SNLs Cowbell Sketch Gets Reexamined on Twitter, Proven to Still Be a Classic
Needs more cowbell.When it comes to classic, beloved, and frequently quoted Saturday Night Live sketches, the “More Cowbell” Blue Öyster Cult sketch from 2000 featuring Will Ferrell and host Christopher Walken is high on the list. (It has fans on both sides of the political aisle, as illustrated by Daniel Kibblesmith’s collection of Donald Trump Jr. tweets on the subject.) But the comedy world was rocked this week when Bloomberg opinion writer Noah Smith posted the below two tweets about the sketch, in which he argued that the “real joke” of the sketch is that there is no joke, therefore outing himself as someone who doesn’t understand the “Cowbell” sketch at all:
The real joke of the SNL "more cowbell" skit is that there actually is no joke. It's not funny at all, and "more cowbell" has zero meaning or significance.
The actual humor is in watching people straining to understand the joke, or tricking themselves into thinking they get it.
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) April 25, 2019In other words, the "more cowbell" skit is a demonstration that gaslighting has benign uses.
Simply insisting over and over that the skit contains an actual joke, until people question their sense of reality, is funny!
— Noah Smith 🐇 (@Noahpinion) April 25, 2019Of course, comedy is always open for interpretation, but the idea that the point of “Cowbell” was to create some epic inside joke so SNL fans could gaslight people is definitely a new take. (Is Smith trying to gaslight us with an analysis he doesn’t truly believe? Anything is possible!) People were quick to dunk on Smith in his replies, calling his take both “bad” and “garbage.” Several people tried to explain the joke of the sketch to Smith, but only one of them, film critic William Bibbiani, took Smith’s tweets as an opportunity to post a 23-tweet screed that painstakingly breaks the sketch down into all of its glorious parts, and concludes with some helpful thoughts about how when critics are dismissive of comedy and assume a joke doesn’t exist when they don’t “get” it, they do so at their own peril. It’s certainly not a great thread for people who aren’t fans of jokes being overly explained, but it’s a fun resource for people who are — and for anyone who, like Smith, don’t get what all the “Cowbell” fuss is about. You can read Bibbiani’s whole thread starting here; some highlights are below:
The real joke here is that humor warrants sophisticated analysis and yet many people are eager to write it off as ineffable nonsense. Or worse, as "gaslighting," which makes no sense in this context. You're not making the audience doubt their sanity. You're making them laugh.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019Laughter doesn't stem from nonsense. Laughter stems from discovery, the sudden realization of a truth or a lie: the things we take for granted getting explored in unexpected ways, the assumptions we make getting questioned and recontextualized.
Humor is sanity, not insanity.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019I think the lesson we learned here today is that if you don't get a joke, it's okay to say you don't get it. The people who are laughing can probably explain it to you. And then you'll be able to understand similar jokes in the future and get them all on your own.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019Whatever you do, even if you pretend you get the joke, DON'T make the assumption that everyone who actually DOES get the joke is an idiot. And definitely don't declare it in public. There's an exceptional possibility that you will discover that the real joke is on you.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019One thing this entire conversation has been lacking though? More cowbell.
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What This Ridiculous SNL Twitter Debate Needs? More CowbellncG1vNJzZmivp6x7t8HLrayrnV6YvK57kWlocmdgaXy0ustmmqivkpq5rXnSpJytm5hisrm8y5qgp52UYsG4tdOtnKtmmKm6rQ%3D%3D