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Who put this obscene, somewhat official-looking sign up near the Zakim Bridge?
The sign’s appearance prompted one Reddit user to remark, “Stay classy, Boston.”
A guerilla street sign recently popped up near Boston’s Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, immortalizing Brookline native Conan O’Brien’s rather poetic description of the iconic infrastructure.
“This bridge looks like a ***** that’s being held up by wire,” read the sign on the Bill Russell Bridge, referring to a certain part of the male anatomy.
Exactly who erected the sign — and when — remains a mystery, as a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation clarified that MassDOT was not behind the marker.
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“The sign in question is not part of any DOT project, nor was it installed as part of the North Washington Street project,” the spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. “MassDOT dispatched resources to the location for the sign’s removal, and the sign was removed yesterday.”
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The spokesperson was unable to provide further details about the sign’s post-removal fate and referred questions about its origins to local law enforcement. Boston.com has contacted the Boston Police Department for further information.
The sign’s appearance was first reported by The Boston Globe. The somewhat official-looking marker turned heads on Reddit’s r/boston page earlier this week, prompting one user to remark, “Stay classy, Boston.”
“We don’t need any more Phallic Obelisks, we already have the Bunker Hill Monument,” another Redditor commented. A photo of the sign first appeared last week on a Conan-themed subreddit.
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O’Brien’s artful description of the Zakim Bridge dates back to May 2020, when the late-night comedian was filming remotely during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. O’Brien’s Team Coco did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In the 2020 clip, O’Brien is seen wearing a graphic T-shirt from local apparel company Sully’s Brand featuring the silhouette of the Zakim Bridge. However, he goes on to explain that the bridge — which was completed in 2003 — is a far cry from his Greater Boston childhood.
“This is a new bridge,” O’Brien pointed out before offering the tasteful critique featured on the unauthorized sign. He hammered home his point by calling the bridge’s architectural elements “very phallic.”
“You want to remind me of my childhood? Make a shirt that shows my father knocking a hot dog out of my hand because Jim Rice dropped a fly ball,” he added.
Sully’s rose to the occasion, enlisting caricature artist Michael Horvath to depict O’Brien’s (evidently fictional) hot dog mishap. And while the unauthorized sign on the Bill Russell Bridge is now gone, Sully’s still offers the Zakim Bridge T-shirt that started it all.
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