Will Ferrell crashes England fans’ World Cup party to belt out Sweet Caroline

Will Ferrell is feeling World Cup fever, as was evidenced by his surprise appearance at a New York bar to celebrate a USA team win.

The 58-year-old comedian was videoed walking through a crowd in the packed Brass Monkey pub in the city’s Meatpacking District.

Revellers were ringing in the Americans’ 2-0 win over Australia, which booked their spot in the knockout stages.

Ferrell made a surprise appearance to regale punters with his rendition of Neil Diamond’s ubiquitous footballer hit Sweet Caroline, to a bevvy of starstruck fans with their phones held up.

The comedy icon was dressed up as his character in the upcoming Netflix comedy golf series The Hawk, which is set to hit the streaming platform next month.

The Step Brothers actor donned a visor with the word ‘Hawk’ across the front, as his pro golfer Lonnie Hawkins does in the show.

If we didn’t need further proof the pub appearance was part of his upcoming promotional campaign for the show, Ferrell started to chant out ‘Hawk, hawk, hawk’.

If you’ve got a chant, football fans are likely going to follow it, so the pub of World Cup supporters was soon belting along with him, as video from inside shared on social media showed. 

According to the official Netflix synopsis for the show, Ferrell’s character Hawkins is a once-upon-a-time number one golf player, way back in 2004. But cut to decades later, as in now, and he’s struggling to recapture that magic. 

‘His body says retire, but his heart says he’s not done yet,’ reads the synopsis. ‘His ex-wife and his son Lance, golf’s new golden boy, know he’s through. 

‘But with one more major to win to complete golf’s Grand Slam, Lonnie refuses to believe he’s anything other than one stroke away from the greatest comeback in golf history.’

It isn’t the only reason the comedian is getting into the football spirit, as he is also serving as a Los Angeles ambassador for the World Cup, a gig which he’s joked is ‘awful’.

During a recent visit on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, he quipped: ‘I thought it was gonna be great. I gotta mow the field. I don’t even get a riding mower. I have a manual push mower and it’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge: once I start on one side, I gotta start on the other. I’m just there all the time.

‘I’m having to wash the uniforms. In fact, I got a duffle bag full of the New Zealand guys’ jock straps and… Very hairy men, the Kiwis. A thatch of pubic hair down there…’

He added: ‘I thought it was gonna be just a really cool gig. Nuh uh.’