Sunday, February 13, 2022

More Cowbell Classic SNL Skit From The 2000s

More Cowbell was a skit performed on season 25 during episode 16 of Saturday Night Live in April of 2000. This is one of the funniest sketches from that season. Christopher Walken is very funny in this as he is in every show he hosts. He plays serious villains and psychopaths in most of his big screen films but somehow this translates into some really funny characters whenever he is on the show. It's the reason why he has been asked to host SNL 7 times at the date of this posting.

Of course Will Ferrell is also very funny in this one and is probably in my list of top ten comedians to ever host Saturday Night Live. Will is a professional funny man who stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of comedy greats like Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler. Will Ferrell has always been one of my all time favorite comedians and I have been in love with his comedy style ever since I saw the movie Step Brothers.

With these two sturdy professionals playing Bruce Dickinson and Gene Frenkle respectively we have enough acting genius and comedy experience in the room to make this a belly buster of laughs. However we also have Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon rounding out the rest of the members of the band.

The skit begins as an episode of VH1 Behind The Music. The narrator tells us that in late 1976 the band Blue Oyster Cult assembled for a recording studio session with famed record producer Bruce Dickinson. The track that was layed down that day was their classic hit Don't Fear The Reaper.

The band tries to record the track in one session but keeps getting annoyed by Gene Frenkle's (Will Ferrell) over exuberance with the Cowbell. There are two points we're the band has to stop playing because Gene gets too carried away with beating his drumstick on the cowbell. Each time Bruce (Christopher Walken) enters the room to see what the problem is but each time he reiterates that he needs more cowbell.

This is a seriously funny SNL skit, one of the great ones from the 2000s period. I can watch this one over and over and I will still find myself holding my sides from all the laughter.

The skit also ends with a touching in memorium to Gene Frenkle who lived from 1950 to 2000. This is a hidden joke as this character is fictional, although modeled on the real musician Eric Bloom. Over the years the band has had many fans express their sadness over the passing of their former band mate.

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