Ryan Gosling hosted the April 14 episode of SNL. The entire episode was really funny and definitely one of the better ones in years. Ryan brought a special kind of energy and managed to break character and laugh at least once per live sketch. His giggles seemed genuine, too, like he was having the time of his life. He even caused different SNL cast members to lose it on several occasions.
This happened to poor Heidi Gardner in a sketch that’s gone viral. “Town Hall” featured Gardner as NewsNation host Bobbi Moore, who is interviewing Keenan Thompson’s professor character. All hell breaks loose when they see Mikey Day and Gosling playing two characters that look exactly like Beavis and Butthead, respectively. Heidi’s reaction to seeing Day as Beavis was so hilarious. She started laughing and couldn’t seem to get it under control for a good 30 seconds, leading Twitter to wonder if it was the first time she’d seen her castmate in full costume. In an interview with Vulture, Heidi was asked about her live reaction, so she explained what happened. Turns out she had seen Day-as-Beavis during dress rehearsal, but that still didn’t prevent her from laughing live on air.
Nothing could have prepared Heidi Gardner to see costar Mikey Day in full Butt-Head cosplay on Saturday Night Live — or so the star says after the moment, which resulted in her fully breaking character, went viral over the weekend. In an interview with Vulture, Gardner said the fact that she broke for nearly 30 seconds, much to the cheering studio audience’s delight, was an extra surprise for her since she had already “lost it” during the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch’s dress rehearsals earlier on Saturday.
“This makes me feel almost even worse and unprofessional,” she explained to the outlet. “When I looked and saw Mikey in the dress rehearsal, I lost it. I was shocked. I’m thinking about it right now and laughing. I recovered and tried to tell myself in between dress and the live show, ‘You can’t laugh like that again.'”
She continued, “I was trying to imagine seeing him in my head so I was prepared for it, but I just couldn’t prepare for what I saw. I really tried. I even saw Mikey out of the corner of my eye seconds before I went live. I saw the red shorts. I knew I couldn’t look over there again. Mikey even told me later that he was bending down and hiding himself so I wouldn’t see him.”
In the sketch in question, below, Gardner plays NewsNation host Bobbi Moore, who is hosting a town hall on the AI revolution. She welcomes an expert professor (Kenan Thompson) who is immediately distracted by a member of the audience: SNL host Ryan Gosling, who looks strikingly similar to the cartoon character Beavis, of Beavis and Butt-Head, with his blue shirt and blonde pompadour. Gardner breaks when she later sees Day’s Butt-Head, with his gray shirt and exposed gums, and can’t fully face the camera as she continues laugh-gasping.
To be fair to Gardner, only some of the prosthetics made their way into the dress rehearsal of the sketch. “The dress rehearsal was when the prosthetics made their debut — the noses and the mouths. I didn’t know about Mikey’s exposed gums and teeth,” she told Vulture.
Though it got a great response from the audience, which Gardner said is “so nice,” she admitted the moment gave her anxiety and she “left the stage a little bit in shock” because she felt like she didn’t do her job properly. “It’s really hard for me to give myself any sort of credit because I didn’t do the job. I hope, for those guys and their portrayals of Beavis and Butt-Head, that it helped how shocked I was by how funny they were,” Gardner said, adding, “And I hope it helps people think of the sketch. I’ll never be able to shake looking over my shoulder and seeing what I saw. That’s really special.”
Aw, I hope Heidi shows herself some grace. It’s not like she’s pulling a Jimmy Fallon and laughing like that every week. Her reaction made the entire sketch even funnier. Heck, her reaction is the thing that made “Town Hall” go viral. It’s now up there with the Cowbell sketch. Who could blame her? I would have lost it too. What I’d really like now, though, is for SNL to release the dress rehearsal footage. That must have been absolutely hilarious to witness and you know Gosling probably cracked up during that, too. Come on, NBC, show us the footage!
If you haven’t seen it yet or want to rewatch it and laugh along with Heidi, here’s the Town Hall sketch. There’s also been some really funny memes to come out of it, too:
Kinda having trouble concentrating during this trial. pic.twitter.com/samPo2mBuB
— Daniel Spenser (@DanSpenser) April 15, 2024
We love watching to see cast members break character and laugh. It’s clear they’re trying to hold it in and gather themselves but it’s also fun to watch and feel like the audience is in on the joke. And Ryan seemed like he was having a really good time which was infectious. Heidi laughing harder than anyone else in all of the sketches just made it all the more funnier.
Heidi and Ego usually never break. There is a famous sketch with Bill Hader in a motorized wheelchair where he plowed through an entire table of women and Heidi was the only actor not to break.
I think it’s funny when they break.
OMG I remember that sketch – now have to go watch it again on Youtube.
The camera looked away from some of them breaking but Bill Hader described the whole scene later to Seth Meyers. Melissa was saying ” it’s me, it’s me” quietly and cracking up while Bill pushed the wheelchair right into her and pushing the whole table back. Heidi planted herself and stopped the table from pushing out the back wall.
This and Lisa from Temecula were the 2 funniest in recent history because of the breaks. Pedro and Bowen losing it was so fun too.
Ryan always breaks but it’s not annoying like when Jimmy used to do it. I heard that Keenan told him once to never f&cking do that in one of his skits.
Day was Butt-head gosling was Beavis (signed 90s teen who watched too much MTV ;))
Every time I see this sketch on my feed or in the news, I am compelled to watch it. It is one of the funniest they have had in a while. I agree with an earlier comment that Gardner seldom breaks character. She is extremely talented
Kenan is the only one who didn’t break
Went back and watched the background actors trying to could hold it together. The funniest were the ones looking extra stern or pinching their lips. That skit was great. I don’t mind an actor breaking character when it’s real.
I love that it feels like a moment we all collectively shared in her pure feeling of delight. Can’t be mad at that.
That sketch was hilarious, I don’t blame her for breaking out into laughter….his face was so funny. I laugh out loud just thinking about it now!
I don’t always watch SNL, but I think that RG is a treasure so I watched on Peacock the next day. Such a fun episode. I was very impressed with all the extras (there were a lot) in this skit… I would have lost it!
I remember an interview with Bill Hader about how he panicked when he kept breaking character with Stefan. But Lorne told him he didn’t mind since it was organic.
I know how seriously they take staying in character. So, it’s such a treat when they lose it.
There is an old SNL episode with Milton Berle where he kept breaking character and not taking it seriously. Lorne hated that episode so much he pulled it for years. You can only now see it.
@flamingo I am writing a book about Milton Berle and I have to say, I think he was doing the breaking not because he didn’t take it seriously but because it was what he always did on his own show- back in 1948. When TV was in its infancy his whole schtick was to break character and make funny asides and people loved it. He came into that SNL scene, 30 years later, and thought the old way would work but in an age of better production values and more sophisticated taste, it just looked shambolic.
I watched I’d it early Monday morning before work and I was laughing so much I woke my Hubbie. Played it for my work bestie and still uncontrolled laughing. The gums were a lot but perfect and the King of the Hill at the end was awesome too
I laughed so hard I cried during this skit!