Prepare yourselves for PAIN, darlings. That’s what we always say whenever Ru announces a comedy roast challenge and it is a warning that has stood us in good stead through 39,000 comedy roast challenge recaps. Give or take.
This episode definitely could have benefited from a silly, time-consuming mini-challenge, because there was a LOT of padding – and we don’t mean the ass kind.
There were the usual “I’m afraid of doing comedy” scenes and while we wouldn’t suggest that the show not include these moments, it’s intensely boring when an entire episode is built around them. There was some tension regarding the language issues, but not much came of it, possibly because the production doesn’t want to shine a light on this aspect of the competition, which is blatantly unfair to all of the queens who speak English as a second language.
Not even Graham Norton coming in to interview all the queens could bring the energy up. In our opinion, he’s the best talk show interviewer currently in the game and his arrival was a welcome surprise, but even he struggled a bit with this scene.
As the winner of last week’s challenge, Kitty determined the order of the acts and placed herself at the top of the program, smartly putting two of the weaker comedy queens directly behind her. As expected, she was very good.
We have to admit that this was the episode that finally made us say “Put this queen out of her misery and send her home.” Between the self-sabotage and the issues with her runway costume, we kind of hit the wall with her. She can be a fun and interesting queen, but week after week, she makes the oddest, most clearly terrible creative choices for herself. Singing was a bold idea, but we literally had to pause watching her do it because it was that painful to sit through. She had to sell the hell out of it, not awkwardly point at people while half-singing in a trembly voice.
If anything Pythia’s was even more painful to sit through because she’s so sweet. Also, some of the looks these queens chose were baffling.
Alyssa, seasoned queen that she is, understood that you’re supposed to deliver every joke with utter confidence and you’re supposed to show up in “glamorous comedienne” drag. She wasn’t really all that great in her delivery, but the package was well-presented.
Nehellenia wasn’t just good, she was so funny that it tends to put the lie to the idea that non-native English speakers are at a disadvantage in the comedy challenges. We still think she’s kind of annoying and we think there’s a reason the other queens seem to be keeping her at arms’ length, but at this point, she’s pretty clearly heading for the top three.
This entire look was so poorly conceived for a comedy standup routine that it practically made everything she said sound less funny. We don’t know if it was just editing, but she seemed really thrown by some of the insults slung at her and we kinda thought she was going to bomb because she was pissed. Instead, she bombed because she just wasn’t funny.
Kitty, Alyssa and Kween were the only ones who understood what kind of drag to pull out for this challenge, but Kween’s was the best comedy diva look of the lot. She was also really funny, although that wasn’t much of a surprise to us. She’s a quick wit and also shady as hell.
Category Is: Blow Me Away! ️ Which runway is a breath of fresh air? #GlobalAllStars pic.twitter.com/MDTnH8zng9
— RuPaul’s Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace) September 27, 2024
Kitty looked pretty, but the body suit wasn’t all that flattering. The cut on the crotch was too high.
This was the moment when we said “Send her home.” We don’t know what the issue was with her planned costume, but this solution just reeks of “I give up.”
This was gorgeous and strange, which is where her drag sweet spot lies.
This was very striking, but it made for an odd choice for a wind-machine theme. The dress looks heavy and the wig is totally immoveable.
This was stunning. It’s weird how few of the queens went for the kind of floaty textiles that respond well to wind machines.
If you’re gonna wear fringe for a wind machine challenge, you better be prepared to shake that thing. This looked fantastic and she really sold it.
Worked the hell out of it, looked pretty great. We think she’s also suffering from way too high a cut on the hip, but the proportions are a little better here. Kitty and Kween pulled out a double win and we can’t really argue with it, although it’s once again notable that two native English-speakers were rewarded in a comedy challenge. It might have been nice to upend this trend by giving Nehellenia the win over Kitty.
Vanity and Pythia wound up in the bottom, which was pretty much expected. Tessa did poorly, but these two really stood out for how completely unfunny their sets were. As we said, we were ready to see Vanity sent home and we honestly thought it was a done deal, going by the lip syncs. It’s nearly impossible for any queen to do badly with a Celine Dion song, which made this the most entertaining face-off of the season, but we thought Pythia’s ethereal, whirling take on the song was much more interesting than Vanity’s somewhat expected rocker chick vibe.
Ru evidently didn’t agree. We would have sent Vanity packing, but at least Ru broke the trend of keeping the English-speakers over everyone else.
Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life, a New York Times “New and Notable” pick, praised by The Washington Post “because the world needs authenticity in its stories,” and chosen as one of the Best Books of The Year by NPR is on sale wherever fine books are sold! It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.
[Photo Credit: Paramount Plus via Tom and Lorenzo, World of Wonder Productions, Inc./Paramount+]
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