The reason why ‘Saturday Night Live’ never made a ‘More Cowbell’ movie
One of the most famous sketches that ever appeared on Saturday Night Live was ‘More Cowbell’, the ridiculous parody of one of classic rock’s biggest songs featuring Will Ferrell at the height of his fame on the show. Although Ferrell was toward the end of his tenure on the show (he would be gone less than two years after the sketch aired), ‘More Cowbell’ solidified his place at the top of the SNL food chain.
‘More Cowbell’ was an instant hit, appearing as a permanent fixture in pop culture almost immediately after it aired in the spring of 2000. After the sketch became a hit, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels saw an opportunity and commissioned Ferrell and his writing partner adam McKay to write a script for a potential feature film adaptation.
“Lorne gave us 30 days,” McKay remembered in an oral history compiled by comedians Asher Perlman and John Sabine (via Medium). “The script came to us in one. Basically, it would be set in 1976, and Blue Oyster Cult is about to play one last concert, but the cowbell goes missing. Turns out it was stolen by the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia), and BOC has to go find it. [In] each scene, though, we have Will in smaller and smaller shirts. It was going to be called ‘Even More Cowbell.’ I wanted it to be an allegory for the banking industry and how it relates to American exceptionalism.”
That idea of the proud American man-child way in over his head would be a cornerstone of Ferrell and McKay’s films, whether it was Anchorman, Step Brothers, or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. But while the film had some early momentum thanks to the love of the SNL sketch, Michaels blamed the members of Blue Oyster Cult for nixing the potential film.
“The script was good…not great,” Michaels recalled. “Chris (Walken) had signed on. Drew (Barrymore) was thinking about it. But we forgot to check with the actual Blue Oyster Cult. They were not a fan of the sketch, and they say it ruined their concerts. People would just shout ‘More Cowbell’ no matter song they were playing. Legal wouldn’t let us make it, so it died. That’s show business.”
“I understood but was mad,” McKay claimed. “I wrote a letter to the band pleading with them, and they sent back a really nice ‘cease and desist’ letter.” Ferrell was more philosophical about the film not getting produced. “It would’ve been fun, but what can you do,” Ferrel explained. “At least we got to do the sketch.”
When GQ made an oral history on ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ in 2021, guitarist and songwriter Don ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser claimed that the band eventually had to accept that the sketch wasn’t going away. “A couple of times, venues have introduced us with the cowbell sketch, and then we play,” Roeser said. “It’s something we learned to be at peace with. I hope Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell are too, because we’re all cursed with it. It’s a horse collar around our neck. I feel sorry for Walken, who’s had such a long and wonderful career. And that’s all people say to him: ‘More cowbell'”.
Check out the original ‘More Cowbell’ sketch down below.
