Tracy Morgan, Maya Rudolph, and several other Saturday Night Live alums weren’t the only special guests on this weekend’s Will Ferrell-hosted episode. Others included previous season 45 host Woody Harrelson, who reprised his Joe Biden impression in the “2020 Democratic Debate” sketch, and… Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds? Yes, it was Wade Wilson himself, who previously hosted SNL in 2009.
Both during Ferrell’s opening monologue, which centered around the guest host’s recognizing Reynolds in the crowd and attempt to banter with him instead of performing the monologue, and during a bit with cast member Alex Moffat and “Weekend Update” co-hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che, the hilarious actor chimed in for a few jokes and some unsurprising cheers from the audience.
On “Weekend Update,” Reynolds assisted Moffat’s “Guy Who Just Bought a Boat” character to give some Thanksgiving-themed dating tips to the crowd. “Look, T-gives is a grande day, m’kay? Too much for one honcho, to here to ‘splain the rest of this is my ga brah from Siggy Eps, ‘Guy Who Knows the Owner,'” Moffat said by way of introduction for Reynolds’s character. “It’s tight to be here,” he began. “I was in the areola.”
Aside from the plentiful euphemisms, which served as the main meat of both characters, watching Reynolds play this type — puffy vest and matching sunglasses and all — was almost like taking a time machine back to the original 2002 Van Wilder film. So, that’s fun, though you can also check out Reynolds’s extended riffing with Ferrell in the opening monologue below.
