for any man brave enough to go face to face with Josh. Sheriff Bartlett suggested to Red that he could hunt Josh down. Red agreed to put an end to him.
Interactions[]
During the mission "Carnival Life", Red meets Jack Swift in a cage and both of the men attack Pig Josh and his gang of clowns, who are actually his offspring, after Red rescues Jack from the cage. Once all of his gang lies dead, Pig Josh himself takes matters in his own hands as he jumps from his box car and starts to attack Red using a dynamite belt attached to his waist. While Jack covers on top of a building, giving firepower support from above, Red kills Pig Josh and claims his reward a couple hours later.
You're either a stargazer or a corpse, because you're always on your back.
„
—Pig Josh
“
You wanna smoke, amigo?
„
—Pig Josh
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You're about to get a good look at a wooden box.
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—Pig Josh
“
Goodbye, mister. Boom! Boom!
„
—Pig Josh
Sheriff Bartlett's Journal[]
Pig Josh is listed in Sheriff Bartlett's Journal under the Professor Perry's Potion and Peculiarities section. He is the only freak of his not pictured on the front page representing Perry's freaks and his page can be unlocked the same way he is unlocked in Showdown Mode.
Trivia[]
Pig Josh is briefly mentioned in campfire segments in Red Dead Redemption.[3][4]. Fidgit and his other dwarf children are also indirectly mentioned.
Pig Josh was given his nickname "pig" for his pig-like nose, weight and the fact that he tends to "snort" like a pig when he begins to make a joke or is attacking Red.
Pig Josh's bounty is lower than any other outlaws, either because he is the first boss of the game, or because he is the least of the town's worries.
Pig Josh shares similarities with Piggsy, another Rockstar villain from the 2003 game Manhunt. However, Josh is clearly not as mentally disturbed or lost with reality, unlike Piggsy.
Despite always being seen with many sticks of dynamite, the weapons inventory still can only hold a maximum of 2 sticks of dynamite in Redemption multiplayer. In Revolvers Showdown Mode, the number of available dynamite is unlimited, although Josh only starts with around 20 dynamite sticks and can't use the ones on his clothing.
In the Legends and Killers DLC pack, the dynamite strapped around Josh's head is smaller than the thrown Dynamite in-game.
Pig Josh is likely a reference to Pig Joe, a boss character in the 1985 Capcom game, Gun.Smoke. Pig Joe was also a fat shirtless man who made dynamite his primary weapon and favorite clothing accessory. Capcom originally worked on Red Dead Revolver.
According to the journal, the Fidgits are the offspring of Pig Josh and the 'Bat Lady.' It is also said that Josh specializes in training buzzards, although they are never seen in the game.
However, in the prototype version of the game, Fidgits did not exist and Pig Josh's goons were replaced with short, bird-looking people in top hats who could fly around, using their wings. They were obviously replaced by Fidgits so not to break the player's suspension of disbelief. It is possible however, that these odd, chimera-like creatures are the supposed buzzards mentioned in Bartlett's journal.
When compared to his character model in Red Dead Revolver, Pig Josh's character model in Red Dead Redemption has a considerably smaller amount of dynamite sticks strapped to his body. His pants are also blue instead of green.
Pig Josh is one of the first characters that was created for the game, as his model can be seen in early Revolver prototype videos, although his appearance shared more similarities to his Redemption model than what he appears like in Revolver and he has complete white eyes with no pupils. He was also originally fought at Widow's Patch with his buzzard people instead of Chris Bailey.
Gallery[]
Legends and Killers
'Legends and Killers' Pig Josh Artwork
Things go boom
Side-by-side comparison of Revolver and Redemption versions of the character.
