The creator of font Papyrus has responded to *that* Ryan Gosling sketch on “Saturday Night Live”
If you tuned in to the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, or even waited to catch the highlights online, chances are you heard about Papyrus. Yes, the font.
Towards the end of Ryan Gosling’s return as host of SNL, the comedy series aired a pre-taped sketch about — you’ve guessed it! — Papyrus. Gosling stars as Steven, a man haunted by the use of Papyrus in the logo for the 2009 James Cameron blockbuster Avatar. You see, poor Steven had forgotten about this travesty for years until suddenly, he remembered.
And don’t even get him started on Papyrus in the Avatar sequels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVhlJNJopOQ?feature=oembed
The sketch, which was written by Julio Torres, is amazing for many reasons, but mostly because it perfectly illustrates what happens when you’re bothered by something really minor or random and then it morphs into an all-out obsession. The Papyrus obsession is something the fictional Steven shares with Torres, who has taken to Twitter to question Papyrus’s existence on more than one occasion.
https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/867072839110807557
https://twitter.com/udfredirect/status/668517420521287681
But now that SNL has reduced Papyrus to Comic Sans status, how does Chris Costello, who created the “tribal, yet futuristic” font feel about the sketch?
“I woke up Sunday and my email was full. I had a lot of people telling me, ‘Did you see this ‘Saturday Night Live’ thing? He said to CBS News. “I took a look at it and me and my wife were like, cracking up, I mean we couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of the best things I’ve seen.
Costello added that had no idea that the font would morph the household name it’s become when he created and sold it for $750. He defends the font itself, believing it to be “a well-designed font” but admits that it’s probably suffering from overexposure. Costello said, “It was kind of out of control. It was not my intent to be used for everything — it’s way overused.”
Not gonna lie, we’re also a little curious about James Cameron’s response to the sketch. While we’ll probably still be seeing the font on Avatar 2, and the rest of the sequels, maybe, just maybe, Papyrus will eventually take a little bit of a breather.
