See Ryan Gosling Do The Running Man On 'SNL'

There are certain things one would hope Ryan Gosling would do on an episode of Saturday Night Live . You want him to sing. You want him to dance. You want him to take off his shirt. Well, one sketch you get two out of three. The problem? There's absolutely no reason for this to happen other than the fact that it's what the audience wants.

The sketch had the thinnest of premises. An interviewer for GQ magazine, played by Cecily Strong, is interviewing Gosling in his hometown for a magazine profile. They run into an old — friend? bully? it's not really clear — who threatens to tell the writer all of Gosling's dirty little secrets about what he was like in school. He calls the actor "Crying Ryan Gosling," but instead of alleging that he was a crybaby, he instead reveals the shocking (not really) secret that Gosling could sing and dance as a kid.

It doesn't really make sense as the framework of a sketch. But, it doesn't matter, because Gosling proves the childhood tormentor right by singing a bit and — even better — busting out some old-school dance moves. He did the Running Man. He did the Shimmy. And it was all amazing. He even got some back-up dancers.

Sure, it would've been better if there were a funnier way to shoehorn Gosling's dance moves into a sketch. (And one with fewer false promises: Kyle Mooney's character all but dares Gosling to take off his shirt in the sketch, but Gosling remains sadly fully clothed.) But any excuse for the dance moves is better than no dance moves at all, right? That must be why he also danced as the Scarecrow in the sketch about The Wiz, I assume. And, before you disagree with me, make sure you look at his shimmy one more time.

That's what I thought.

Here's the full sketch:

Image: Dana Edelson/NBC