Ryan Gosling showed up tonight and turned some stiff, somewhat awkward apparent stage fright into a charming and likable hosting stint by the night's end, as he did give it his all and ably made his way through the evening. He's not just a pretty face, guys!
COLD OPEN: We start off with a Christmas message from Donald Trump and Melania, naming several people to the Naughty & Nice list, but you know what, SNL? You kinda lost all your credibility to make fun of Trump after having him on your show, so fuck you for that. At least this bit is short.
MONOLOGUE:: As I mentioned earlier, Canadian hottie Ryan comes out with considerable awkwardness and stiff line readings, until Mike Myers basically saves his ass by crashing the monologue to laud all things Canadian, leading into the singing of a Canadian Christmas carol. It's funny by the end, but you can thank Myers for it.
SETTL: A dating app for desperate single women who want to get married immediately- it's actually kinda funny, thanks to Vanessa and Leslie's facial reactions to their less than prime dating material.
ALIEN ABDUCTION: A weird setup where government officials Bobby and Aidy ask three hippies who claim they were abducted by aliens to describe their experiences. Ryan and Cecily dutifully say their lines, but Kate absolutely steals the entire sketch with her off the cuff, chain smoking tough old gal delivery and makes every single person in the sketch break, including herself. Hilarious just for that. Kate's a treasure, people.
SANTA BABY: A pre-taped bit where Ryan and Vanessa play a couple at a Christmas party who believe Santa's real and demand to see him or they'll hold the place hostage. Beck dresses up in the costume and obliges them while the guests look on, terrified- this one really did make me laugh, Ryan was really funny here.
BIRTHDAY PARTY: Ugh- one of Aidy's characters. A birthday party for teenagers has Aidy hitting on her friend's dad (Ryan), inappropriately, while Ryan again tries not to burst into laughter. I never liked this one before though.
UPDATE: Colin and Michael do some typical Trump, Carson and ISIS jokes, and go off on guns for a second, but nothing memorable. These guys are so lame. Then Cecily debuts a new character, a Glamour magazine correspondent whose only purpose is to shamelessly hit on Colin- doesn't work for me. Finally, Bobby brings back one of his best, Anthony Crispino (hey! been a while for him), who is accompanied by this "thirdhand news" guy Angelo (Ryan) and the two are pretty great at the dual bit. Credit Ryan again here for stepping it up.
ONTARIO BAR: Cecily is a GQ writer interviewing Ryan in his hometown, and Kyle is an old high school buddy who tries to embarrass him by making him sing and dance. But of course, Ryan can do it all and Kyle just whiffs on everything himself- Ryan again can't stop cracking up, but his grinning is the only thing that makes this sketch bearable. I just don't find anything Kyle does funny.
NESPRESSO: A spoof of those weird George Clooney/Danny DeVito ads for coffee, with Taran as Clooney (he just mimics the constant headshake thing) and Bobby as DeVito. It's amusing.
THE WIZ LIVE!: SNL always spoofs the network's live musical production, this time with the Wiz characters crashed by Ryan's Scarecrow from the old Wizard of Oz, who experience culture clash. It's basically mild, but Ryan works it pretty well with the song and dance.
SANTA'S ELVES: Yay- the masochist elves are back! I actually always liked this perverse sketch, where Kenan and Vanessa's naughty elves are joined by Ryan to beg for punishment and taunt Santa. Ends on a funny note.
So this one wasn't too bad, really. Ryan started slow, but warmed up and was very cute and charming by the end, and funny too. I laughed a few times, so I'll give it a B. Come back next time for Chris Hemsworth's second time around in as many years, as we make our way to the big Tina Fey/Amy Poehler hosted Christmas episode (I'm sure those aren't the only alumni we'll see that night either). See you then!
