Gosling returned to host the show and was joined by his 'Fall Guy' co-star Emily Blunt for his opening monologue.
Ryan Gosling is ending an era!
On Saturday, the Barbie star returned to host Saturday Night Live, and he kicked off the show by bidding one very special character farewell: Ken.
Taking the stage in a relaxed black suit, the 43-year-old actor knew what the audience wanted, but he wasn't going to give it to them just yet.
"I'm not gonna make any jokes about Ken because it's not funny," he said. "Ken and I, we had to break up. We went too deep and it's over, so I'm not gonna talk about it."
But Gosling couldn't keep his word.
"I actually am gonna talk about it a little bit," he said with a little chuckle. "You know when you play a character that hard, that long, it's just... letting go just feels like a breakup, and for processing a breakup, there's only one thing that can help, the music of the great Taylor Swift."
As Gosling took a seat at a piano, the lights went pink as he reflected on his bleach blonde hair, rollerblades and the Kenergy that swept the nation by singing his own version of Taylor Swift's breakup anthem, "All Too Well."
"Cause I was just Ken and now I'm just Ryan," the star sang as he spun the lyrics to the song so that it was "Ryan's Version."
Before going into the second act of the song, Gosling was stopped by his The Fall Guy co-star, Emily Blunt, who tried to convince him to end his Barbie era and focus on being the stuntman from their latest film.
In a last ditch effort, Blunt smashed a bottle over Gosling's head and hit him with a chair to get him to snap out of it, but it didn't work.
Gosling then reminded Blunt of her Oppenheimer character, Kitty, and all the success she saw during the epic "Barbenheimer" run, where both Barbie and Oppenheimer had simultaneous releases.
Together, Blunt and Gosling closed the monologue by bidding farewell to Kitty and Ken. Blowing out a Ken candle, Gosling said, "Farewell, my sweet prince."
However, when the candle was relit, Gosling reassured Blunt and the audience that "Ken will never die," before launching into the show.
Swift did not join the sing-along as she was busy with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, at the Coachella Valley Music Festival.
Gosling, meanwhile, held his own as he returned to Studio 8H. Breaking character before the show started, Gosling was joined by Kate McKinnon as they reprised the hilarious "Close Encounter" sketch, where they play a group of people abducted by aliens.
Gosling -- who plays Todd -- giggled his way through the sketch as they recounted their meeting with aliens. Gosling also appeared in a Beavis and Butt-Head sketch and alongside Bowen Yang as a doctor who couldn't keep it together.
College basketball phenom Caitlin Clark also made a surprise appearance and Chris Stapleton was the musical guest. Gosling's return comes a week after he crashed host Kristen Wiig's SNL five-timers club opening monologue.
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