Behold, the wax künstlers of Berlin’s Madame Tussaud’s outpost have unveiled their latest creation. On first glance, wax Ryan Gosling appears to be technically perfect, an admirable re-creation of the real Gosling’s slight smile and hands-in-pockets reserve. But all across the internet, people have noticed, upon closer inspection, that as the uncanny valley principle dictates, this waxwork is a bit ... off. There’s something creepy about this wax hunk. He “lacks Gosling's signature je ne sais quoi,” as GQ put it, delicately. He also lacks any of the usual cues you look for in determining that the thing in front of you isn’t going to steal your soul. Wax Ryan Gosling will definitely possess your soul and/or murder you.

Predictably, this Ryan Gosling wax figure debacle has set off a now tiresomely familiar wax figure outrage cycle. First the news: There is a new wax figure, rejoice! Most of us wait for news about the latest from Madame Tussaud’s wax workshop the way children wait all year for Christmas: What will those wacky, meticulous artisans throw our way next? But inevitably, disappointment follows: Wax Beyoncé looks nothing like human Beyoncé. Wax Taylor Swift? A very creepy approximation of Taylor Swift. Justin Bieber’s wax figure? The stuff of nightmares. Remember when Katy Perry’s wax figure also looked completely unlike her? And then there was wax Chris Hemsworth … you guessed it—far from a ringer for the real Thor actor.

It’s almost like making humans out of wax is an inherently creepy thing to do! Or at the very least, that it’s a imperfect process that forces us to reckon with the fact that, as a material, wax just cannot do the things DNA, cells, and biology can. We as a culture are brushing up against the realities of what it means to make fake humans out of wax—and that reality is this horrific funhouse we now find ourselves ensconsed in.

Then again, maybe the media is at fault here. Are we culpable in the larger wax figure–industrial complex because we only report on bad wax news instead of shining a light on all the positive wax news in this world? I, for one, commit to doing better. But only if I am never made to gaze upon the dead eyes of an allegedly “hot” celebrity re-created in wax ever again.