Ryan Reynolds almost throws Will Ferrell’s SNL monologue, Tracy Morgan saves it

Will Ferrell joined the vaunted Saturday Night Live Five-Timers club with his hosting gig on last night’s predictably above-average (because of Ferrell) episode. Of course, Ferrell spent seven seasons on SNL, but, even with all that experience under his belt, he couldn’t keep it together in his very funny, typically ingenious spin on the opening monologue. Seeing Deadpool star the Ryan Reynolds sitting in the front row sent the outwardly confident Ferrell tail-spinning, his star-struck discomfort seeing him fall from muffed lines, to impromptu dancing and singing, all the way down to the Tracy Morgan impression Ferrell explained was his default voice when he’s really nervous. (Reynolds didn’t help matters by informing Ferell that wife Blake Lively, watching at home, is an even bigger Ferrell fan.)

That was the last straw for the jittery Ferrell, whose Morgan-esque rantings went from mispronouncing his own last name, to confessing he’d said his wedding vows in Morgan’s voice, to, eventually, making the flustered Reynolds so uncomfortable, the actor (who also popped up on Weekend Update) finally begged Ferrell to just do the monologue he’d had planned. “The monologue is terrible!,” confessed Ferrell-Morgan, before the real Tracy came on to huge applause to back up his boy. Claiming to have suckled, Luke Skywalker-style, at Ferrell’s comedy teat during his own time on the show, Morgan and Ferrell teamed up to shut down the appalled Reynolds, bellowing in tendem about “the prophecy” that was now being fulfilled. As Tracy pronounced, it’s now all “puppy-dogs and gumdrops,” although he will have to kick Ferrell’s ass if Ferrel talks like him ever again. “As you should,” pronounced Ferrell.