Saturday Night Live: Fan-Favorite UFO Sketch Returns With Ryan Gosling, Kate McKinnon

Saturday Night Live is featuring Ryan Gosling as the special guest host for the newest episode, and the cold open brought back the fan-favorite Close Encounter sketch with fellow Barbie star, Kate McKinnon. Ryan Gosling has returned to Saturday Night Live for his third outing as special guest host for the show, and with the first sketch they made sure to bring back the Close Encounter sketch fans enjoyed with his first two hosting gigs. And like the first two instances of the sketch, Kate McKinnon came back to reprise her wild role as the one who gets the short end of the stick from the abduction. 

While Cecily Strong was the third in the previous iterations of the sketch, this time around that role was filled by Sarah Sherman. Gosling and McKinnon reprised their respective roles for the sketch, but this time it got a little more physical as McKinnon got under Gosling's undercarriage and it wasn't long before the two started to crack up a bit before even getting too far into this sketch. You can check it out below: 

once again, it was a little different for Ms. Rafferty pic.twitter.com/D1oiZTVcUB

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 14, 2024

Who is in the Saturday Night Live cast?

Cast members for Saturday Night Live season 49 include almost the entire cast from season 48 of SNL. Returning stars include Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang. Featured players that are part of the cast include returning stars Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker, plus the show's only fully new cast member for the year, newcomer Chloe Troast. The comedy troupe Please Don't Destroy, made up of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, are also a recurring part of the series. 

New Saturday Night Live Hosts

With the SAG-AFTRA Strike still without a resolution, Saturday Night Live is unable to tap actors to host new episodes since previously they would only appear on the series to promote some new work (prohibited by the rules of the SAG-AFTRA strike). As a result comedians and musicians have been the only hosts confirmed for Saturday Night Live season 49 with Pete Davidson, Bad Bunny, and Nate Bargatze taking the spotlight for the first three episodes.

Saturday Night Live Season 49 is ongoing now with new episodes airing on both NBC and Peacock, starting Saturdays at 11:30 PM ET. All 48  seasons of Saturday Night Live are also now streaming on Peacock.    

What did you think of the newest Close Encounter sketch? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments!