Will Ferrell blows mystery of non-existent "More Cowbell" co-writer wide open
Ferrell denies writing "More Cowbell" with "some playwright from Scotland or Ireland."
Screenshot: NBC/YouTube
On the Wikipedia page for the Saturday Night Live sketch “More Cowbell”—and, by the way, only the most culturally impactful sketches have their own Wiki pages!—it says that the “sketch was written by regular cast member Will Ferrell and playwright Donnell Campbell.” Campbell is identified on the page as Ferrell’s “friend.” But he certainly didn’t help write “More Cowbell,” and it’s unclear if any such person actually existed.
This confusion came to light during an Interview Magazine conversation between Ferrell and Bowen Yang, who revealed that SNL has a server “that has all the typed-out sketches from every single show, and it’s incredible.” Recently, Yang said, “We were talking at work one day after a read-through, and we were just like, ‘I think Ferrell wrote ‘Cowbell’ by himself.'” Ferrell confirmed that he did, indeed, write the sketch solo, but “according to Wikipedia, some playwright in Scotland or Ireland helped me. It’s so random.”
So why in the world does Wiki cite “Donnell Campbell” as one of the co-writers of “More Cowbell”? The claim goes back to the book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live As Told By Its Stars, Writers, And Guests. The quote in the oral history reads:
“Earlier in the new century there’d been another entry in the annals of unforeseen classics: ‘More Cowbell,’ written by Will Ferrell with Donnell Campbeell, a playwright friend of his, which proved to be a case study in the genre of ridiculous absurdity.”
The factoid, presented within a descriptive passage between quotes, isn’t attributed to any of the show’s writers or performers. And based on Ferrell’s reaction, it doesn’t seem like he actually does have a playwright friend named Donnell Campbell at all. The only person who comes up from a Google search is a Scottish writer named Donald Campbell, who died in Edinburgh in 2019 at the age of 79. It’s unclear where the story of a helpful playwright named “Donnell Campbell” came from; Live From New York author James Andrew Miller has not yet responded to The A.V. Club‘s request for comment. (His co-author, Tom Shales, died earlier this year.)
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!