What I’m Watching: More Cowbell Doc

Have you ever considered the cowbell from the April 2000 Saturday Night Live “more cowbell” sketch? I mean, there’s Will Ferrell’s fake beard, tight shirt, and belly, and Christopher Walken, of course, who slayed. But the skit would have been nothing without an actual cowbell. Indeed, at the initial table read before the show, Ferrell called it “more woodblock.” Imagine that.

The cowbell, the actual cowbell, is now on display in Austin, Texas, at the University of Texas’s Harry Ransom Center, in an exhibition through March 2026: “Live from New York: The Lorne Michaels Collection.” The show is part of the fiftieth anniversary celebration of SNL. Also on display is Dana Carvey’s Church Lady outfit, the wild and crazy guy ensembles, and tons more stuff. (If only there was a Weekend Update desk you could sit at.) If you’re gonna be in Austin, check it out.

Also worth your time, whether you have the means to pop into the exhibit or not, is watching SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night More Cowbell, a 49-minute short doc on the skit that went viral before viral was a thing. It’s on Peacock Premium. It features seemingly everyone even remotely connected to the skit (except Walken, who told Ferrell it ruined his life) and quite a few not connected, like Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. I could give you a list of the cool things I learned from it, but that’s lame—just find a way to watch it yourself.