How the SNL “More Cowbell” Sketch Almost Didn’t Happen
With the recent airing of Saturday Night Live’s 50th Anniversary show, I’ve been watching the documentary series about the show. One episode was entirely dedicated to the famous More Cowbellsketch, and the behind-the-scenes story is just as hilarious as the skit itself.
It’s wild to think that the cowbell sketch almost never happened. Can you imagine them saying, “I need more woodblock” instead? That was almost the case!
The idea for the sketch started with Will Ferrell daydreaming as a kid. He was zoning out while listening to Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult and wondered, What’s the cowbell player’s life like? That random thought stuck with him for years.
Fast-forward to 1995—Ferrell had just joined SNL, but things weren’t going great. In fact, Entertainment Tonight voted him “Most Annoying Newcomer” after his first few episodes aired. Instead of letting it get to him, he embraced it, even printing out the title and hanging it under his name in his dressing room.
Ferrell first pitched the cowbell sketch in 1999 under the name Recording Studio when Norm Macdonald was hosting. The skit got cut before making it to air and sat on the shelf for months. Then, when Christopher Walken hosted later that season, they decided to dust it off—completely changing TV comedy history.
Before the live show, Ferrell made a last-minute decision to switch into a way-too-small shirt, knowing it would make his cowbell playing look even more ridiculous. It worked too well—Jimmy Fallon, who already had a habit of breaking on live TV, could barely keep it together. The more Ferrell pounded on the cowbell, the harder Fallon struggled, which only made the audience laugh even more.
Christopher Walken, who played "The Bruce Dickinson," delivered the now-famous line: “Guess what? I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!” The name Bruce Dickinson wasn’t just some random rock producer name they pulled from thin air—it actually came from the back of a 1995 reissue of Agents of Fortune. The real Bruce Dickinson was a Sony executive, not the original producer of Don’t Fear the Reaper, but the name was too perfect not to use.
Even Blue Öyster Cult thought the sketch was hilarious. Their actual cowbell player, Albert Bouchard, later joked that he wished he had played more cowbell in real life.
As for Walken? He loved doing the sketch at the time, but in later interviews, he’s said it ruined his life because fans still yell “MORE COWBELL!” at him wherever he goes.
And to think, if things had played out just a little differently, we might all be talking about the woodblock sketch instead.
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