NBC / SNL
There have been numerous ‘chapters’ of Saturday Night Live over the past 50 years but one thing has remained constant: SNL creator and boss Lorne Michaels hates it when cast members break character. SNL alum Kevin Nealon knows this very well. That is why it was particularly interesting when a recent sketch appeared with Ryan Gosling that was designed to break the actors.
In the sketch titled ‘Passing Notes,’ cast member Ashley Padilla appeared as a teacher while Ryan Gosling was a school principal called into a classroom. They they confiscated handwritten notes from the other cast members posing as student.
The twist here was neither Ryan gosling nor Ashley Padilla knew what written on the notes and the messages were designed to be outlandish enough to get them to break. This led to some discourse following the Saturday Night Live episode where people ripped into cast members breaking, notably Jimmy Fallon, and Kevin Nealon spoke out about it all. In case you missed it:
Kevin Nealon On Why He Never Broke Character On ‘SNL’
An active poster on Threads these days, Kevin Nealon fired off these three posts. Notice that he does not mention Jimmy Fallon at all. That, however, didn’t stop his replies from being flooded by people calling out Jimmy Fallon as the prime offender when it comes to breaking character, and the man who started this new wave of cast members breaking.
On the off chance that image isn’t loading for you, Nealon wrote “I never broke character on SNL. I knew how much time the writers put into those scripts. You don’t want to be the one who throws it off. Lorne doesn’t like when the cast breaks. Even if the audience laughs, it doesn’t work for the sketch. If I could get through the Chippendales sketch, I could get through anything.”
The ‘Chippendales Sketch’ he is referring to is the infamous one with Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze each competing for the final spot in a Chippendales show. Swayze is shredded and classically handsome in the sketchy while Chris Farley was dancing his heart out. It was perfection.
Did He Intend To Open Up The ‘Jimmy Fallon’ Can Of Worms?
Fallon joined SNL in 1998 while Kevin Nealon’s final year with the cast was 1995. They never overlapped but they certainly knew/know each other and run in the same circles.
I do not believe that Kevin Nealon fired off his Threads posts intending to drag Jimmy Fallon into the discourse. However, that did not stop every single person in his mentions from bringing Fallon up.
Replies include someone saying “Yet, here we have Jimmy Fallon.” while another person added “It’s funny when a typically unflappable person breaks character. It wasn’t funny when Jimmy Fallon did it in every f—— sketch.” Someone asked “How often did he chew out Jimmy Fallon & Horatio Sanz?”
Breaking Works, Sometimes
Interestingly, one of the most popular SNL sketches of the 2020’s so far was the Beavis and Butthead sketch from last season that also involved Ryan Gossling. Heidi Gardner could not keep it together… The video has over 27 MILLION views on YouTube:
Breaking character does not work when it happens often. If it becomes part of the cast member’s repertoire like it has for some in the past, it is a distraction and disrespectful to the writers.
But in some cases, like the one above, it does seem to add to the sketch overall by highlighting the absurdity of the situation. Not everyone will agree with that sentiment but that is the reality of things.