NC police use ‘a little more cowbell’ for lip-sync challenge, and millions approve
A North Carolina police department had to step up its game for a late entry in the lip-sync challenge, the national trend that has saturated the internet in recent months.
So Pittsboro police did something that brought “Saturday Night Live” fans joy — they brought more cowbell.
“If you’re gonna be late to the #LipSyncChallenge you better bring more Cowbell!” the department wrote in the summary of the video it posted to Facebook on Thursday.
A band of officers and police Chief Percy Crutchfield lip-sync nearly all of the popular SNL skit, in which Christopher Walken demands more cowbell from Will Ferrell during a parody recording session of Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
The video had been viewed more than 4 million times by Tuesday, making it one of the most successful attempts nationwide at the lip-sync challenge.
Crutchfield was surprised by the reception the video has received.
“I never thought we’d get that many views,” Crutchfield said. “It’s one of the best things that we’ve ever done. It’s been very positive for us and our public outreach. And it was fun putting it together.”
People asked Crutchfield about the video during Monday’s Pittsboro Board of Commissioners meeting.
“We wanted to do something a little different,” Crutchfield said. “I’m a classic rock guy and this is what we came up with.”
Many of the popular videos have gained tens and hundreds of thousands of views. The Norfolk Police Department’s version of “Uptown Funk” may be the most popular, with 71 million views on Facebook as of Tuesday.
Pittsboro police dedicated their video to the seven police officers killed in the line of duty in the U.S. since June 22, when the department accepted the challenge. The post included the hashtag #NorfolkWho.
The department also challenged its sister agency, the police department in Pittsboro, Ind., to produce its own lip-sync video.
This story was originally published July 24, 2018 at 12:22 PM with the headline "NC police use ‘a little more cowbell’ for lip-sync challenge, and millions approve."