For Will Ferrell’s fifth time returning to SNL as a guest host, a legion of other alumni showed up throughout the night. In a particularly packed Democratic debate sketch, Maya Rudolph reprised her role as Kamala Harris, while Fred Armisen appeared as Michael Bloomberg and Rachel Dratch returned to do Amy Klobuchar. Despite a few amusing moments from all of them, plus Larry David as Bernie Sanders, it seems these primary sketches are mostly fodder for low-polling candidates like Klobuchar and Andrew Yang to sponge up some good publicity.
The alumni starpower was put to much better use during Ferrell’s monologue though. While reflecting on his seven year-tenure as an SNL cast member, Ferrell gets interrupted by the sudden appearance of Ryan Reynolds, who tells Ferrell that he’s “a big fan.”
“A big fan of me?” Ferrell asks, suddenly looking both giddy and embarrassed. “Oh, okay. Fun. I, uh. I didn’t know you were gonna be here. Yeah. Okay.”
Watching Ferrell descend into a giggly heap over Reynolds’s unexpected presence is a delight, largely because few people seem as comfortable and natural about humiliating themselves as Ferrell does. He careens between creepy, silent staring to a sudden Tracy Morgan impersonation, which he then claims he does when he gets nervous. “In fact I delivered my wedding vows in this voice!” he quasi-yells. Reynolds tries to salvage the situation, only to be shut down by the actual Tracy Morgan who essentially hijacks the monologue for himself:
It’s the kind of nonsense that calls back to Ferrell and Morgan’s heyday on the show, but Morgan ends with a dire warning: “You talk like me again I’m gonna bust your ass.” Ferrell quickly replies, “As you should.”
