Saturday Night Live has been on the air for 50 years. And in that time, there have been some good skits, some awesome skits and some horrible skits.
What makes some of the skits so memorable is the simplicity of them. Take Steve Martin singing and dancing to “King Tut” and then having popular saxophonist Lou Marini appearing in the sarcophagus decked out like a pharaoh blowing a mean sax for a solo. It’s hilarious. But it’s all about delivery.
One of Eddie Murphy’s most memorable bits is a James Brown impersonation as he sings getting into a hot tub. That’s it. But it’s the way it’s performed with lyrics that are borderline silly and serious with Murphy dancing around with a flash bathrobe that he takes off to reveal he’s just wearing a speedo. At the same time, people dance and sing around him.
I recently saw a video of the Taxi episode where Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd) has to take a driving exam and he asks “What does a yellow light mean?” Bobby (Jeff Conway) says “Slow down.” And Jim talks slower. And as Bobby gets frustrated telling Jim it means to slow down, Jim keeps talking slower. It’s all about delivery.
In the spring of 2000, SNL had gone through a resurgence of shorts following the rough early half of the 1990s and near cancelation in the mid-1990s. Norm Macdonald had been fired from Weekend Update for reportedly making too many O.J. Simpson jokes, which upset NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer who was a close friend of Simpson’s. Alum Chris Farley and Phil Hartman had both died within six months. But yet, the show was changing course by adding more diverse people. Tina Fey took helm at the Weekend Update desk alongside Jimmy Fallon.
And Will Ferrell at the time had emerged as one of the biggest stars of the show. However, that didn’t also mean he got the pick of the litter when it came to getting his skits on the air. He had submitted the script for the Oct. 23, 1999 where MacDonald was the host. However, SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels was unsure of it, even though it played well at the table read.
Seth Meyers, who was just a writer at the time, said Ferrell submitted the idea many times over the next few months before it finally aired on the April 8, 2000 episode where Christopher Walken was the host. And the weekly host of SNL also has veto power if they don’t feel a skit is worth it. This also comes at the 11th hour as well.
The skit was parodying the VH1 Behind the Music shows at the time with a look at Blue Oyster Cult’s recording of their hit song “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” While Ferrell’s Gene Frenkle is a fictional character, the rest of the musicians are real as Chris Kattan is Buck Dharma, Chris Parnell as Eric Bloom, and Horatio Sanz as Joe Bouchard. Fallon is playing BOC drummer Bobby Rondinelli even though Albert Bouchard was the actually drummer at the time.
Walken is playing a fictional character of real record producer Bruce Dickinson who utters the line “I gotta have more cowbell” in his speech delivery pattern that has become iconic. Obviously, most recording sessions will have musicians and singers separated so they can catch the right tone. And the cowbell that is in “Don’t Fear the Reaper” was added in post-production.
But the silliness of Ferrell, tallest of the comics, banging on a cowbell with a drumstick as the rest of the musicians get frustrated especially Bloom as Parnell plays the role straight. It wouldn’t have worked as good elsewise. Also, Ferrell reportedly wore a smaller shirt than what he wore during the dress rehearsal which caused the rest of the cast, including Walken to laugh as he gyrated around and his shirt rides up that his sweaty belly is shown.
Also, reportedly Kattan and Ferrell weren’t on good terms at the time over the production of A Night at the Roxbury. Kattan had said he was pressured by Lorne Michaels to have sex with Amy Heckerling so she would direct the movie. It caused friction between Ferrell and Kattan which led to the end of their friendship, Kattan says.
Regardless if that’s true, it does have some method acting as Kattan as Dharma grabs Ferrell’s Frenkle by the shirt and screams, “Don’t blow this for us, Gene!” But it’s Walken that really sells the skit. I liked Macdonald but I don’t think I could’ve seen him as Bruce Dickinson. Walken has that way of saying, “I gotta fever…and the only prescription…is more cow bell!” with so much seriousness. Walken had just turned 57 the year before so his age and flashy way of playing the record producer makes it more believable.
The skit ends with the musicians realizing they need Frenkle and Bloom telling him he to lay into the cowbell as Frenkle sets up his microphone stand that was knocked over. Then the camera frame freezes as Ferrell is happily tapping the cowbell with “GENE FRENKLE 1950-2000.” That led to members of BOC being often met with condolences from fans and people over Frenkle’s recent death.
Yet, Frenkle again was fictional. But anyone who might have been looking for a picture of BOC from the 1970s might have seen the real Eric Bloom who had the bushy perm hair and scruffy beard. So, they just presumed Gene Frenkle was real and had died. However, BOC was upset that the skit ruined the song’s legacy at one point refusing to play it on stage. It’s become widespread around the world as Walken said he was at the airport terminal in Singapore eating a salad when some southeast Asian men at the table next to him said they had the salad before but “It needs more cowbell” and started laughing.
Comedy does have a downside as sometimes a parody or skit is so good, it ruins the reputation of the original. I’ve heard people who saw The Simpson‘s parody of Cape Fear can’t watch the 1962 nor 1991 movies the same way again. And an actor known for comedy or light-hearted fare roles may have trouble securing a more serious drama role.
But even before it came showtime, many of the cast didn’t have much faith that it would work. The skit was to take place on Stage One of the six stages in the studio. It’s the farthest removed from the live audience and often “Coffin Corner”, “Death Corner” or “Shitcan Alley” as Ferrell calls it. Mostly, it was because a lot of the skits that performed there didn’t work well.
That just makes this skit the little cowbell that could.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 