Those who pay attention to movie marketing can find themselves sometimes getting quite irritated about certain things - from bad Photoshop to endlessly repeated formats. For Ryan Gosling's character in this brand new Saturday Night Live digital short, however, one very specific element from one specific movie vexes him to no end: the fact that James Cameron's Avatar uses a modified version of the Papyrus font. Watch it below!
Ryan Gosling hosted this week's episode of Saturday Night Live - the opener for the 43rd season of the series - and along with a series of sketches he also gifted us with this fantastic short. In it, the actor plays Steven, a man who can't sleep at night and is constantly at war in his own mind because he can't get over the fact that Avatar uses Papyrus in all its marketing. He can't believe that everyone else just goes on with their own lives eight years after the fact, and goes as far as to stalk the man that who used the typeface on the poster.
While based on what seems like kind of a stupid premise on paper, what ultimately sells this short is the impressive level of drama it captures. Ryan Gosling honestly makes this video because he sells Steven's internal torture so well - we just laugh because a) it's fictional, and b) it's patently ridiculous. Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, and Chris Redd also surprisingly bring it, and it results in some big laughs.
You also have to give the writers credit for a pretty great punchline, ending the short with what is unquestionably the most hated font in existence:
Of course, this is a very good week to be appreciative of Ryan Gosling's dramatic skills. Friday will see the release of director Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, and while there aren't a ton of laughs to be found in the sci-fi noir, it does feature one of the best performances of Gosling's career (there's just something about Los Angeles that brings out the best in the guy). He's not tortured by the existence of the Papyrus font, but he definitely does conjure some serious internal demons over the course of the story, and as I wrote in my review it's rather incredible to watch.
Mark your calendars for October 6th so that you can see Ryan Gosling back on the big screen in Blade Runner 2049, and if you're excited for the film, you're going to want to stick around these parts. We have plenty of coverage coming you way in the next few days - including my interview with Gosling during the movie's Los Angeles press day. And now that the new season of Saturday Night Live has started up, be on the look out for great new digital shorts weekly.
