Taylor Swift and Ryan Reynolds give us the ‘match made in hell’ 2020 deserves
Ryan Reynolds just made a big funny, with a little help from Taylor Swift and a lot of help from the absolutely hellish year we are living in.
The “Deadpool” star’s company, Maximum Effort, has produced an ad for the dating site Match featuring Swift’s rerecorded version of her 2008 hit “Love Story.” “A match made in hell is still a @match,” as Reynolds put it.
For the record:
2:33 p.m. Dec. 2, 2020An earlier version of this story misstated Satan and 2020 were feeding each other strawberries during a date. They were eating a chili pepper.
The spot stars a woman whose username is “Two-Zero-Two-Zero” and a guy whose name is, well, Satan.
It’s 11 months ago. The big red guy and his massive horns are beyond bored as he lords over a fiery Hell, until his phone buzzes with a notification from the dating app. “You’re a match!” it reads. “The feelings are mutual, so what are you waiting for?”
Bingo! The meet is on.
“Satan?” the woman says tentatively as they meet under a romantic bridge.
“Hi!” he nervously replies. “Two-zero-two-zero?”
“Please,” she coos, “call me 2020.”
“So where you from?” she asks as they begin to stroll. “Hell,” says Satan.
“Me too,” she replies. And the whole world can identify.
Cut to Swift’s hit “Love Story,” with its wistful lyrics: “Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone / I’ll be waiting, all there’s left to do is run / You’ll be the prince, and I’ll be the princess / It’s a love story, baby, just say, ‘Yes.’”
The tune backs a montage of dates, including feeding hot chili peppers to each other during a picnic in an empty football stadium, working out together in a shut-down gym, going to a movie in a vacant theater and, of course, gleefully stealing rolls and rolls of toilet paper. She playfully tries to drag him into a church.
There’s also a selfie of our couple, shot in front of an open dumpster fire. Because ... 2020.
Scooter Braun flipped his ownership of Taylor Swift’s master recordings to private equity firm Shamrock Capital. Swift still plans to re-record her old songs.
“I just don’t want this year to end,” Satan says as the two take in a sunset view.
“Who would?” 2020 replies — as comets rain down on the Earth.
The ad ends with the tagline, “Make 2020 your year,” though that quickly switches to say “2021” instead.
It’s an ad worth rewatching, whether you’re single, married, dating or simply existing through this pandemic-induced dystopia.
In giving her OK, Swift also gave an update on her efforts to re-create music she recorded early in her career, the masters of which recently were sold yet again without her input.
“Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend @vancityreynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote,” she tweeted Wednesday, “so...here’s a sneak peak of Love Story! Working hard to get the music to you soon!!”
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