Ryan Gosling’s return as Saturday Night Live host allowed for the actor to appear in some sequel sketches, including reuniting with Kate McKinnon in an alien abductee support group and, perhaps more notably, reprising his role as a man haunted by the Avatar font.
The first “Papyrus” originally aired in 2017 when Gosling hosted the Season 43 premiere. In the sketch, Gosling starred as someone who was overly tormented by the fact that Avatar — a billion dollar box office movie with a seemingly unlimited budget and a franchise then on the way — would simply use the pre-loaded Microsoft Word font Papyrus for the film’s title and posters.
In “Papyrus 2,” Gosling returns to the character, and while his obsession has dissipated in the years since the 2009 blockbuster was released, the arrival of Avatar: The Way of Water sends him spiraling back down the rabbit hole when he discovers that even though the film’s title card has a different font than Avatar, it’s simply just Papyrus in bold.
“He just put it in bold,” Gosling’s character says aloud to himself. “All the money in the world, and he just put it in bold!”
What follows is a descent into madness as Gosling’s character then stalks and publicly confronts the Disney designer responsible for the font choice. “It’s an afterthought!” he yells. “Does James Cameron care? I don’t think so. He’s probably at the bottom of the [bleeping] ocean.”
The original “Papyrus” was so popular that director James Cameron was asked about the sketch — and the font choice — in a 2022 interview. “It’s haunted me,” he said, before adding, “Not really.”
“I said, ‘Alright guys, we are now doubling down. We’re using Papyrus for everything.’ … The funniest thing about that whole story is, I didn’t even know it was Papyrus, nobody asked me! I just thought the art department had come up with this cool font,” Cameron continued.
“I’m just astonished that [SNL] spent that much money on a little cinematic vignette that’s around such a wispy, thin concept.” Well, now SNL has twice spent that much money on a little cinematic vignette that’s around such a wispy, thin concept, to hilarious results.
