Why ‘More Cowbell’ Still Rings True After 25 Years

More Cowbell: New documentary on the most quoted SNL sketch

The most-quoted, most viral Saturday Night Live skit of the past 50 years? More Cowbell. Above: Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz, and Christopher Walken (Jimmy Fallon played the drums in the background. The skit aired on April 8, 2000. Publicity Photo by Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.

The most quoted (and helpful) Saturday Night Live skit ever?

A hint from one of the participants:

“It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon concludes.

The best SNL skit ever? It’s defined in the dictionary:

“More Cowbell: An extra quality that will make something or someone better. It was a fairly average show — it needed more cowbell.” (Cambridge Dictionary).

So “more cowbell” isn’t a funny 25-year-old catchphrase from a 2000 sketch: It’s like salt (a little bit of salt brings out better flavor in almost anything).

If a little tiny thing (like a guy hitting a cowbell) can make your creation a classic, why wouldn’t we all seek that small “more cowbell?”

This explains why parts of the skit have been played at football games: It’s a rallying cry.

For fans and athletes, “more cowbell” calls for that one elusive little thing we all seek to make everything “ring true.”

But you must see and hear Christopher Walken rounding his mouth to make the word…