Ryan Gosling, Matt Damon and even Lorne Michaels initiate Kristen Wiig into ‘SNL’ five-timers club

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — Kristen Wiig got inducted into the coveted “Saturday Night Live” five-timers club in style this weekend when she hosted the long-running NBC sketch show for the fifth time, and she had a little bit of help from some huge stars.

Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Jon Hamm, Martin Short, Paul Rudd, Will Forte, Fred Armisen and legendary “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels – who rarely makes on-screen appearances – all appeared during this week’s episode to award Wiig with her dark blue velvet members-only jacket.

While Wiig was getting excited to receive the honor, she was soon interrupted by Rudd, donning one of the jackets himself, to say he “heard a rumor” that she might be doing “one of those five-timer sketches featuring awesome celebrity cameos,” and asked if there’s “like, a script or something I could look at for that?”

Wiig sheepishly replied, “Oh, no. I’m sorry, I don’t think we’re doing one of those…”

Paula Pell, a longtime former “SNL” writer, also made an appearance and joked that she thinks it’s cute Wiig is so excited about her jacket, because “they basically hand those out to everybody like free maxi pads.”

Damon then appeared wearing a five-timer jacket, which confused Wiig because he’s only hosted twice. But, he said, “Lorne said the first time that I hosted it was so good, it counted for three” – and that his second time wasn’t as good but it still counted as two – and that by his math, “that’s five, baby.”

Wiig joked that it “doesn’t really seem fair” that Damon would get a jacket for only hosting twice. “I earned this, right? I mean, doesn’t this jacket have any meaning anymore?”

Hamm, Forte, Short and Armisen then appeared all wearing five-timers club jackets, surrounding Michaels, frustrating Wiig even more since none of them have hosted five times.

“Yeah, but together we’ve hosted five times,” Forte said.

Deflated, Wiig said she felt like her initiation wasn’t even “that special” anymore, but Damon then returned to the stage to tell her, “You should really feel proud of yourself.” He then hilariously proceeded to say Wiig is the youngest to join the club, which Wiig said isn’t true, as the younger Emma Stone was just inducted not too long ago. Damon then nonsensically suggested that Wiig is the first woman to join.

Eventually, all of Wiig’s special guests joined her on stage to sing a song. “And there’s one thing I know is true, I wouldn’t be here without all of you,” Wiig sang, soon getting cut off yet again, this time by next week’s host, Gosling.

The “Barbie” star was confused that he was wearing a jacket as well, appearing onstage next to Michaels. “Are you sure?” he asked Michaels, who nodded affirmatively. “I mean, I haven’t even hosted three times yet, it seems unfair,” he said.

Gosling then ran over to Wiig and had the honor of finally giving her a jacket of her own. He even lint rolled it for her.

Wiig joins Rudd, Stone, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Ben Affleck and Melissa McCarthy, among others, as members of the exclusive club.

The “Palm Royale” star served as a cast member on “SNL” for seven years between 2005 and 2012. Following her exit as a series regular, she returned to host in 2013, 2016 and twice in 2020.

Gosling is set to host the next episode of “SNL” on April 13 with musical guest Chris Stapleton.

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