A lot of people are very particular about fonts, flying into a blind rage at the mere thought of Comic Sans or marveling at the simple pleasures of Helvetica, but host Ryan Gosling gave a voice to font fans everywhere with a pre-taped sketch on last night’s Saturday Night Live. Gosling played a man named Steven who suddenly found himself falling into a dark depression because of one terrible and inexcusable thing: the fact that the logo for James Cameron’s Avatar was literally just the Papyrus font.
The sketch involves Gosling speaking with a therapist about the designer who just settled for Papyrus like a “thoughtless child just wondering by a garden yanking leaves,” and was horrified to discover that the upcoming Avatar sequels won’t be altering the logo in any way. Eventually he starts stalking the man who made the logo, watching from outside while he cruelly mouths the word “Papyrus.” It’s a tragic story of one man’s all-consuming obsession, and the weird font that won’t leave him in peace.
“Papyrus” is apparently the work of SNL writer Julio Torres (who was also behind last year’s “Wells For Boys”), as he teased his own obsession with the Avatar font back in May: