“WHAT A FREAKING LETTER” SNL Descends Into Hilarious Chaos As Ryan Gosling Hides His Face While Ashley Padilla Delivers A Mortifying Gynecologist Story — And A Secret “Passing Notes” Prank Leaves The Entire Cast Cracking Up

Once again, Ryan Gosling couldn’t hold it together while hosting Saturday Night Live. But this time, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

Gosling, now a four-time host, has garnered quite the reputation for giggling his way through SNL. It all started with the December 2015 premiere of the iconic “Close Encounters” sketch, in which Kate McKinnon joined him and hilariously recapped getting fondled by aliens.

Years laters, fueled by memories of Gosling stifling his laughter during his very first SNL hosting stint, the show’s writers couldn’t resist punking the actor by designing an entire sketch around getting him to break. And that mission was immediately accomplished.

In “Passing Notes,” Gosling is a principal on a mission to eradicate bullying as he visits Ms. Perry’s (Ashley Padilla) homeroom to scold the students for circulating mean messages. While he’s trying to get through to them, however, the students keep interrupting his lecture by, y’know, passing notes — which Padilla and Gosling swiftly intercept and read aloud.

As soon as Padilla grabs the first note, a warning appeared on screen: “The contents of these notes have been changed since rehearsal.” Immediately, chuckles and giggles erupted from the crowd in anticipation of Padilla’s reaction.

“If I catch you passing a note, I’m gonna read it out loud. Now we all get to learn about who’s smooching who,” Padilla tells her students (cast members Kam Patterson, Jane Wickline, Mikey Day, and Marcello Hernández). But she’s taken aback as she starts reading, saying, “Oh, it’s about me.”

The first note reads: “Yo, real talk, I sat behind Miss P. on the bus when we took that field trip last week. She was on her phone. She uploaded a picture of herself to ChatGPT and said, ‘Do you have any makeover tips for me?’ And ChatGPT just answered, ‘No.’ Pretty sad, bro.”

While reading it aloud, Padilla struggled to keep her composure and then, at one point, fully broke out into laughter. Beside her, Gosling couldn’t help but grin as he struggled to hold back his own giggles. But that didn’t last very long.

“Okay, don’t tell anyone this, but I came to school early the other day and Principal Wit was in the school gym shooting hoops,” Gosling read aloud from one of the notes, chuckling. “Oh God, I saw him miss 133 layups in a row. After each miss, he said, ‘There’s got to be a way to do this.’ When he finally made one, he tried to celebrate by ripping his T-shirt in half, but he couldn’t do it and just stretched it out really bad.”

With much effort, Gosling managed to mostly hold it together — but the next note hit a little too close to home.

“I never expected this from you, Mandy,” Gosling’s Principal Whit declared, snatching a note from Wickline. “You’re such a good student … and you have so few friends.”

He then began to read. “This happened a few years ago. I went to see Barbie with my sister and principal Whit was there,” he recited, preparing for the inevitable joke poking fun at his role in the 2023 summer blockbuster.

Stumbling over the movie’s title with a laugh, he continued, “He bought an entire row for himself. Every time the Ken character came on screen he’d say, ‘Finally, something to look at. If I was still gay, I’d do him.'”

Afterwards, Gosling dissolved into laughter before declaring, “I refuse to apologize for being right.”

To his credit, Gosling was aware of his tendency to totally lose it as he returned to Studio 8H. During his Thursday appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he admitted, “I get in trouble a lot for laughing on the show,” adding that he’s often been told, “‘You laugh too much. You and Fallon.'”

Though SNL boss Lorne Michaels famously prefers hosts to stay in character and not break during sketches, there’s no denying the joy of watching Gosling crumble into a fit of giggles. This weekend’s live audience was certainly lapping it up, and even his onstage castmates could be seen cracking smiles.