Will Ferrell Says Christopher Walken Getting 'All Fired Up' Took “SNL”'s 'More Cowbell' Sketch to a 'Level I Didn't Expect'

Every once in a while, a Saturday Night Live sketch becomes the talk of the town.

In the new Peacock docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, Will Ferrell, along with other members of the cast and crew, look back at an April 2000 moment that had a major pop culture impact. With Christopher Walken hosting, Ferrell decided to try out a sketch he'd originally written for Norm Macdonald.

The sketch was a Behind the Music-style look at Blue Oyster Cult and the making of their hit, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."

"Christopher Walken added this thing where he gets all fired up and leans into it on such a level that I didn't even expect," Ferrell recalled.

The moment culminated in Walken's iconic delivery of the line, "Guess what? I've got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  

Related: Christopher Walken Makes Surprise SNL Cameo as the Spirit of Halloween

Jimmy Fallon, who appeared in the sketch amid his first season on the show, added, "You hope for one of these things. It's like lightning in a bottle. It rarely happens, where you have a catchphrase that takes off."

"If you do something on sketch TV and people like it and are applauding it and laughing at it the second or tenth time, that's just a thrill," said Dana Carvey, who also featured in the episode and watched the audience react to the sketch in real time.

Fallon continued, "I remember, coming off of that, it almost felt like we had went to camp together or something. We grew up together. We had just had an experience."

“We were really unified by the fact that we had to pull this off," Ferrell agreed. "But there was no telling that it would be a thing that would be remembered from this point on.”

The sketch did well on its first airing, but got even more attention when it was featured in the Best of Will Ferrell, released in August 2003. It took off in a way no one had anticipated.

"Teams at sporting events were now playing clips on the Jumbotron to get a crowd going," Ferrell shared.

It became a mainstay in pop culture, being referenced and duplicated in different areas of media. "To have things that you've created that have this other life, it's completely surreal," he said. Ferrell has played the cowbell with a bunch of different acts as a result of the sketch, he added.

"I went to see Christopher Walken years later in a play he was doing and I talked to him backstage and he's like, 'You know, you've ruined my life,' " Ferrell revealed.

When Ferrell asked how, Walken responded, "Every show, people bring cowbells for the curtain call and bang them and it's quite disconcerting."

Learn more about the history of the late-night sketch comedy staple by watching SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, now streaming on Peacock.

Read the original article on People