Saturday Night Live
Ryan Gosling & Chris Stapleton
April 13, 2024
Somehow this is only Ryan Gosling’s third time to host Saturday Night Live which … just doesn’t feel right. But according to my sources, the first time he hosted was in late 2015, and then in 2017, and now this week. Which begs the question — HOW DID WE GO SEVEN YEARS WITHOUT RYAN GOSLING HOSTING SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE AGAIN? LORNE?
Because here’s the thing: especially following Barbie, I’m pretty sure the entire world agrees that Ryan Gosling is not just a pretty face, he’s genuinely hilarious, and clearly delights in being funny. But maybe he delights a little too much in being funny, especially if you’re one of those people who hates when the host and/or cast begins breaking mid-scene. Because Ryan Gosling Can. Not. Keep. It. Together.
Hating it when the cast breaks is a legitimate complaint that many people have — I’m old enough to remember Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz making each other crack up which felt like a cheap way to make the audience laugh with them when the sketch wasn’t otherwise working. That said, Gosling’s giggles seem genuine, and they are, like it or not, highly contagious.
Bring him back sooner THAN SEVEN YEARS FROM NOW, Lorne.
In his very first turn hosting Saturday Night Live back in 2015, Ryan Gosling helped debut what would become a recurring sketch anchored by Kate McKinnon in which he, Cecily Strong, and McKinnon’s character are alien abduction survivors with VERY different experiences. The sketch was a hit in that first outing thanks in part to Gosling’s inability to hold it together in the face of McKinnon’s outrageousness, and SNL went on to do the sketch six more times, including in McKinnon’s final episode, as her way of saying goodbye to the show.
Welp, McKinnon’s back, as is Gosling’s inability to keep it together as she molests him in front of the entire world, and it bodes well for the rest of the episode.
Grade: A+
This is the first Saturday Night Live Gosling has hosted since the Barbenhiemer phenomena, but he insists he’s not going to talk about Ken in his monologue, he’s there to promote his new movie with Emily Blunt, The Fall Guy. Except, oops, he has some things to sing about Ken while wearing his Ken coat. Blunt arrives to try to keep him on topic, but finds that she’s also having a difficult time letting go of her half of Barbenhiemer.
Nine times out of ten I HATE me a musical cold open. This is one of those exceptions that makes the rule.
Grade: A+
Here, Gosling plays a guy who has just proposed to his girlfriend, but the moment she leaves the room he begins confessing he’s not ready for marriage to Andrew Dismukes’ character — a random acquaintance. Again, Gosling is unable to make it through the sketch without breaking … and does someone yell “What the fuck” at about 4:10, or is that my imagination?
Grade: B+
Here, Chloe Troast sings a country song about getting revenge on a cheating boyfriend, except instead of petty vengeance like keying his car, Troast wages psychological warfare on him. Chris Stapleton contributes to what is a legitimately catchy tune, but I’m not sure we needed to wedge Gosling’s rapping in there.
Grade: A-
Marcello Hernandez is Cuban, Kenan Thomas is Dominican, and Gosling is a white guy married to a Cuban woman who now rocks a heavy Cuban accent. That’s pretty much the entirety of the sketch which I think is a nod to Ryan Gosling’s actual wife, the gorgeous Cuban-American actress, Evan Mendes. And hey, guess what: Ryan Gosling breaks.
Grade: B-
In the weirdest, most high-concept, but also possibly funniest sketch of the night, Gosling is an audience member at a town hall who bears a remarkable — and distracting — resemblance to Beavis. When the interviewee asks him to move, he’s replaced by Mikey Day who is in full Butt-head. And I guess they didn’t have Gosling and Day in their costumes during the rehearsal because when Heidi Gardner, the interviewer, turns around, she completely loses it.
Oh, and Gosling also breaks.
Grade: A+
“Weekend Update” takes on the Arizona abortion law, Former President Mushroom Dick’s weird insistence that Democrats want to “abort babies after birth,” O.J. Simpson, Mike Johnson’s trip to Mar-A-Lago, and delivers one of my favorite “Mitch McConnell Seen Here” jokes all season.
Grade: A
Michael Longfellow visits the “Weekend Update” desk to give proof of life to explain as the “resident boyfriend” why boyfriends practice weaponized incompetence.
Grade: A-
After Che cracks a joke about the University of Iowa retiring Caitlin Clark’s jersey and replacing it “with an apron,” Clark herself appears at the “Weekend Update” desk to roast Che for all of his jokes about women’s sports over the years. It’s terrific.
Grade: A+
They can’t all be “A”s. Here, Gosling plays the weird assistant to an even weirder doctor played by Bowen Yang, who may have killed a family’s grandpa by dropping “cookie crumbles” into him while performing surgery. And if you were wondering if Gosling broke, yes he did.
Grade: C+
Finally, a deleted scene from Erin Brockovich in which Erin and George, played by Gosling, exchange banter using letters and numbers? I don’t know — it’s been nearly 25 years since I’ve seen Erin Brockovich, was this a thing in the movie? It’s not a good sketch, but at least Gosling doesn’t break.
JUST KIDDING! He totally breaks.
Grade: C+
Cut for time: a sequel to the brilliant 2017 sketch, Papyrus: Papryus 2. And because it is apparently SNL homecoming week, Kyle Mooney pops in for a cameo. If I were grading it, this would have received an A, but cut sketches aren’t considered in the final grade … so.
Saturday Night Live airs at 10:30/11:30 p.m. Saturdays on NBC and streams on Peacock.
They’re on a bit of a hot streak. That Bevis & Butthead sketch was an all-timer and I really think it’s because Heidi doesn’t ever break so when she fully lost it we were crying laughing.
Oh, and I’ll listen to Chris Stapleton sing the phone book if he wants to. Dude’s voice is amazing.