Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds make roasting romantic — and it’s peak couple goals

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have basically made marital trolling an art form. They met on the set of Green Lantern in 2010, got married in 2012, and more than a decade later they still treat social media like a tennis court. The bit works because the jokes rest on actual trust and friendship — which they’ve leaned on while navigating relentless public attention, including the legal mess tied to It Ends With Us and Justin Baldoni. Here are the hits that explain why their roasts land and why fans keep showing up for the encore.

The greatest hits (with receipts)

1. Blake vanishes for A Simple Favor, Ryan plays the abandoned husband

   For the 2018 thriller A Simple Favor, Blake nuked her Instagram as part of a cheeky viral campaign: she deleted photos, ditched her profile pic, unfollowed everyone (yes, including Ryan), and changed her bio to the tease: "What happened to Emily?..."

   Ryan ran with it. He joked that getting unfollowed by his own wife stung, and deadpanned that it was a rough way to discover he had been kicked out of the house. On morning TV he kept the bit going, pretending he was suddenly juggling their daughters solo — and even said his kid panicked when he asked the now-infamous question: what happened to Emily?

   Result: free buzz for the movie and another example of them treating marriage like a long-running comedy sketch.

2. The 2019 birthday post: 10 hilariously bad photos of Blake, 1 savage caption

   For Blake’s 32nd birthday in August 2019, Ryan skipped the sappy tribute and posted a carousel of the most unflattering shots he could find — eyes closed, mid-blink, blurred, caught off-guard. Somehow he looked camera-ready in all of them, which made it even meaner and funnier. The caption was dry perfection: "Happy Birthday, @blakelively. "

   Fans applauded the audacity. Blake later told Good Morning America she couldn’t believe how many awkward pics he had stockpiled, admitted he looked bizarrely handsome in all of them, and joked she needed to work on her photo face. She also teased that her revenge plan was already in motion.

3. The Gosling switcheroo: Blake’s birthday revenge (2017 edition)

   This one was a two-parter. First, for Blake’s 30th in August 2017, Ryan posted a Met Gala shot cropped so tightly you could barely see Blake — then wrote, "Happy Birthday to my amazing wife." Two months later, on Ryan’s 41st, Blake delivered immaculate karma: she shared a red-carpet photo of Ryan Reynolds standing next to Ryan Gosling and cropped it so Reynolds was basically just an ear, part of a jawline, and a shoulder. Gosling? Front and center. Caption: "Happy Birthday, baby."

   The internet did what it does — lost it. Between the perfect pettiness, the two famous Canadian Ryans, and Blake’s timing, the post went everywhere. Even Reynolds conceded the point with a simple "Awesome" in the comments.

4. No spoilers for you, husband

   While Blake was promoting A Simple Favor, the big question was baked into the marketing: what happened to Emily? Ryan decided marriage earned him spoiler privileges. After sharing a teaser, he jokingly invoked their history — including her driving him to the hospital while in labor — before asking (with some R-rated punctuation) for the answer.

   Blake’s reply was pure mischief: she told him that of all the things she was keeping from him, this one should be the least of his worries. Fans loved it, the mystery stayed intact, and the movie’s promo got another playful push.

5. Tabloid rumor? Ryan answers with a mic drop

   In March 2018, a report floated the idea that their schedules were wrecking their marriage and that they couldn’t find 'quality time.' Rather than issuing a denial, Ryan took the win with one line:

   "I wish. I could use a little 'me time'."

   That flipped the narrative from doom-and-gloom to every-parent-on-earth relatable and shut the rumor down without breaking a sweat.

And they have plenty more: his digs at her baking skills, the annual birthday wars, the nonstop social-media sniping. Underneath the snark, the throughline is the same — the jokes are how they show up for each other. It keeps the spark alive, even when everyone else has logged off for the night.