More "More Cowbell"

SNL's famed "More Cowbell" sketch is in the news because people need to remember something funny.

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Two interesting pieces of news hit my feed today, both about one of Saturday Night Live's most famous sketches, "More Cowbell." Interviews with both the songwriter of "Fear the Reaper" and Blue Oyster Cult frontman Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and sketch writer/performer and cowbell virtuoso Will Ferrel reveal some interesting facts and the deep cultural impact the sketch has had.

What do you recall about the conversations revolving around the cowbell inclusion for "(Don't Fear) the Reaper"? Did you always understand the instrument's vision?
In reality, the cowbell was an afterthought on the part of David Lucas, who was one of the producers of that record. He thought that the groove in the verses could use a stead-four on the floor accent, because the drum part didn't sound quite like that. Also, it wasn't unusual to put a cowbell on a song. It wasn't an idea that was unique or unheard of. I've never met Will Ferrell, but I would love to ask him how he conceived the idea of the cowbell, because the cowbell has become such an iconic cultural touchstone.
NyMag

It sounds like the story of Will Ferrell having a co-writer on the sketch has also been invented. It's likely a joke by someone that we'll never understand, as Ferrell seems not to himself.

Whether Donnell Campbell was a character invented by someone at SNL as a joke or some sort of honest mistake in the journalistic process, we now know that Ferrell wrote the piece by himself, confirmed by both Ferrell and Yang's perusal of the SNL archive. Yang shared that "People tense up at the table when they see it's just your piece, but we were like, 'You know who did it incredibly well was Will.' And then we read 'More Cowbell.'"

"I wrote it by myself, but that was the best part about the Groundlings," Ferrell explained. "If you did UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade] in New York, your improv skills were just off the charts. I still don't consider myself a very strong improviser, but we were forced to write sketches three to four times a week, so when I got to the show, I was like, 'I know how to write for myself.' It took away that anxiety of chasing down a writer, trying to form these alliances." With Donnell Campbell, of course, there was clearly no alliance to be had!
AV Club