More Cowbell

2000

Date: 8 April 2000 · Place: Saturday Night Live, Studio 8H, NBC, New York · Figures: Christopher Walken, Bruce Dickenson · Will Ferrell, Gene Frenkle (writer) · Blue Oyster Cult, fictionalized band · Tags: Sketch, Quote, Pre-YouTube 01. A Fictional Recording Session Will Ferrell writes a sketch about the 1976 recording of Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper, where producer Bruce Dickenson, played by Christopher Walken, demands more cowbell from session player Gene Frenkle. Ferrell pads the cowbell prop on purpose so it makes a louder, more absurd clang. Walken sells the line with total commitment. The sketch airs once on 8 April 2000. It is funny in the room and forgotten by the network. NBC does not push it. The clip survives in tape trades, on Kazaa, on early YTMND pages. 02. Quote Without Source I gotta have more cowbell becomes a 2002-2005 office quote, then a forum sig, then a t-shirt, then a stadium sign. By the time YouTube hosts the clip in 2006 the quote has already outlived its sketch by half a decade. Most people who use it have never seen Walken deliver it. The Cowbell sketch is the first viral SNL bit of the streaming era, distributed by everyone except SNL itself. It teaches the network that single-clip sketches travel further than whole episodes. "I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell." — Bruce Dickenson (Walken), SNL, 8 April 2000 Sources • Saturday Night Live archive, S25E16 (8 April 2000) • Rolling Stone, 'How More Cowbell became SNL's biggest catchphrase' (2015) • KnowYourMeme, More Cowbell