Why, we’d almost believe that the producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race devised this entire episode just to fuck with us specifically. But since those assholes can’t even acknowledge that we wrote a whole-ass book about them, it’s probably not likely. Still, after years of us saying “It’s not a competition! Just think of it as a variety show with cash prizes and you’ll be much happier with it!” the show had to go and act like performances matter over storylines. But before it did that, it had to go and disprove a point we tried to make just a week ago.
To quote ourselves: “Every week should have a quick drag-based mini-challenge, we say. Literally just “You have fifteen minutes to get into quick drag based on [theme] and then you have to [do a stupid dance/pose stupidly for the camera/say something stupid] — GO!” How hard can that be to mount? So to speak. The results are almost always funny and usually fairly revealing of whose skills are better than others.”
Well, shut our mouths, why don’t you. To be sort of fair, it really felt like the production based the entire episode around one simple question: “What would happen if Ru refused to laugh at anything?” In a way, it could have been an interesting challenge for the queens. For years, Ru has been relying on her increasingly fake-sounding laugh to punctuate sketches, Werk Room conversations, and runway commentary. The queens almost always use Ru’s laugh as a way to gauge how they’re doing.
Granted, no one was funny in this one, but that never stopped Ru from hooting her way through every challenge before. Given how the main challenge was constructed, we think the “Ru won’t laugh” thing was a deliberate theme for the episode. It might have been more fun to have Ru address the camera at some point and state outright “I’m not going to laugh once, just to fuck with these queens.”
So, we hate the improv challenges and we always have. Improv is something we find hard to sit through even when the actors are skilled at it, but it’s excruciating when you’re forced to watch people who have no idea how to do it. And in typical Drag Race fashion, this challenge was based around a pop culture reference that’s at least a few years out of date. But it was refreshing to have the format of a challenge be a little unexpected (you almost never see the girls outside the studio anymore) and it’s always nice to see Ru get off her ass and actually do something on the show with her name in the title.
But something occurred to us as we sat stone-faced through all of these efforts: this one really isn’t about being hilariously funny. It’s about staying in the moment and holding your own with Ru. We didn’t so much as crack a smile through any of these, and as several of the queens noted with some concern, Ru didn’t laugh much or break character during her interactions. But if you watch the scenes again, Ru wasn’t necessarily feeding them opportunities to be funny. He was doing the classic improv tactic of constantly throwing barriers up but not giving the scene partner much to work with.
At first, we were all, “Well how can Ru even judge these things when she’s not even being all that funny herself?” But unlike Snatch Game, where Ru tends to lob easy setups at the queens, this was a challenge where they were given almost nothing to work with and had to figure it out themselves. When you look at it from that perspective, the results really were kind of illuminating. Juicy managed some decent physical comedy and stayed committed to her character through the whole bit. Darlene defaulted to her country gal character, but she also stayed committed and never backed down from Ru. Myki was the best because she had an answer to everything Ru did and managed some funny bits with the car seat and pretending to be in a coma.
Nini started off well, because if there’s one queen left in this group who understands the Karen mindset, it would be her. But she never really seemed to know what to do with her character after the initial confrontation.
And while we never imagined that this would wind up sending her home, we could feel Jane struggling with this all the way through it. She had very definite ideas about who her character is, but she never really picked up on any of the stuff Ru was laying down. And as Karens go, the “Not Allowed on The Plane” version tends to be the most outrageously volatile. Jane, for all her talent and polish, doesn’t really have much of a knack for just letting it all out and being stupid in the manner that Ru wants to see. She should have been screaming her head off.
We’re at the stage in the competition where the girls have to be unveiling flawless drag for the main stage and we’re happy to report, these queens are up to the task. Everyone looked pretty great this week. Juicy’s Cheshire cat was cute and clever. Darlene’s golden shower queen was gross and even more clever. Myki’s rose and thorn was gorgeous, with a fantastic wig. Who knew Jane could serve body? We didn’t love her dress, but her fetishwear is fantastic. Nini’s fetish Lady Liberty was fun. All of the costumes were unique to each queen, but embodied the them perfectly. Good work all around.
It’s a sign that this was a real challenge for all the queens when neither the winner nor the loser expected to be in that position. Condragulations to Myki. The bit with the car seat probably won it for her. She’s the new frontrunner.
We have to admit, we sat through the lip sync assuming that Jane was going to stay, and we felt that was kind of a shame because Nini ate that shit up. There really was no contest here. Jane just doesn’t do well with this kind of work.
And you could tell just how thrown she was by the whole thing. Like we said, if you consider Drag Race a legitimate competition (which the show has not given you much reason to believe after all this time), then sending the weakest performance of the week home makes perfect sense. In a way, we’re impressed that the show was willing to shake things up so unexpectedly. But if you look at Drag Race as a variety show, then we’re facing a home stretch with some distinctly mid performers left in it. Sorry to see Jane go, but she has to know she’s being set up for an All-Star crown.
Girl, if you ever thought we were going to stop plugging our book, you weren’t paying attention: 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 (like at this link)! It’s also available in Italian and Spanish language editions, darlings! Because we’re fabulous on an INTERNATIONAL level.
[Still Credit: MTV]
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