Massachusetts Man Is Behind Ryan Gosling's 'SNL' Papyrus Meltdown

It's the ridiculous sequel we didn't know we needed and, of course, there's a Massachusetts connection.

America's Sweetheart Ryan Gosling hosted Saturday Night Live for a third time on April 13, 2024, to promote his new movie The Fall Guy. Fresh off his "I'm Just Ken" performance at the Oscars, he devoted the monologue to the lovable Barbie character he can't bear to put away.

However, his performance in a 6-minute short that never aired is stealing the show online. It's the thrilling conclusion to a 2017 video in which he played a man driven insane by the Papyrus typeface, specifically its use in the logo for 2009 blockbuster Avatar.

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If you haven't seen the original, do yourself a favor and watch:

"He just highlighted Avatar, he clicked the drop-down menu, and then he randomly selected Papyrus," Gosling's character tells a therapist about the movie's graphic designer. "Like a thoughtless child wandering by a garden, yanking leaves along the way."

Gosling's earnest delivery of the absurd material made the short an online winner with more than design nerds. It has 22 million views. At 3 minutes, it's a perfectly told little tale.

That's why the 2024 sequel was such a welcome shock.

In the new video, Gosling seems to have his fixation under control. He's in a support group, he's dating and he seems thrilled that the Avatar sequel is devoid of Papyrus. That is, until he discovers the logo is still Papyrus, just in bold.

Gosling's second descent into madness is an enjoyable masterclass in acting at the expense of a frequently used but often derided typeface.

"Papyrus was there from the very start, ushering in enlightenment after enlightenment," former cast member Kyle Mooney, who returned just for this project, tells Gosling. "Papyrus was the first drop in the great well that is the human brain."

Not quite.

The truth is Papyrus surfaced in 1982, the creation of Boston-based designer and illustrator Chris Costello. With its rough edges, uneven curves and elegant horizontal strokes, Costello's Papyrus evokes the look of an ancient script.

The typeface seems to be a small part of a successful career for Costello, who also serves as a senior designer for marketing and communications with The Trustees, the Massachusetts-based land conservation nonprofit. His website also displays some of his designs for commemorative coins for the U.S. Mint, art museum banners and more.

Costello graduated from Northeastern University with a bachelor's degree in graphic design and visual communication.

So, how does he feel about the SNL attention?

“I am not a fan of sequels, but this one really delivers; closing the loop for a poor man who looks like he had a very rough seven years," Costello told Fun 107 and WBSM. "I hope we all can share in his peace.”

Papyrus continues to be enthusiastically used by many people worldwide, including, as SNL notes, "pioneer middle schoolers who burned the edges of their book reports to give them that old-timey feel." It also has detractors who feel it's overused. In SNL's case, that good-natured resentment has bubbled over into two short films.

Costello, an accomplished designer and illustrator, doesn't seem offended by the ribbing. He leads his website's "Fonts" page with that Gosling quote about a careless child yanking flowers in a garden.

The quote is typed in Papyrus.