It’s a silly monologue where Gosling breaks a couple times over. He never laughs as heavily as he does in some of his other sketches of the night, but it certainly set the tone for the constant breaking to come. What it didn’t set the tone for, however, was the lack of celebrity cameos going forward. Blunt didn’t star in any subsequent sketch, just as Kate McKinnon (reprising her role in the new “Close Encounter”) didn’t show up again either. For McKinnon it was particularly surprising, given that she too starred in “Barbie” last year. 

The energetic, off-kilter monologue also set the tone for a bizarre (yet delightful) “Weekend Update” segment where college basketball star Caitlin Clark showed up to finally put Michael Che to task for all those terrible women’s basketball jokes he’s been telling. It’s the rare case of Che being the one squirming with discomfort as Colin Jost calmly watches from the sideline, only chiming in to help the guest dig the knife into Che even further. It’s a refreshing change of pace after years of Che always ending up on top between the two. 

Most importantly, the segment with Clark is the sort of feminist comedy that “Barbie” fans could probably enjoy. Clark doesn’t just get to torture Che for a few minutes; she gets to talk earnestly about women’s basketball at the end, in a way that isn’t a joke or dismissive of female athletes at all. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is a rarity on “SNL,” which has so often treated women’s basketball as an easy punchline. The spirit of “Barbie” didn’t just live on with Gosling and Ken — it’s lived on to haunt Michael Che as well.