Regardless of whether you think it’s the best show in the world or the worst, SNL has delivered a number of amazingly funny music-based sketches over the years.  Here are just a few of my favorites. 

More Cowbell - Perhaps the most quoted line of any SNL sketch in the past ten years, Christopher Walken’s famous demand came from an odd sketch about Blue Oyster Cult.  Of course, anyone who had heard “Don’t Fear the Reaper” can’t help but notice the loud, steady cowbell beating away in the background.  This sketch, positioned as an episode of ‘Behind the Music,’ seeks to explain just how that cowbell got there.

John Belushi as Joe Cocker – Belushi had a legendary run at SNL during which he created some of the show’s funniest and best-loved characters. Joe Cocker was merely one of them, but when you see the two come together on stage, you can really see Belushi’s talent for impersonation shine through. 

Dick in a Box/Lazy Sunday – I lump these two in together because they’re both product of the same creative team, The Lonely Island.  Separately, they are Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer.  Nowadays, they all work out SNL where they crank out digital shorts.  These two are, arguably, their best.  Although I’ll always prefer “”http://thelonelyisland.com/music.html" target="_blank">The Heist."

Lunch Lady Land – This sketch perhaps best captures why so many people loved, and so many people hated, SNL in the early-to-mid nineties.  This is either hysterical or terrible, depending on how you felt about this era in SNL’s history.  I, for one, love it.  (pardon the terrible quality of the video)

Celebrity Hot Tub – I need you to do something for me.  I need you to close your eyes.  I need you to think back in time, to a time before “Norbit.”  To a time before “Daddy Day Care.”  Back to the 1980’s.  And I need you to remember that for a number of years in the 1980’s, before he started making awful, broad comedies, Eddie Murphy was the funniest guy in the world.  Here’s why.