Everyone Can't Stop Talking About Lil Nas X's SNL Performance. Here's Why

Lil Nas X turns going to hell into an empowering experience in the music video for "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)." After exiting the Garden of Eden, he takes an express ride down to Satan's domain on a stripper pole, and he dethrones the Prince of Darkness. Naturally, the recording artist wanted to recreate one of his most memorable moments from the video when he appeared on "Saturday Night Live," but his performance didn't go as planned.

To pull off the pole-dancing sequence in the "MONTERO" music video, Lil Nas had to train hard. In March, he took to Instagram to share a video of himself practicing on a much shorter pole. He was spinning around and making it look as if he were walking on air. There was a pole behind Lil Nas on the "SNL" stage, but he didn't immediately make use of it. Instead, he kicked things off by performing with a group of shirtless male dancers in front of a screen that changed from a background of heavenly CGI clouds to a fiery hellscape.

For his performance, Lil Nas brought the low-rise trend back in a pair of tight, black leather pants with flame accents and a long zipper front. He later tweeted that he "wanted to do my pole routine so bad," but it was cut short.

After Lil Nas X dropped down low on the pole, it became obvious that his zipper had failed. He glanced down and gave the camera a look of surprise before quickly covering his crotch. He remained standing in front of the pole for the remainder of his performance. Luckily, when it was time for him to sing, he was able to grab a microphone with his free hand.

Lil Nas fans had a field day on Twitter, where the rapper retweeted one fan who compared the incident to an episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" that sees the yellow sponge using an accidental pants rip to get attention. While Lil Nas is a "SpongeBob" fan who even used a frame from the cartoon while writing the treatment for the "MONTERO" video, he informed his Twitter followers that his pants rip was just an accident. "I know i do a lot of planned s**t but ripping my pants on live television is not one of them," he tweeted.

In a follow up tweet, Lil Nas revealed that he faced a number of obstacles ahead of his "Saturday Night Live" performance. He wrote that he was "afraid to even perform," and all of his dancers had to be replaced at the last minute when a member from the original group tested positive for COVID-19. "And then i ended up ripping my pants and couldn't finish," he continued. "Everything happens for a reason tho lol."