Memes / RuPaul's Drag Race

"Miss Vanjie..."

As a show with a large LGBT following, RuPaul's Drag Race has a tendency to create memes. Please note, if you wish to add an example here, please leave a note or labelnote explaining why it's an example. Zero-Context Examples are not allowed on TV Tropes. Similarly, please try to keep the memes actually related to Drag Race in some way and make sure they're relatively well known already in the community. This page is not for forcing anything you find funny to become a meme.

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Season 1

• Becky with the Good Jeans / Becky with the Glass Cock ^ExplanationA Fan Nickname for Rebecca Glasscock, riffing on a line from Beyoncé's "Sorry". The former refers to Rebecca wearing blue jeans for her entrance look, something that would be unthinkable in later seasons.
• The ladder. ^ExplanationSince Season 1 had No Budget, production wasn't as slick as in later seasons. The ladder on the side of the stage that kept cropping in the shots was an example of this, and many called it the unofficial tenth queen of the season.
• Shannel as Miss Mandarin during the Absolut Drag Ball challenge.
  Shannel: Well, hi there. I'm the delicious Miss Mandarin! Mmm! *lip smacking noises*
  RuPaul: Yes, something to wash down the fava beans!"^note Uttered by Shannel during the swimsuit portion. The camera then cuts to a displeased-looking Jeffrey Moran and Merle Ginsberg, complete with a dramatic sound effect.
• "I am amazed at myself. In my mind, I've already won."^note Shannel's confessional during the girl groups challenge. Shannel's extreme confidence during the season frequently led to unintentional comedy gold. The first part is sometimes used jokingly by people after performing mundane tasks.
• Nearly everything uttered by Tammie Brown.
  • "Buenas noches! I'll see you later, in the magazines."
  • "Crazy sticks to me... like ribs."
  • "I don't see you out there walking children in nature!"
  • "Excuse your mouth?"^note Tammie's now-legendary confrontation of RuPaul during the season one reunion.

Season 2

• Mystique Summers' love for a two-piece (fried chicken) and a biscuit.
• "Bitch, I am from Chicago!"^note Again from Mystique, said as a threat towards Morgan during Untucked that she was not to be messed with and would punch Morgan out if it came to blows. Ironically, as discovered afterwards, Mystique isn't even from Chicago, she's from Texas
• "Does she need to breathe in the paper bag?" ^note As soon as Tyra is announced the winner, she starts hyperventilating, all the excitement and stress of the competition finally having caught up with her. Ru follows with this line, but the weird use of words ("the paper bag" instead of "a paper bag") has made fans joke that production only has a single paper bag on set for all panic and anxiety attacks that may happen.
• "It's just malicious, just gay faggotry that I just was not thinking we were gonna run into here."^note Stated by Nicole Paige Brooks in the reunion episode during the confrontation with Raven. Occasionally misquoted online as "it's just malicious gay faggotry".
• The editors of the show being shady and cutting to a talking head of Raven during Untucked.
  Tatianna: All of you guys think that I'm, like, shit. That I'm like, nothing.
  Raven: I would never say that.
  [Beat]
  Raven, during a Confession Cam: Her interview was shit, her look was shit. Her book cover was shit. Her trying to launch and sell her book to the judges was shit. She's shit.
• "I dont care. Call me a bitch, as long as you put a Miss before it." "Miss Bitch." "Thank you." "You're welcome, diva."^note Jujubee calling out Tyra during Untucked for being lazy and difficult to work with during the burlesque team challenge.
• "She's just UNT."^note Jujubee explaining that she and Raven have charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent, while Tyra is lacking in charisma.
• Sahara Davenport's eyelash fluttering in the wind. GIF^note During the Gone with the Wind photoshoot challenge, the high-powered fans caused her right eye to flutter rapidly, giving her a somewhat unhinged look.
• Clips and GIFs of RuPaul laughing, then slapping Tyra in the final acting challenge have circulated the Internet since the episode premiered: GIF
• Jujubee dramatically throwing down her eyelash as she cried during Untucked.

Season 3

• "I don't have a sugar daddy. I've never had a sugar daddy. If I wanted a sugar daddy, yes, I probably can go out and get one, because I am what? Sickening. You could never have a sugar daddy because you are not that kind of girl. Baby, everything I have, I have worked for and I've gotten myself. I built myself from the ground up, you fucking BITCH! *throws drink*"^ExplanationDuring an argument between Shangela and Mimi Imfurst on Untucked, Mimi insinuated that Shangela was only able to afford her glamorous outfits because she had a sugar daddy buying them for her. This struck the wrong Berserk Button for Shangie and caused her to unleash one of the most iconic verbal beatdowns in the show's history.
  • "I saw the fishnets and they were ripped."^note Said offscreen by Mariah during the above confrontation.
• "Drag is not a contact sport." ^Explanation Ru's legendary line condemning Mimi Imfurst after she forcefully lifted India Ferrah during a lipsync.
• TulleGate^ExplanationThe week's challenge required the queens to make outfits using only wigs. In a discussion on Untucked, Yara told Shangela she believed Raja cheated by using tulle fabric from a previous challenge in the base of her dress' skirt, promptly launching Shangela into an investigation and interrogation to discover if Raja had indeed used tulle.
  • "Is tulle favric!"^Explanation Yara's thick Puerto Rican accent made her unable to properly pronounce the word "fabric"
  • "I am the Nancy Drew of drag." ^note Nancy Drew has since become a term in the Drag Race community to describe the ability of fans to find dirt on anyone.
• "I feel like it's couture." ^note Stacy Layne Matthews defends her cake-based outfit.
  • And, from the same episode: "Who the fuck is Heather? I just wanna know." ^note Stacy's reaction when Delta brings up the "Heathers" clique, made up of herself, Raja, Manila and Carmen.
• "Henny!" ^note Stacy Layne Matthews saying 'Honey' in her Southern accent.
• "Prison, honey."^note India Ferrah enters the werkroom in episode one and discovers Phoenix wearing the same wig and a very similar black leather outfit as her.
• "Crickets... crickets."^note Shangela's confessional during the Untucked for the Cake Queens challenge. On the runway, many of the queens said she should be eliminated next and none of the other queens stood up for her.
• "I'm feeling entertained... amused. The judges are interesting. Their judgment was interesting."^note Mariah's exit quote during her elimination.

Season 4

• Nearly every line of dialogue said by Willam during Untucked could qualify as this.
  • "They're all bottoms!" ^ExplanationAfter being asked who she thought would be in the bottom that week.
  • "Your tone seems very pointed right now."
  • "Is the carpet comfortable?"
• "At least I am a showgirl! Go back to Party City where you belong!" ^ExplanationPhi Phi's ham-tastic response to Sharon calling her "a tired-ass showgirl".
• Latrice's "Five Gs" advice: "Good God Get a Grip Girl".
• Kenya's on-stage abortion.^note In her lipsync against Latrice to Aretha Franklin's "Natural Woman", Kenya Michaels starts doing splits, jumps and pirouettes while wearing a fake belly. Her dance moves have been noted to be... unadvisable to someone who is truly pregnant.
• "The 'Dida Ritz' of the Season."^note Dida has frequently been referenced in future seasons by viewers and other contestants regarding queens that get inexplicably far in the competition by being So Okay, It's Average, neither the best nor the worst for several challenges in a row.
• "The level of unprofessionalism. Far too much."^note Said by Latrice while watching the chaotic front row during that season's Snatch Game.
• "This is not RuPaul's Best Friend Race!"
• "Madame LaQueer wasn't doing much. And I'm like, 'Girl, Milan just danced circles around you and Swiffered the floor with his taint.'"^note A talking head from Willam during Milan and Madam LaQueer's lip sync
• "Breaking out the Westwood~!"^note Said in a singsong voice by Willam in the werk room. Often said in a high-pitched voice by Alaska in her and Willam's podcast Race Chasers.

Season 5

• Alyssa Edwards proved to be a Fountain of Memes in general:
  • "Backrolls?!"
  • "Bitch! Sit your ass down and shut the hell up, bitch!"
  • "Girl, look how orange you fuckin' look, girl!"
    • And Coco Montrese's retort: "I'm not jokin', bitch!"
  • "What the fuck is going on in here on this day?"^ExplanationFrom her WOW Presents show Alyssa's Secret being shown Violet Chachki impersonating her for Snatch Game on Season 7.
  • "It's real sunny up here, but I do like a little bit of shade!"
• "I lost all hope today..."^ExplanationThe opening line to Coco Montrese's verse on "Can I Get An Amen?", which gets quoted whenever something happens on the show that disappoints the fans.
• Alaska's "Hiiiiiiieeeee!" proved to be infectious both on and off the show.
• Delusion. Convince yourself! ^ExplanationThe tagline for Jinkx's perfume commercial is often used to call out someone deep in their fantasies.
• "Get her, Jade!" ^ExplanationCoco Montrese's Confession Cam reaction, to Jade Jolie calling out Alyssa Edwards in Untucked. The resulting gif is used to support anyone on social media (regardless of whether their name is Jade) dragging someone else.

Season 6

• Much like her drag mother, Alyssa Edwards, Laganja Estranja is the source for numerous memes:
  • "C'mon, ____!" although particular reference is often made to her Dynamic Entry to the workroom – "C'mon, Season Six! Let's get ‘'sickening''!"
  • "Okuuuuur!"
  • "I FEEL VERY ATTACKED!"^note Years after Season 6, this one in particular still sees use for when someone makes a snarky social media post that is all too relatable. The irony is that Laganja spent the whole season trying to be a Fountain of Memes, and yet her most heavily-quoted scene was when she was having an actual mental breakdown and wasn't trying to be funny.
  • "Are you there, God? It's me, Laganja."^ExplanationA Gag Dub of the infamous shot of Laganja sitting under a table, done by Trixie Mattel during an episode of UNHhhh.
• "Bacon." ^ExplanationIn the first episode, Kelly Mantle's outfit was criticized for having a top piece that were supposed to be flower petals, but ended up looking like raw bacon.
• "Not today, Satan. Not today."^ExplanationOne of Bianca del Rio's many memeable comments.
  • "Let me ask you a very fair question: what do you do successfully? Quickly."^ExplanationBianca's Armor-Piercing Question to Trinity during Untucked.
• SAME DRESS, STILL WON!!!! 🤡🖕🤡🖕🤡🖕^ExplanationActually a Beam Me Up, Scotty! making fun both of people complaining of most of Bianca's outfits having the same silhouette, and her tendency to abuse Caps Lock and emojis on social media.
• "Kelly Mantle has arrived at [x]!"^ExplanationA popular trend on Twitter is to photoshop Kelly's promo look into situations such as the Met Gala or the Oscars.
• "You ladyboy? You ladyboy."^note Gia Gunn doing her best imitation of an elderly Asian woman.

Season 7

• "After a long night of hooking, trade didn't like the session, so he had gutted me and set me on fire. But you know I didn't die, I had crystallized, and now I'm a Glamazon bitch ready for the runway."^ExplanationKennedy's tentative explanation of her Death Becomes Her outfit.
• After Trixie Mattel got a rather early elimination fans started bombing social media with #JusticeForTrixie. Soon After, whenever a queen would get eliminated, you'll be sure there'll be a similar (although normally smaller) reaction, such as #JusticeForMax, #JusticeForFame, etc.
• Carson's reaction to Violet's reversible tartan jumpsuit. The sheer campiness of his gestures has made it a popular reaction gif: .gif
• "What the fuck!?"^ExplanationKandy Ho's genuinely surprised exclamation. Has become a stock reaction phrase and soundbite.
• Katya's teleportation ability. ^ExplanationDuring an episode of Untucked, questionable editing and reused footage made it look like Katya was moving across the set instantly.
• The pink one so terrify ^ExplanationA comment about Trixie by a clueless YouTube user underneath this video.
• Perhaps almost as much as Alyssa, Jasmine Masters has become renown since her season for being a Fountain of Memes on her social media (almost always including her opening line of "I am Jasmine Masters, and I have something to say"), including but not limited to:
  • "RuPaul's Drag Race have fucked up drag."
  • "Just as I thought. Trash."
  • Jasmine Masters' "Get A Job" Challenge.
  • Jush, aka. Jushmine Masters
  • #thatpart
  • And I OOP---, or Anna Ou, which marks Jasmine's second major ascension into mainstream memedom.
• "What the fuck is going on here on this day." ^ExplanationAlyssa Edward's reaction to Violet impersonating her for Snatch Game..

Season 8

• Purse Purse Imfurst, Bob's gaudy curtain clutch he made in the first challenge, and subsequently the phrase "walk into the club purse first!", exploded on the Internet and has successfully evolved beyond the fandom, where it became a trending search on Google and was referenced by Anna Kendrick before the 2016 Met Gala.
• "KimonoGate", for when four queens coincidentally walked the Madonna-themed runway of episode 5 of season 8 wearing kimonos, with post-season implications that there were more kimonos from eliminated queens.
• Derrick Barry, due to her ditzy yet lovable status, has proven to be Season 8's Fountain of Memes:
  • "Everywhere you look there's a hem."
  • Derrick Barry's baffled "No one was killed [at Stonewall]?" ^ExplanationDuring a Billboard interview for Pride Month featuring several Drag Race queens, Derrick expressed her disappointment in the younger generation of LGBT for not knowing their history, saying "People died at Stonewall!" Willam, who is rather well-educated on queer history, was quick to correct her and let her no that nobody died or was killed at Stonewall, to which Derrick responded with the memetic line.
  • Her 2018 Hater's Roast Set ^ExplanationDerrick showed up to her set for one of the Hater's Roast Tour shows very intoxicated. What followed was a 12-minute video of Derrick drunkenly stumbling through her set, roasting herself just as much as she attempted to roast any other queen, and providing plenty of memorable quotes in the process.
    • "Well guess what bitch, this is RuPaul's Drag Race Season HATE"
    • "I don't know if your name is Chuck or go fuck yourself, but tonight your name is Truck."
    • Taking three tries to tell a golden shower joke.
• Bob's art song in the werk room during the New Wave Queens episode, complete with Acid Betty and Thorgy dancing along. It's notoriously catchy, even if Derrick doesn't think so.
  Bob: Art ar ar art art. Art art shakak kak boom. Oh, shakikak shakak shakak art. Did somebody mention art?!
  Derrick: I hope that's not their song! If that's their song, that sucks.

Season 9

• "You're perfect, you're beautiful, you look like Linda Evangelista, you're a model. Everything about you is perfect! Did you stone those tights? Oh, you're smiling! They eat her up every single time she's on that damn stage. She doesn't even have to- She could go out there in a fucking diaper and they'll be like 'Valentina! Your smile is beautiful!'" ^ExplanationIn the episode 3 Untucked, a very frustrated Aja, who's in the bottom, launches in a tirade against Valentina who was consistently praised for her looks.
• Valentina's mask over her mouth and her epic showdown with Ru has been immortalized in internet memes and parody drag performances.
  • "I'd like to keep it on, please."
  • The COVID-19 pandemic brought this meme back and had Valentina Vindicated by History, as she was obviously simply ahead of her time.
• Where are the jokes? ^Explanation Trinity's heavily-quoted confessional response to Cynthia's Snatch Game attempt at Sofia Vergara, and then later used in All Stars 4 to describe Jasmine's talent show performance. Now used to describe many a lackluster comedic performance.
• Well, Tamar... ^Explanation"...have you ever watched the show?", Alexis Michelle's clap back to guest judge Tamar Braxton asking why Alexis was completely dressed and painted in green for the Roast of Michelle Visage (Michelle's hatred for the colour green in queens' outfits is a running gag in the show). Now used when a fan or a viewer stumbles onto Continuity Lock-Out and misses facts about the show.
• Pink Tall Person. ^ExplanationSimilar to "the pink one so terrify", this was how a photo of Sasha was described by a Twitter user who didn't know who she was. Eventually became an Ascended Meme when Sasha temporarily changed her Twitter name to this.
• "This would've never happened if Nina Bo'nina Brown was Blac Chyna." ^ExplanationNina spending the "Kardashian" musical challenge pissy about not getting the Blac Chyna role has become a joke any time something dramatic happens on Drag Race. This too became an Ascended Meme when Nina released the song "I Shoulda Been Blac Chyna," a parody of "No More Drama" by Mary J. Blige.
• From the reunion episode, particularly in response to Valentina:
  Shea Couleé: "Do I look upset to you?"
  Farrah Moan: "You don't love me."

Season 10

• "Miss Vanjie...Miss Vanjie...Miss Vanjie," ^ExplanationVanessa Vanjie Matteo's sorrowful swan song has been memed to hell and back, arguably becoming the most well-known Drag Race meme outside of the fanbase.
• Monet's Sponge Dress ^Explanation For the first challenge, Monet X Change created a yellow dress with cut-up yellow and green sponges attached all over it. The sponge dress became infamous for how polarizing it was, with some seeing it as So Bad, It's Good and other just seeing it as plain ugly. Asia O'Hara's hatred of the dress similarly added fuel to the fire.
• "Brown cow, stunning!" ^ExplanationDuring the Episode 5 critiques, Michelle complimented Monique Heart on the giraffe print that complimented her denim look, to which Monique responded that she thought the fabric had a brown cow print on it, along with the line "I saw it in the store and I thought 'Brown cow, stunning!' The line quickly became beloved by fans of Monique. Monique herself has taken every advantage to brand the line post- Season 10, even releasing a single under the same name.
• "IT WAS RU!!! RUPAUL!!" ^ExplanationA comment on the YouTube video of Kameron and Cracker's lip sync telling fans not to send hate to Kameron for sending home Miz Cracker, ending with the exclamation "IT WAS RU!!! RUPAUL!! BLAME HER!!! NOT KAMERON!!!" The line became a meme in its own right, but also get quoted often whenever a queen receives hate for something Ru is ultimately responsible for.
• ButterflyGate ^ExplanationA fan nickname for Asia O'Hara's Epic Fail during the finale, when the live butterflies she intended to release from her costume during the lip-sync turned out to be asleep and just fell to the floor. Highlights are Asia's look of horror and the dramatic zoom on Monique and Vanjie's confused faces.
• Mayhem Eyes / #MayhemMillerChallenge ^ExplanationReferring to this video of Mayhem's 2011 performance to "Drama" by Club 96, in which she does Eye Takes in sync with the beat, which became a meme after her season aired.
• "I saw Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. And Ben Platt, who plays Dear, he gave everything." ^ExplanationA quip from Ru's workroom walkthrough during the makeover episode. A few years after the episode aired, fans noticed that Ru apparently thinks the main character in Dear Evan Hansen is named "Dear"

Season 11

• "Cysters" ^ExplanationThe term has become a nickname for Soju fans after she opened up about developing a cyst on her taint which burst during her trip to Drag Race. The queens also call each other "cyst-er" several times after she coins the term in her farewell message.
• "Opalence! You earn everything!" ^ExplanationMercedes' mondegreen version of a quote from Paris Is Burning (It should've been "Opulence! You own everything!") has gotten a lot of traction for how silly it sounds and how even within the context of the challenge it comes off as odd.
• Kehlani Mongoose ^ExplanationOwing to Kahanna Montrese's scarcity of screentime in the season, fans often switch her name with other words beginning with "K" and "M", this one being the most popular permutation.
• "...What does that have to do with anything, bitch?" ^ExplanationYvie Oddly's response (after a beat of awkward silence) when Silky declares in Untucked that if she'd had to lip-sync she was ready to do so, and reveals that her outfit is tear-away, a moment which seems to come out of nowhere and has little to do with what the queens are talking about at that moment. Yvie's line has become a go-to for any Non Sequitur or abrupt change of topic in the fandom.
• "Where is the body?" ^ExplanationOne of the lines A'keria vamps during the final five song challenge, which has been used as a response to various situations
• "Nina looks like a little Christmas bear that you press the button and they move like this (moves from side to side) She's just a-goin'. And then Silky looks like a walrus out of water and girl, now you just flopping across these people's stage." ^ExplanationA'keria's talking head during Nina West and Silky Nutmeg Ganache's infamously bad lip sync.
• "Meh."^ExplanationRuPaul's unimpressed response to the aforementioned bad lip sync between Nina and Silky.

Season 12

• WigGate [[labelnote: Explanation]] Within the first few episodes, Aiden Zhane wore the same black pussycat wig several times on both the runways and in mini-challenges. Fans are divided on whether this should be viewed as laziness or iconic.
• Ru living for Crystal Methyd's boy hair / Rhythm of the Night ^ExplanationCrystal out of drag rocks a truly amazing mullet that Ru compares to El DeBarge, even going as far as to gain the rights to play the song over the episode. Ru's love for Crystal's hair even compels him to mention it to guest judges despite being irrelevant and the song making multiple appearances. Fans have joked that Crystal could win any LSFYL just by taking her wig off to reveal her real hair. The kicker is that Crystal doesn't know who El DeBarge is. Enters Brick Joke territory when Crystal's drag sister Daya Betty debuts on Season 14 and her relationship to Crystal is mentioned, prompting the return of the "Rhythm of the Night" soundbyte.
• Gigi Goode's Mom ^Explanation Due to their close relationship and her truly impressive sewing skills, Gigi's mother gets brought up more than a few times and some people view her as a character in her own right despite being The Ghost. She's almost always referred to as Mother Goode and if she joins a queen's livestream, expect them to make the fans say hello to her.
• Gigi On The Floor ^Explanation A still of Gigi during the Starships lipsync immediately became memetic for Gigi's stans when Gigi laid down on the main stage sprawled out, staring up at the ceiling as the other queens watch in the background. Many fans were quick to make jokes about how they could not believe that Gigi just died while the actual image tends to be used to show the feeling of having the weight of the world on top of you.
• Queens Using Google ^Explanation While Ru comparing Crystal to El DeBarge was already a meme, a scene from one of Crystal's makeup tutorials on YouTube, taken from a clip of her in full drag texting for several seconds, has been edited so that she was looking up who El DeBarge was. This meme has snowballed to including Ru looking up who is Poppy, Crystal's Snatch Game character, and El DeBarge himself trying to figure out who Crystal is. The meme then continued to expand to encompass any queen looking up whatever reference they failed to get or asking a question related to something that happened on the show, such as Heidi looking into how to change her name or Jan trying to figure out how to murder Gigi.
• Jan's Thousand Yard Stare ^Explanation After receiving high praise for the challenge she most badly wanted to win, Jan is declared safe. Jan walks to the back of the stage, widening her eyes in an attempt to not cry, with the light colored eye contacts she was wearing however, this gives Jan a very empty, somewhat eerie expression. It doesn't help that Widow compares it to the moment in a horror movie when the killer snaps. The image is more comedic when it shows her upper body rather than just her face and Jan is seen with her a suitcase. Many fans joke that Jan was contemplating murdering Gigi.
  • "Watch this - you can pinpoint the second her heart rips in half!"
• "Jan, you're safe." ^Explanation Jan performs excellently in almost every challenge thus far in the season, but each time doesn't quite manage to win - culminating in the above Rusical challenge she had wanted most badly to win. Jokes abound with fans wondering if RuPaul hates Jan, or making comparisons to a fellow unloved woman also named "Jan".
• So gorgeous, next level. ^Explanation Rather than the usual puns, the judges start praising Gigi's Black Bride runway. The look was beautiful and fit her well but was not groundbreaking, out of the box, or anything else that could warrant being called 'next level'. Many fans were irked at how much of a Creator's Pet Gigi was shaping up to be and added the soundbites over some of Drag Race's very worst runways, such as Serena Cha Cha's Drag on a Dime runway or Dusty Ray Bottoms' feathers runway.
• Look over there! ^Explanation Jaida's question dodging character in the political debate challenge immediately became memetic and the phrase is used as the punchline for all manner of avoidance jokes.
• #JusticeForJan(et) ^ExplanationThe makeover challenge has the queens pair up with super fans of the show, with Sherry getting a woman who introduced herself as Janet The Planet. Fans quickly found Janet endearing due to her sweet nature and being an avid supporter of drag queens long before the show, leading fans conflicted over wanting her, but not Sherry, to do well. #JusticeForJan(et) or "Janet The Planet Deserves Better" started going around as soon as the preview aired, as well as jokes that Sherry would be eliminated and Janet would take her place or gave more sincere answers with hopes that Janet could reappear on the show or something else to make up for the fact that she was paired with a sexual predator.
• The Cursed Season ^ExplanationThe combination of Sherry Pie's catfishing allegations and the COVID-19 pandemic has led many to come to the conclusion that season 12 is cursed. Aside from that, the season had its time slot split up with Celebrity Drag Race and had both All-Stars season 5 and the first season of Canada's Drag Race release promos before season 12 was even at top five. The revelation that the power went out on the queens in the middle of filming has led many fans to say "These girls just can't catch a break."
• Jaida Essence ____ ^Explanation Fans have taken to rhyming the Hall in Jaida's name and editing pictures to match (i.e. Jaida Essence Tall, Jaida Essence Wall...). Jaida herself jumped on board with the meme and made a few edits herself
• COSTuME? ^Explanation As the queens get ready for the final time in the workroom, they talk about first impressions. Jackie tells Gigi that based on her entrance look, she thought Gigi was a costume queen. This prompts Gigi to, in half drag, look over her shoulder and stare directly into the camera, balking "Costume?" in a talking head.
• FaceApp ^Explanation It became a trend on Twitter to put photos of the queens out of drag in FaceApp to make them look like biological women. Expect comments like "I went to school with this girl" or "I swear this woman works in my office" among other comments of what impression the genderswappped version of the queens give.

Season 13

• Denali looks into the camera^Explanation Season 13 started with a mega lip-sync showdown between all of the queens. The loser of each lip-sync was taken to the "Porkchop Loading Dock" on the pretense that they all were being eliminated episode 1. Denali didn't believe the show would actually be gutsy enough to do that, but was still emotionally exhausted by the process. Her stare into the camera became immediately iconic and has been compared to season 12's Jan (though Denali's expression was less "serial killer snaps" and more "done with everything").
• The Tamisha Iman Signature Leather Sneakers ^Explanation Tamisha proved herself to being a very smart queen by having a wide variety of merch ready by the first episode with her promo look and her most memorable lines already on them. Along with the usual T-shirts, Tamisha put out a pair of high-end sneakers which, aside from being genuinely very stylish, were something no other queen had put out before. Fans (and fellow queens) loved the shoes so much that they became a meme in their own right.
• RuPaul's Drag Race Stanford Prison Experiment ^Explanation With the first challenge making the queens think that half of them would be sent home on the first day and then forcing them to vote a queen to eliminate, fans balked at how cruel and mean spirited it was. Comparisons to the Stanford Prison Experiment cropped up immediately
• Tamisha looks into the camera ^Explanation In the episode 4 preview, Tamisha's stare into the camera, and then her stare at the other queens immediately became iconic for how no-nonsense she was in that moment
• TAMISHA. IMAN. IS COMING. FOR YOU. ^ExplanationThe Punctuated! For! Emphasis! beginning of Tamisha's Phenomenon verse was quickly reused for all other moments in which she reined in other queens' shenanigans, and is often paired with the above-mentioned "Tamisha looks into the camera" as if she were going to give someone an epic ass-whooping.
• Elliott sitting alone ^Explanation When the Winning queens were waiting for the Porkchop queens to come in, Elliott went to hide behind a divider and listen in. The shot of her waiting quickly became a reaction image.
• Stop! Stop! She's already dead! ^Explanation Denali lipsynced in each of her first three episodes, all of which were spectacular but her third lip sync against Kahmora Hall was such a Curb-Stomp Battle that it has made Denali the fastest queen to ever achieve lip sync assassin status.
• Drag Race's First Openly Gay Contestant ^Explanation A big part of Joey's character was just running with the fact that she was gay ("I don't sing or rap, but I'm gay, so I'm going to go with that"). It became a joke to proclaim Joey as the show's "first openly gay contestant" and to congratulate her for her bravery in coming out. Ru herself references the meme during the Season 13 reunion.
• LaLa's Ball Outfit ^Explanation LaLa has the "honor" of having possibly the worst look to ever come out of a design challenge with a bunch of paper bags haphazardly glued to a corset. So notoriously bad is this outfit that it has entered So Bad, It's Good territory which a joke that the outfit is the highest form of art. This also became an Ascended Meme in the Reunion as Ru awards LaLa the first ever "Golden Boot" award for having the single worst look of the season.
• Dehmora Hall ^Explanation Kahmora is infamous for taking five hours to do her making and nearly missed making it out to the runway in the first challenge. Brazilian fans gave her the nickname 'Dehmora' due to her name already sounding like 'demora' which means 'takes too long' or 'delay'.
• Utica looks into the camera ^Explanation During a walkthrough, Ru brings up Utica's quirky nature and point blank asks if she's ever smoked weed before. Utica initially nods before backpedaling and shaking her head and averting her eyes which sends Ru into hysterics. She continues on her facial journey as she looks directly into the camera and Ru nearly dies of laughter. Plenty of the faces she made in this moment are reaction images of their own but the progression of expressions are often represented with emotes that fans will copy-paste whenever weed gets brought up
• Lampsexual ^Explanation For the Beaded runway, Denali comes out in a gorgeous chandelier inspired gown that she designed herself. She attributes the inspiration for this look to her childhood obsession with lamps which she mentioned both in the voiceover as well as in more detail on social media. Given the unexpectedness of this quirk fans, and much of Denali's social circle on Twitter, ran away with the jokes emphasizing the obsession to comparing her to a moth.
  • Denali is Mothman ^Explanation After a... peculiar Reddit thread came out accusing Denali of secretly being Mothman with several points they considered to be evidence it became a running joke in the fandom. Any mentioning of Mothman by the fans will usually be met with the response of 'What does Denali have to do with this?'. The meme was egged on early by Denali's boyfriend and then fueled further when her videographer for her Telepatia video made his own jokes.
• ¿Quieres ser mi novia? ^Explanation Translation: "Do you want to be my girlfriend?" Early on in the season a female fan of the show made a Tik Tok where she was cleaning the werk room when a photoshopped out-of-drag Denali suddenly showed up to ask her out as the judges played music in the background. The original Tik Tok went semi-viral through the fandom but where it really picked up was on Feb 14th when another fan edited the same sign and background band onto another of boy Denali. Denali herself tweeted a third picture of herself out of drag in front of a taqueria with the phrase "Me trajo a comer tacos" ("He brought me to eat tacos"). She then one-upped that with a fourth picture with the POV of sitting down to eat said tacos with a hastily edited in Denali. Suffice to say that there were countless fans jumping in on the joke to say yes and proclaim Denali as their boyfriend.
• Denali's Kubrick Stare ^Explanation Due to weeks of mounting frustration and not getting her first or second choice in the Rusical, Denali gives a brief look into the camera that stood out in the episode trailer as a frighteningly accurate Kubrick Stare with some fans even slipping it in alongside frames of A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.
• Rosé's Bad Dad Dancing ^Explanation Rosé stood out in the background of lip syncs for excitedly bopping around to the music and hyping up the girls every time. However, the lip sync of Elliott vs LaLa was the first to give a clear view of how she actually danced, which was an awkward and bendy kneed bounce that has been compared to an awkward dad dancing at a barbeque or like it came from The Sims 4.
• Pink Jan ^Explanation Because she is in the same girl group as Season 12's Jan, a group where each of them have a signature color, Rose was instantly dubbed Pink Jan and branded as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute.
  • "Is Jan Purple Rosé now?" ^Explanation Jan was infamous for never winning a challenge, especially her controversial Rusical loss. Once Rosé won her season's Rusical fans wondered if that meant Rosé was now the alpha of the two and thus be renamed accordingly.
  • Purple and Pink Lagoona ^Explanation Another splinter of the Pink Jan meme, a common retort to the Purple Rosé joke is that she and Jan will both be upstaged by the third member of Stephanie's Child Lagoona Bloo (whose signature color is blue) once she is cast on the show.
  • The Janyon Box ^Explanation Other queens who are associated with Jan, having a similar aesthetic, personality and/or track record to her, are given a Fan Nickname, often a color-based one. This began with due to the first season of Drag Race UK having Cheryl Hole who bore a striking resemblance to Jan, but snowballed after Rosé.
  Cheryl Hole (UK 1): Green Jan/Jan Hole/Galarian Jan^note A reference to Pokémon Sword and Shield, Galar being the Pokémon equivalent of the UK.
  Rosé (Season 13): Pink Jan
  Denali (Season 13): Icy Jan
  Lemon (Canada's Drag Race 1): Yellow Jan
  Lagoona Bloo (Stephanie's Child): Blue Jan
  Jan herself: Purple Jan/Safe Jan
• Final Boss Mik ^Explanation After Utica unexpectedly beat Dance Battler Elliott in a lip sync, fans took stock of the eliminations so far. Denali — who is considered the lip sync assassin of the season — was beaten by LaLa in the first episode, who was eliminated by Elliott, who was then eliminated by Utica. Utica had already been beaten by Gottmik in the first episode showdown in a shared performance being widely considered the most lackluster of the night. Therefore, the joke came about that Gottmik is actually the best lip syncer of the season.
• "truly do not believe either of these people has an actual passion for drag - I do however believe that a few yrs ago they both resorted to slapping on wigs & weaponizing their BFAs in musical theatre as a last-ditch grab at fame" ^Explanation A fan's inflammatory tweet deriding both Rose and Denali immediately became the subject of ridicule from the fanbase as a whole who wasted no time defending the queens and memeing the post into the ground.
  • "Weaponizing your degree" ^ExplanationThis line in particular stood out for the sheer absurdity of it. Rosé was even quick to add a "Rosénali Weaponizing Diploma" to her merch store.
• Rosé looks into the camera/When the Tina hits ^Explanation A shot of Rosé as Tina was doing her make up in the makeup challenge became memetic for a number of reasons, but the main two factors were how questionable (though on-brand for Tina) the makeup was and the other was how dead behind the eyes Rosé looked. Rosé acknowledged the meme early on with the caption above. When the "Yassify" meme hit in late 2021, Rosé made a Face Tuned version of this look her Twitter avatar, while Tina Burner chose the original image.
• Mourning Denali ^ExplanationFan favorite Denali's elimination was unexpected and spurred a lot of strong emotions in her fanbase with many describing it as mourning. When the episode she was eliminated in aired, she stayed off social media for the entire night instead of her usual livetweeting. Rose, her closest friend from the show, made a few posts about how sad she was to see Denali go. These three things combined- fans saying that they were in mourning, Denali's unusual silence, and Rose's somber posts- gave people who were not caught up on the episode and didn't know that she was the eliminated queen the impression that Denali literally died.
• RuPaul giving the finger ^ExplanationDuring the Nice Girls Roast, Utica asks Ru to step up and Ru answers by flipping her the bird with both hands (the context being that Ru actually untucks and wears sweatpants when she sits at the judges' panel, since taping goes on for way long that what is shown). The shot was quickly reused for all situations that could anger Ru, like Joe Black's infamous H&M dress or Pearl and her "unless the cameras are rolling" revelation.
• Clara the Cow ^Explanation During a psychic reading it was revealed that Country Mouse Utica once had a pet calf named Clara who was her best friend who was now speaking from beyond the grave to tell Utica "mooooo". This was sandwiched between the psychic talking to Tina about her deceased father and claiming that Rose and Denali were on the borderline of having an affair. Suffice to say that the Mood Whiplash was palpable. The whole scene was so weird that fans couldn't help but latch onto Clara, helped by the fact that Utica ran with it herself and included a model cow in the next challenge. It even got to a point where after Utica's elimination she was asked about Clara in an interview where Utica confirmed that she did eventually eat her best friend.
• The Fake Tea Season ^Explanation As the season went on, fans started to notice that a lot of what was happening in the show sounded more bizarre and fake then the actual fake rumors made about the season. Between everything to do with the winner's circle and porkchop queens, to the session with the psychic, two queens being forced to audition for the same role, at least 3 pairs of queens having showmances, and Utica being the unexpected lip sync assassin of the season that out of context the fake tea would sound more believable.
• (Pause) "... Rich." ^ExplanationThe tepid response to Elliott's finale look by the final four, in which after mooning over every other contestant's look Elliott (who at this point was in hot water for making racist comments towards Symone and Kandy as well as transphobic comments towards Gottmik) was on-screen leading to the final four silent for a few seconds before finally offering up the compliment of "rich" and then moving on.

Season 14

• The Anti-Joey Jay ^ExplanationMaddy Morphosis is notable for being the first cis straight male contestant on the show. Several fans immediately compared her to the previous season's Joey Jay, and her personality shtick of "being gay", joking how Joey and Maddy are polar opposites. Joey Jay even got in on it, lightheartedly referring to Maddy as "my arch-nemesis."
• The doors Gia Gunn opened ^ExplanationGia Gunn reacted on Twitter to the first episode, which established Kerri as the first post-transition trans woman to compete on a regular season, by musing about the "doors she opened" on All-Stars 4. Fans took issue with this because, while Gia has contributed to trans representation on Drag Race, she is far from the only one "opening doors" for queens like Kerri. This inspired a wave of jokes about Gia "opening doors" for things she barely contributed to, which evolved throughout the season into jokes that other queens "opened doors" for more mundane things (e.g., claiming that Eureka! "opened doors" for Kornbread's Career-Ending Injury).
• "It's chocolate." ^ExplanationSeason 14's candy bar twist required each eliminated queen to unwrap her bar on the main stage and, if she found that her bar was made of chocolate rather than gold, declare "it's chocolate" over a cartoonish sad trombone sound effect. Fans were amused by this bizarre and anticlimactic editing choice and quickly started applying "it's chocolate", typically via an image of June Jambalaya crying after opening her bar, to other situations, often involving Toilet Humor.
• "A dragonfly?!" ^ExplanationKerri's reaction to the revelation that a dead dragonfly had somehow made its way into the Werk Room. Some combination of her amusingly thickly-accented delivery, the overall absurdity of the situation, and the continued relevance of the dragonfly (culminating in Daya actually doing dragonfly drag for her finale performance) gave this quote an unexpectedly memetic quality.
• Kerri Colby turning people trans ^ExplanationSeason 14 features a record-breaking five trans women contestants. Kerri has been named by Kornbread, Bosco, Willow, and Jasmine (the latter in a very emotional Untucked moment) as a strong influence for them to start transitioning and come out publicly. While obviously very Heartwarming, this also inspired a slew of memes joking that being near Kerri is enough to make a person transgender (Bosco even took part in the joke in an interview, saying that "it's like The Ring but with transitioning").
  • Tranos ^ExplanationThis also led to a fandom meme that Kerri was collecting trans queens like Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones. Cue Kerri showing up to the finale in a Thanos-inspired look, complete with Infinity Gauntlet.
• The never-ending season ^ExplanationBetween the split premiere with two fake-out eliminations, the Daytona Wind non-elimination episode, the Menzeses double shantay, the Snatch Game elimination carrying over into the next episode, the Catwalk double shantay, and, of course, the candy bar twist, Season 14 features an unusually large amount of non-elimination episodes for a reality competition show. Many fans suffered Arc Fatigue as a result, and quips about the length of the season, how long ago early-season events like June and Alyssa's eliminations were, and the prospect of it actually going on forever became increasingly common with each non-elimination.
• This entire outfit is made out of recycled. Ma. Terials. The jacket. Is a thrifted jacket. The crown is. A duct tape. Roll. Covered in. CONSTRUCTION PAPER. I'm. Wearing eleven. Inch. Plat. Form. Heels. This. Takes me from 6'3 to 7'3. ^Explanation The extremely unsubtle frankenbite of Daya describing her runway in Episode 13 has achieved copypasta status due to the sheer absurdity of her words being blatantly chopped up and spliced together by the syllable.

Season 15

• 40 Inchgate ^Explanation Luxx Noir London walks into the werkroom with a 40-inch human hair wig, a claim Irene Dubois immediately contests. The actual length of this wig has become a heated debate among the fandom leading to many jokes.
• "Cue the sniper!" ^Explanation After being criticized by Michelle from the same cutesy presentation on the runway, Spice is declared safe for the week. Spice then trolls the judges by doing the same cutesy walk to the back of the stage, prompting Ru to say the line.
• Let Loose ^Explaination For Season 15's talent show, Loosey LaDuca sang a live renditon of her original song "Let Loose". In addition to the questionable sound quality in the talent show, the irony between the lyrics and Loosey's uptight demeanor through the competition so far has made the song quite hilarious to the fandom.
• D-D-D-D-D-D-D-Dingaling! ^Explanation Spice's Ear Worm song for her talent show. In the same way as Loosey's Let Loose, it has gone memetic and the song is affectionately played to refer to Spice and the things she does.
• The Sasha Colby Meet-And-Greet ^Explaination What Season 15 is unofficially known as, due to Sasha's prolific pre-season career and reputation within the drag industry, the resultant fangirling from constestants and judges alike, and her No-Damage Run throughout the competition.
• Connecticut vs. The World ^Explanation The State of Connecticut has never been represented on the show. Although some queens were born there (Ben De La Creme, for one), they usually started their careers elsewhere, and often represented other places by the time they got on the show. Season 15, however, would end up having FOUR (Loosey La Duca, Robin Fierce, Jax, and Amethyst) queens from the state, a unusually big number for a state not particularly known for its drag scene.

Season 16

• FOUR! ^Explanation An out-of-context clip of Xunami Muse loudly saying "four!" has become popular on Twitter, usually inserted into jokes such as who placed 4th or got eliminated in episode 4.
• Q is the new Jan. ^ExplanationQ complaining about coming in the top 2 but not winning made many fans joke about her getting the same treatment as Jan.
• "Mama, kudos for saying that. For spilling." ^Explanation After Q reveals her HIV positive status to Plane Jane, this is her response. This awkward quote has gone viral as a reaction used both in the comments of posts and captions to other moments of characters in different media revealing something.
• Plane Jane's LinkedIn ^Explanation Fans discover Plane Jane's old LinkedIn profile, the profile picture (which depicts Plane out of drag and dressed in business attire) of which gained notoriety on Twitter and spawned a lot of work-related memes, including variations of the above quote.
• Me-gag-mi. ^Explanation Megami's incredible ru-demption in the Lalaparuza late in the season, defeating several opponents expected to triumph over her, has earned her this moniker of affection from fans.

All-Stars 1

• The explosive scene from Untucked centered on Mimi Imfurst has gone down in Drag Race herstory as having numerous iconic moments despite being a mostly forgettable season, largely due to the antics of Tammie Brown.
  • "Act the fool, girl."
  • "HAH! HAH! I'm acting!"
  • "Oh! Well, c'mon, Teletubby! Teleport us to Mars!"
  • "Change! Your! Cos! Tume! Change it arouuuund!"
  • "Well, guess what, Mimi? We did!"
  • "Mimi Imfurst was number third in the voting, I could not believe it." ^note Raven expressing her disbelief that Mimi placed third overall in a poll of who fans wanted to see come back. "I could not believe it" has become a stock phrase itself.
  • "Let me tell you what: my father fucked Marlene Dietrich!" ^note Another non sequitur dropped by Tammie during the infamous Untucked fight. According to Tammie, one of the producers would talk too much to the queens between filming and talked to Tammie about her father.

All-Stars 2

• "Rigga Morris", after Alyssa Edwards' mispronunciation of "rigor mortis" in All-Stars 2, has become popular on forums like Reddit to express the belief that the season is rigged in favor of one contestant in particular, who has won numerous challenges and lip syncs despite some fans feeling that she should not have.
• Coco Montrese's "I'm not holding shit back... Oh, at all!" line from her elimination in episode one.
• "Party."^ExplanationKatya's devastating one-word response to Alaska begging her not to eliminate her, which partly causes the latter queen's subsequent breakdown. This meme's popularity is largely down to this video, which also acts as a sort of Drag Race meme Hall of Fame.
• Tatianna's "Choices!"
  • "We all make choices, but that was a Choice."
• "I'M ROXXXY ANDREWS AND I'M HERE TO MAKE IT CLEAR"^ExplanationThe incipit of Roxxxy's So Bad, It's Good verse in "Read U, Wrote U".
• "You're that girl—I knew you were."^note Alyssa confronting Phi Phi after her elimination.
• "What's up, hookers?!"^note Said by Tatianna during both of her entrances into the werk room.
• "They got me, gal!"^note Ginger Minj's line during her elimination. The other queens can be heard cackling in the background.

All-Stars 3

• Milk exclaiming "Is she going to jump from there?!" in shock during Aja's performance in the Talent Show.
• "I'm so into voguing right now."^ExplanationGuest judge Vanessa Hudgens' critiques for Aja's talent show performance, which the fans mocked for her being a straight girl making light of something essential to black queer culture but soon accepted as part of the show's millieu. It didn't hurt that Peppermint's frequent collaborator Adam Joseph made a remix of the line shortly after its broadcast.
• BenDeLaCreme's Shocking Elimination, particularly the famous shot of her holding up the lipstick with her own name written on it, which has been edited numerous times to have different names on it.
• Bebe proclaiming the elimination process (where the queens eliminate one another from the competition rather than RuPaul) to be the "gag of the season", not knowing that it had been done in All-Stars 2 already.
• "Aw, Jesus! Gross!" ^ExplanationThorgy's reaction to her elimination.
• "That's a lot of emotions for safe."^note Trixie reacting to Milk breaking down in tears for a middle-of-the-road placement very early on in the season. Has become an internal meme come Season 14 when Bosco realizes Jasmine Kennedie is also letting the stress of the competition get to her...on only the 1st episode with a real elimination.
• "Fuck my drag, right?" ^ExplanationKennedy's salty reaction to Milk saying that when Thorgy and Kennedy were on the bottom, she would've kept Thorgy because she finds her drag style more interesting. This has since become synonymous with "What am I, chopped liver?"
• "Kennedy, with great power—" "Milk."^ExplanationAfter the slight above, Kennedy won the next maxi challenge and chose to eliminate Milk. While what was shown on TV was fairly normal for the drama and tension raising deliberations before the reveal of Kennedy's choice, with Milk falling out of favor with the fans as a result of the edit they received devolved into clips of Ru being cut off by Kennedy's decision and its use in any situation where an elimination goes as the fans want.
• "Oh, work bitch." ^ExplanationAnother one of Thorgy's reaction, this time to Shangela's final runway walk.
• "Y'all told her on the Internet it was funny! I blame y'all."^ExplanationShangela directly addressing the audience while watching Trixie as RuPaul during Snatch Game.

All-Stars 4

• Gia Gunn's delighted expression upon seeing Farrah Moan fall on the main stage was instantly exploitable.
• "I don't know what the fuck she's saying, but girl, I am living." ^ExplanationTrinity talking about Valentina recording her part in the episode 2 girl groups challenge, partially singing in Spanish.
• Valentina's intense delivery of "So, you think I could go home tonight?!" being declared as worthy of an Emmy award.
  • Similarly, her fury at being read for her outfit in week 4 despite being safe. "Ladies! I'm boiling. My blood is simmering through my veins and I have something to say!"
• Gia's "Well what you wanna do is not necessarily what you're gonna do!" declaration is a very common reaction gif.
• Ironically for having been read by the judges as being fairly slapshod work, Valentina and Naomi's "Club 96" became memetic fairly quickly after broadcast. Naomi's constant delivery of "Club 96" in an exaggeratedly hushed whisper throughout the video certainly helped. Incidentally, Willam used Club 96 as an example on Race Chaser that oftentimes, the worst products of a challenge on the show end up becoming memebait.
• In the LaLaPaRUza episode, Gia's exclamation of "What privilege!" quickly gained traction.

All-Stars 5

• "I would sensually walk towards the thermostat, and turn up the thermostat to a sensible seventy-four." ^ExplanationJujubee as Eartha Kitt in the Snatch Game of Love, upon being asked how she would keep Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman warm if the two of them were holidaying together during a Canadian winter.

All-Stars 6

• The Tina Burner Promo ^ExplanationWhen the promos for All-Stars 6 came out, there were instant comparisons of the red, orange, and yellow promo theme to Tina Burner's recurring colors.
• "This season, there's a game within a game." ^ExplanationRu stated this in episode 1, and ends every episode by repeating this line to the eliminated queen. It wasn't until episode 10 that we actually found out what the game within a game was, and by this point the season was already on Top 4, leading many to joke about it's repeated mentioning.
• Ra'Jah O'Hara's face when Trinity asked to be congratulated.
• Ginger Minj's camouflaging herself to spy on the other team.
• Jan Face Crack 2.0 ^ExplanationAfter her famous/infamous face crack from her season for the Madonna Rusical loss, Jan delivers again after the girl group challenge when Pandora's name was revealed for elimination, only for Alexis Mateo to reveal it was a tie, and Trinity eliminated her anyway. Jan's reaction as she breaks down and covers her mouth with her hand has been seen as the new 'Face Crack Heard Around the World'.
• "The Silky Nutmeg Ganache Lip-Sync Smack-Down!" ^ExplanationEpisode 10, after Silky survived 7 weeks of lip-syncs, pretty much taking over the entire episode.

All-Stars 7: All Winners

• Roger ^ExplanationWhat Jinkx Monsoon calls Raja in the Reading mini-challenge.
• Broom ^ExplanationJudy!Jinkx's misnomer for RuPaul in the Snatch Game has been adopted by the Drag Race fandom as a Fan Nickname for Ru akin to Maggie!DeLa's "Roople".

All-Stars 8

• "She found her ETB card and, on a Taco Tuesday, she never left the card because she loved to celebrate Taco Tuesday. She liked the soft shell with carne asada. That's her favorite, with guacamole. And guacomole's expensive so she's not gonna leave without her card. That was weird for me..."^ExplanationJessica Wild's monologue during the Forensic Queens challenge, delivered with a completely serious and deadpan expression. Often posted on places like Twitter and Instagram complete with emojis.
• "Not a soul can clock"^ExplanationA repeated line from Monica's variety show performance. People noted it's Mondegreen potential, with many hearing the line as "not a soaking clock".

The Switch 2

• Mujer sweetie, mujer^ExplanationAn infamous line from Gia Gunn during an explosive fight with Sofía Camará which goes viral every so often on social media for how volatile and random their argument was.

UK Series 1

• "You clearly don't value what I do as a drag queen. Tell me anybody else in this werk room who has a four and a half octave range. Tell me anybody else who can sing in five languages. Tell me anybody else who can do all that while doing the splits. Tell me anybody else who has fifteen years of directing production shows!" ^ExplanationThe Vivienne made Divina De Campo feel unappreciated one too many times, and Divina just went off on her with a speech. Divina only made fans love her more with this rant.
  • "A red wig and a silver dress? I don't think." ^ExplanationFrom the same discussion, the Vivienne accused Divina of not being a versatile artist outside of the show, making an example of Divina's signature outfit being reused over and over again. Divina disagreed but, in a case of Hilarious in Hindsight, there are really many, many times in which she had worn a red wig with a silver dress, including her promo look.
• "Much bettah!!!" ^ExplanationFrom a confused interaction Baga Chipz had with Michelle between takes, during the "Downton Draggy" challenge, about the delivery of "much better." Baga couldn't stop saying it afterward.
• "I'm ready for another week of me doing mediocre." ^ExplanationAfter performing poorly in previous episodes, Cheryl goes full Self-Deprecation. Amusingly, she actually performed well that week (the girl group challenge), but had the bad luck of being on the losing team.

UK Series 2

• "I don't want to see any fucking H&M." ^ExplanationIn Episode 5, Ru snaps to a level unseen since Season 7's ShakesQueer, partly because of Joe Black admitting buying his plain challenge outfit directly from H&M. This quickly led people to joke that Ru hates H&M, that H&M's market shares would be plummeting after the episode, or that Ru is a hypocrite since Asttina won the first episode while wearing an ASOS jacket (though Ru's issue was less with off-the-rack clothing per se than with wearing it as it is, instead of embellishing and styling it in a way befitting of a drag queen, which is exactly what Asttina did). Of note, Joe was eliminated in episode 1 and during the lockdown sold off a lot of the drag he had commissioned for the show, entirely unaware that he would even be given the opportunity to return due to Veronica Green testing positive before filming resumed.
• BING BANG BONG ^ExplanationThe incipit of "UK, Hun?" (the song the queens had to perform in the RuRuvision challenge) quickly became memetic for its Ear Worm qualities.
• "I am serving you an adequate dress made of material that is on my body. Vintage? No! Elegant? No! Still stuck on me? Just about. The judges seem vaguely amused by what is happening here before them, and I'm okay with that." ^ExplanationTia's legendary description of her Who Wore It Better dress.
• Tia Kofi's Alan Turing look. ^Explanation Tia Kofi's "LGBT Icon" look was a drag version of Alan Turing, a code breaker in World War II (among other things) who was persecuted for being gay by the government after the war had finished. While the look itself wasn't remarked upon too much at the time, a gifset of Tia typing on an invisible keyboard on the runway became a reaction image when people wanted to joke about their non-existent computing prowess, and there was some very minor controversy with The Vivienne not actually knowing who Alan Turing was.

UK Series 3

• UK Queens' knees ^ExplanationReferring to certain queens' tendency to jump and land on their knees during lip-syncs in Drag Race UK, including Blu from Series 1 and Tia and Lawrence from Series 2. Many veteran queens have advised against doing this, as it can cause severe knee and leg injuries; the joke usually goes that UK queens can afford to do this since the NHS provides medical care for free. This reached a head when Victoria Scone had to leave the competition after really getting a knee injury during a lip-sync.
• Ten days ^ExplanationIn her and Alaska's podcast Race Chaser, Willam alleged that the series was filmed to the tune of a grueling one episode each day for ten episodes total. While there are reports that filming was indeed rushed, the specific ten days figure was largely ridiculed for being impossible to do (for example, episodes such as the Snatch Game cannot be wrapped from mini-challenge to runway in just one day) and debunked by some queens, reminding fans to always take Willam's words with a pinch of salt.
• "What the fuck?" ^Explanation Michelle's bewildered response when Elektra Fence starts breakdancing to "Moving on Up" by M People.

UK Series 4

• Starlet's death drop ^ExplanationDuring her lipsync against Jonbers Blonde, Starlet barely moves during the performance before doing the most stiffest death drop imaginable.
• Sminty's sad twerk ^ExplanationAs Sminty Drop sashays away in episode 4, she makes a Call-Back to her failed performance in the Improv challenge by twerking by the exit in the most self-depreciating way possible.

Canada Season 1

• "IT'S MY SPECIAL DAYYYYYYY!!!!!" ^ExplanationJimbo's deafening yell during the commercial challenge, meant as a mockery of Attention Whore girls at bachelorette parties.
• "Peronka." ^ExplanationAlyssa Edwards' mispronunciation of Priyanka's name in The Pit Stop review of episode 7 immediately became a fandom running gag. Classic Alyssa.

Canada Season 2

• Eve 6000 as Revealiana^ExplanationFor the Under the Big Top, Live RuSical challenge with some amazing lines.
  • "I've got a. Trick up my. Sleeve."^note Sometimes editted down to "I've got a. Sleeve."
  • "Now we pause, for the big... reveal. And you never saw it coming, baby."
  • *Picks wig up off the ground to put back on head* "Now here's another one." *Throws wig off, again.* "And you didn't see it coming."
• Eve 6000 in the replies ^ExplanationEve is very active on Twitter, and is often found in the replies of viral Tweets. People began to make jokes about her near-ubiquity on the site, usually including her Twitter profile picture.

Down Under Series 1

• This is camp ^ExplanationThe Aussie queens describe a loooot of things as camp.
• That means nothing ^ExplanationA producer tries to console Art Simone after her elimination by reminding her that she still made it onto the show. In return, Art gives her this line and a scathing look.
• Down Under's Boulet Brothers ^ExplanationKita and Anita have done many Drag Race firsts by being the first drag duo to ever grace the show as well as the first time the hosts from another drag competition series that had nothing to do with this franchise competing as contestants. This makes them somewhat comparable to the Boulet Brothers from Dragula in terms of success but with near opposite styles, which fits very well with the joke that everything is flipped upside down in Australasia.
• The first lip sync was trying to warn us ^ExplanationThe general reaction to the season as it was airing was overwhelmingly negative for many reasons with each episode being met with a long list of harsh words. Because of this the first lip sync "Tragedy" by The Bee Gees was jokingly regarded as setting the tone for the season and telling everyone how it was going to end.

España Season 1

• Dalígate ^ExplanationOut of six queens still in the competition, three of them (Sagittaria, Killer Queen, and Dovima Nurmi) walk the Spanish Art runway in outfits inspired by Salvador Dalí, which was the inspiration for the already eliminated The Macarena's look as well. This didn't go unnoticed by viewers, especially when there are so many different Spanish artists to choose from, and comparisons were made with Kimonogate from US Season 8.

UK vs The World Season 1

• Pangina hates Canadians ^ExplanationDrag Race Thailand co-host Pangina Heals was responsible for the elimination of both Canadian queens on this season. After the elimination of the second, fans, Drag Race alums, and even Pangina’s co-host joked that she had a vendetta against the country.
• "I'll get you Ru! And your little dog too! I'm talking about you Michelle." ^Explanation Jimbo's exit line, where she quotes the Wicked Witch of the West.

UK vs The World Season 2

• Chaka Khan Chaka Khan / ijbowl ^ExplanationA line from Mayhem's infamous talent show, where she broke down laughing in the middle. The shot of her laughing has become a popular reaction image and video, with even Mayhem herself changing her profile pictures to it.

Philippines Season 1

• "THE SHOOOOEEEESSSS!"^explanationHost Paolo Ballesteros had a field day in episode 1 reading Prince's shoes to filth, partly because they looked very out of place on the runway, partly because they were the same ones she used during her talent show performance which was also lackluster. After Prince's elimination, when she tried to offer her shoes as a parting gift, Mamwa Pao quickly declined the offer, and they were later found back in the Werk Room as if Prince thought they were cursed.

Other

• The Drag Race subreddit has become notorious for being really good at figuring out which queens are going to be on the show, as well as accumulating spoilers in general. Since Season 8, they've managed to correctly predict the entire cast of every season months in advance, with one exception^note A queen named Skarlet Starlet was reported to be on Season 8, which ultimately turned out to not be true.. The insane ability and work of the subreddit has become a meme entirely on its own:
  • "Nancy Drew-ing" has become the term used to describe the fan collection of spoilers, a reference to Shangela's "I am the Nancy Drew of drag" quote from Season 3's
  • Comparing belly buttons ^ExplanationAs part of the promotion for the Season 9 cast reveal, WoW released close-up videos of odd parts of the queens' bodies (such as belly buttons, elbows, and earlobes) as they were filming promo videos out of drag. Reddit quickly took screenshots of these body parts and compared them to the rumored queens' same body parts to help confirm which queens were on the show. Generally, when talking about the insane extent fans will go to in order to gather info on the show, the inspection of belly buttons and elbows is cited as a highlight.
  • Naivesmalls ^ExplanationThe username of one of the most prolific contributors to Reddit's rumor-mill, a majority of their information on Seasons 8 and 9 ended up being true. Halfway through All-Stars 3, naivesmalls' account was deactivated, and since then fans have declared naivesmalls the patron saint of Reddit's tea-spilling in memory of their work.
• Suspiciously Large Woman ^Explanation Originally the title of Bob the Drag Queen's stand-up special, it has become a joking way of calling drag queens when pictured alongside other people, i.e. in meet and greet photos. Since most queens are full-grown adult men in heels and big wigs, many viewers have no idea how tall they really are.
• Drag Race Curses/Superstitions
  • The Luck of the Clown ^Explanation It has been pointed out for years that dressing as a clown will bring a queen good luck towards winning the entire competition. So far eight winners (Bianca, Violet, Bob, Sasha Velour, Yvie, Icesis, Spankie, and Jimbo) have dressed as clowns and won their season, with the first four queens winning consecutively and Jimbo winning All Stars 8. This has become something of an ascended meme after Bob and Sasha brought it up on the Pit Stop during the season 12 premiere in regards to contestant Crystal Methyd who walked in dressed as a clown. While she didn't win the season, she's gone from an underdog to one of the finalists, keeping the lucky charm alive.
  • Disco/Black and White Makeover Curse ^Explanation The Evil Counterpart to the "Luck of the Clown", fans have noted that two specific things seem to practically spell out death for any queen that chooses to do them during the makeover challenge: choosing disco-inspired or black-and-white outfits. Of the two, the disco curse appears to be the harder-hitting one. Alaska, Shea, Manila, Gigi, Lemon, Hannah and Tomara all did black and white looks for the makeover and were either up for elimination or narrowly avoided lipsyncing, while Jaidynn, Kameron, Silky, Heidi, and Jackie all wore disco looks and lipsynced. Kita Mean from Down Under Season 1 is the only queen so far to buck the trend by winning the makeover in a pair of black-and-white outfits, and then proceeded to win the season
  • The "Change Your Makeup" Curse ^Explanation When Michelle takes a disliking to a queen's Signature Style, such as Dusty's dots or Max only wearing grey wigs, the episode they finally give her what she wants and changes it, the queen is eliminated. Notably, Bianca and Crystal Methyd are some of the only queens to avoid being defeated by the curse, Bianca by simply ignoring Michelle's advice and continuing on as usual, and Crystal by softening her makeup and building back up to it over the competition. Interestingly, they both are the two biggest examples of the clown lucky charm.
  • Seasons divisible by 3 ^Explanation It has been stated that every season divisible by three has a really strong cast and a really good run. Season 3, 6, 9, 12, and now All-Stars 6 are generally the ones fans think of for the strongest finalists while other seasons have been more lackluster. Fans, equal parts joking and superstitiously, predict that Season 15 will continue the run and be iconic.
  • 8th place ^Explanation In more recent seasons, whichever queen lands in 8th place tends to be very popular with the fans despite being a mid-season out. Monique, Farrah, Plastique, Jan, and Denali all had lukewarm performances on the show but were beloved by fans who were quick to call them robbed. The former two soon appeared on All-Stars where their popularity continued to grow, Plastique has gone on to become one of the most successful TikTok users ever, Jan has become the standard many queens are compared to, and Denali has broken several records for just how quickly her lipsync videos surpassed a million views. The latest additions to this superstition are Down Under's Anita, who was the fan favorite at the time by far (leading many viewers to say that, with her gone, there's no reason for them to keep watching the season), and UK 3's Charity Kase, whose "horror" style of drag was criticized by the judges but was a hit with viewers. While making it to the finale is almost universally better, 8th place seems to be a good omen.
  • The Pre-Show Success Curse ^Explanation A lot of queens who are very popular preseason (mainly through the internet) for things they've done unrelated to the show tend to perform poorly and be early outs. Season 11's Soju, Season 15's Sugar and Spice, Holland's Roem, UK season 2's Joe Black, Down Under 1's Art Simone, and España 2's Ariel Rec all had success on the internet and were eliminated early on in the season, with three of them being the first eliminated queen.
  • The All-Stars Confessional Queen Curse ^Explanation Every All-Stars season since All-Stars 2 has featured a queen (Katya, Shangela, Monique, Jujubee, and now Ra’jah) who has the most confessionals and essentially reacts to everything that happens in that episode. While they all make it to the finale and are a top pick for the crown, none of these queens have won.
  • Drag Race UK's reading mini-challenge curse ^ExplanationAcross three series of UK, the queen who won the reading mini-challenge has gone home in the same episode (Crystal, Sister Sister, and Choriza May). The trend was bucked in Series 4, with Pixie Polite winning the mini-challenge and then sticking around until the second-to-last episode, and continuing into Series 5, with Kate Butch lasting a few more episodes afterwards.
  • The Rusical Curse ^Explanation Across nearly all iterations of Drag Race, any queen that wins the Rusical challenge (e.g. Courtney, Ginger, Kameron, Silky, Gigi, Rosé, Anetra, Janey, Puny, Pythia, Pangina, Plasma) will make it far in the competition, but fail to win the crown. Whilst some queens (Danny, Precious, and Pitita) have defied the curse, in the mainline US and All-Stars series not one queen has manged to win both the Rusical and the competition.
  • The Asian Snatch Game Curse ^Explanation Queens of Asian descent tend to place low or in the bottom for Snatch Game. Victims include Jujubee (three times, though once was by default in All Stars 5, plus the All Stars 1 Gaff-In challenge), Gia Gunn (twice eliminated), Aura Mayari, Nymphia Wind, Sum Ting Wong, River Medway, Le Fil, Kimmy Couture, Stephanie Prince, Aurora Matrix, Pangina Heals, and Keta Minaj. Exceptions are Manila Luzon who won in All Stars 4, Melinda Verga who did the same in Canada 4, and of course all contestants of Thailand and Philippines.

• With large amounts of rumors being accumulated every season, several pieces of "tea" that ultimately turn out to be false get circulated every season. Some of these end up being so ridiculous that they become pieces of the fan lexicon on their own:
  • "___ punches Michelle in the left tit." ^ExplanationOne Season 8 rumor said that Acid Betty got into an intense argument with the judges during critiques for Snatch Game, during which she ran up to the judges' table and punched Michelle Visage in her breast. Any time fans are discussing rumors and speculation, someone is always quick to joke that maybe this will finally be the season someone punches Michelle in the tit.
  • "fake thlut" ^ExplanationA Season 9 rumor which said Aja and Kimora got into a rumor where Kimora gave Aja the number for her plastic surgeon, and Aja responded by saying "I'd slap you, but I don't want to get fake slut on my hand." Morphed into "fake thlut" due to Aja's lisp.
  • "Ongina is on All-Stars 3 but does so poorly in Episode 1's reading mini-challenge that Ru eliminates her on the spot" ^ExplanationSeason 1 fan-favorite Ongina has been a common request for All-Stars since the very first season. During pre-production and filming of All-Stars 3, several sources claimed that Ongina was on the show that season, but sources who were in the audience for the Episode 1 variety show stated that they did not see Ongina there. Thus, the quote was given as an explanation for how Ongina could be on the show but not be present for the first main challenge (Ongina wasn't on All-Stars 3 at all; she did eventually make it on All-Stars 5).
  • "Aquaria dances naked on the judges' table while The Vixen does gravity-defying moves." ^ExplanationA peculiar Season 10 rumor about a speculated lip-sync that never happened (Aquaria never landed in the bottom 2 during the season).
  • Yuhua was in a coma ^Explanation A unique example of a fake rumor coming directly from a queen- Yuhua used this as her excuse for her social media disappearance during season 10's filming. This was so bizarre it naturally became popular with fans.
  • Gia died. ^Explanation Perhaps one of the most extreme false rumors to ever come out of the show back during season 6.
  • "Moonwalks Aggressively" ^Explanation A rumor circulated during season 12 that one of the queens would purposefully throw a dance challenge to end up in a lipsync just to cement her status as a lipsync assassin. The rumor claimed she would do all sorts of kicks and flips and continuously asserted that among these moves would be "Moonwalks Aggressively". Some have speculated that this rumor was true and the queen in question was Gigi during the Madonna challenge (she struggles in practice but performs well enough in the challenge to win, with one of her dance moves looking similar to moonwalking, and she does a backflip and is flipped by dancers) but was severely jumbled by either bad memory or willful misdirection.
  • "Your lash is crooked" ^Explanation Back in season 7, it was rumored that Jasmine Masters and Miss Fame would have a heated argument similar to Phi Phi and Willam's in season 4. Jasmine would allegedly call into questions Fame's makeup skills and Fame would coolly shut her down by pointing out her crooked lash. Suffice to say nothing of the sort ever happened.
  • "Derrick comes in wearing a hat." ^Explanation One of the leaked pieces of info for All-Stars 5. Fans were questioning why this detail was being listed alongside more juicy pieces of gossip. Ended up becoming beloved by the fanbase because of how banal it is.
  • Tina Burner is carried out on a stretcher ^Explanation Tina got the obligatory 'some medical emergency happens' fake tea this season, alleging that she would have an accident of some kind during a lip sync and have to be taken to the hospital, unable to continue. Nothing of the sort happened but given that Tina actually did have a medical emergency post-season, a few fans suspected the rumor of having a glimmer of truth up until it was disproven.
  • "Hot dog water of drag" ^Explanation Fake tea that Nice Girl Olivia was supposed to say this about Kandy to her face
  • Denali is in the bottom for Snatch Game ^Explanation The Spoiled Subreddit was confident that Denali would lip-sync during Snatch Game because she said it was the challenge she feared the most, she had already proven herself to be a poor actress, and because they already knew Dance Battler Elliott would be eliminated so the other queen in the bottom had to be a strong lip-syncer. The community was so assured that she was going to bomb the challenge that when a user claimed that they knew Denali and that she had told them she wasn't eliminated, everyone dismissed them as either a complete liar who wanted attention or that Denali lied to get them off her case. When the episode aired and proved that that user had been honest the whole time, the Subreddit lost their minds.
• "It's fashion." ^Explanation A clip from The Pit Stop featuring Peppermint attempting to recover after burping mid-sentence, repeating the phrase over and over through laughter, while Bob the Drag Queen laughs at her inability to get back on track or remember the word "Pageant".
• "Oh, the fracking?" "No, not that!" ^Explanation Another clip featuring Peppermint and Bob the Drag Queen, this time from an Instagram discussion between the two, where Bob brings up the controversial news about RuPaul leasing the mineral rights of the land he owns to oil companies, only for Peppermint to hurriedly attempt to hush him, leading to the two of them having a laughing fit.
• If a queen's drag name has a last name but is only referred to by their first name on the show, any discussion involving their last name will have it be censored or spoilered. For example, Jan Sport, Brita Filter, Denali Foxx.
• DRAG EXCELLENCE ^Explanation After Denali put out a video called Chicago Drag Excellence showcasing as many drag performers from the local scene as she could it sparked a trend for other cities to do the same and celebrate their own drag communities. Copenhagen Drag Excellence, Houston Drag Excellence, and Chicago Drag Excellence: Legendary Children are just some of the videos that have come about from taking on this challenge.
• Ru Girl ^Explanation The term "Ru Girl," popularized by the Alaska Thunderfuck song of the same name, has entered the drag lexicon to describe queens that are former contestants from the show. This is not always meant as a positive.
• Sitting Alone in the VIP ^Explanation tweeted by a pre "Drag Race" Kandy Muse expressing sadness about being famous, it instantly became viral, with fans and queens taking pics of themselves solo in the mentioned VIP sections.Alaska Thunderfuck would turn it into a song in 2020, making the meme permanent.
• Zero beauty ^Explanation An infamous tweet from Gia Gunn claimed that she saw "zero beauty" at Drag Con 2022 and asked "what happened to the glamour?" Queens and fans alike ran with this statement.