This week’s episode of Saturday Night Live marked Ryan Gosling’s fourth time hosting, and while he’s not on the level of, say, the notorious sketch-breaker Jimmy Fallon, the actor has earned a reputation for struggling to make it through sketches without cracking. For some old-school SNL snobs, it’s unforgivable; for everyone else, it’s one of the reasons Gosling is considered one of the more beloved hosts in recent history.
For Gosling, his composure slipped from the very beginning of the opening monologue, when, following a surprise appearance from next week’s SNL host Harry Styles, Mikey Day unexpectedly planted a kiss on the “dejected” Gosling’s cheek.
He then laughed his way through a sketch in which he played a wedding guest who constantly interrupted the bride and groom by clinking his glass and demanding they kiss.
He then laughed his way through a sketch in which he played a cyclops trying to solve riddles posed by muses guarding a hidden treasure. In the process, he also managed to break SNL all-star Ashley Padilla.
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SNL eventually fully leaned into Gosling’s giggles in a sketch called “Passing Notes,” which saw the host play a high school principal and Padilla a teacher scolding students for passing notes before reading them aloud. However, as a note displayed in the lower third of the screen revealed at the beginning of the sketch, the writers switched out the notes read aloud between dress rehearsal and the live show.
The episode closed with a sketch called “Goo Goo Man,” which saw Gosling’s character arguing with a hotel concierge over the charges he received for his time with the Goo Goo Man, a bit that grew progressively sillier and more unhinged as it went on.
Elsewhere on last night’s SNL, Gorillaz made their long-awaited debut with performances of “Clint Eastwood” and “The Mountain.”
