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Ryan Gosling "Improvised So Much" in SNL's Unhinged "Santa Baby" Christmas Sketch
The three-time Academy Award nominee shocked his co-star Vanessa Bayer with his hysterical ad-libbing in the 2015 sketch.
Actor Ryan Gosling has hosted Saturday Night Live three times — and his December 2015 debut was one for the books. Not only did it birth the first "Close Encounter" alien abduction sketch with Kate McKinnon, the episode immediately followed that up with an all-timer of a Christmas sketch: the pretaped "Santa Baby" co-starring Vanessa Bayer.
In "Santa Baby," Gosling and Bayer play Doug and Gina, a new-to-town couple who are attending a Christmas party in a gorgeous home.
When the hostess (Aidy Bryant) thanks them for the cookies they brought, Gina tsks, "ah-ah-ah, those are for Santa!"
"Oh, too bad we're out of milk — he's gonna have to settle for bourbon instead," the host (Beck Bennett) jokes.
"Santa doesn't drink," Doug chimes in, a tinge of scary seriousness behind his words. "He's gotta drive the sleigh."
When Doug and Gina learn that "Santa" is upstairs getting ready to visit the kids, they look at each other in shock. "Well, we would very much like to meet him," Gosling says sincerely, slowly unveiling another menacing layer to Doug's personality.
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To everyone's discomfort, Doug and Gina grow romantically excited about the prospect of meeting the man in red, and things get more tense by the minute as Doug gets violent and urgently demands face time with Saint Nick.
"Santa Baby" is hilarious for how dark Gosling is willing to go as the sketch progresses — and, according to Bayer, his choices were partly improvised.
Ryan Gosling improvised in SNL's "Santa Baby," per Vanessa Bayer
When Bayer was a guest on a February 2021 episode of Watch What Happens Live, a viewer asked whether she'd "ever written an SNL sketch just so you could make out with a hot celeb" — referencing "Santa Baby" and her famous "Totino's" sketch with Kristen Stewart.
"I will tell you that I had a role in the creation of all of those sketches," Bayer said, to which host Andy Cohen jokingly added, "So i guess the answer is 'yes of course.'"
"If you have to kiss Ryan Gosling in a sketch, are you freaking out about it?" Cohen asked Bayer.
Bayer said that in the case of Gosling, "I was nervous about it — but then he was so funny during the sketch."
"He improvised so much stuff," Bayer shared. "There's a point when he starts yelling — and we didn't know he was gonna start yelling — that I think I was just having so much fun, because he's so funny," she added.
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It was Gosling's comedic timing on SNL — showcasing a knack for sketch comedy dating back to his childhood gig on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club alongside Saturday Night Live Five-Timers Club member Justin Timberlake — that also landed him his Academy Award-nominated role of Ken in 2023's Barbie movie.
Director Greta Gerwig specifically cited Gosling's "Weekend Update" appearance as a Guy Who Just Bought a Boat" as the inspiration for his casting. Gerwig said on her June 2023 Smartless podcast ep that she's "a big fan of all of his SNLs," but that sketch made her picture him as Ken.
"You know those actors — I mean, they're always my favorite actors — whether they're doing comedy or not, you can feel they have funny rhythms in them?" Gerwig said on the podcast. That definitely applies to Gosling.
Watch "Santa Baby" from Saturday Night Live Season 41, Episode 7 above, and stream all 50 seasons on Peacock anytime.
