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Ryan Gosling and Jimmy Fallon Deserve Oscars for Playing Identical-Looking Tough Cops
The duo play a pair of deranged detectives in a hilarious sketch from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Ryan Gosling is a bona fide movie star, nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2024 Academy Awards for his role as Ken in blockbuster box office hit Barbie. Yet when the Canadian A-lister swung by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in July 2022, Host Jimmy Fallon wanted to spotlight one of Gosling's overlooked TV roles.
"Everyone knows that you are an amazing movie actor, what a lot of people might not know is that you're also an accomplished television actor," Fallon told the audience. No, he's not talking about The All-New Mickey Mouse Club or Young Hercules. Fallon was referring to Tough Cop, Tough Cop, a failed series that the Host claims Fallon and Gosling co-starred in years ago.
"Back in the '90s we starred in a TV show together, it was a crime series. It was called Tough Cop, Tough Cop," Fallon explained. "We played two detective partners, but we were both the tough cop. And man, we didn't play by the book at all."
"Well, I mean it got cancelled. It was way, way, way too tough for TV," said Gosling.
"That was the slogan. The slogan was, 'Too tough for TV. Way too tough for TV,' and it turned out to be true," recalled the Tonight Show Host.
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Don't worry if you don't remember Tough Cop, Tough Cop. The fictional show is actually a Tonight Show sketch in which Gosling and Fallon play a deranged detective duo.
After Tough Cop, Tough Cop's opening credits, Fallon and Gosling question a suspect in a dark interrogation room. The suspect is a real dummy — literally. The twin tough cops go hard right out of the gate, berating the suspect with silly threats.
Ryan Gosling and Jimmy Fallon play twin tough cops in a hilarious Tonight Show sketch
"You got a real nice face there. It'd be a shame if someone snapped an unflattering photo of it," Gosling says to the dummy. "A person might post that photo too—and maybe it becomes a meme, I don't know?!"
The sketch ends with two cops breaking out the big guns, knowing what will make the suspect crack: Tickling him with a giant feather.
After the credits roll, Gosling and Fallon are back at The Tonight Show desk. Trying to keep a straight face, they shake off the crooked cops they were playing moments ago.
"I almost forgot how intense that series was," said the Barbie actor.
"It was really intense, but it wasn't as intense as the next series we did," teased Fallon, with Gosling asking, "You mean Tougher Cop, Tougher Cop?"
The audience is then transported back to the interrogation room as Gosling and Fallon return in their costumes and wigs.
"If you thought we were tough before, I guess you don't know the definition of the word tough!" Fallon told the suspect sitting at the same table. The audience screams with laughter as Gosling yells "SIT DOWN!" at the dummy while he clumsily tries to set him back on the chair.
The deranged detectives ramp up the ridiculous with Fallon slapping the dummy, and beating its head like a bongo drum. Gosling flexes his acting chops as the dummy "attacks" him, pushing him into a corner.
After the Tougher Cop, Tougher Cop credits roll, Fallon reveals that there was one final spinoff: Toughest Cop, Toughest Cop.
Let's just say water coolers are kicked around, and fake facial hair is swapped.
"It still holds up," Gosling said after the sketch ended.
Maybe it's not too late for a reboot?
