Will Ferrell Says Christopher Walken Getting 'All Fired Up' TookSNL's 'More Cowbell' Sketch to a 'Level I Didn't Expect'

Mar. 15, 2025

Christopher Walken cowbell sketch in 2000.Photo:NBC

NBC

Every once in a while, aSaturday Night Livesketch becomes the talk of the town.

In the new Peacock docuseriesSNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,Will Ferrell, along with other members of the cast and crew, look back at an April 2000 moment that had a major pop culture impact. WithChristopher Walkenhosting, Ferrell decided to try out a sketch he’d originally written forNorm Macdonald.

The sketch was aBehind the Music-style look at Blue Oyster Cult and the making of their hit, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”

“Christopher Walken added this thing where he gets all fired up and leans into it on such a level that I didn’t even expect,” Ferrell recalled.

The moment culminated in Walken’s iconic delivery of the line, “Guess what? I’ve got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.”

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Christopher Walken in the 2000 Blue Oyster Cult SNL sketch.NBC

Jimmy Fallon, who appeared in the sketch amid his first season on the show, added, “You hope for one of these things. It’s like lightning in a bottle. It rarely happens, where you have a catchphrase that takes off.”

Fallon continued, “I remember, coming off of that, it almost felt like we had went to camp together or something. We grew up together. We had just had an experience.”

Chris Kattan, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz in the 2000 SNL ‘More Cowbell’ sketch.NBC

The sketch did well on its first airing, but got even more attention when it was featured in theBest of Will Ferrell, released in August 2003. It took off in a way no one had anticipated.

“Teams at sporting events were now playing clips on the Jumbotron to get a crowd going,” Ferrell shared.

It became a mainstay in pop culture, being referenced and duplicated in different areas of media. “To have things that you’ve created that have this other life, it’s completely surreal,” he said. Ferrell has played the cowbell with a bunch of different acts as a result of the sketch, he added.

“I went to see Christopher Walken years later in a play he was doing and I talked to him backstage and he’s like, ‘You know, you’ve ruined my life,’ " Ferrell revealed.

When Ferrell asked how, Walken responded, “Every show, people bring cowbells for the curtain call and bang them and it’s quite disconcerting.”

source: people.com