There are lots of things to love about Saturday Night Live, but possibly the best of all is getting to watch someone who is fully in character try their very best not to laugh...and, of course, fail miserably.
Honestly, a good character break can make a just ~OK~ sketch automatically 1,000 times funnier. So let's take a look at some sketches with character breaks that are so good, it's almost impossible not to laugh:
2.When we were all cracking up just like Pete Davidson in "Career Day" because Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane (for ~emphasis~) and accidentally skewered it instead:
4.Genuinely, the whole first "Close Encounter" sketch, because Ryan Gosling is 0.0001 second from full on laughing the entire time, and it's excellent:
Watch the full sketch here:
5.And the second one — "Another Close Encounter" — where Kate McKinnon decided to use Ryan for a ~demonstration~, and he literally forgot how to function:
8.Truly any "Debbie Downer" sketch, but the way every single person breaks in "Debbie Downer: Disney World" makes it the very best:
Watch the full sketch here:
9.When Aidy Bryant's wardrobe assistant ran on set too early in "Inside the Beltway" and made Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch:
Can we also please take a moment to appreciate Cecily and Kenan, who were very carefully toeing the line of "deeply concerned" and "oh my god, I CANNOT break too."
12.When the basket of meat in the "Weekend Update: Smokery Farms" smelled so disgusting that it made Kate McKinnon — reigning queen of not breaking character — absolutely lose it:
18.When Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig spent a solid 20 seconds trying (and failing) desperately not to laugh when Kristen got a littttle messy in "Hollywood Dish With Scarlett Johansson":
Watch the full sketch here:
19.When Janet Jackson tried her best not to break in the "Corksoakers" sketch, but lost her cool at this line:
Watch the full sketch here:
20.When Jonah Hill couldn't help but break character during the "Benihana" sketch because Leslie Jones was laughing so hard at his performance:
Watch the full sketch here:
21.When Tim Robinson made the perfect entrance in "Barnes and Noble Firing," sending Kevin Hart into a fit of laughter that lasted through the end of the sketch:
23.When Brittany Murphy fully cracked up while trying to rock some noisy leather pants during the "Leather Man" sketch:
Watch the full sketch here:
24.And finally, every timeJohn Mulaney surprised Bill Hader with new lines when he played Stefon on "Weekend Update," giving us his iconic ~I'm definitely not laughing~ pose:
Watch some of Stefon's best "Weekend Update" moments here:
Did we miss any sketches with character breaks so good that they made the sketches 100 times better? If so, tell us about them in the comments below!