Imagine Being Angry About Phoebe Bridgers Smashing Her Guitar on SNL

The combination of Dan Levy and Phoebe Bridgers elevated this week’s Saturday Night Live to a level of quality we haven’t seen from the show in a while. Levy’s sketches ranged from fine to pretty funny, though his mere presence was more enjoyable than most of the content he was performing in.

The standout, in my opinion, was this “cut-for-time” sketch that didn’t even make it to air, about toxic masculinity and men’s cosmetics:

Meanwhile, Bridgers wore her signature skeleton onesie and gave two spectacular performances with “Kyoto” and “I Know the End,” both off her latest album, Punisher. The album was hugely popular, with its intimate, delicate gloom. For the live versions, Bridgers kept that essence but amped the songs up to fit the occasion.

“I Know the End” ramps up from a quiet, murmur-y ballad to full-on screams. Bridgers took things a step further during the live performance and smashed her guitar on stage, bashing it against her monitor more than a dozen times and sending sparks flying. It was an exciting, cathartic moment, and just very cool to watch.

Unfortunately, not everyone agreed.

The general consensus among those who tweeted criticism of the smashing seemed to be that destroying a guitar was “extra,” “gimmicky,” and, weirdest of all, wasteful. Because we’re in a pandemic, I guess that means we should be … conserving our guitars?

Fellow musician Jason Isbell defended Bridgers by saying the instrument was “like an 85 dollar guitar.” Bridgers responded that it was a Danelectro guitar (which tend to cost more than $85 but aren’t exactly bank-breaking) and that she had the company’s blessing for the stunt.

Moreover, it turns out no monitors were harmed during the SNL segment. Bridgers says the one she smashed was, in fact, a fake.

Boy, all of these people criticizing Bridgers (which, to be fair, are far fewer than the number of people praising her) sure are going to be angry when they hear about The Who, The Clash, Jimi Hendrix, Nine Inch Nails, Bright Eyes, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nirvana, Arcade Fire …

(via AV Club, image: Rich Fury/Getty Images for Visible)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

twitter