Ryan Reynolds Says Bye to Ken, Hi to Emily Blunt, Caitlin Clark, Kate McKinnon

Gosling perhaps bid a final farewell to his Ken-ergy era with an unexpected assist from Fall Guy co-star Emily Blunt, while NCAA breakout star Caitlin Clark but Michael Che in his place on “Weekend Update.”

But the biggest surprise of the night came right at the start with a non-political Cold Open. In fact, it was a reprise for Ryan and included the unexpected appearance of Kate McKinnon, bringing back her white trash alien abductee character for more inappropriate touching of her Barbie co-star. The giggles started right there and did not stop for the rest of the show.

It was a strong night, in some cases despite the cast breaking, and in a few cases actually enhanced by the on-stage laughter. It’s not great when people are breaking in every single sketch, but we quickly learned that Ryan is somehow able to get away with it (it’s not his first time doing this, either).

All that laughing, though, caused one ingenious pre-taped sketch to get bumped entirely. But thankfully, that’s what the internet is for, with YouTube offering “Papyrus 2” in its entirety online — and us ranking it right alongside the rest of tonight’s on-air comedy below.

That’s right, the original 2017 sketch that saw Gosling railing against Avatar title designer Kyle Mooney for using the Papyrus font for the film was back, dissecting the font for the new sequels, with Mooney back as well for a fun cameo. This may be the best performance of Gosling’s career!

It’s either his charm or that aforementioned “Ken-ergy,” but he had everyone laughing right along with him.

As usual, we’re ranking all the sketches from worst to first, including the Monologue, Cold Open, “Weekend Update” and any sketches that were cut for time but made their way online. We’ll skip the musical guests, because they’re not usually funny — unless Ashlee Simpson shows up. We wrap up with a look at the cast-member who had the strongest week.

Probably the best detail about this slice-of-life piece was that Ryan Gosling’s character was just a white guy from Tennessee, but after he married a Cuban woman, he’s started speaking with a thick Cuban accent. Beyond that, it was just two guys trying to convince Kenan Thompson’s character to come party with them tonight, with their bit catch apparently being “the original dog from Beethoven.” Talk about a deep cut! There was a sweet innocence about the whole thing, but probably the funniest moment came at the end when we learned that tiny Sarah Sherman should never be put in charge of keeping a Saint Bernard in the scene.

Ryan Gosling was giggly again, this time alongside Bowen Yang’s creepy doctor trying to break the news to a family that their father/grandfather had died in surgery. The detail work of the sketch is what sold it, from Ryan’s blood-stained garb to his weird blonde wig and their unexpected sales pitch for a new product they’ve dubbed “Cookie Crumbles.” Props to James Austin Johnson, Heidi Gardner, Chloe Troust, and Andrew Dismukes for not breaking, even as Ryan and Bowen did multiple times throughout the sketch. Oddly enough, they were able to charm their way through the breaks, which became a recurring theme throughout the night.

Another deep cut for a certain generation, Ryan Gosling giggled his way through this “deleted scene” from Erin Brokovich, that took her listing off the numbers of her life and expanded that to letters (hilariously explained by Ryan’s character to describe his sad life), books, the cast of Friends and even noises. Yes, it’s as nonsensical as it sounds, but as with everything that came before this final sketch of the night, Ryan was able to carry it on the strength of his charm. It had a silly sweetness to it more than being funny, but that was a pleasant enough way to end the show.

Even Ryan Gosling couldn’t keep it straight in the face of Andrew Dismukes’ character disgust over his waffling about being engaged to Chloe Fineman. The sketch was a little sloppy in execution, and the premise a little overplayed, but we were still enjoying the interplay between Ryan and Andrew. Every time the girls were gone, Ryan was ready to bail on his engagement and when they were in the room, he was all in, leaving Andrew in the most uncomfortable situation. Making it even better, the characters were meeting for the first time. It was a straightforward premise with an obvious ending, but still filled with a lot of funny moments along the way.

Even though we saw it coming a mile away, Michael Che got just the reaction he wanted to get for his comments about who should have the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. Colin Jost’s best joke shouldn’t have been another age joke about Mitch McConnell, but we have to admit it was a pretty damned good age joke. The audience was fired up and so were the boys, kicking off the segment with some solid political jokes.

Michael Longfellow dropped by to chat about “weaponized incompetence,” a recently trending term for boyfriends doing chores poorly on purpose to get out of having to do them. Honestly, we were hoping for a little more from the segment, though we did appreciate his attempt to “cute” his way out of trouble for failing to do basic things. The whole segment pivoted, though, from obvious tasks anyone could perform to talk about the mysteries of the duvet — which felt like the start of a whole new angle for the argument — before the segment just abruptly ended.

The boys definitely had some fun dipping into some of the other big news stories of the week, like Billy Dee Williams’ hot take that not only should actors be able to do blackface, but they should be able to do whatever they way (yikes!), the Golden divorce, and the challenges of growing up a fan of both The Lord of the Rings and musicals. Then, Che got a huge response for his sexist joke about NCAA breakout star Caitlin Clark, which couldn’t have been better timed as…

Caitlin Clark joined the boys to talk about the upcoming WNBA draft, in which she is expected to be the number one pick. She then proceeded to trash Che for all his anti-women’s-sports jokes over the years, even writing up some new jokes he could tell. Caitlin was clearly not an actress, but it didn’t matter because her being the world-class athlete she is was enough to sell everything that happened. This was a great appearance.

Having Ryan Gosling dressed up like Beavis (yes, that Beavis), was an inspired distraction for this otherwise serious discussion on AI. The ante was upped when Mikey Day then replaced him as Butt-head. But probably the funniest moments of this clever piece of comedy was how Heidi Gardner, as the newscaster, absolutely lost it when she looked back and saw the men in their costumes. Was it her first time seeing them fully put together? The reaction was so honest and genuine, and Chloe Fineman struggled just as much a few years later. This was definitely a nostalgia piece, though at the same time the cartoons spoofed have become timeless classics in their own right. Would it have worked better had the players been able to not laugh? Honestly, it’s hard to say, but it was hilarious even with the breaks.

In a charming surprise, Kate McKinnon dropped by for this Cold Open to reprise her alien abductee character, Colleen Rafferty. It was a reprise for Ryan Gosling, who famously struggled to keep it together the last time he was in this role … and again tonight. Sarah Sherman slipped effortlessly into the role usually played by Cecily Strong as the abductee who had a nigh-religious experience. Meanwhile, Kate and Ryan upped the ante by exploring how the aliens reacted to seeing Ryan nude, as they’re “smooth down there.” It was as ridiculous as these always are, but also a hoot, as always.

SNL continues to take advantage of Chloe Troast’s beautiful singing voice, this time with a perfect country escalation featuring Chris Stapleton as her ex-boyfriend. The song starts off straightforward enough as Chloe T sings alongside Chloe Fineman and Ego Nwodim about typical country revenge — think Carrie Underwood digging her key into the side — until Chloe T starts detailing the “psychological torture” she’s employed not only on Chris but his mother, played by Heidi Gardner. Adding Chris’ vocals added enough authenticity that we could even imagine this insanity on the actual airwaves. This one earned its twist ending, too, and pulled it off.

“Ken and I, we had to break up,” Ryan said, telling us, “We went too deep.” He then said he wasn’t going to talk about it … and so he sang his goodbye with a Taylor Swift “All Too Well” parody in a ridiculous fur coat. It was all very charming and channeled his Oscars performance beautifully, until Emily Blunt came out and yelled at him for promoting the wrong movie. He was supposed to be helping to pitch their Fall Guy and not Barbie. That’s so last year! Finally, though, she admitted she missed her own Oppenheimer summer and it turned into a beautifully goofy duet. This was a great tribute to that bizarre one-two movie punch, a great song parody, and an incredibly fun way to open the show.

The sequel we didn’t know we needed, Ryan Gosling’s obsessed font fanatic breaks down the different font used for the first Avatar sequel, after losing his s–t over the original Papyrus font used for the first one in a classic 2017 sketch. This time, the obsession runs even deeper, with this cut-for-time pretaped sketch offering a cinematic experience with an incredible performance from Ryan Gosling, Sarah Sherman perfectly cast as his confused girlfriend — who happens to work at Disney — and Kyle Mooney returning as the man behind the fonts.

This may have been the toughest one of the week, as far as singling out the top performer. The cast was used pretty sparingly on the night, with only Chloe Fineman appearing more than three times, and her arguably being the only one to carry a lead role more than once.

That said, Chloe F had a very strong night, and clearly had a lot of fun, but was it more fun that Bowen Yang’s deranged doctor, or Mikey Day’s gut-busting Butt-head impression? Or how about Michael Longfellow flirting with the camera on “Weekend Update” or Heidi Gardner trying (and failing) not to laugh at the aforementioned Butt-head, and Ryan Gosling’s Beavis.

On a night of giggles, we’re going to single out Andrew Dismukes for his ability to keep it straight, even in the face of Ryan laughing right at him in the engagement sketch. Andrew brings to life such specific character types and he does it better than anyone, playing discomfort so effectively.

He’s quickly become an unexpected anchor of this show, able to play children to adults with that same commitment — often totally unearned by the character — wringing laughs (as he did tonight) out of just the intensity of his facial expressions.

“Saturday Night Live” returns May 4 with host and musical guest Dua Lipa.