Summary
According to writer Julio Torres, a piece of advice from Emma Stone helped inspire Ryan Gosling’s incredible “Papyrus” sketch onSaturday Night Live. The sketch, which follows Gosling as a man haunted by the"Papyrus" font that’s used for theAvatarfranchise, was a breakout success for the long-running NBC show. It even inspired a sequel when Gosling hostedSNLearlier this year, with the follow-up expanding on the original and incorporatingAvatar: The Way of Water.
As he prepares to debut his new HBO showFantasmas, Torres is looking back on a key piece of advice that made the sketch possible. The writer andLos Espookyscreator toldEmpire Magazinethat, while working as a writer onSNL, host Emma Stone shared that“characters aren’t vessels for jokes.”Torres kept that advice in mind while writing the original “Papyrus” sketch, which aired in 2017. Torres saidGosling had to play the character with empathy and honesty, adding:“I think the humor comes not from making fun of him, but from seeing qualities in him that we can relate to.”
Stone & Torres Are Right About What Makes “Papyrus” Work
It Stands Apart From SNL’s Lesser Sketches.
The joke is in how far Gosling’s character takes his grievance and how he allows it to dominate his life, which leads to a clever pay-off in the sequel sketch about who Steven’s father is.
A frequent complaint aboutSNLis that the show tends to fall into a formula. There are talk show sketches and game show acts, and the punchline in these skits tends to be repeated and stretched out past the point of amusement. The characters themselves, as Stone mentioned, become the joke. That’s avoided in the NBC comedy’s better moments, which include “Papyrus.”
Stone and Gosling have co-starred together inLa La Land,Crazy Stupid Love, andGangster Squad.
Gosling’s character in the two sketches, actually called Steven Wingdings, has a perfectly reasonable and relatable observation that the super successfulAvatarfranchise uses a generic and perhaps misplaced font. The joke is in how far Gosling’s character takes his grievance and how he allows it to dominate his life, which leads to a clever pay-off in the sequel sketch about who Steven’s father is.
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Torres will reunite with Stone onFantasmas, as the two-time Oscar winner is one of the guests on HBO’s sci-fi comedy along with Dylan O’Brien. While it’s true that not everySaturday Night Liveskit can deliver an unexpected and focused joke, and sometimes it is easier to go for a quick punchline, the best sketches will ultimately not only be remembered but also tend to raise the profile of its performers and creators. That’s been true for Gosling and Torres.
Saturday Night Livestreams on Peacock, whileFantasmasdebuts on June 7 and can be streamed on Max.
Saturday Night Live
Cast
Saturday Night Live is a live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels, premiering in 1975. It features comedy sketches parodying contemporary culture and politics, performed by a rotating cast. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest and includes musical performances.
