As Twitchy told you yesterday, Bloomberg opinion columnist Noah Smith thought it would be a good idea to broadcast to all of Twitter that he doesn’t get the “joke” in SNL’s now-classic “More Cowbell” sketch. He should’ve kept his opinion to himself, but he didn’t, and so here we are, reading this thread from film critic William Bibbiani explaining the comedy behind the sketch:
I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would have to explain the @nbcsnl "Cowbell" sketch to another human being, but okay, here we go….
First: Yes, there's a joke, and no, it's not watching other people pretend they get it. They actually get it. You're the one who's lost. pic.twitter.com/uwssSw6NqX
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The joke of the SNL "Cowbell" sketch is that there is a song, which everyone knows, that has an unusual element right in plain sight (so to speak) that nobody really thought about before. This is what's called "observational comedy."
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The first layer of the gag in the "Cowbell" sketch is: there's a massively popular, iconic song that's considered totally dark and meaningful, but one of the instruments Blue Öyster Cult used to make it was a cowbell. An inherently silly instrument. Nobody looks cool playing it.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The sketch takes this observation and works backwards, suggesting at some point there was no cowbell in the song, and then someone had the idea to put it in there, and they had to convince the band it was a good idea. It's an absurd conversation to have! That's absurdist humor.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The next layer of the gag is that the cowbell wasn't the band's idea. It was a studio note from a producer who's ultra successful but doesn't seem to understand music. The well-intentioned band, which just wants to produce a good song, tries to say no but they can't argue.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
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The next layer of the gag is that the cowbell wasn't the band's idea. It was a studio note from a producer who's ultra successful but doesn't seem to understand music. The well-intentioned band, which just wants to produce a good song, tries to say no but they can't argue.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The band knows that the cowbell is really loud and distracting, so they try to subtly hint that something is awry, but the producer is on a totally different wavelength. That conflict, where an unstoppable force (logic) meets an immovable object (absurdity) generates humor.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The scene keeps building in tension as logic repeatedly comes into conflict with the illogical, but finds itself utterly incapable of being heard. We know an outburst is coming, but we don't know how far the band can be pushed.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
Will Ferrell, the cowbell player, earns the freedom to take over the stage and become totally obnoxious, embarrassing and annoying the band. The creation of a legendary song now looks like nonsense. The irony is undeniably amusing.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
And yet, as ridiculous as this is, it also makes a kind of (laughable) sense. Again, the sketch plays off the very real observation that there is, indeed, a cowbell in Don't Fear the Reaper. It had to get in there SOMEHOW. There IS a story to be told there. And maybe this is it.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The comic tension finally breaks when the cowbell player, feeling unappreciated, defiantly starts playing out of synch with the band. He's the bane of their existence and they can do nothing about it. Fate, it seems, is testing Blue Öyster Cult.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
Their lives have become a tragic example of dark, almost fatalistic humor. This is Blue Öyster Cult's version of hell.
And then the gag evolves AGAIN.
The cowbell player confesses he's only trying to make the most of this rare, rare opportunity to play cowbell in a rock song.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The perspective shifts from total sympathy with the band in an annoying situation to genuine sympathy for their seeming oppressor, whose life is another kind of cosmic joke. He's a cowbell expert in a world where cowbells are considered "inherently silly." That's tragic comedy.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
The "Cowbell" sketch works because it's an organic ecosystem of humor, naturally self-sustaining on multiple levels, all informing and bolstering each other. It's not a delivery system for a contrived single gag (which makes up a lot of sketch comedy… even the good stuff).
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
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, 2019
Laughter 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, 2019
There's a reason critics rarely delve deeply into joke construction. It transforms a gag that seems completely natural into an unwieldy form of verbal algebra, as we break down all the little contrasts, tensions and twists that underly the various genres of comedy.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
In other words, the old saw is true: If you have to explain it, it isn't funny. Again, laughter stems from the audience's sense of personal discovery, not from watching a joke get reduced to its base conceptual and thematic components.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
Here's a joke:
Why did the chicken cross the street?
To get to the other side!
Now, let's analyze that. I promise, it won't be funny.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
In the aforementioned joke I made you think logically about a hypothetical situation, concocting a reason for a chicken to do something mundane. Then I surprised you with the revelation that there's no deeper meaning behind that mundanity. Sometimes life itself has no meaning.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
That's an accurate representation of why the joke is a timeless classic. It's not particularly hilarious but it teaches people how humor works. Expectations are established, often by the audience themselves, only to be dashed by an unexpected application of off-kilter logic.
— William Bibbiani (@WilliamBibbiani) April 26, 2019
I 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, 2019
Whatever 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, 2019
Dude. We’ve gotta sit down and process what’s just happened. Join us, won’t you?
I am deeply grateful for this thread
— carolynryan (@carolynryan) April 26, 2019
This thread really is amazing https://t.co/zjcXPGlRih
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) April 26, 2019
Thanks for this thread, really enjoyed it!
— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) April 26, 2019
This. Is. Awesome.
— Dennise Post (@postzoo) April 26, 2019
Sweet Baby Jesus and Robin the Boy Wonder, I love this thread.
— Captain Renault (@JohnMonch) April 26, 2019
What a great thread. https://t.co/Ufhd62UK9X
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) April 26, 2019
holy thread Batman! excellent deconstruction ???
— Paulo Fierro (@plo) April 26, 2019
This is…magical.
— NationalMammal (@MammalNational) April 26, 2019
Greatest explanation of something that didn't need it, but now I am glad we have it!
— Mark D Hayes (@mdh2959) April 26, 2019
I will never hear that (possibly greatest of all time) song in the same way again ?
— Lori Hvizda Ward (@LoriHWard) April 26, 2019
This one thread justifies the existence of Twitter.
— Henry Smiley (@ragingslacker) April 26, 2019
This is the only time I've ever felt smarter after reading something on Twitter. https://t.co/QQFDlYeNn5
— Extremely Unfriendly Nathan Wurtzel (@NathanWurtzel) April 26, 2019
Great thread
I didn't realize how important joke explanation was, but now
I've got a fever
and the only prescription is more joke explanation— Perfesser Getz (@nealgetz) April 26, 2019
Ha!
Thanks, man. That was wonderful. And now I’m going to go watch the sketch again, for the umpteenth time (but it’s been awhile), on YouTube.
— Jeff Anderson (@JeffJoAnderson) April 26, 2019
Watch it again … for the first time:
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