Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds swap late-night appearances, just because

Both late-night Jimmys were suitably flummoxed when they introduced Red Notice star Ryan Reynolds and The Shrink Next Door’s Will Ferrell on their respective shows on Wednesday. Jimmy Kimmel, with note cards dutifully stocked with Reynolds-centric questions, found himself instead interviewing Ferrell, while Jimmy Fallon got the vice-versa treatment over on the Tonight Show, with both hosts doing a creditable job at selling this as a genuine surprise goof from the two comic actors.

“Just helpin’ out a buddy,” explained Ferrell as to his appearance in Kimmel’s Hollywood studio, telling the surprised but game host that he’d just gotten a call that Reynolds was running a little late. Which makes sense, since Reynolds was in New York, appearing in Ferrell’s place on Fallon’s show. (And also explains why Ferrell appeared sporting what looked like his Star Wars pajama bottom loungewear and comfy house-moccasins.) Ferrell does traditionally bring an abusurd conceptual bit along to liven up his talk show rounds, so, in response to Kimmel’s flat-footed bafflement at the switcheroo, The Shrink Next Door star did his level best to answer the questions Kimmel had already prepared.

“I haven’t seen a stitch of it,” Ferrell admitted concerning Reynolds new film Red Notice, but that didn’t stop him from dishing on how it was to work with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot in the Netflix action-comedy. Dutifully watching the clip Reynolds’ people had sent over, Ferrell could only speculate that the film (technically about high-class art thievery) was about Johnson and Reynolds being “classy real estate agents” forcibly evicting a Russian guy who’s late on his rent. (Pal that he is, however, Ferrell did repeatedly and correctly plug Red Notice’s Friday release.) Ferrell also did his level best to answer Kimmel’s questions about Reynolds personal life. Wife Blake Lively is fine, thanks, and two-thirds of their three (?) daughters went as Deadpool for Halloween.

Over on The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon was left contending with a similar deadpan switch-’em-up, as Reynolds emerged to the Tonight Show audience’s confused delight and similarly tried to guess just what Ferrell and Paul Rudd’s Apple series The Shrink Next Door is about. Seeing Rudd, Reynolds could only posit that Ant-Man would be doing the shrinking, with the real-life-inspired period drama being part of the MCU’s more grounded and introspective “Phase 16.”

Warning Fallon that he was only there to fulfill the blood oath he’d made to his long-ago Dick costar Ferrell, Reynolds told the host sincerely, “If you bring up Red Notice, you will taste the back of my hand.” Instead, Reynolds reacted to Fallon holding up newly crowned Sexiest Man Alive Rudd’s People cover, with now-dethroned sexy man Reynolds conceding that Rudd, being “the nicest human being in all of show business,” deserves the honor, if anyone does. He also speculated that Rudd’s ageless beauty is due either to a deal with Satan or an all “breast milk from a blue whale” diet, both of which check out.

Reynolds noted that, for those people who actually want to see him and Ferrell on the same coast and in the same room together, the pair will appear in Apple TV’s upcoming Spirited. It’s another A Christmas Carol riff, with Reynolds as Scrooge and Ferrell as the Ghost Of Christmas Present, unless the two actors get bored and swap roles without telling anyone.