How Ryan Gosling’s ‘Papyrus’ became SNL’s most beloved sketch
To many, Ryan Gosling is a romantic lead. He’s Noah from The Notebook and he’s the tap-dancing pianist from La La Land. He’s kisses in the rain and longing looks and declarations of love. To others, he’s the formidable Scorpion-jacketed driver. He’s a Blade Runner replicant and the first man on the moon. He’s sci-fi and sincerity and serious acting.
Contrary to popular belief, though, Gosling comes into his own in comedy. In Crazy, Stupid, Love, he fulfills both parts of the rom-com genre in their entirety. In The Nice Guys, he delivers one of the finest and funniest performances in recent memory opposite Russell Crowe. But perhaps his greatest work in the genre came in 2017, with a three-minute long sketch about the font choice for Avatar.
The second Ryan Gosling was announced as last week’s Saturday Night Live host, an influx of requests for a follow-up to ‘Papyrus’ followed. For the uninitiated, Gosling hosted SNL six years ago to promote Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. He delivered an opening monologue and starred in a few sketches, as all hosts do, but just one of them – ‘Papyrus’ – would earn its place in the SNL hall of fame.
The premise for ‘Papyrus’ was fairly simple. We see Gosling struggling to sleep, refusing to eat, and making dramatic declarations about something that “haunts” him – the font choice for the Avatar logo. He attends therapy and investigates the font on a pinboard in his garage, begging those around him to take the issue as seriously as he does.
It’s an absolutely ridiculous concept, but one that immediately won audiences over. ‘Papyrus’ has a similar view-count to some of SNL’s long-running series – ‘What’s That Name’ and ‘Celebrity Family Feud’. It won over countless viewers who would be begging for a sequel over five years later. But what makes it so good?
The sketch is a ridiculously exaggerated version of a frustration we’ve all felt – why did they scroll through the font list and go for papyrus, a universally hated font, when they had a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars? The beauty of the sketch is in how seriously it takes itself beyond the passing thought the rest of us have had.
Amidst montages of therapy sessions and Shakira merch, Gosling brings just as much sincerity to the part, asking, “Was it laziness? Was it cruelty?” with all the solemnity and passion of his romantic endeavours. He takes it just as seriously as any other project, his physical comedy and vocal intonations perfectly timed.
Between a simple, relatable concept taken to its extreme and Gosling’s untapped potential for humour, ‘Papyrus’ became one of modern SNL’s most well-loved and well-known sketches. Luckily, for those who have been pining for more ‘Papyrus’ for half a decade, your wishes have been granted.
In ‘Papyrus 2’, Gosling has grown his hair out and has a new girlfriend, but he’s still just as passionate about papyrus and just as laugh-out-loud funny. After almost finding solace upon seeing the logo for the sequel, he’s quickly disappointed. “All the money in the world,” he quips, “and he just put it in bold.”
His words are just as forceful as they were in the original, and the story is just as ridiculous. As it turns out, Gosling hasn’t gotten past his hatred for papyrus; he’s simply plotting against the man who chose it. Between more montage editing and damning statements against lazy designers, it’s a sequel almost as good as its predecessor. But nothing will ever quite beat ‘Papyrus’.
Watch ‘Papyrus’ below.
