Sometimes it feels like the Internet owns Ryan Gosling. We make memes out of him, we put him on pillows, we watch him every night before we go to sleep.
And as such, we collectively feel empowered to treat him as though we would a good friend or a member of the family. We comment on his haircuts, his choice of suits, what he names his children. And, in some cases, we give him unsolicited career advice—consider us as sort of Ryan Gosling's nosy aunt.
This is one such instance: Ryan Gosling, please never, ever do anything but comedy.
It's a bold statement, for sure. This is a man who singlehandedly built up our country's unrealistic romantic expectations, thanks to his emotional role in The Notebook. He made us cry a river of indie tears in Blue Valentine. He gave us nightmares in Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines and Only God Forgives. When we think of Ryan Gosling, we think of a sensitive hunk doing his best serious face.
But his latest flick has made us change our minds completely.
This Friday, Gosling takes the big screen alongside Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys, a '70s-era murder mystery about a private detective and a muscle for hire who team up when they find out they're both looking for the same missing (or, should we say, supposedly missing) girl. It's violent, with fight scenes and dead bodies falling off of roofs and gunshots galore. (Gosling and Crowe's meet-cute takes place when the latter breaks the former's arm.) It's vulgar, with images like naked porn stars and sex parties and all sorts of F-bombs. (The central mystery revolves around a secretive adult film in which all the players keep getting offed.)
But above all, it's freaking hilarious. And Ryan is easily the best and funniest part of the whole thing.
If his turn in Crazy Stupid Love didn't convince you of his uncanny ability to banter, The Nice Guys certainly will. His energy is palpable, and he somehow makes a guy who brings his daughter along on homicide investigations and tells her things like "Sweetheart, how many times have I told you, don't say 'and stuff?' Just say 'there are whores here,'" completely likable. Yes, really.
Comedic Ryan Gosling isn't going to put his hot body on display; apologies to anybody who was hoping for another recreation of that Emma Stone love scene in all its shirtless wonder. Even when the audience gets a look at him in the bathtub, it's while fully clothed in suit and tie.
Instead, he's going to do physical comedy: He falls down hills, he falls off of buildings, he gets his ass kicked by Russell Crowe. And everybody's probably well-versed in that epic magazine-on-the-toilet scene from the trailer by now. Sure, he looks damn good doing it—this is Ryan Gosling, after all, it's near impossible to take away his pretty—but that isn't the point of him anymore. We like Ryan Gosling in comedy because of his...wait for it...mind.
The other thing America gets when Ryan Gosling does comedy is Ryan Gosling on a comedic press tour. Anytime we get to constantly see the actor on talk show after talk show is a win, but it's even better when he's dispatched by the studio to create viral laughs. In this day and age promoting a comedy doesn't just mean doing standard interviews, it means making digital shorts about being in couples therapy. It means doing rehearsed fight bits on The Late Show. It means acting out clips from the movie with a random (and very lucky) audience member.
And most of all, it means having a general air of congeniality that incites insanely charming moments. What else do you think got Gosling in the mood to wax poetic about his inappropriately tight pants on Jimmy Kimmel? Or to speak openly about his two daughters, something that he never does, doling out lines like "it's like walking through a field of flowers every day."
When Ryan is giddy, we all win.
His funny moments may not be garnering any awards buzz in the same way as a Blue Valentine would (although, it's worth pointing out that he did get a Golden Globe nomination for Crazy Stupid Love), but being an actor isn't always about choosing oppressively dark indie flicks. His dalliances in self-directing, seedy as they are, can stand as examples for that. Instead, sometimes it's just about giving the people what they want and doing a damn good job at it.
And when Ryan Gosling does comedy, it's a damn good job.