The Amer­i­can late-night live tele­vi­sion sketch com­e­dy show, Sat­ur­day Night Live, has been a launch­pad for many a career since its first broad­cast in 1975. Although it’s not the sta­ple here in the UK that it clear­ly is in the States, we are very aware of its cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance and we can mar­vel at the names that have passed through the ranks of its cast: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gil­da Rad­ner, Chevy Chase, Bill Mur­ray, Eddie Mur­phy, Bil­ly Crys­tal, Christo­pher Guest, Dana Car­vey, Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Adam San­dler, Norm Mac­don­ald, Will Fer­rell, Sarah Sil­ver­man, Tina Fey…

The clas­sic sketch­es that the show has spawned over the years are as many and var­ied as its exten­sive cast list, and it’s fun to peruse Rolling Stone’s “50 Great­est Sat­ur­day Night Live Sketch­es of All Time”. My num­ber one is Rolling Stone’s num­ber nine but let’s not quib­ble: More Cow­bell is com­e­dy gold, how­ev­er you rank it. The sketch aired on 8th April 2000 and it’s safe to say that the stars aligned that night.

The sketch was writ­ten by reg­u­lar cast mem­ber Will Fer­rell who was inspired by an episode of VH1’s Behind the Music doc­u­ment­ing the band Blue Öys­ter Cult and their 1976 record­ing of their biggest hit, (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. Fer­rell reimag­ines the scene, with Christo­pher Walken as fic­tion­al leg­endary music pro­duc­er Bruce Dick­in­son, him­self as fic­tion­al cow­bell play­er Gene Fren­kle, and with oth­er SNL cast mem­bers (Chris Par­nell, Jim­my Fal­lon, Chris Kat­tan, Hor­a­tio Sanz) play­ing the real Blue Öys­ter Cult mem­bers. What fol­lowed was to go down in SNL his­to­ry.

Christo­pher Walken’s char­ac­ter intro­duces him­self as Bruce Dick­in­son (“Yes, the Bruce Dick­in­son”) and tells the band that they have “what appears to be a dyna­mite sound”. The band are in awe of him, and he doesn’t do too much to dis­pel the belief that he is indeed a leg­endary pro­duc­er: “Easy guys, I put my pants on just like the rest of you, one leg at a time…except, once my pants are on, I make gold records!”. Walken’s deliv­ery is sub­lime.

The first take seems to go well but the band stops play­ing due to being dis­tract­ed by Gene’s overzeal­ous cow­bell play­ing. Dick­in­son, to the sur­prise of most of the band, asks for “a lit­tle more cow­bell” and urges Gene to “real­ly explore the stu­dio space this time”. Gene’s exu­ber­ance in fol­low­ing instruc­tions only caus­es more dis­trac­tion and the band aborts anoth­er take, but Bruce dou­bles down on his insis­tence that “I got­ta have more cow­bell!” and the absur­di­ty con­tin­ues hilar­i­ous­ly.

The char­ac­ters, the tim­ing, and the dia­logue are all to a tee, and even the actors’ attempts to avoid corps­ing dur­ing the sketch add to the thrill — just watch Jim­my Fal­lon shov­ing his drum­sticks into his mouth to (vain­ly) cov­er his gig­gles! Enjoy the sketch (in 2 parts) below…