After five long years, filmmaker James Cameron has finally responded to Ryan Gosling’s hilarious “Saturday Night Live” sketch mocking “Avatar” for using Papyrus font on its poster and marketing materials.
Upon the recent release of Cameron’s new “Avatar” sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the infamous sketch has again resurfaced. The 2017 video shows Gosling playing a man on the brink of going insane because he couldn’t get over the fact that “Avatar,” a billion dollar film franchise and arguably one of the most technologically advanced features of all time, uses the simple, oft-ridiculed Papyrus font that anyone can find for free their computer. The sketch quickly became a “SNL” modern classic, to date raking up 18 million views on YouTube.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio, Cameron finally commented on the sketch, admitting that he hasn’t exactly gotten over it.
“It’s haunted me – not really,” he joked, quoting the sketch. “I couldn’t give a s—. [The sketch] is pretty funny. I’m just astonished that they spent that much money on a little cinematic vignette that’s around such a wispy, thin concept. I said [to the ‘Avatar’ crew], ‘We’re doubling down. We are now using Papyrus for everything!’”
Cameron continued: “The funniest story about the whole story is I didn’t even know it was Papyrus, no one asked me! I just thought the art department has come up with this cool font.”
“Avatar: The Way of the Water” takes place 14 years after the first movie’s events. It follows Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldaña) and their children as they fight a difficult war against the humans that have invaded their home once again in Pandora.
Watch Cameron’s response to the “SNL” sketch in the video above.
