Artificial Intelligence, beloved ’90s cartoons, and Saturday Night Live sounds like an unusual trio, but it turns out when you combine all three, you get comedy magic. Host Ryan Gosling and cast member Mikey Day played Beavis and Butt-Head lookalikes who inadvertently ruined a serious interview about A.I. in a sketch so good it broke SNL.
A sketch about an A.I. discussion during this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live went totally off the rails, and with good reason. Kenan Thompson (in a brilliant performance that is easy to overlook) played a technology expert sitting down with Heidi Gardner’s talk show host for what should have been an in-depth conversation. But their chat on the perils of artificial intelligence was impossible thanks to two members of the (fake) audience. Two strangers looked like real-life doppelgangers of Beavis and Butt-Head.
Seriously, look at these two. Please marvel at them.
Mikey Day should win an Emmy for his performance during just this sketch and we’re not exaggerating. What he’s doing here is as good as it gets on SNL. Saturday Night Live hair stylist Jodi Mancuso and makeup artist Louie Zakarian recently shared that the skit was intended for host Jonah Hill in 2018 but didn’t come together. “We fully gave up on it, this is not going to happen.” They share. But we’re glad that the assessment proved wrong.
Beavis and Butt-Head gag was not just an amazing SNL sketch because of how these two look. (That alone would have been enough to make us laugh. That sentiment extends to the last bonus visual gag that we won’t spoil if you haven’t watch yet.)
With neither man realizing they look like famous idiot cartoon characters, it was a truly amazing premise. It was a concept that proved to be too much for everyone in studio. It absolutely slayed with both (real) audience members and SNL stars alike. Gardner could barely hold it together when she had to look right at Gosling. And when she then turned around to see Day’s Butt-Head and his exposed gums she had an all-time epic meltdown. Her reaction to his face is one of the best, most pure breaks in show history.
Artificial Intelligence could never come up with something this funny.
Originally published on April 15, 2024.
