"Over the course of the sketch, various possibilities present themselves, each a little more unsettling than the last. It's possible that Otezla is some sort of keystone for human evolution, like the monoliths in 2001. It's also possible that it's some sort of Lovecraftian entity that transcends the boundaries of space and time in ways that can destroy the minds of those who behold it."
"Can narrative ambiguity be funny? The aforementioned "Happy Fun Ball" sketch is a classic, and - more recently, 2023's "Pongo" also featured a mysterious being at its center and remains both incredibly funny and hugely disturbing. This sketch also makes good use of Gosling's enthusiastic screen presence without having to worry about his tendency to break during live sketches."
Saturday Night Live has long mined pharmaceutical commercials for comedic material. A recent sketch starring Ryan Gosling parodies an advertisement for Otezla, a real psoriasis treatment, but deliberately obscures what the product actually is. Throughout the sketch, increasingly unsettling possibilities emerge: Otezla might be a catalyst for human evolution, a Lovecraftian entity transcending space and time, or an alien consuming plaque psoriasis. No character definitively knows its true nature. The sketch demonstrates that narrative ambiguity can be an effective comedic tool, similar to previous SNL sketches like "Happy Fun Ball" and "Pongo," which also centered on mysterious, undefined entities. Gosling's enthusiastic performance effectively carries the sketch without relying on his tendency to break character.
Read at InsideHook
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