Saturday Night Live is currently airing its 50th season in the 2025 TV schedule, which is certainly a milestone that most shows will never reach. NBC has celebrated that milestone in a variety of ways, but fans with Peacock subscriptions are the ones with access to the SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night docuseries that chronicles some of the series' highest highs and lowest lows over the past half century. Will Ferrell's iconic "More Cowbell" sketch is certainly one of the highest highs, and is the subject of one full episode of SNL50.
Docuseries executive producer Morgan Neville spoke with CinemaBlend about the episode, including how the team tracked down fresh footage for a sketch that aired 25 years ago. The "More Cowbell" sketch was written by Will Ferrell and also featured SNL cast members Chris Parnell, Chris Kattan, Horatio Sanz, and Jimmy Fallon, some of whom were more successful than others at keeping a straight face opposite the future Elf star as the Gene Frenkle, the cowbell-playing (and fictional) member of Blue Oyster Cult.
The sketch has haunted host Christopher Walken ever since it aired in 2000 due to how infinitely quotable it is, and the SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night episode all about it revealed that Will Farrell originally wrote it for Norm Macdonald in the role of Bruce Dickinson, but was passed over and shelved until Walken arrived. I won't spoil the events of the full episode of the Peacock docuseries here, but when I spoke with SNL50 executive producer Morgan Neville, he explained why the four-part series dedicated a full episode to just that one (admittedly incredible successful) sketch:
I loved that idea, because I just knew we could get really specific. I could think of some other documentaries I've loved that get really specific, like the Helvetica documentary about the font, or there's a documentary about the shower scene in Psycho that's just about that one scene, and I said, 'Okay, it can be done.' I didn't know where it was gonna go, but I was really excited about getting really micro. And then, once we got into it, they not only had the dress rehearsal footage, but somebody who used to work on the show, who doesn't even work here anymore, had a VHS tape with the blocking footage of them blocking the sketch. And then finding the old versions of the scripts. Once you start to really get into the archeology of it, it's amazing how much information there is about one sketch.
Plenty of SNL fans have undoubtedly seen "More Cowbell" more than once, but the specific episode of SNL50 included footage that certainly was never part of the original broadcast, a DVD release, or the clip on YouTube. The process of gathering information on the sketch from 2000 that nobody knew would be such a huge hit went as far as retrieving a VHS tape from a former employee. Considering that few people even have VCRs nowadays, it's impressive that the tape was still around and of high enough quality for the docuseries!
SNL50's EP Morgan Neville, who won an Academy Award in 2014 for 20 Feet from Stardom, an Emmy in 2017 for Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal, a Grammy for 20 Feet From Stardom, and scores of nominations for other projects including Won't You Be My Neighbor as a showcase of Mr. Rogers and Piece by Piece as the documentary of Pharrell Williams' life and career via Lego animation, went on to say about the "More Cowbell" sketch circa 2000:
At the time, that sketch wasn't anything more than just one sketch for the night. Nobody even really knew that that sketch was what it became. The sketch took years to build its history, and part of it is it made it onto the 'Best Of' DVDs and all of that. It was 25 years ago, because it was before viral [videos]. That sketch really had to have time to build. And that's interesting. Even just then, why does a sketch suddenly build and go viral? What connects people to something? But also trying to do it in a way that's not just analytical, because talking about comedy for too long can really be a fool's errand. It's like, let's also have fun with it, because why else are we here but to laugh?
The SNL50 episode about the sketch goes in-depth on how the odds were actually stacked against "More Cowbell" even being the standout segment of the episode back in 2000, with absolutely no way of guessing that it would be a staple of pop culture 25 years later.
As somebody who actually did see it for the first time via the Saturday Night Live - The Best of Will Ferrell DVD compilation, I rewatched the sketch on YouTube after seeing the new docuseries and discovered that it has accumulated 28 million views since going live on the platform five years ago. I shared that figure with Morgan Neville, who responded:
That's only five years! That's crazy. It's part of why I think SNL has actually lived on deep into the 21st century, is it's actually oddly suited for how we consume media these days. It's very clippable.
Very clippable and very quotable, I'd say! The most famous line to come out of "More Cowbell" might be Christopher Walken's "I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell!" My personal favorite, though, is when Will Ferrell's voice starts to crack on saying "I'd be doing myself a disservice––" while his castmates are hiding their laughter in their Blue Oyster Cult facial hair. Even he comes dangerously close to cracking a smile! After all, nothing makes a funny SNL sketch even funnier than when the stars can't help but break.Take a look:
Check out the deep dive into "More Cowbell" with the third episode of SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, available streaming on Peacock now. All four episodes of the docuseries are worth watching, though, between the long list of current and former stars rewatching their auditions in Episode 1 and the story of the weird year that almost ended in SNL's cancellation in Episode 4. You can also find new episodes of Saturday Night Live with the next SNL hosts on Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
