| 1 | %%Per this ATT https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/query.php?parent_id=114200&type=att, we are troping the queens and crew as characters on a TV show, not as real people, so please do not add real names or other personal information that is not explicitly given on the show. |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This rule also means that we can't list any Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease tropes applied to the real person rather than a drag persona. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Tropes with their own subpage: |
| 7 | [[index]] |
| 8 | * [[EliminationHoudini/RuPaulsDragRace Elimination Houdini]] |
| 9 | * [[Memes/RuPaulsDragRace Memetic Mutation]] |
| 10 | [[/index]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 13 | [[folder:A-D]] |
| 14 | * AccidentalInnuendo: It's always difficult to tell if any innuendo on this show is ''ever'' accidental; however, during All-Stars, Tammie Brown and Nina Flowers were teamed up and given the PortmanteauCoupleName of "Team Brown Flowers". As it gets pointed out during the show, a "Brown Flower" is also another word for an anus. |
| 15 | * AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: |
| 16 | ** [=RuPaul=] herself falls into this. Every episode, Ru roams the workroom chatting with the girls as they prepare for challenges. Is her intention to give them constructive criticism, or is it to shake them up and create more reality TV drama? Her infamous "staredown" with Season 7's Pearl, as well as Ru's obvious meddling with Violet and Fame's choices for Snatch Game, has only served to further polarize this issue with fans. |
| 17 | ** In one episode of season 6, Gia Gunn comforts Laganja Estranja backstage into not quitting the competition and to give it her all. Was Gia being a good friend, even though they might be the bottom two fighting to keep their spots? Or was Gia simply so sure that Milk would be in bottom instead of the both of them that encouraging Laganja would be relatively harmless? |
| 18 | ** Regarding Magnolia Crawford's attitude towards the show, especially as seen setting up for the Reunion; is she really that bitter about going home first, including refusing to watch her own season and keeping the experience "hers alone"? Or is she just faking it as another attempt to get people to talk about her and boost her ego with negative fan recognition? |
| 19 | ** Laganja Estranja has actually given ''three'' separate reasons in regards to her over-the-top behavior during the show; first she claimed that the way she was acting was her "real" personality, the way in which she acts with her close friends (which may also have been a dig at her 'friend' Adore Delano). Then, during the reunion, she insinuates that her on-air personality was fake, and that she was trying to be funny for the camera, but doesn't outright take back her previous statement either. Finally, perhaps in response to accusations from the fans, she also claims that her behavior was the result of marijuana withdrawal, when she says she's much calmer during the reunion because she's 'medicated'. In the end, no one really knows what was up with Laganja's kiki "OKRRR" personality and quick-to-tears drama. |
| 20 | ** Max is another one that could be taken a number of ways: is she a classy NiceGuy who genuinely tries to avoid drama and stay positive? Or is she just as bitchy as the other girls, but expresses these thoughts off-camera? She was certainly sanitizing herself to a degree--she has stated that she wanted to present an image her family could watch, when her brand outside the show is fairly leather-gothic and bondage-heavy as opposed to the old-school film glamour she presented onscreen. ''Untucked'' also feature scenes of Ginger and Kennedy claiming she is a bit of a bitch and Max herself trash talking Ginger and Jaidynn behind their backs. |
| 21 | ** Was Ginger Minj telling the truth when she claimed that dancing and sewing are big weaknesses for her, or was she [[ObfuscatingStupidity cultivating a more vulnerable image]]? Outside the show, she has a theater background and choreography and costume design credits, which have raised eyebrows for some fans. When questioned about these at the reunion, she clarified that those resume items were actually 16 years old--meaning Ginger was ''13'' at the time--and were from a children's theater group, where "Costume Designer" could mean buying cheap clothes at a thrift shop and using them as-is. |
| 22 | ** Michelle and Ru's critiques of Derrick in the first episode of Season 8. Michelle says she wants to see more than the Britney Spears impersonation Derrick is known for, while Ru says it's okay for her to do Britney if that's her style. Are they ''really'' in disagreement, or are they intentionally making her question how she wants to move forward in the competition? |
| 23 | ** Naysha Lopez: A sympathetic queen who left too soon, when she had so much more to show? Or a condescending pageant bitch who can't dance and was sent home right on time? Her return is similarly split for the same reasons, for those who are glad she was given a second chance, and those who believe she was sent home for a reason and it was a waste for her to return (especially since said return was built up beforehand, making many people think someone else was going to join the cast instead), as she was promptly eliminated again in the next episode. |
| 24 | ** Alaska repeatedly saving Roxxxy Andrews from elimination in [=AS2=]: Was she just being a loyal friend and saving Roxxxy because she really believed she had more to offer and deserved to stay? Or was she trying to covertly eliminate some stronger competitors (Alyssa and Tatianna) and keep Roxxxy in the game because she knew she could beat her in the finale? |
| 25 | ** Charlie Hides: A tough competitor who hid a serious injury to avoid showing weakness during the competition, or a wimp who not only gave up during her lip-sync, but offered a plethora of excuses for her elimination? |
| 26 | ** Valentina: Genuine NiceGuy or BitchInSheepsClothing? She was sympathetic and all smiles during the show, but multiple queens (Raja, Aja, Farrah Moan and Shea Coulee) have since called her out for being fake. Doesn't help that when she wins Miss Congeniality, almost everyone in the room argues she doesn't deserve it and changes the title to "Miss Fan Favorite." Her response afterwards hasn't helped. |
| 27 | ** All-Stars 5, many fans were shocked that Shea beat "Lip-synch Assassin" Alyssa Edwards for a Legacy Lip-Synch, some fans claiming Alyssa not doing any splits or shenanigans was suspect to her not giving it her all (since she wouldn't win anything anyway if she won or lost), while others simply argue such a routine didn't really fit the song. Two weeks later when an insider leak revealed Morgan [=McMichaels=] was stopped ''during'' her lip-synch and told to tone it down so that her and Miz Cracker could share a double-win, some fans have revisted the Shea/Alyssa lip-synch and wonder if Alyssa really did throw the performance at production's request, as fans know Shea is very favored to do well this season. |
| 28 | ** Discussed at the start of Episode 3 of All Stars 6: Trinity is revealed as the only other person who voted for Yara to go home besides Jiggly, who was herself in the bottom 2 that night. This immediately puts Trinity under a magnifying glass given that the broad consensus among the other queens was that Jiggly performed worse at the ball challenge. When asked to justify her choice, Trinity explained that while Jiggly's output ''was'' objectively worse, she had a greater drive to be in the competition, whereas Yara spent most of the challenge [[UnsportsmanlikeGloating faffing around the Werkroom bragging about her design skills]] and deliberately doing nothing in an attempt to throw her competitors off-kilter ([[LaserGuidedKarma an effort that pointedly did not pay off]]). The other queens, however, accused Trinity of casting her vote in revenge for Yara having voted for her to go home the previous episode. |
| 29 | * AluminumChristmasTrees: Claims that the modern day "British Accent" actually came about ''after'' the United States seceded from the UK, and that prior to that the people of Great Britain sounded like Americans do today. While this sounds like ArtisticLicenseHistory, there actually is some truth behind this claim as the English developed nonrhotic pronunciations (the modern "British" accent) some time in the 19th century. |
| 30 | * AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: All-Stars 6 attracted flak after the initial cast announcement (which featured a lot of [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base Breaking Characters]], queens that did fairly poorly in their season, or both) along with the move to a fledgling online streaming sevice. However the first three episodes dropped have so far revealed a season where there is no clear frontrunner (such as in All-Stars 3 or 5), lipsync assassins who are actually meeting their job description (e.g. Coco Montrese and Laganja Estranja) and more self-reflection amongst the queens who noticed they were rubbing people the wrong way in their initial seasons (e.g. Ra'Jah, Eureka! and Silky, to the latters [[ShrinkingViolet detriment]]). To wit, Episodes 3 and 10 are currently ranked respectively the third and fifth highest rated episode of '''all time''' on IMDB. |
| 31 | * {{Anvilicious}}: Sometimes the queens going into their DarkAndTroubledPast, whether it be about their families or finding love or what have you, can feel really scripted and forced. As revealed at an Untucked Panel at Drag Con 2016, it is common for a producer to walk up to a queen in the workroom, interrupt the already limited time she has for makeup, and tell her to start talking about her dead mother. |
| 32 | * ArcFatigue: |
| 33 | ** Season 5's Alyssa/Coco rivalry. Presumably Ru wanted to recapture the popularity of season 4's Phi Phi/Sharon dynamic, but Alyssa and Coco refused to be anything but vague about their falling out. Season 5's acting and comedy focus--not a forte for either of them--also kept them from holding viewers' attention outside their arguments. In the end fans were just waiting for one of them to go home already. |
| 34 | ** Season 13 is often on the receiving end of this opinion. The breaking point was the COVID-19 documentary special slotted between episodes 8 and 9 in lieu of a regular episode. Coupled with the preceding episode being a non-elimination, this meant that ''three weeks'' passed between one elimination and the next one, and after two months from the premiere there were still 9 queens in the competition. If the documentary special is counted, Season 13 is effectively the longest season of the show to date at 17 episodes. The season was also unfavorably compared with ''Drag Race UK'' Series 2 which was broadcast on the BBC in the same period, and which was seen as having a stronger cast and a tighter narrative flow; the UK likewise had its own COVID-19 special, but it didn't take the place of a regular episode and its placement in the middle of the series made sense, since it covered the seven-month production break. |
| 35 | ** Season 14 has also been criticized for this, due to its sheer amount of non-elimination episodes- from duel premiere episodes, to no Bottom 2 in the Daytona Wind episode, to multiple double shantays with the chocolate bar twist. |
| 36 | ** All Stars 6 has been incredibly well-received by the fans, however the whole "game within a game" twist Ru has promised since episode 1 is wearing a little thin. Every time a queen is eliminated it's hinted they could return to the competition in something only referred to as a game within a game, however its until episode 10 that they finally reveal what it is. Waiting so long for the reveal some fans are tired of the hype, not to mention the fact they are waiting so long to launch it any queen who went home early (Serena, Jiggly, Silky, etc.) wouldn't even benefit coming back since they've already missed the most important episodes. That being said, once the episode did air it seems to have been incredibly well accepted, giving the audience great performances, a great song list, and an underdog/redemption arc in Silky ... although general consensus is that it still could have been done sooner in the season. |
| 37 | * AuthorsSavingThrow: |
| 38 | ** Season 3's winner leaked months before the finale's airtime, to numerous fan complaints. As a workaround, seasons 4-8 filmed ''each'' of the finalists winning, with the aired TV episode being the first time the audience ''and'' queens discovered the winner. This abated complaints about leaks, but raised new arguments about the crowning feeling incredibly fake, especially since the finale ''also'' went from filming on a closed set to having a live audience. |
| 39 | ** The season 9 finale attempts to addresses complaints about previous seasons ''and'' itself: |
| 40 | *** The finale format attempted to make up for the "multiple endings" trick introduced in season 4 and season 9's own lackluster lip syncs. The final four were left hanging for several months after filming the penultimate episode. The finale was filmed live with a studio audience close to the airdate and featured a lip sync elimination tournament where Ru could genuinely crown the winner for the first time. Said audience immediately leaked the winner on Reddit, and the tournament twist ''still'' caused a bit of a BrokenBase. |
| 41 | *** With season 4, the finale and reunion were combined into one live show filmed before an audience. From season 5, fans expressed concerns that being in front of a huge crowd cowed the queens into treating each other "too nicely" instead of bringing up drama from that season.[[note]]As stated, the format change happened in season 4, but fan complaints had been minimal--Phi Phi had built up so much bad blood that the others had no problem verbally lashing her even with the crowd.[[/note]] This only got worse in Season 7 when the finale shifted more focus on the finalists, leaving little time to catch up with the eliminated queens during the reunion segment. Season 9 saw the finale and reunion split into separate episodes again, with the reunion filmed in a closed studio setting so the fans got their unfiltered drama--and for many fans, enough of it to make up for a relatively drama-free season. |
| 42 | ** Some fans applauded All Stars 3 for being the first All Stars season without an obvious winner before airing even began. Many decried All Stars 1 for looking like a thrown-together pretense to crown Chad Michaels, and while All Stars 2 was much better received, fans still accused the season of shilling Alaska too much. ''After'' the season aired, however, new concerns and complaints have arisen regarding the season. |
| 43 | ** Six years after All Stars 1, Manila and Latrice were brought back as competitors for All Stars 4. This seems to be addressing the widespread complaints that All Stars 1 wasted an incredibly strong cast to the team format. After the season aired, however, fans now complain Manila's talent was wasted due to the "Queens Eliminate Each Other" twist, since she was the clear frontrunner before getting suddenly cut by Naomi (and Monet, had she won) for honestly petty reasons that had nothing to do with Manila's actual body of work on the season (Naomi eliminated Manila because she felt she owed Latrice, and Monet was going to eliminate Manila due to a several episode-long grudge with Manila almost sending Monet home). |
| 44 | ** After complaints that many of the lipsync "assassins" brought back for All Stars 5 tended to be more fan favorites than anything, the show has clearly taken a cue in bringing back more unexpected and exciting lipsync assassin opponents for All Stars 6, including Coco Montrese and Laganja Estranja. |
| 45 | ** The show has made numerous changes in response to backlash from viewers: |
| 46 | *** The most notable is increased gender inclusivity, starting with the removal of the "You've got she-mail" soundbite due to "she-male" being a slur, and later allowing post-operative trans women to compete as well as AFAB queens like Gottmik (transgender man) and Victoria Scone (cisgender woman). Ru also changed her catchphrase "Gentlemen start your engines, and may the best woman win!" to "Racers start your engines, and may the best ''drag queen'' win!" (the theme song was re-recorded to incorporate this as well). |
| 47 | *** In earlier seasons, queens would be harshly read for not serving high-femme drag, even though that's not everyone's style. Starting around Season 8, the judges became more accepting of androgyny and started critiquing the queens less on how "fishy" they are and more on the quality of their makeup and the construction of their outfit. Nowadays when an unconventional queen is asked to show more glamor, the judges make it clear that they're ''not'' asking her to change who she is, they just want to see her step out of her comfort zone at least once. |
| 48 | *** Season 14's cast seems to address fan complaints about over-representation of New York drag queens. There's only one NYC drag queen on the season (Jasmine Kennedie), making it the first season since Season 7 to have less than 3 New York queens. |
| 49 | *** After MTV decided to cut Season 15's runtime from 90 to 60 minutes in order to make room for ''The Real Friends of [=WeHo=]'' (which ended up being pointless thanks to the fans they were trying to attract boycotting the show and tanking it in the ratings), the show threw the fans (and the queens whose screentime was cut) a bone once the series was over by re-editing the shortened episodes to the usual length of a standard one, giving the early booted queens more presence outside of their elimination episodes, and the challenges feel less rushed. |
| 50 | * AwardSnub: Often occurs within fandom, with the judges' critiques often not being shared by fans who may feel that a queen shouldn't have won a challenge over another's head, or [[EliminationHoudini shouldn't have been in the bottom over other worse competitors]]. Of particular note is when this happens and the queens themselves engage in it, such as Jorgeous' contested win in the ''Glamazon Prime'' sewing challenge in Season 14. Daya Betty calls attention to it, and Lady Camden (widely agreed to have been the clear winner on quality of outfit) sneaked in this gem a few episodes later during a roast challenge: |
| 51 | -->'''Lady Camden''': I'm excited for tonight's runway; Jorgeous will be wearing a headband as a dress, [[CreatorsPet and RuPaul will be telling her that she is a superstar]]. |
| 52 | * AwesomenessWithdrawal: Due to how well received ''Drag Race UK'' Series 2 ended up being, this was the sentiment after its finale. In fact, multiple acknowledgments of fan-bereavement started trending on Twitter the following Thursday when the show usually aired because it wasn't on anymore. |
| 53 | * BadassDecay: Nina Flowers in her original season was a powerful and intimidating (but likable) [[AmbiguousGender genderfuck queen]], come ''All Stars'' she seems to have lost her edge, the judges say outright they don't see the same badass Nina Flowers they came to admire from season one. |
| 54 | ** You could make a case for any time one of the queens who was previously eliminated that season is brought back, as with Season 3's Carmen Carrera or Season 4's Kenya Michaels. Although they were fierce competitors prior to their elimination (which is why the judges brought them back in the first place) they seem a bit out of their element once they returned, and are once again eliminated the same episode they are brought back. This may also be the reason Ru skipped this little twist in Seasons 5 and 6. |
| 55 | ** Roxxxy Andrews was Top 3 in Season Five with 2 wins under her belt. Now in ''All Stars 2'' she's been in the bottom four times with only one win. |
| 56 | *** She even experiences BadassDecay within ''All Stars 2'', winning the first challenge and first Lip Sync For Your Legacy. Then the rest of the season happens... |
| 57 | ** Nina Bonina Brown won the first challenge and could top Acid Betty for unique runways. Once she lets her paranoia get to her, her progress goes downhill. |
| 58 | ** After the cast reveal for Season 9, Aja was a quick fan favorite, many supposed 'leaks' and predictions pegging her to win multiple challenges early on and easily be a frontrunner for the top three ... her actual run on the show, in which she never hit top three before an elimination midway through the season most certainly did not live up to these expectations. |
| 59 | ** Latrice Royale got this fairly hard in the fourth season of ''All Stars'', while many of her competitors have upped their games from even their more recent seasons, Latrice served a lot of the same fashions she did back in Season 4 (which the other queens point out on camera). It did not help matters that Latrice (one of the most beloved queens in the history of the show) seems to have seriously started believing her own hype train, making her come off as entitled even when she just was not performing to the same level at the rest of the cast. |
| 60 | ** Ongina is one of the saddest cases of Badass Decay from the show, she is a legendary Season 1 queen, and the show's first "Club Kid" and bald queen, so when All-Stars was finally announced, she had been a very highly requested character since it's first season (and every season thereafter). Finally, Ongina makes it onto All Stars Season 5 where she utterly fails the reading challenge, loses her nerve in the Talent Show, and then proceeds to loose all her confidence after the girl group challenge, in which she practically ''begs'' the other contestants to send her home because she cannot handle the guilt over staying over queens who have statistically done better than her (after only two episodes). She is still beloved and will always be a legend, but many fans were sad to see the Ongina's return be so short and lackluster. |
| 61 | ** Arguably Shea Coulée in All Stars 7, going from one of the highest winning queens in the franchise between Season 9 and All Stars 5 to only recieving one Legendary Legend Star [[AlwaysSecondBest despite often receiving strong critiques.]] [[spoiler:Subverted when she wins 3 stars in the talent show, and skyrockets straight to the final four.]] |
| 62 | ** Black Peppa from UK Series 3 started off strong with a great entrance look, winning the photo-shoot mini-challenge, and then dominating the first runway challenge. However, after failing the sewing challenge, Peppa went on a downwards spiral that she wouldn't recover from. By the time she got to the final four, Peppa didn't win a single challenge and ended up in the bottom four times, only surviving off of her lip-syncing skills. |
| 63 | * BaseBreakingCharacter: [[invoked]] When discussing her drag during the ''Series/RuPaulsDragRaceAllStars'' season 8 entrance confessional, Kandy Muse refers back to her season 13 debut and claims to be one of the most polarizing characters the show's ever had. |
| 64 | -->'''Kandy Muse:''' I came on ''13'' with this big personality that was not everyone's favorite, so I am one of the most polarizing characters in ''Drag Race'' history. |
| 65 | * BigLippedAlligatorMoment: |
| 66 | ** The middle of Season 7's award show challenge, which takes a little break from the comedy writing to go into detail about Miss Fame growing up on a chicken farm. It splices together multiple interviews and makes her look like a total CloudCuckoolander. |
| 67 | *** In a similar vein, the confessionals during the Rachel Maddow mini-challenge in Season 11 have Mercedes inexplicably segue from Rachel Maddow to her passion for fainting goats. |
| 68 | ** Another example from Season 7, for the [[BlowYouAway leaf blower mini-challenge]] all of a sudden {{Music/Moby}} shows up to participate in the challenge. This seems really out of place since the challenge had nothing to do with Moby (or music in general), nor was Moby in any way involved with the rest of the episode. He just shows up for a guest spot, [[DoubleEntendre gets blown by the Pit Crew]], and leaves. |
| 69 | ** Episode 7 of ''All Stars 2'' has Anastasia of Anastasia Beverley Hills Cosmetics come in to show the queens and their loved ones how to do their eyebrows for about five seconds. She then leaves and this is never spoken of again. |
| 70 | ** Lisa Kudrow's appearance in Season 9. At first, Ru's story of having run into her on the lot seems like a joke, but it quickly becomes clear that it's the truth. |
| 71 | ** Episode 3 of Down Under has the queens walking in carrying balloons full of helium and inhaling some of it. There's no explanation given of where they got them, why they have them, and by the time they get the message from Ru the balloons have disappeared completely. |
| 72 | * CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Around the time of season 3, Raja was a BaseBreakingCharacter. She had a bit of an AlphaBitch vibe thanks to being more or less the leader of the "Heathers" (who referred to everyone else competing that season as a "booger"), plus it came out that Ru himself had known Raja prior to the season, so it was easy for some fans to suggest bias when Raja practically dominated, and won, the season. With time, this image of Raja faded, as she is now considered an important figure in the show's early years and a big part of the show GrowingTheBeard. Her artsy supermodel style, accompanied by her impeccable runway walk, was ''way'' ahead of its time, and many of her looks way back in season 3 are still pretty impressive today (her famous Marie Antoinette outfit in particular is still an all-time classic). It's easy to make the case that later [[TheFashionista fashion queens]] in the franchise (including many winners) are following the trail blazed by Raja - and no less than Shea Coulée has personally acknowledged Raja as the one who inspired her to start drag. Raja's redemption came full-circle at the All Stars 7 panel at Dragcon 2022 - [[https://www.reddit.com/r/rupaulsdragrace/comments/usmhzl/raja_got_a_standing_ovation_friday_when_the/ when Raja was introduced to the crowd,]] despite being the earliest winner in the cast, [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments she got a standing ovation.]] |
| 73 | * CommonKnowledge: When Maddy Morphosis was revealed to be the first straight man to compete in the show's history, many fans said that Scaredy Kat from ''Drag Race UK'' beat her to it. Scaredy Kat memorably admitted to the other contestants in season 1, episode 1 of the UK edition that they're not gay and have a girlfriend. But Scaredy Kat actually doesn't identify as straight, outright saying they're bi in their introduction video from August 2019, and are genderqueer (using they/them pronouns). |
| 74 | * ConsolationAward: |
| 75 | ** Quite a few fans have accused ''All Stars 1'' of just being an excuse to give Chad Michaels a crown after losing Season 4 to fan favorite Sharon Needles. Some say the same is true for Alaska in ''All Stars 2''. |
| 76 | ** Lineysha Sparx winning the Episode 2 Lip Sync challenge. While she was good, she didn't particularly stand out in comparison to the other high-placing queens, leading some to speculate that she was given the win to compensate for losing the garbage couture challenge the episode before. |
| 77 | *** In a similar vein, Alexis Michelle on Season 9 gives a killer performance as Kris Jenner in ''Kardashians: The Rusical'', but loses the challenge due to her extremely basic faux fur runway. The following week, she is awarded the coveted Snatch Game win for her Creator/LizaMinnelli impersonation. It was funny, but some claimed it wasn't on the level of some top-tier Snatch Game performances, and Alexis' win had in turn snubbed Sasha's Creator/MarleneDietrich performance. |
| 78 | ** It's pretty clear that [=BenDeLaCreme=] only won Season 6's Miss Congeniality because fans were still upset that she didn't make the Top 3. Before her elimination, Joslyn and Trinity were the most likely candidates. |
| 79 | ** Happens again in Season 9 with Valentina, who had a ''massive'' voting bloc of fans who lobbied for her to win Miss Congeniality despite not being particularly congenial. The other queens quickly call this out and even suggest that she be called "Miss Fan Favorite". |
| 80 | ** All-Stars 4 is the first season to crown two winners, which did not sit well with the fans. Many speculated that it was an attempt to avoid a MortonsFork: crown Trinity, the frontrunner of the competition, and be accused of racism for putting yet another white queen in the All-Stars Hall of Fame,[[note]]especially egregious in a season that had ten contestants, of which one was Latinx, two Asian, and ''five'' Black[[/note]] or give the title to Monet X Change, and face controversy over whether she was really the most deserving contestant. A rare situation where both competitors, despite "winning", might feel they'd been given a ConsolationAward. |
| 81 | ** Similarly, Yvie winning Season 11 over frontrunner Brooke Lynn has sparked fierce debate over whether she was genuinely the best queen of the season, or if, like with Monet, it was done to dissuade accusations of racism after Shea and Shangela's controversial losses in the previous two years. |
| 82 | ** It was a ForegoneConclusion that Shea Coulee would win ''All Stars 5'' to make up for her infamous defeat in Season 9. |
| 83 | ** All Stars 7 sees the queens not in the final four compete for the Queen of She Done Already Done Had Herses award and $50,000 in a similar lip-sync smackdown as the final one for the crown. |
| 84 | * CriticalDissonance: |
| 85 | ** In Season 5, Alaska was criticized by [=RuPaul=], the judges, and the other queens for dressing like a man in a competition to stage a children's show parody. However, if the comments on Logo's website are any indication, most viewers loved her "Buffalo Bill" persona and felt that the "drag only" critique was against the spirit of the show, as [=RuPaul=] herself [[{{Hypocrite}} often says]] "We're born naked and the rest is drag." |
| 86 | ** Something extremely similar happens in season 6 with Milk. While it still is very hypocritical Milk could have probably been smarter about this considering the response to Alaska doing the same thing. However Milk probably didn't get faulted as hard because she was still dressed as Ru. |
| 87 | ** In Season 6's Glitter Ball, [=BenDeLaCreme=]'s "Platinum Card Executive Realness" look inspired by Creator/BetteMidler from the movie ''Big Business'' was hated by the judges, Michelle saying outright although it's pretty, it's a cocktail dress and did not fit the challenge. The fans, as well as both of [=RuPaul=]'s official recappers, John Polly and Pandora Boxx, adored the look and were upset that the judges not only outright ignored the Midler reference, but sent [=DeLa=] home for it. |
| 88 | *** Furthermore, the judges also hated her "Dripping in Jewels Eleganza" showgirl costume, calling it basic and predictable from [=DeLa=] at this point in the game. Raja and Raven, who have been reviewing the runway fashion each week, loved the look and singled it out as their favorite. |
| 89 | ** The second season of All Stars shows Michelle Visage reading Adore Delano to filth on-stage for her outfit while seemingly dismissing the song Adore herself wrote and sang live, leading Adore to be in tears backstage. Seeing how Adore is one of the most beloved queens of the show fans were ''livid'' with Michelle, calling her a bully. Even the queens backstage agreed the critiques were very harsh, and Katya has said afterwards on her Youtube channel that she was shocked at the display, also stating she felt Michelle was outright bullying Adore. |
| 90 | ** In the Snatch Game for the second season of All Stars, Alyssa was deemed safe for her take on Creator/JoanCrawford, when many fans felt she should have been in the top three that week. Detox was placed in the bottom for her take on Nancy Grace, but fans and the other queens felt otherwise. Alternatively, many fans also thought Phi Phi deserved to be on the bottom for her Theresa Caputo and swimsuit/rubbery ducky runway as opposed to her spot in the top three, especially over the aforementioned Alyssa and Detox. |
| 91 | ** In All Star 3's Divas tribute, [=Chi Chi DeVayne=] was placed in the Bottom 3 despite the rave reviews she received from the judges for her portrayal of [=Patti LaBelle=]. Meanwhile, Milk managed to remain safe despite making the questionable choice of referencing Music/CelineDion's look at the 2017 MET Gala, which Trixie remarked was nothing close to as iconic and recognizable as Milk seemed to believe it was (she had dark hair for this outfit despite being best known as a blonde). There were, of course, numerous other complaints about the decisions of this episode, but most of them fall firmly within BrokenBase territory. |
| 92 | ** Many fans thought the critiques Aja received for the Andy Warhol runway were far too harsh, as Ru and the judges seemed intent on belittling and embarrassing Aja for not knowing how to pronounce France Joli and her look reading too 60's instead of 70's, saying this means Aja doesn't know her references. However, even though she cannot pronounce it, she still ''used'' France Joli as a reference, and even if her look read 60's many fans argue it was still the most gorgeous and well-constructed garment on the runway. Not only that, but in defense of Aja's reference pools, many fans will happily point out Aja ''did'' do a spot-on Crystal [=LaBeija=] for the Snatch Game, a very obscure drag reference that should earn her some points. |
| 93 | ** In Season 12’s Choices 2020 challenge, some fans disagreed with the choice to place Widow Von’Du in the bottom two. Some fans thought that Widow’s performance wasn’t all that bad and did find the angry politician character funny. Sherry Pie and Gigi Goode’s performances weren’t liked for essentially repeating their Snatch Game characters, and in Sherry’s case, repeating her old lady persona. This led some people to think that either Sherry and Gigi should’ve been the bottom two over Widow. Despite this, plenty of fans did agree that Widow’s inner saboteur helped with putting her in the bottom. |
| 94 | ** While the fanbase was in agreement regarding who were the top and bottom two for the Snatch Game in UK Season 2 a number of fans and reviewers alike were taken aback after a seemingly positive edit for Awhora's Louie Spence impression translated to a bottom three position. The process would repeat again in the Lockdown Supersheroes challenge with Lawrence Chaney's "Lawrence of Chania" placing in the bottom three against Bimini Bon Boulash whose edit up to the judging was of someone who was on track to stumble after her victory in the aforementioned Snatch Game. |
| 95 | ** All-Stars 7's Snatch Game technically had no bottoms, since there are no eliminations, but the judges did let Jaida Essence Hall know that while they enjoyed her impersonation of Prince, it was in a SoUnfunnyItsFunny sort of way, and that overall it fell short. Many fans and reviewers have defended Jaida's take on Prince, however, as although Jaida seemed lost, stifled, and awkward, that just was [[RealityIsUnrealistic how Prince really was during interviews]]. |
| 96 | * CrossesTheLineTwice: Given the impersonation nature of Snatch Game, a number of impersonations can fall under this depending on the celebrity featured, but ''Down Under's'' featured some of the darkest BlackComedy in the show from Anita Wigl'it's Queen Elizabeth II and Etcetera Etcetera's Lindy Chamberlain[[note]]The mother of the girl who died as a result of a dingo attack in 1980[[/note]]. Between Princess Diana and child death jokes, both of them elicited reactions from Ru, Michelle, Rhys, and the viewers that were a mix of shock, horror and laughter. |
| 97 | * DesignatedHero: |
| 98 | ** For any queen that receives an unusual amount of favorable editing to make them look like an underdog/darkhorse, this may apply. For example, Sharon Needles, despite a very large fanbase, constantly got into screaming matches with [[TheScrappy Phi Phi]] (with all the blame usually lumped on Phi Phi), was all for the plan to bribe Latrice to send Willam home, and has said herself she likes to stir controversy, regardless who she ends up offending. |
| 99 | ** From Season 11, many fans felt Silky Nutmeg Ganache got a Designated Hero slash Underdog edit for the season; being given wins she did not deserve (winning for playing Oprah in the musical challenge when she had a bad attitude about being given the role, and winning the Snatch Game for playing a character who was basically just herself), for receiving almost no negative critique until the end of the season (when many fans thought her looks were messy), and for just being loud, obnoxious, and boisterous when she often came off as one-note. Her constant put downs of fan favorite Yvie Oddly as well as her continually saying how 'American is going to love me' also brought her a lot of ire to the complimentary edit she was getting. Amusingly, many fans joke Yvie and Silky accidentally got each other's edits for the season! |
| 100 | * DesignatedVillain: On the flip side of DesignatedHero, some queens will get an unusual amount of negative editing to make them look more shady than they may actually be (at least compared to their competitors). An example would be Roxxxy Andrews, who although doesn't deny the things she said, seems to always have a negative cam session interjected into any scene to make her look bad, especially if said scene was with Jinkx. |
| 101 | ** Phi Phi O'Hara got this HARD in Season 4. While she certainly had moments where she was manipulative and needlessly bitchy, the two queens she had the most conflict with were Sharon Needles and Willam, who by many accounts are not the easiest people to get along with. Her return to All Stars 2 had her hoping to shed this designation, but it didn't work out. Although in the case of [=AS2=], fans are more split on if Phi Phi was really getting a bad edit, or if she has more fault then she's willing to admit and is trying to pass blame onto the show. |
| 102 | ** Season 6 Facebook favorite Darienne Lake was also hit hard by this, especially against [=BenDeLaCreme=], whom seemed to have her more egotistical side edited out in favor of making her look good, and Darienne look like a jealous bully. During the show [=DeLa=] actually admitted outright she let her wins go to her head and that she considered Darienne an extremely talented queen, and many of the queens after the season have said Darienne is actually a wonderful person. |
| 103 | ** Pretty much whenever there's a conflict between a pageant queen and a comedy queen, the editing will make the pageant queen out to be a petty, close-minded AlphaBitch and completely gloss over any apologies or legitimate complaints. |
| 104 | ** In Season 7, Jasmine Masters suffered from this when it was made it look like she was going off on several younger queens for no reason other than being bitter, when afterwards she has had the chance to explain her comments were not unprovoked, it was just the parts beforehand were edited out. [[FromBadToWorse To make matters worse]], the unflattering editing and her subsequent elimination caused many fans to lash out at her on Twitter, using racial slurs and making death threats (to the point Jasmine legitimately feared for her safety). Eventually [=RuPaul=] herself had to step in to tell fans to back off. |
| 105 | ** Invoked by Acid Betty in season 8 who outright stated in her confessionals that she was a such a bitch that "even Bianca Del Rio wouldn't mess with her". She also made it a big deal to be rude to the queens and throw them under the bus if she could. However Betty started showing a softer side and was a very GracefulLoser so it's clear that it was more of a facade. |
| 106 | ** Season 11 many fans thought Yvie Oddley received the villain edit as the show seemed to be obsessed with this narrative that Yvie was being rude and unprofessional when she would critique her fellow queens who refused to accept judging. The queens she got on with the worst seemed to be Ra'jah, Silky, and Vanjie, the former two being seen as very defensive and obnoxious by the fanbase, and the Vanjie having admitted Yvie was right (just was being harsh) and eventually forgave her. Up until the finale, however, the show seemed obsessed with twisting this around that Yvie needed to learn humility and it was her own fault for telling her competitors the truth at the 'worst possible time' and it 'hurt their feelings'. Funnily enough, a running gag in the fandom seems to have taken off claiming Silky (who got a very positive edit all season) and Yvie actually had their edits swapped by mistake! |
| 107 | * DiscreditedMeme: The show is rife with memes, but sometimes overuse of said memes can some queens to backlash against them and ask them to be retired. |
| 108 | ** After Season 7 fans started referring to Katya as "Mother" or "Mom", while she found this amusing at first she eventually decided she did not like fans continuously referring to her as such as asked them to stop. |
| 109 | ** Season 9 brought about the "Nina Bo'Nina Brown should have been Blac Chyna" meme, and it was rare for years after to find any piece of ''Drag Race'' media online and not find a highly upvoted comment saying "[Whatever the video was about] is fine and all, but Nina should have been Blac Chyna!". Nina has eventually gone on record asking fans to stop beating this into the ground, and that it just isn't funny anymore. |
| 110 | [[/folder]] |
| 111 | [[folder:E-H]] |
| 112 | * EliminationHoudini: A ''lot.'' [[EliminationHoudini/RuPaulsDragRace Now has its own page.]] |
| 113 | * EpilepticTrees: Unusually, Episode 10 of Season 14 features no lip-sync at its conclusion because, given the abysmal performance of the queens in that week's challenge (the Snatch Game), they were all put in the bottom except for challenge winner [=DeJa=] Skye and had to contend in a lip-sync tournament bracket the next episode. A persistent rumour among leak collectors is that there ''was'' a lip-sync at the end of Episode 10, with [=DeJa=] being asked to "lip-sync for [her] pleasure" on her own on Music/DuaLipa's "Levitating". But what's most interesting is that the rumour may actually be true, with [=DeJa=] herself demanding the show "[[Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague release the [=DeJa=] cut]]"; as for why the sequence was cut, people speculate that [=DeJa=] actually [[EpicFail flopped]] the performance and the show edited it out in order not to tarnish her victory lap and her previously established reputation as a "lip-sync assassin". |
| 114 | * FanNickname: |
| 115 | ** The winner of the first season, Bebe Zahara Benet, is frequently referred to as "the OG" as a show of respect by fans. |
| 116 | ** Stacy Layne Matthews was dubbed "Henny" due to her southern pronunciation of "honey". Both Stacy and the show have wholeheartedly embraced the nickname, including bringing Stacy back for a "henny-themed girl groups" challenge on All Stars 4. |
| 117 | *** As a spin off of this, Derrick Barry became "Hemmy" in reference to her "everywhere you look there's a hem" speech on an episode of ''Untucked''. |
| 118 | ** Phi Phi is occasionally referred to as the shortened "Phi[[superscript:2]]" online. Chi Chi and Thorgy have also received the similar nicknames of "Chi[[superscript:2]]" and "Thor[[superscript:2]]", respectively. Season 12's Gigi has joined the group as "Gi[[superscript:2]]" |
| 119 | ** During Season 7, Kandy Ho was given the nickname Kandy Who by several online forums due to her low amount of screen time. Fans have also coined the term "Kandy Ho edit" to describe queens who are borderline edited out of the show by the producers. |
| 120 | ** In the months following Season 7, Katya's very large fanbase started calling her "mom" as a joke. Katya played along with this at first, but eventually had to make posts on social media asking people to stop calling her "mom" after it got to the point where fans were almost exclusively referring to her as that. |
| 121 | ** For Season 8's Acid Betty fans like to refer to her as "Acidic Betty" and/or "Asshole Betty", [[{{Jerkass}} for obvious reasons.]] Although after many queens have said she's actually a very sweet person (in particular fan favorite Cynthia Lee Fontaine, who says Acid was at her side constantly during her cancer treatment) some fans have started calling her "Acid Berry" instead, after Cynthia accidentally called her that for three episodes. |
| 122 | ** Also from Season 8, Naysha Lopez has been referred to be some fans as "Zombie Naysha", since she was eliminated in the first episode only to be brought back in the third episode. |
| 123 | ** In an ironic twist, Alaska from All Stars 2 made a very divisive decision in episode 6, keeping her friend Roxxxy Andrews over a shirt that was lent to her, over Tatianna. Many viewers (even those who are admitted Alaska fans) have started referring to Alaska as a "snake" on social media. This later turned into "Queens of Snakes", which Alaska herself has embraced wholeheartedly. |
| 124 | ** Season 12 has been called "the cursed season" due to a number of events which plagued its broadcast: mainly the Sherry Pie scandal and the COVID-19 pandemic (which led to the reunion and finale to be filmed over video link), but also the simultaneous broadcast of ''Secret Celebrity Drag Race'' and the cast reveals of All Stars 5 '''and''' ''Canada's Drag Race'', while Season 12 was still airing, distracting attention from it. To add to Season 12's cursedness, it was later revealed that Season 13 contestant Tamisha Iman was ''originally'' cast for 12, but her cancer diagnosis forced her to bow out. |
| 125 | ** Horrified fan reaction to forcing the queens to vote each other out in the Season 13 premiere led some to jokingly call the show “''[=RuPaul=]’s [[Main/StanfordPrisonExperiment Stanford Prison Experiment]]''” or “Gay ''{{Franchise/Saw}}''”. |
| 126 | ** Given that each member of Stephanie's Child is associated with a different color, and Jan was the first of the trio to appear on the show, any queen associated with Jan gets a "[color] Jan" nickname (or, more broadly, another adjective in place of a color). The list includes Rosé as Pink Jan, Denali as Icy Jan/Ice Jan, Lemon as Yellow Jan, Cheryl Hole as Essex Jan or Jan Hole, and Lagoona Bloo[[note]]The third member of Stephanie's Child, so far the only one not to have appeared on the show[[/note]] as Blue Jan. This extends recursively to Jan herself, who's called "Purple Jan" or "[[MemeticMutation Safe Jan]]". |
| 127 | ** Karen from Finance was dubbed "Karen from Production", owing to her EliminationHoudini tendencies. |
| 128 | ** After several of the Season 14 queens came out as transgender and said Kerri Colby helped them come to the realization, Kerri was nicknamed "Trans Jesus" and "[[Characters/MarvelComicsThanos Tranos]]" The latter became an AscendedMeme with Kerri wearing a Thanos-inspired glove at the Season 14 finale. |
| 129 | ** As opposed to the all-too-common practice of fans dubbing their favorite queen "mother," Maddy Morphosis, the first cisgender, heterosexual male contestant, developed a following that playfully refers to her as "Father." |
| 130 | ** Mistress Isabelle Brooks is commonly shortened to "MIB," but when Malaysia Babydoll Foxx revealed that she saved Mistress' number in her phone as "Film/MenInBlack," it caught on with fans. |
| 131 | ** After her noticeable glow-up in Season 3, many fans warmed up to ''Drag Race Italia'' host Priscilla and started calling her "Mother Clay". |
| 132 | * FandomEnragingMisconception: At least as far as the transgender fanbase is concerned, referring to an openly trans contestant by her former male name (even using née, a feminine term for "formerly") is met with harsh criticism. While most queens have never spoken up on their opinion on if they do find this personally offensive, general consensus is if a trans queen has legally changed their name (or just publicly requests to go by a different name) then it is just polite to refer to them by that name, and disregard a birth name (aka "deadname" in trans culture) they chose to disassociate from themselves. |
| 133 | * {{Fanon}}: Between seasons 4 and 8, the winner was crowned from the Top 3, with no final placement announced between the runners-up. However, fans can generally agree who was second and third. For example: |
| 134 | ** Season 4: Chad Michaels ''clearly'' placed second, evidenced by the fact that she came back for All Stars (and won), while Phi Phi O'Hara was one of only two runners-up (out of eight at the time) who did not. |
| 135 | ** Season 5: Even though the Top 3 were pretty neck and neck (all three had won two challenges and had their own strengths and weaknesses), Roxxxy's poor attitude towards Jinkx caused her to lose fan support, making it a toss-up between Jinkx and Alaska. While Roxxxy and Alaska both returned for All-Stars 2, the fact that Alaska won the season while Roxxxy fared poorly only confirms their placement. |
| 136 | ** Season 6: Courtney Act admitted on her "Besties For Cash" episode on [=WOWPresents=] that Adore came second. Once again, Adore returned for All Stars 2 while Courtney did not. |
| 137 | ** Season 7: Ginger Minj was, for many, the implicit frontrunner, to the point that Violet's win was quite shocking at the time; Ginger was quite clearly second. That said, Violet is of the opposite opinion, believing the Top 3 should've included Katya in Ginger's place, who she thinks probably would've beaten her. [[RunningGag Once again]], Ginger (and Katya) returned for All Stars 2, Pearl did not. |
| 138 | ** Season 8: Kim Chi was the runner-up for Season 8, as she won two challenges and never landed in the bottom, compared to Naomi's single win. A complete opposite to the above examples, it is Naomi who returned for All Stars 4, while Kim Chi did not (although rumor has it Kim Chi has no desire to return to the show for an entire season). |
| 139 | ** Season 9: Fans seems seem to assume because Trinity technically went home first, that Trinity took fourth place and Shea took third. This is in spite of the fact both Trinity and Shea were eliminated in the semi-final rounds of the lip-sync finale, meaning they should logically share third place. This may be influenced by the fact that Shea was the frontrunner going into the finale, with the best track record of the four girls, with Trinity and Sasha close behind and Peppermint a somewhat distant fourth. If All Stars 4 is taken into consideration, [[spoiler:it's Trinity who returned (along with fan favorite Valentina), but not long after Shea returned as well in All Stars 5 and, like Trinity, won the season.]] |
| 140 | ** Season 10: This season had a very odd final lipsynch for the crown, being the first ever three-way performance using the new format. This means Kameron Michaels and Eureka O'Hara should share second place as they lost to Aquaria at the same time, although fans argue Eureka came in second due to a better track record on the show, with Kameron in third (as she had the least amount of wins and was in the bottom two the most out of the entire final four). |
| 141 | ** All-Stars 1: Jujubee placing third and Shannel placing fourth is taken as canon gospel among fans, so much so that even Website/TheOtherWiki noted it as fact for a long time, despite the fact that both queens were eliminated at the same time with neither one ranked above the other. Interestingly, if these placements are the case, it means that Raven, Jujubee and Shannel all finished the season in the same position they did in their original seasons. |
| 142 | ** All-Stars 2: In spite of the fact both Katya and Detox both have great track records for the season, most fans agree that Katya is the unofficial runner-up due to the overwhelming fan support she received when the audience was prompted by Ru to vote. Interestingly, Detox has said on multiple occasions that she felt the edit was very flattering to Katya, and felt after filming that she was a strong contender for frontrunner. It wasn't until she actually saw a few episodes of the season that she figured out what position she was going to earn. |
| 143 | ** All-Stars 3: This season is a bit of a mess as Ru at the last second had the eliminated queens pick the final two, with most fans disagreeing that Kennedy deserved to make it through and thus winning second place. In spite of this, most fans will agree Shangela took third place and [=BeBe=] fourth if only because most fans agree Shangela should have been in the final two (with Trixie) to begin with. |
| 144 | ** All-Stars 4: Likewise, the top 2 was decided by Ru from a top 4 (this time without relying on the controversial jury twist). Based on track record, Monique is unofficially assigned third place and Naomi fourth. |
| 145 | ** Similarly, with the final competition episode of Season 11, Ru didn't announce winners or placement, simply who was through to the finale and who was in the bottom two (final challenges in previous seasons never had a winner, but neither a bottom two). Fan consensus seems to be that Yvie Oddly won the challenge. |
| 146 | ** With Sherry being [[UnPerson erased from existence]], Season 12's top four is considered to be Jaida, Gigi, Crystal, and Jackie. All non-finalist queens of that season are generally considered to be one place higher than what they placed on the show, such as Heidi being considered making top five rather than top six. As for the challenges won by Sherry, fans generally regard Heidi and Widow as the winners of ''World's Worst'' and ''Gay's Anatomy'' respectively. |
| 147 | *** In the finale, both Gigi and Crystal got to the final lip-sync and were runner-ups to Jaida. Fans tend to assign Gigi second place and Crystal third according to their track records (four wins and no bottoms for Gigi, one win and one bottom for Crystal). |
| 148 | ** All-Stars 5: Just like Season 12, the top 3 all advanced to the final lip-sync and after that the winner was announced ([[spoiler:and to the shock of no one, it was Shea]]). Fans commonly [[spoiler:assign Miz Cracker second place and Jujubee third, both because of track record and for the novelty of having Juju [[RuleOfThree place third three times]].]] |
| 149 | ** All-Stars 6: This season featured four finalists, resulting in a four way individual lipsynch. With Kylie being the winner, the placements in terms of track record and cash tips would have Ginger in second place, Ra'jah in third, and Eureka! in fourth. |
| 150 | ** Season 14's finale was different from the previous seasons, as there were five queens in the finale and instead of a lip sync smackdown, they gave separate performances and the two who did the best would face off in the Lip Sync for the Crown. Because Willow and Camden ended up being the final 2, with [[spoiler:Willow]] winning, in terms of track records, Bosco would place third, Angeria in a close fourth, and Daya in fifth. |
| 151 | * FanonDiscontinuity: |
| 152 | ** There are, in fact, some fans that will only keep up with the international spin-offs if Creator/{{RuPaul}} is hosting them (i.e. ''Drag Race UK, Drag Race Down Under''), and who won't consider any spin-offs he doesn't host. |
| 153 | ** It's hard to find a fan who considers ''The Switch Drag Race'', the first international spin-off which aired in Chile for two seasons, part of the "main" ''Drag Race'' franchise, due to its radically different format compared to the flagship series and all following international versions (for starters, there is much more emphasis on live singing and celebrity impersonation rather than lip-sync, fashion and comedy). |
| 154 | * ForcedMeme: |
| 155 | ** Vivacious' alien headpiece, Ornacia, seemed to be heading in this direction at first. It garnered a little popularity online since it's reveal, but not even a week after Viv's elimination, [=RuPaul=] conducts a full interview with the bejeweled Styrofoam head, and Vivacious is slinging Ornacia T-shirts on the ''World of Wonder'' website for $35 a pop. As of 2015 however, Ornacia has joined Lil' Poundcake as one of the most popular non-living drag queens on the show. |
| 156 | ** Laganja Estranja was desperately trying to emulate her FountainOfMemes drag mama, Alyssa Edwards, in Season 6, as she continuously spouted would-be [[CatchPhrase catch phrases]], like ''"Come on <whatever>!"'' and ''"Gag on my ele-ganja!"''. In the end all she ended up doing is coming off as fake and annoying, being called out as such by the judges and the other queens. |
| 157 | *** She even (perhaps unintentionally) tried to emulate Roxxxy's famous wig-under-the-wig. However Laganja's version lacked the subtlety and drama of Roxxxy's. |
| 158 | *** For better or for worse, "Come on Season __, let's get sickening!" will probably be brought back at the start of each season for the rest of the show's run. |
| 159 | ** Cynthia's "cucu" catchphrase, which she usually uses several times ''per episode'' she appears in. Annoyance over her using it ironically became something of a MemeticMutation within the fandom itself during season 8 and 9. |
| 160 | ** Dahlia Sin's "fierce broc-ally" who kept reappearing throughout Season 12. It's possible that production wanted to create another meme from a first-out queen, the third in a row after Miss Vanjie and Soju's cyst. |
| 161 | * FriendlyFandoms: |
| 162 | ** With ''Series/ProjectRunway'', partially due to the presence of Santino Rice on both shows and the fact that the two shows combined may have the most LGBT contestants on television. |
| 163 | ** The campy characters and iconic looks of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' have provided material for various references in both main challenges and on the runway, many AHS cast regulars have been guest judges on the show, not to mention Trixie's cameo in ''Roanoke''. This reached a head when episode 6 of All-Stars 6 featured an acting challenge parodying ''American Horror Story'' (as well as other Creator/RyanMurphy properties), and just a month and a half later Eureka!, fresh off All-Stars 6, guest starred in episode 4 of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryDoubleFeature''. |
| 164 | * FountainOfMemes: Alyssa Edwards, who continues to be quoted long after her original season. Her drag daughter Laganja tries to invoke this herself, and while fans were heavily resistant to her at first she eventually joined her drag mother in being one of the most memorable and quoted queens on the show. |
| 165 | ** Jasmine Masters has become this after her season thanks to her Website/YouTube videos, providing, for example, "My name is Jasmine Masters and I have something to say", "[=RuPaul=]'s Drag Race have fucked up drag", "#thatpart" the Get a Job Challenge, and the classic "Anna Oop". |
| 166 | ** Nina Bo'nina Brown has reached this too, outside and inside of the show with the infamous "I shoulda been Blac Chyna", "Sashaaa Velooouuuuurrr", "Well it's over", "Sue me", "I don't see it from here but okay"... |
| 167 | * GrowingTheBeard: |
| 168 | ** Season 3 was arguably where the show really took off. Season 1 had a much lower budget and was filmed at a different location, and even though season 2 began to resemble the current ''Drag Race,'' it was still a diamond in the rough, and a lot of the iconic, fan-favorite queens started appearing in season 3, marking how the show would start becoming known for the larger-than-life personalities. One could convincingly argue that the season's winner, Raja, helped kickstart the show's uptick in quality of the contestants' runway looks, as well. |
| 169 | ** Happened with the ''All Stars'' seasons. ''All Stars 1'' is near-universally considered to be one of the show's worst seasons, due to the poorly though-out "teams" twist, confusing challenges that didn't make sense in the context of the show, and a run of six episodes giving almost no time for any real plot or drama to develop. In contrast, ''All Stars 2'' is ranked among some of the show's best due to simply not doing anything ''All Stars 1'' did, while still developing an interesting story of redemption and legacy among its cast of 10 queens who lost their first season. |
| 170 | ** Season 1 of ''Canada's Drag Race'' met very mixed reviews during its airing, mostly down to the judging, which was infamously confusing and, in the case of Jeffrey Bowyer Chapman, unnecessarily harsh (in his defense, Chapman would later reveal that he was fed some of his harsher critiques by production). Season 2 revamped the judges panel, retaining Brooke Lynn Hytes but bringing in the more upbeat Brad Goreski and Amanda Brugel, resulting in far more constructive criticism and a better rapport with the queens. In particular, Brooke Lynn is generally accepted to have come into her own as a host. (All that being said, whether the Werk Room's redesign is an improvement or a downgrade is up for debate.) |
| 171 | ** Season 1 of ''Drag Race Down Under'' was extremely poorly reviewed for a number of reasons, from the perilously low budget to the painfully obvious rigging (which sent home fan-favourites in favour of queens who were both unpopular ''and'' underperforming), and ''multiple'' different uncomfortable race issues. Many even went so far as to declare DRDU s1 the worst season of Drag Race ''ever.'' Thankfully, Season 2's reception was ''much'' better, as while it maintained the low budget (which, to be fair, is common for Aus/NZ reality shows) the cast was considered to be very likeable and fun, race was handled with much more care, and it was all capped off with one of the most widely-beloved Drag Race winners ever. |
| 172 | * HarsherInHindsight: |
| 173 | ** Manila talking fondly about Sahara in the first episode of ''All Stars'' becomes this since Sahara died right around the time the episode aired, while it had been filmed some time before she died. |
| 174 | ** Sharon and Alaska's relationship. They both spent their respective seasons talking lovingly about each other, and how they both feared that their drag careers would cause their relationship to end. Come 2013, the couple has officially split up, with many fans speculating it was at least in part to Sharon winning Season 4, and Alaska finishing as runner-up in Season 5. |
| 175 | ** In the first episode of Season 6 the girls are asked to make outfits based on several popular TV shows, including ''[[{{Series/DuckDynasty}} Duck Dynasty]]'' ... filmed before the incident involving Phil Robertson making comments against the gay community. |
| 176 | *** In a similar vein, Darienne's Paula Deen impersonation for Snatch Game was filmed literally the ''day'' before Deen's racism scandal exploded across the media. |
| 177 | ** Season 7's Mrs. Kasha Davis doing an impromptu Creator/JoanRivers impersonation, likely filmed just before or just after Rivers tragically passed away. |
| 178 | ** In Season 8 Bob is making fun of Acid Betty's [[CantTakeCriticism inability to take criticism]] by making a joke that one day Betty will come into a club with a shotgun just because somebody badmouthed her ... considerably less funny after the incident at Pulse nightclub (which happened right after this season). |
| 179 | ** In season 2, as Sahara Davenport and Morgan [=Mc=]Michaels are about to lip-sync for their lives to "Carry On" by Martha Wash, [=RuPaul=] tells them why the song is special to her: she played it "incessantly" around the time her mother died of cancer. She concludes by saying: "I want each of you girls to know that even through adversity and death, love and energy lives forever." Sahara Davenport would pass away in 2012, making the speech doubly heartbreaking. |
| 180 | ** Detox's jokes about the various plastic surgery she's gotten become this when she reveals that she had to get major reconstructive surgery on her face after a ''horrific'' car accident that nearly killed her, and can't grow her left eyebrow as a result and has to paint it on. Generally, the joke line is drawn where the reconstructive surgery ends and the purely cosmetic surgery (''ab implants'' and so on) begins. |
| 181 | ** Jinkx Monsoon being delegated to play Mimi Imfurst in the spoken lip-sync challenge, it wasn't soon after that Jinkx started getting the same criticisms every week of being too camp with no glamour that Mimi had been getting her entire run of the show. |
| 182 | ** Meta examples: Both sets of drag couples that have appeared on the show--Sahara Davenport and Manila Luzon; Sharon Needles and Alaska--have gushed about their respective relationships, leading to some heartwarming moments. Both relationships have now since ended after their seasons have aired: Sahara and Manila's due to Sahara's death in 2012, Sharon and Alaska breaking up in 2013. |
| 183 | ** In an early season 6 episode of Untucked, the queens get into a discussion about who would sleep with whom. Darienne Lake insists sleeping with a drag queen is disgusting and Trinity K. Bonet looks almost hurt by her statements. A few episodes later, Trinity reveals she is HIV positive, casting the whole discussion in a different light. |
| 184 | ** Darienne Lake's status as a Scrappy in Season 6 becomes painfully ironic when you remember that she was the contestant voted in by fans. |
| 185 | ** During the build-up to the Season 7 GrandFinale Ginger Minj during one of the many interview Youtube videos on [=WOWPressents=] sheepishly but jokingly asks fans to please like her. As it turns out, the fans really ''didn't'' like her that much due to her antagonistic attitude towards the younger queens on the show ([=#AnyoneButGinger=]), and this arguably was the main reason she lost the season, despite the majority of season 7 playing to her natural strengths of comedy and acting (not to mention ''a lot'' of people felt it was time a BigBeautifulWoman won the show, which was also Ginger's major selling point for the crown). |
| 186 | ** In the Season 7 recap episode, Adore Delano jokes(?) in an interview that if Ru ever critiqued her as harshly as she critiqued the queens after the [=ShakesQueer=] challenge, she would cry, and then "Jasmine Masters it up", pack up her things and leave. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Come All Stars 2...]] |
| 187 | ** There was a BrokenBase after queens like Naomi Smalls and Bob the Drag Queen would read Season 9's Aja for her skin. While some people thought the jokes were immediately in bad taste, others argue they were obviously not meant to be malicious (reading ''is'' practically a pastime in the drag world) and Aja was being too sensitive. Then "Good Morning Bitches" airs, and Aja reveals how cruel people have been to her, and that people have been outright calling her ugly to her face for years due to her facial scars and skin complexion. |
| 188 | ** Noah Galvin appeared as a guest judge for the tv pilot challenge. The episode aired a week after Galvin's own show, ''Series/TheRealONeals'', was cancelled by ABC. |
| 189 | ** In Season 9, when Valentina offers to share a disorder she's been struggling with, Eureka immediately makes a bad joke that it's an eating disorder. In the next episode when Eureka apologizes, Valentina reveals she really ''is'' struggling with anorexia. |
| 190 | ** Season 3 was blatantly transphobic at times, which while wasn't acceptable at the time, has aged even more poorly after the "She-Male/Female" scandal of Season 6 or Peppermint's fear of being ostracized in Season 9. This includes the queens quite rudely accusing Stacy and Mariah of being trans in a very negative way, and Shangela and Alexis even having an entire conversation in Untucked about how trans people have no business being on the show, stating the show is called 'Drag' Race, not 'Tranny Race'. |
| 191 | ** In Season 7, Ginger Minj received what seemed to be a very touching video message from her then partner, even going on at length how he's the only person who's ever made her feel beautiful. Before Season 7 even finished airing, the two broke up and Ginger actually admits the two had an incredibly toxic and verbally abusive relationship, and while she admits the fault rests on both of their heads it does make what was originally presented as such a touching moment darker on a rewatch. |
| 192 | ** ''Anything'' related to Sherry Pie becomes uncomfortable to watch after her predatory history surfaced. The editors have done the best they can to edit her out of the show but it's evident that they originally showed her in a very positive light. |
| 193 | ** While Sherry is already the embodiment of this trope, special mention goes out to Sherry's portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in Snatch Game being largely a joke about hand tremors. The next episode Crystal, who was sitting next to Sherry during the challenge, reveals that her father was diagnosed with Parkinson's and that Crystal can't visit her parents without leaving in tears. Shockingly, this is not the only time Sherry does this. During the political debate challenge, Sherry once again falls back on a tremors joke with full knowledge of Crystal's situation, this time with even less justification as Sherry was playing a character rather than impersonating a real person. The camera even pans over to Crystal- who once again was placed right next to Sherry- to show her silent stare for a brief second. |
| 194 | ** Bob the Drag Queen opening up about her mother almost dying of a rare form of pneumonia becomes ''doubly'' heartbreaking after the sudden, unexpected passing of fellow season 8 alum Chi Chi [=DeVayne=] in 2020 -- the cause also being pneumonia, following complications from scleroderma-related kidney failure. |
| 195 | ** There's an infamous moment in season 1 of Canada's Drag Race, during the Denim On Denim On Denim runway, where Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman made a comment about Ilona Verley's butt that many fans considered to be body-shaming. Post-season, Ilona came out as a trans woman, meaning she was already dealing with body dysmorphia. |
| 196 | ** During the Season 13 Covid-19 special [=LaLa=] Ri mentions how she wasn't sure it was a good idea to wear a facemask as part of her entrance look as she realized the season would actually be airing in 2021, assuming the pandemic would be over by then and the audience not wanting to be reminded of 2020. Unfortunately, the pandemic would still be in full effect when season ''14'' was airing. |
| 197 | * HeartwarmingInHindsight: |
| 198 | ** [=RuPaul=]'s parting words to Shangela in Season 2. "I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of you yet. Good luck my dear. Now, sashay away." Shangela not only pioneered the "returning queen" but she wound up becoming one of the most successful people to ever compete on the show. |
| 199 | ** Laganja Estranja, during her infamous season 6 run, wore a Sonique hat into the Werk Room at one point. Kylie Sonique Love, who came out as a trans woman at the end of season 2 in 2010, would return to compete in All Stars 6 in mid-2021, which coincidentally premiered right around the same time Laganja ''herself'' came out as a trans woman. As an added note, Laganja met her future roommate and touring buddy, Gia Gunn, that season, who has also since came out as trans. |
| 200 | * HilariousInHindsight: |
| 201 | ** Upon arriving in her monster getup, Raja was scoffed at and judged for being "not on the same level" by the competitors. She went on to win. |
| 202 | ** Depending on your tolerance for CringeComedy, the following line said by Mimi Imfurst while watching Shangela and Venus' messy lip-sync is either this or HarsherInHindsight given [[OverTheShoulderCarry what she does to India Ferrah]] a couple of episodes later: |
| 203 | --> "The lip-syncing is starting to get a little violent." |
| 204 | ** In Season 4, Phi Phi O'Hara commented that Sharon Needles was the weakest and would be sent home on the first day. Sharon ended up winning the first challenge, three more challenges in future episodes, and then the entire season. |
| 205 | *** Even more hilarious, Sharon Needles ''herself'' has said she fully expected to be sent home the first week of the competition, feeling that the judges wouldn't get her spooky-weird drag style. |
| 206 | ** In Season 4's "Queens Behind Bars" sitcom challenge, celebrity guest Max Mutchnick wasn't a fan of Sharon either, saying "I hate the name, I hate the look, nobody wants to go to a drag show to see the little girl from ''Film/TheRing''!" Sharon not only won the season, but is one of the most popular winners to date. Even if she hadn't won, Mutchnick's statement was extremely uninformed; goth drag has been around for ages. Though to be fair, Sharon ''did'' clash with him during the challenge and he may have still been agitated from that. |
| 207 | ** In Season 5's "Can I Get an Amen?" Coco Montrese and Jade Jolie lip-synced for their life to "I'm So Excited" by The Pointers Sisters. That same year, Pedro Almodovar's film ''I'm So Excited!'' was released, featuring an extended sequence of three male flight attendants entertaining passengers by lip-syncing to the same song. |
| 208 | ** Also in season 5, Alyssa Edwards once proclaimed that America's Next Drag Superstar wouldn't be traveling the country "being a comedian" as a way of excusing her own shortcomings in comedy. Cue [[InsultComic Bianca Del Rio]] winning the ''very next season'' and doing just that. |
| 209 | ** One more from season 5: Detox's first impression of Jinkx Monsoon? [[TemptingFate "I dunno about that Jinkx yet;]] [[ItWillNeverCatchOn she's a little kooky."]] Jinkx wound up sending ''Detox'' home, in a lipsync considered to be an all-time classic, then won the season and became an icon in her own right. Sorry, Detox; you were saying? |
| 210 | ** In response to her Music/LilKim-inspired hip-hop drag, Michelle Visage tells Alexis Mateo that her outfit to her seems more like Series/HannahMontana does Hip Hop, much to Mateo's confusion what with her cut-outs and (fake) breasts exposed with pasties on them. Fast-forward to [[Music/MileyCyrus Miley Cyrus]] now and the comment takes on a new hilarious depth! |
| 211 | ** Michelle Visage makes it no secret that she ''hates'' breastplates and once flashed her own boobs to show how real ones (her implants notwithstanding) look completely different. Fast forward to season 6's woman-or-drag-queen mini-challenge, Darienne Lake thinks an extreme close-up of cleavage has to be a drag queen because it looked like "one of those awful breastplates." It was Michelle! Ru was in hysterics. |
| 212 | ** While impersonating Paula Deen for the Snatch Game Darienne calls Ru a peach, to which Ru jokingly asks "what did she just call me?" As mentioned above, this was filmed the ''day'' before Deen's racism scandal hit the news, in which Deen calls someone else something that would give them pause ... |
| 213 | ** The first episode of most seasons consists of an unconventional materials sewing challenge, where the queens are tasked in making a fabulous dress in just a few hours using random fabrics such as thrift store clothing, dollar store junk, or holiday decorations. ''Series/ProjectRunway'' fans will recognize the unconventional materials challenge as a daunting task for even ''professional'' designers, and again, this is usually the ''first'' challenge of Drag Race, with Ru knowing full well many of her queens can't sew. This can border on HarsherInHindsight at times, especially when an otherwise capable queen such as Victoria Parker and Kelly Mantle get eliminated in their premiere episode. |
| 214 | ** Kelly Mantle in season 6 says she won't 'go around quoting her IMDB page like [[Creator/WillamBelli a certain previous contestant]]' and she was right, since she didn't have time to - she got eliminated her first episode. |
| 215 | ** After receiving a touching video message from her partner in one episode of Untucked, Ginger Minj (understandably) tears up, causing her makeup to run. She jokingly laments that now she looks like Tammy Faye Bakker. Tammy Faye would end up being Ginger's Snatch Game character in All Stars 2, complete with fake runny mascara and a box of tissues. |
| 216 | ** During Season 7 Ru fakes out the other queens by making it seem like she's bringing Trixie Mattel back into the competition ... before she brings all seven of the eliminated queens back for a ''chance'' at coming back. As this was filmed months in advance, the fake out becomes doubly hilarious as Ru could only have guessed Trixie's elimination would have caused such a ruckus in the fandom as well. |
| 217 | ** During the reading mini-challenge in season 7 Trixie says that she doesn't believe that Violet stole Sharon's crown[[note]]Before Violet was on the show, Sharon wore her crown at a pageant she was judging in Atlanta. The crown was stolen and ended up in Violet's hands, who took photos with it; it was later shipped back to Sharon, anonymously and broken. Violet was accused of stealing it, but apparently it was someone else who did it then passed it to her.[[/note]] and that states she doesn't think Violet will be taking the season 7 crown. Fast forward to the reunion... |
| 218 | ** In Season 2 Absolut Vodka "Image Czar" Jeffrey Moran harshly critiques Jessica Wild for, in his opinion, acting drunk and disrespecting his product, going as far to say if it had been a real interview he would have fired her in the limo. Fastforward a couple years, and not only has Absolut hired Jessica as a spokesperson, but she is arguably the only reason anyone still remembers Absolut Berri Açaí vodka almost a decade after her season! |
| 219 | ** From the "Draggily Ever After" challenge in Season 9, Shea Coulee names her princess character "Princess ''Aquaria''". Now look at the name of America's Next Drag Superstar just one season later... |
| 220 | ** In UK Season 1, Scaredy Kat turned heads by being the youngest contestant on the show at 19 years old. Several episodes later in the family makeover challenge, Divina de Campo's partner is her pregnant sister, and Divina declares ''the baby'' to be the youngest contestant on the show, a record not likely to be broken anytime soon. |
| 221 | ** Cheryl Hole's verse from "Break Up (Bye Bye)" ended with the line "I'm the number 4, 3, 2, 1." and she ended up placing 4th. |
| 222 | *** Also remember when she got read by the rest of the queens for being too alike to Alyssa Edwards? Guess who's House she's been adopted into? |
| 223 | ** While packing up after her elimination, Dahlia Sin comments that she hates the broccoli headpiece she wore for the challenge and hopes to never see it again. She goes on to make numerous cameos in the reason of the season, always in costume as the "Fierce Brocc-Ally" and wearing that accursed headpiece. |
| 224 | ** One of the most widely circulated rumours about All Stars 3 was Ongina apparently being on, but doing so poorly in the reading mini-challenge that Ru eliminates her on the spot (see the [[Memes/RuPaulsDragRace Memes]] subpage for context). When Ongina gets on All Stars 5 for real, she ''actually'' is exceptionally bad in the reading challenge, but thankfully she gets to stick around! |
| 225 | ** Sister Sister gets accused of stealing her cone of chips outfit from A'whora during the first runway after the lockdown pause, with some other queens defending her because it wasn't a unique idea anyway. Meanwhile the season of Series/TheMaskedSingerUK filming at the same time also had The Sausage wearing basically the same outfit, kind of proving the other queens right. |
| 226 | ** Bianca Del Rio fakes out the queens of All Stars 6 when she comes out to, ostensibly, be a lipsync assassin, only to then flatly say "no" and tell the queens that "if you do it right the first time, you don't need to come back!" She then leaves. All Stars 7 would be made up of all winners from previous seasons. Don't give Ru ideas, Bianca! |
| 227 | ** A BlackComedy case with Valentina's infamous mask incident in Season 9. Her plea to "keep it on please" suddenly became relevant again when the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic hit the world in 2020. Acknowledged InUniverse during Season 13. |
| 228 | * HollywoodPudgy: This goes hand-in-hand with the concept of "gay fat", where a man is under a lot more scrutiny to not even be slightly overweight if he is homosexual due to social standards and expectations. |
| 229 | ** in Season 2 Raven would be read on her weight by the other queens (Jujubee in particular: "And you, legendary you think you are. Legendary, looks like Leg and [[YouAreFat Dairy]]."), despite the fact that although she might be 'stocky', she was not fat. |
| 230 | ** In season 5, Roxxxy Andrews keeps going on and on about being a "big girl," but she looks like an average-sized person in and out of drag. She might be curvy, but not ''fat'' by any means, especially compared to previous queens who were considerably heavier. |
| 231 | ** In the same season as Roxxxy, Jade Jolie claimed Alyssa Edwards was overweight when she said Alyssa had ''"[[MemeticMutation backrolls]]?!"'' In reality, Alyssa has a very average build, and while the outfit she was wearing at the time wasn't the most flattering, she certainly was not one of the heavier girls in season 5. |
| 232 | ** Adore Delano, of all people, is a victim of this trope due to having a weird proportion that gives her what she likes to call "hog body". |
| 233 | ** Season 7's Sasha Belle may have been a bit chunky, but Pearl goes as far as to refer to Sasha as looking like "Creator/JohnGoodman in a wig". |
| 234 | ** Season 8 really didn't have a 'big queen', and as a result the biggest of the queens, Kim Chi, was often referred as the 'big girl' of the season by default. This is actually a bit harsh when you realize Kim used to weigh over 350 pounds before dropping a lot of weight, and didn't really consider herself as 'fat' anymore (coupled with the reveal she has low self-esteem due to her previous high weight). Near the end of the season she actually accepts this is how people view her though, and turns it around to shame the gay community for degrading what they see as "fats" (in addition to "femmes" and "Asians"). |
| 235 | ** Played with in Season 9 with Alexis Michelle. Several of the queens would make reads about her weight, but specified they were only kidding and didn't really think she was actually fat. Alexis took this very hard though, as she admitted to suffering from body image issues. |
| 236 | * HypeBacklash: |
| 237 | ** Sharon Needles. Come the end of Season 4 Miss Needles was probably the most fan-beloved contestant of Drag Race ever and she gained quite a bit of exposure... and then the whole joking about Hitler in Austria incident happened[[note]]Sharon was due to perform at the famous Life Ball there, but ended up getting kicked out of the country after making some jokes about Hitler who was born in Austria; Austrians are notoriously SeriousBusiness about this fact.[[/note]]. None of this was at the fault of the fame going to Sharon's head either, this was the way she had always acted as a punky underground shock queen... only now, everyone was watching her. |
| 238 | ** Alaska, one of the most beloved queens prior to All Stars 2. Then the season aired, and many watchers grew upset with how the show seemed to be just handing Alaska the win on a silver platter, giving her lip-sync wins that many fans argue she didn't deserve, and the judges seemingly ignoring any of her shortcomings while constantly nitpicking her competition. After her temper tantrum in the penultimate episode Ru urged viewers to post on social media for who they wanted to win, but despite an ''overwhelming'' online support for Katya, Alaska was still crowned. What was worse, it seemed the finale and Alaska's crowning were already decided months ago, leading many fans to feel the request for social media support was completely pointless. Despite winning the whole season, Alaska may actually come out of All Stars ''worse'' in the eyes of fans than when she entered. |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | [[folder:I-L]] |
| 241 | * IronWoobie: What made Jinkx Monsoon so endearing to fans was the fact that no matter how much the queens tried to read her or throw shade her way ([[AllOfTheOtherReindeer which happened]] ''[[AllOfTheOtherReindeer a lot]]''), she always let it roll off her like [[SurvivalMantra water off a duck's back]]. |
| 242 | ** Season 3's Stacy Layne Matthews was another one, especially in light of her as a likable but nervous CountryMouse being bullied by [[AlphaBitch Raja]] and her "Heathers" for being, as they put it, a "Booger". |
| 243 | * JerkassWoobie: |
| 244 | ** Laganja Estranja is loud, arrogant, and resentful, and rubbed most of the other queens the wrong way during her season, but during her last ''Untucked'' she felt personally attacked when Michelle Visage and [=RuPaul=], and then Bianca and Adore, get on her case for her annoying voice and fake personality. It ends up with Laganja screaming at the girls that they've finally broke her down and leaving the gold lounge sobbing, looking desperately in need of a hug ... of course whether this was a genuine breaking point or Laganja [[{{Wangst}} just trying to get more attention]] even the queens weren't totally sure of. |
| 245 | ** Gia Gunn of all people (coincidentally, Laganja's best bud outside the show) fell into this on All Stars 4. She showed up the same shit-stirring reality show villain she was in season 6, if not ''more'' so, and singled out her frenemy Farrah Moan in particular, pestering her with a lot of past drama from months before the season began filming. In the end, what stops Gia right in her tracks is the same thing that ended her season 6 run - an embarrassing Snatch Game performance. From there, Gia is a lot more subdued, and when Manila sits down to talk to her, Gia [[TearJerker/RuPaulsDragRace bursts into tears and talks about her complicated feelings being an open trans woman on the show.]] It surprises no one when she's eliminated after such an abysmal performance earlier, and Gia, sounding considerably humbled, admits in her final speech that she only has herself to blame. After building up a reputation as a standoffish, judgmental shit-disturber for so long, this episode shows Gia in a much different light. |
| 246 | ** If you take season 11 as a whole, Silky Nutmeg Ganache could actually be considered this. While she was very loud, very cocky, very thin-skinned and made some hurtful comments during her season (especially at her [[TheRival rival,]] Yvie Oddly), Silky's infamously sloppy lipsync with Nina West, that got Ru's infamous "meh" critique, marked a change in her behavior. The lead-up to the final challenge sees Silky make an effort to be a little more personable and humble (especially to Yvie), and more or less admitting that she does feel hurt at being called too loud, and feels that she has to put up a tough front. At this point in the season's airing, she'd long since gotten a backlash, getting fat-shaming and [[https://www.buzzfeed.com/benhenry/rupauls-drag-race-fandom-racism racist]] comments online, and she wasn't shy in telling the press about the toll it took on her. It came to a head at the finale, where prior to the lipsyncs, the big wheel landed on Silky, and we got a good, long look at her making her decision as she [[DeerInTheHeadlights didn't even look like she wanted to be there anymore.]] Few queens embody "pride goeth before a fall" like Silky, who just wanted to be a star and get the world's attention - [[GoneHorriblyRight and that's certainly what happened.]] At least she finally got that [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkBjjJc4r8btENSeGRaPyE7M78FWI8DiX spinoff]] she wanted. |
| 247 | ** Kandy Muse from season 13. Kandy is arguably chattier than even ''Silky,'' and was also [[CantTakeCriticism thin-skinned and argumentative]] - her Untucked throwdown with Tamisha Iman is the most infamous example. A mirror talk in the back half of the season [[DarkAndTroubledPast reveals]] ''why'' Kandy is the way that she is - as a high-schooler, three bullies jumped Kandy in gym class and brutally broke her arm just for being gay, causing her to need surgery and leaving a long scar behind. Since then, Kandy has felt that she has to be loud to defend herself, which manifests as a HairTriggerTemper that Kandy admits she wants to work on. Kandy got a lot of backlash for her more abrasive moments during the season, but there were moments like this that showed that she was, in fact, very human. |
| 248 | * LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: The Season 13 premiere is set so that more than half of the cast seems to have been eliminated right off the bat. Of course, Ru announces at the end of the episode that they all have a chance to return to the competition. |
| 249 | ** Happens again later in the season, in ''Social Media: The Rusical''. [[spoiler: Barely halfway through the season, frontrunner Symone and producer-favorite (thanks to her penchant for getting into arguments) Kandy Muse end up in the bottom together. Unless the lipsync had turned out to be truly heinous, any GenreSavvy viewer should be able to tell a double-save is about to happen.]] |
| 250 | * LoveToHate: The Vixen is quite divisive for being "[[RedBaron The Bear]]" and self-appointed whistleblower of the season, with many fans pegging her as the villain of Season 10 (although there is some contention if that is completely legitimate or if The Vixen received an unfair [[ManipulativeEditing Villain Edit]]). In spite of this, even after her elimination there is still quite a bit of a buzz about her character on the show, as well as a swelling campaign for The Vixen to be Season 10's Miss Congeniality, seeming to prove fans love her as an advocate, love her as The Bear, or just love to hate her for stirring so much drama during an otherwise low-drama season. |
| 251 | [[/folder]] |
| 252 | [[folder:M-P]] |
| 253 | * MemeticBadass: |
| 254 | ** Lil' Poundcake. During a Season 5 mini-challenge where the queens had to dress up mannequins as child pageant stars, Alaska and Lineysha's creation took on a life of her own. |
| 255 | --->"You're not my real daddy and you never will be!" |
| 256 | ** Ornacia, Vivacious' alien hat which served more face than she did, and is developing quite the online following. |
| 257 | * MemeticLoser: |
| 258 | ** Despite her great challenge statistics, Rosé has become this for having a 0% lipsync win rate thanks to season 13's unique format (never mind the fact that not one of these lipsyncs were a LSFYL). |
| 259 | ** Jan qualifies after her ''safe'' run on Season 12 (especially the memetic face-crack after the Madonna Rusical) and her middling one on All Stars 6, where despite finally winning a challenge she was also multiple times in the bottom. Like her drag partner Rosé, Jan also hasn't won a single one of the lip-syncs she partook in across her two seasons, keeping the win rate for Stephanie's Child at 0%. |
| 260 | ** Still from All Stars 6, Pandora Boxx is now the queen appearing in the most competitive episodes (seventeen, plus the "game within a game") without ever winning a maxi challenge ''or'' a lip-sync. |
| 261 | * MemeticMutation: [[Memes/RuPaulsDragRace Has its own page.]] |
| 262 | * {{Misblamed}}: Often happens when a season favorite gets sent home, the fans will usually berate and attack the queen who was up against them when they were eliminated (Darienne Lake against [=BenDeLaCreme=], for example). However, it is much more rare for the fans to place blame on [=RuPaul=], despite the fact she has said time and time again [[OneJudgeToRuleThemAll that every decision on the show is hers, and her alone]]. |
| 263 | * {{Moe}}: There are occasionally queens who are [[TheCutie adorable enough]] and [[NiceGirl kind enough]] to be seen as this. |
| 264 | ** Jinkx Monsoon of Season 5 has many cute runway looks, is very kind to the other queens, is seen as a {{Woobie}} at several points for either her narcolepsy giving her trouble or [[TheBully Roxxxy Andrews]] picking on her, and has an endearing sense of humor. |
| 265 | ** Trinity K. Bonet of Season 6 is a ShrinkingViolet whose CharacterDevelopment for the season is learning to not be so hard on herself. She is also very kind to the other queens, and nerdy in a way that is endearing, such as going with a [[Franchise/StarWars Queen Amidala]] look on the runway at one point and of course naming herself after a character from ''Film/TheMatrix''. |
| 266 | ** Joslyn Fox of Season 6 is considered to be one of the nicest queens to ever be on the show, with multiple noted instances of her comforting other queens who were having breakdowns and, unlike most other queens, never throwing shade at anyone. Her goofy {{Cloudcuckoolander}} moments are also seen as adorable by fans, and being one of the most [[DudeLooksLikeALady naturally feminine-looking queens]] helps make her and her runway looks more cute as well. |
| 267 | ** Cynthia Lee Fontaine of Season 8 is a goofy MotorMouth [[GenkiGirl with boundless energy]] who, due to [[NiceGirl her incredible amount of kindness]], comes across as very endearing to both her cast mates and to the audience, making her an easy pick for the season’s Miss Congeniality. |
| 268 | * MoralEventHorizon: |
| 269 | ** Mimi Imfurst lifting up a screaming India above her head during her lip-sync. |
| 270 | ** Phi Phi deliberately sabotaging Jiggly in the Dragazines challenge. |
| 271 | ** Santino mocking Trinity's speech impediment on the runway as described earlier is made out to be this, necessitating Ru to interrupt the show to clarify what Santino supposedly really meant. Apparently, in six seasons Santino waited until he was in front of a queen with well-known speech issues to make fun of Ru's speech barely-noticeable lisp. LyingCreator or worst timing ever? |
| 272 | ** Michelle Visage's unusually harsh critiques of Adore Delano's dress during the first challenge of All Stars 2, which caused the latter to have a breakdown. Worsened by the fact that the main challenge was to showcase a ''talent'' and not a design challenge. Notably, both Katya and Phi Phi felt that Michelle was bullying Adore. |
| 273 | * MorePopularReplacement: Santino Rice was the most hated of the Drag Race judging panel due to his unconstructive and harsh criticism. Come Season 7, he was replaced by Ross Matthews and Carson Kressley, both of whom were much more well-received. |
| 274 | * MorePopularSpinOff: While Drag Race UK hasn't been able to beat the US show's viewership numbers, many fans consider the first two UK series to be much better in quality than most of the recent US seasons. In particular, many felt that UK Series 2 quickly overshadowed US Season 13 when it started airing at the same time as the US show. |
| 275 | * NarmCharm: Possibly the reason the show is so popular, is that although the show in and of itself is SeriousBusiness, it does not take itself seriously, and has no problem flaunting its {{Camp}} and hilariously [[{{Narm}} narmy humor]] proudly for it's fans to enjoy. |
| 276 | -->'''[=RuPaul=]''': Drag never, ever takes itself too seriously! [[note]]BACKROOOOOOOOLLS![[/note]] |
| 277 | ** To make specific cases, there's Alyssa Edwards, who is often flat-out hilarious despite not even meaning to be, which made her one of the fan favorites of the whole series. |
| 278 | ** Her drag daughter, Laganja Estranja, is an even bigger example. She annoyed a lot of people by being an AttentionWhore who did a lot of weird, goofy things (what the hell ''was'' that thing on her head, anyway?) just to be more memetic and get the spotlight on her. Bianca Del Rio wasn't the least bit shy about calling her out on this (which only made fans love Bianca more). The thing is, for as buffoonish and silly as Laganja looked/sounded, fans ''do'' remember a lot of Laganja's more memorable moments, like her signature "okurrrrr," "COME ON, (x)," calling everyone "mawhma," and especially her entrance in the first episode of season 6, probably the most well-remembered death drop of the whole show. Laganja got RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap when fans got to see her be more down-to-Earth outside of the show. |
| 279 | ** Roxxxy Andrews' verse in "Read U Wrote U" from All Stars 2 fits this trope. You know, "I'm Roxxxy Andrews and I'm here to make it clear." It's so corny and cliched compared to Alaska's, Detox's and Katya's, that fellow queens and fans still get a kick out of it. |
| 280 | * NeverLiveItDown: |
| 281 | ** Mimi Imfurst and her infamously lifting another drag queen over her head during a lip sync. When she is invited back to take part in [=RuPaul=]'s All Star Drag Race, even though she said she's put the incident behind her, it's obvious the other queens have not. |
| 282 | *** When India Ferrah is brought back for All Stars 5, she also admits the only thing she is ever remembered for is being picked up by Mimi in her season. |
| 283 | ** The "Night of a Thousand Kimonos" for Thorgy, Kim, Derrick, and Naomi. |
| 284 | ** Music/MeghanTrainor was a poorly received guest judge for a variety of reasons (cf. UnfortunateImplications on her own YMMV page). The point fans really rail on, though, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is the fact that she showed up in a unicorn onesie]]. While no one expects the judges to turn out looks on par with the contestants or Ru, turning up to a fashion TV show in a cartoon plush jumpsuit that could be found Target was seen as a faux pas, to say the least. |
| 285 | ** Michelle Visage on All Stars 2. Although Michelle wasn't the only one who read Adore Delano for filth for her outfit - guest judge Raven-Symoné certainly didn't help - Michelle is usually the one blamed by Adore fans for the latter's subsequent DespairEventHorizon. The thing is, being a harsh critic is just Michelle's job, and by all accounts she's considerably nicer when she's not at the judge's table. |
| 286 | ** Valentina's hesitance to take off her mask during her lipsync against Nina Bonina Brown, until Ru ''forced'' her to, leading to an especially humiliating loss. It immediately became one of the most controversial moments of the whole series. This one hit hard because Valentina was pegged early on as a likely season 9 finalist by fans and critics, only for her to ruin all that momentum in spectacular fashion. |
| 287 | --->'''Joel Kim Booster from [[https://www.vulture.com/2017/05/rupauls-drag-race-recap-season-9-episode-9.html Vulture]]:''' Valentina wants this, she wants it bad, and you can tell she thought she had it. Watching her fall so hard and so fast is heartbreaking and cravenly compelling television. It was like watching ''Film/LaLaLand'' lose the Oscar: Nina may have won, but goddamn if everyone isn’t going to talk about Valentina’s loss forever and ever. |
| 288 | * NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: For the most part every queen who has taken part of the show has gone on to more success than they would have had otherwise, whether they [[WeHardlyKnewYe went home too early]] or were [[ManipulativeEditing edited into being the]] [[DesignatedVillain villain of the season]]. |
| 289 | ** Outright invoked by Magnolia Crawford, who said she had no desire to even try and win Season 6. Magnolia had no aspirations for the crown or the money, she just wanted to boost her ego with fan recognition, even if she had to make a fool out of herself during the show to do so. |
| 290 | * OlderThanTheyThink: The "how's your head?" joke is copied verbatim from ''Film/ElviraMistressOfTheDark1988''. |
| 291 | ** Many jokes and quotations are taken from ''Film/ParisIsBurning'', the seminal 1990 documentary on ballroom culture, including Mercedes' "Opulence! You own everything!" |
| 292 | ** Adore's "Party!" catchphrase was originated by Mayhem Miller, a L.A. fixture before getting on the show. |
| 293 | * OnceOriginalNowCommon: Roxxxy's wig reveal on Season 5 was one of the most iconic moments on the show when it happened. Nowadays, wig reveals are a staple trick for performers, and it can be hard to remember the magic of Roxxxy's original reveal. |
| 294 | * OneSceneWonder: Doubles with EarlyBirdCameo. In a Season 4 episode of ''Untucked'', Alaska steals the show in a video message to then-lover Sharon Needles, introducing her famous "Hiiiieeeee!" and trashy style of drag. |
| 295 | * Main/{{Padding}}: While many people enjoy Season 13, the main complaint directed against it is how long-winded it feels. The first three episodes were all non elimination, combined with a double save coming after only four people had been eliminated, and then an airing of a coronavirus special the week after left many feeling like the season had overstayed its welcome before it even reached the halfway point (for comparison, Season 13 had 9 people left going into episode 9, while Season 8 was on its Top 4 by episode 9). To the disappointment of some fans, Season 14 doubled down on this. The show nullified both eliminations from the split premiere, then had multiple non-elimination episodes, and to add insult to injury, there was the "chocolate bar" gimmick designed to save a queen after being eliminated (finally uncovered by Bosco near the season's end), a gimmick which proved almost immediately unpopular. |
| 296 | * PlayAlongMeme: Fans particularly took a liking to season 13 contestant Joey Jay, and her running joke of announcing she's gay... despite the fact that ''every'' season is a CastFullOfGay and her frequent mentions of this fact are obviously redundant (come on, it's a show about {{Drag Queen}}s!). Fans found this so funny that they christened Joey Jay the "first openly gay contestant" and praised the show for "finally having gay representation." It kept Joey a fan favorite long after her early elimination. |
| 297 | -->'''Joey Jay (before the girl group challenge):''' I don't write music, but I'm ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis gay. as. fuck.]]'' I'm gonna shit fucking rainbows and glitter, and it's gonna be everything. |
| 298 | * PopCultureIsolation: |
| 299 | ** Occurs on UK and Down Under quite a bit, due to Ru and Michelle not being as familiar with local pop culture references as the queens themselves. In particular, Ru's comments on the Pantomime Dame runway make it clear he has little idea of what a pantomime actually is, something that is otherwise a staple of UK culture. |
| 300 | ** The inverse also tends to occur, where Ru and Michelle expect the queens to get niche references to gay culture in the 70's and 80's, when many of the queens weren't even alive back then. In one episode Aja is criticized for mispronouncing the name of France Joli, someone that most viewers probably hadn't even heard of. |
| 301 | [[/folder]] |
| 302 | [[folder:Q-T]] |
| 303 | * RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: |
| 304 | ** Serena [=ChaCha=], despite coming off as elitist and borderline racist during Season 5, actually has seemed to learn from her mistakes and better herself and her art of drag. This reflected in her more cheerful attitude on All Stars 6, for what little time she lasted. |
| 305 | ** Gia Gunn was TheScrappy of Season 6 (one of them at least), but due to her [[UnusualEuphemism odd choice of words]] being turned into a MemeticMutation thanks in part to Alaska, a lot of fans have started to warm up to her. |
| 306 | ** Violet Chachki quickly spiralled to scrappydom with fans ''and'' the other queens after just the first episode due to her arrogance and the fact she's always giving, as the other queens put it, "stink face". However as the season progressed she was called out on her bitchiness and she noticeably worked to improve herself. In the end she was still a bitch, but more of a [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Bitch With A Heart Of Gold]], and ultimately won Season 7's crown. |
| 307 | ** Laganja Estranja is considered to have fully pulled herself off the heap with her incredible lip sync against Trinity on ''All Stars 6''. |
| 308 | ** Darienne Lake eventually lost her Scrappy status after her appearance on Season 6 once fans became more familiar with her sense of humour, social commentary and lipsyncing abilities. Her name is often included amongst the list of Lipsync Assassins. |
| 309 | ** Cheryl Hole experienced this during the airing of UK Series 1. At the start she was frequently seen as a transatlantic poor man's copy of Alyssa Edwards, tongue-popping and death-dropping all the time and having a more "American" style of drag than her fellow British competitors. In later episodes, however, her peppy, dorky and endearingly self-deprecating personality emerged more, to the point that she's now seen as a fan favourite. |
| 310 | ** Brita from Season 12 came off as loud and annoying, never shutting up about coming from New York, being a PaperTiger in regard to her abilities and acting like a bully towards Aiden. However, she rehabilitated herself in the eyes of many fans after a sobering Reunion in which she admitted her mistakes. |
| 311 | ** Silky Nutmeg Ganache got a ''fiery'' hatedom during her season 11 run for her overwhelming personality and often messy drag, and making it to the top 4, after having one of the sloppiest lipsyncs of all time with Nina West, only made the hatedom worse. The lingering controversy around her left people immediately apprehensive about her casting on All Stars 6. To the surprise of viewers, Silky was herself apprehensive about going as big as she did on her original season, making her into a bit of a ShrinkingViolet, leading to her early elimination. Silky's downfall provoked some discussion amongst fans about how much queens on the show, ''especially'' black queens, need to behave on camera to avoid the toxicity of the ''Drag Race'' fandom. However, what really rescued Silky was the Rudemption lipsyncs in episode 10, where Silky dominated the episode, winning multiple lipsyncs in a row and putting on a ''show'' every single time (even on a week where she didn't have to lipsync, as her opponent was a no-show). Needless to say, Silky has a lot more respect now, for her plight and her natural gifts as a performer, than she had on her original season. |
| 312 | ** Ra'Jah O'Hara was hated in season 11 for her short temper and negative personality. When she returned for All Stars 6, she was a lot more cheerful and kindhearted, as well as her runway looks improving immensely. Her victory in Canada vs. the World all but confirmed that her days as a Scrappy are well behind her. |
| 313 | * RetroactiveRecognition: |
| 314 | ** Alyssa Edwards was featured on a documentary called "Pageant", following the Miss Gay America contestants. Drag Race viewers surely know what happened with that. |
| 315 | ** ''Drag Race UK'' fans identified Ally Cubb, known as Scaredy Kat on ''DRUK'', as a contestant in an episode of the UK game show ''Trapped!'', back when they were still a child. They confirmed that it was indeed them on social media. In 2022, Cubb also had a pretty significant acting role as Gregor in ''Film/TheSchoolForGoodAndEvil'', which many ''Drag Race'' fans were surprised and impressed by. (Not every day a former ''Drag Race'' contestant acts in a high-budget Netflix movie, especially one that's entirely unrelated to drag.) |
| 316 | ** Season 8's Acid Betty appeared on an episode of Series/ProjectRunway, along with queens ironically named Sharon Needles and Farrah Moan. |
| 317 | * ScrappyMechanic: |
| 318 | ** '''The Jury''' in All Stars 3. The decision to have a jury of the eliminated queens choose the season's top two came out of nowhere, and resulted in the elimination of frontrunner Shangela with little fanfare. Logistically it made little sense, as the jury had not been there to see the final fours' performances, and were only voting based on conversations with each queen. For a while, this episode held the distinction of being the lowest rated episode of the series on IMDB. It's little surprise that we never saw the jury twist again, and the only time it's mentioned now is when queens are mocking it. |
| 319 | ** All Stars 5: While the Lip Sync Assassin twist was more of a [[BrokenBase Base Breaker]], the decision to have every queen who didn't win the challenge be up for elimination starting at Final 6 was almost universally disliked. It exacerbated the "queens keeping their friends" issues that permeated All Stars seasons: by this point in the competition Shea, Juju, Cracker, and Blair had formed a strong friendship, meaning Alexis was at risk of going home on the Snatch Game episode despite being one of the best in the challenge, and being eliminated in the following episode despite arguably doing better than some of the other queens. Those who focus on a queens track record throughout the season also hated the change, as it meant queens would be saddled with unnecessary "bottom" placements even after they did well. |
| 320 | ** '''The Porkchop Landing Dock'''. For a first in the series, the premiere episode of Season 13 consisted of all thirteen contestants being required to lipsync for their life, with the fate of the losers being left uncertain. Not only did this feel unneccessarily cruel to the queens, but it was obvious to viewers from the get go that production wouldn't be eliminating seven of them in just the first episode for obvious reasons. Instead, as if the whole thing didn't already feel mean spirited enough, the losers are forced to vote one of their own out. In the following episode, Elliott with 2 Ts is revealed to have been voted out, but this too was obviously a bluff as well and Elliott instead got to join the "Winner's Circle", so in the end, nobody was actually eliminated from the whole ordeal. Compounding the fact that the next episode would also not have an elimination, and the whole thing just felt like pointless padding to stretch out what would already be one of the longest seasons yet in the franchise. |
| 321 | ** '''The Chocolate Bars'''. Season 14 tried to shake things up by doing away with Ru's ability to save a queen at her own discretion by passing out chocolate bars to the queens at the start of the season, with the twist being one of the bars would secretly be the "gold bar", which if you were eliminated after a lip-synch would be an automatic save back into the competition. Many fans were dubious just how legit the bars were[[note]]Logistically speaking, a truly random non-elimination would be a production nightmare; what if the bar really was found in the first episode and thus the twist would have no stakes? What if the gold bar was in possession to one of the final four queens who were never up for elimination? Would the production just up and scrap an entire episode intended for the save having been used?[[/note]]. Additionally, this season had a large number of non-elimination episodes that underscored the entire point of the chocolate bar twist. Case in point, the episode where the gold bar was finally used was the ''fifth'' non-elimination episode this season (and there would be a sixth afterwards). |
| 322 | ** While All-Stars 8's "Fame Games" in which fans could vote for a popularity consolation prize was initially well accepted, come the penultimate episode Ru suddenly changes the rules and decides that based on the Talent Show that a queen could multiply their votes by two, three, or even ''five times''. Lala indeed wins and gets a times three bonus to her entire vote count and predictably wins the title, causing an uproar who argue production just fudged the votes to let Ru pick the winner instead of the fans. Prior to this, many fans were quite sure Darienne or Jessica were going to win. |
| 323 | * SeasonalRot: |
| 324 | ** Season 7 (besides the new Untucked) is generally not as well-received as the previous seasons, with many citing the preponderance of team challenges (the most of any season thus far aside from All Stars) and that the show's started referencing itself ''too'' much rather than satirizing pop culture or the reality competition show format. Other people just think this particular season is a miss due to a lack of dynamic queen relationships, as there's been a serious void of any true rivalries (like Sharon and Phi Phi, or Alyssa and Coco), any deep friendships (like Raven and Jujubee, or Adore and Bianca), or a presence of a TeamMom (like Chad, Latrice, or, again Bianca). |
| 325 | ** Season 9 has gotten a serious amount of flack for its poor editing. Much of the interactions among the queens before the challenges and with Ru in the workroom have been relegated to online exclusives, so the personalities of the queens don't really come through until way past midway through the season. Worse, certain episodes with team challenges concentrated purely on the losing team, making for cringe-worthy viewing experiences. The elimination of the mini-challenges hasn't been very well-received either. |
| 326 | *** As season 9 continued, a new criticism has popped up as fans have said the lip-syncs this season have been hands down the ''worst'' in all seasons, especially in light of the fact ''three'' lip-syncs saw queens giving half-assed performances because they already knew they were going to be eliminated and decided to not bother trying. This included Charlie Hides because 'lip-syncing isn't what she does' later revealed to be because of a cracked rib, Valentina due to not thinking she was going to be in the bottom two and therefore not even bothering to learn the lyrics to the song, and Nina Bonina Brown falling victim to self-doubt in her third time on the bottom and deciding she didn't deserve to be there anymore. It's been noted by fans as being an incredibly disrespectful display by the contestants, when it's been said time and time again, there are queens who have auditioned for years who would give anything to be on the show at all. The "lip-sync for the crown" finale format, which Ru explicitly said was designed to address the season's lackluster lip-synchs, has become divisive. |
| 327 | ** All Stars 3 received a lot of flak from fans, mainly due to the fact that it attempted to capitalize on the success of All Stars 2 and failed miserably. For starters, there were only two new seasons worth of queens to choose from in between All Stars 3 and 2, and many of Season 9's high profile queens turned down an offer to compete due to [=AS3=] filming a mere month after Season 9 had finished airing. This led to what many considered to be a weaker All Stars cast composed of queens from earlier seasons that failed to make the cut for All Stars 1 or 2. Many of the contestants were chosen based on the success they had achieved outside of the show (Milk, Trixie) rather than success on the show. Barring the surprise reappearance of Bebe, this is the only All Stars season where no queen made Top 3 on their original season. |
| 328 | *** Beyond that, many of the challenges this season were half-hearted riffs on formulas used in All Stars 2 and other such seasons. With the exception of the Bitchelor, every challenge this season had been done some way in another season, and even then, having challenges like a Snatch Game with only 7 people or a ball with only two looks (and one of them being a giant soup can which every queen had the same silhouette for) left something to be desired on the challenge front. |
| 329 | *** The return of the Lip Sync for your Legacy format was knocked especially hard this season. Even in All Stars 2 it was met with trepidation, but [=AS3=] saw queens really being emotionally distraught over the format, while others used it to their advantage to boot queens who arguably didn't deserve it. Further, many argued this twist led to lower quality lip-syncs due to the contestants not having as much motivation to do well as they would if they were up for elimination. |
| 330 | *** [=BenDeLaCreme=] eliminating herself, while massively shocking at the time, cast a shadow over the last two episodes. When the person who was clearly going to win says ScrewThisImOuttaHere, it makes it kind of hard to take the fight of the remaining contestants seriously. |
| 331 | ** Finally, the finale twist: Rather than Ru picking the Top 3 queens, it's revealed that a jury made up of the eliminated queens would vote on which of the remaining 4 would advance to the Top 2. The only issue is, many of these queens voted based on who needed the title of winner most rather than who had actually performed best in the competition. This left fans pissed by not only taking Shangela out of the competition without a chance to fight, but also because one of the queens who made it into the Top 2 of the season over her had been in the bottom in 4 of the 7 challenges. Although the season's eventual winner, Trixie Mattel, was a massive fan favorite in her own regard, people left the season upset that the winner was the person who statistically performed third best. |
| 332 | ** Many fans are worried that the franchise as a whole is slowly slipping into this. As of early 2019, a record ''three seasons'' (Season 10, All Stars 4 and Season 11) have premiered within the past 12 months, with the first season of the newly established Drag Race UK following closely on their heels (and with both Ru and Michelle on the judging panel, Drag Race UK is decidedly an official branch of the franchise). Drag Race is churning out content like never before, which is leading to concerns of oversaturation. The fanbase is at least hoping to get a breather from All Stars for a year. |
| 333 | *** This is more of a contentious issue as of this writing (2022). On one hand, the franchise's momentum couldn't even be halted by COVID. In 2022 alone, 4 seasons had started airing ''before June'' (Season 14, All Stars 7, UK vs. the World and España 2), with ''10 more seasons'' slated for release later in the year (UK 4, Canada 3, Down Under 2, Thailand 3, Italia 2, Secret Celebrity Drag Race 2, France 1, Belgique 1, Sverige/Sweden 1 and Philippines 1), bringing the grand total so far to ''14 seasons of Drag Race in one single year''. Responses to the rapid expansion of the Drag Race franchise have varied: Some are frustrated and worried about oversaturation. Other viewers have begun to be more selective in choosing which shows they follow (the non-Anglophone seasons tend to get hit particularly hard by this). The queens themselves discuss this issue fairly frequently, but the consensus seems to be that they're more grateful for the platform and opportunity that this expansion represents than they are worried about oversaturation. |
| 334 | ** The sort-of SpinOff ''Secret Celebrity Drag Race'' was met with a lot of resistance from fans. Many people complained how most of the "celebrities" were not actually that famous, and in fact most had weaker fanbases than the Drag Queens themselves. Speaking of, with the exception of the three Drag Mentors, other Drag Queens brought on to help with make-up and styling (like Shannel, Laila [=McQueen=], and Mayhem Miller) were barely given any credit and were cut from the show. Speaking of those queens, they do all the work getting the celebrities into hair, clothes, and make-up, so the guest celebrities don't actually do much, it's even been rumored when it comes to the comedy challenges, the celebrities have their jokes written for them and prepared ahead of time. Some fans also felt the show was a bit {{Anvilicious}} pushing the "straight people learning to understand gay culture" all the way in 2020, or the push for transgender rights seeming forced as the main show still has a tumultuous history when it comes to casting trans contestants. If that wasn't enough, the show was shoehorned ''during'' Season 12, sandwiched awkwardly between the main show and Untucked, forcing fans who would prefer to skip 'Secret Celebrity' to wait an hour and a half for the rest of the actual show, when many fans argue it would have been easier, and probably more organic to just wait and air the show between Season 12 and All Stars 5, and give both main shows breathing room. The only reason the season doesn't seem to get more flack than this is because ultimately it was just for fun, and was an excuse to donate money to a few worthwhile charities. |
| 335 | ** Season 13 has been accused of dragging itself out for too long, what with the season starting with a whopping ''three'' non-elimination episodes, a double save while there's still nine queens remaining (the earliest the show has ever done a double save), followed by a filler episode about filming around the Covid-19 pandemic. |
| 336 | ** Season 3 of ''Drag Race España'' was largely seen as a let-down compared to the acclaimed first two seasons, with production apparently pushing certain queens to CreatorsPet level (possibly in an attempt to recreate the TheAce track record of Carmen Farala and Sharonne) and unfairly shafting others. It has been said that the narrative producers for seasons 1 and 2 left Spain for Mexico to help develop that country's spin-off, tentatively explaining the drop in quality. |
| 337 | * ShallowParody: In UK Season 3, Scarlett Harlett's choice for "Snatch Game" was Creator/MacaulayCulkin...or more specifically, Kevin from ''Film/HomeAlone''...or even ''more'' specifically, his famous "scream" pose. It wasn't her original idea, but Ru said she kind of looked like him, and Scarlett gave an offhand impersonation that Ru loved. Come the challenge, she bases her ''entire'' performance on that scream and portrays Kevin as constantly afraid, making it clear that she has never actually seen the movie. (Scarlett confirmed on social media that she had no reference other than the scream.) Since Scarlett did it to make Ru happy, she was safe, which was a controversial decision among the fanbase. |
| 338 | * ShockingElimination: |
| 339 | ** Ongina. It was particularly heartbreaking since just the week before, she had won the Viva Glam challenge and confessed to having lived with HIV for two years. |
| 340 | ** Jessica Wild, who also went home the week after winning a challenge. Season 4's Willam has given her two cents that she thinks Jessica was purposely set up for failure because she was too nice and didn't cause drama with the other girls, thus making her bad for reality TV. |
| 341 | *** Stacy was also sent home the week after winning a challenge, although this was less shocking as she had been an underdog for most of the season, but was praised when she finally "came out of her shell" during the Snatch Game. |
| 342 | ** Kenya Michaels being eliminated, when she was a major favorite for Top 3 in Season 4. |
| 343 | ** Pandora's elimination remains the biggest one of the early seasons when many fans expected her to at least reach the final three. The trope is called out by Ru herself during the reunion. |
| 344 | ** Vivienne Pinay and Honey Mahogany were the victims of the show's first double elimination. |
| 345 | ** Kelly's elimination in the season 6 premiere was quite a shock, as she was an early fan favorite and was expected to make it to the final three before the season had even started. |
| 346 | ** According to the fans, Ben's elimination is on par with Pandora's. Ru said that her elimination caused the fans to "flip the fuck out" when she didn't even make it to the top four, even though she was an early favorite to take the whole competition. |
| 347 | ** Season 7 saw early favorite Tempest [=DuJour=] eliminated the first episode, when many fans thought with her theater background, her campy style, and college professor smarts she would have been a real contender for the season. |
| 348 | ** Trixie's elimination, as many fans loved her quirky style and thought her lip-synch was much stronger than Pearl's. "#justicefortrixie" became a running joke online. Fortunately for those fans, she gets to return in episode 8... and then leave two episodes later through yet another controversial lip-synch against Ginger Minj. |
| 349 | ** When Max got eliminated for a poor showing on the Snatch Game, even fans who were sure she was going to hit a wall sooner or later didn't think the theater queen would be sent home for what was basically an acting challenge of all things. |
| 350 | ** Although the rumours throughout the season turned out to be true, it still didn't stop Katya's elimination form being this, the elimination of arguably the season's most popular and social media-savvy queen put a lot of fans off the rest of the season, despite even Katya herself insisting that her time was up. |
| 351 | ** Ginger Minj losing the crown to Violet Chachki, as even fans who didn't like Ginger just assumed this was her season to win, since it played heavily to her strengths of acting and comedy. Add to that the fact many viewers thought Ru would want to ''finally'' crown a BigBeautifulWoman, as fans have been complaining for years that Ru's neglected her plus-sized queens when it comes to picking a winner. |
| 352 | ** Dax [=ExclamationPoint=] and Laila [=McQueen=] were the second double elimination for the same reason as the first: a deeply lackluster lip-sync that made Ru send them both home. |
| 353 | ** Thorgy Thor. Many fans had Thorgy pegged as top 3 material but were surprised when she only placed sixth. She was also a fan favorite and many felt she did well all competition up until episode 7. This of course is one of many conspiracy theories about season 8. |
| 354 | ** Inverted by Naomi Smalls and Chi Chi [=DeVayne=]. Michelle and Ross both admitted that they never would have predicted that the two of them would have made it to the top 4. Of course, this was phrased in such a way to praise their growth, and not to throw shade. |
| 355 | ** Subverted in Season 9's premiere. Ru declares NO ONE is going home. The girls rejoice. Inverted when he shockingly adds a queen to the competition. |
| 356 | ** Valentina's elimination. While the actual elimination was well-deserved after dropping the ball in the tv pilot challenge, for most of the season she was praised for being "perfect" to the point of MemeticMutation. In addition to failing the challenge, her runway look included a mask, which she refused to take off both during the lip-sync and ''when [=RuPaul=] stopped the music and told her to''. She did reluctantly take it off, but it was immediately obvious she didn't know the words and gave up, being sent home. After spending the entire season as a favorite for the top 3, it's hard to think of another queen who fell from grace so harshly. |
| 357 | ** In All Stars 3: Aja's elimination is this. To lay the groundwork here, she had a mostly strong performance that was widely viewed as a major comeback for a queen that failed to live up to expectations in her original season, to mention nothing of the extremely short turn-around period she had to work with. And yet in her elimination episode, not only was the garment she made herself considered to be far and away the best-looking of all the queens' looks by many of the fans and the other contestants themselves, but the queen who eliminated her, [=BeBe=], won the challenge and the lip-sync ''in an outfit designed by Aja'' '''''which she refused to acknowledge when asked about it point-blank by the judges'''''. |
| 358 | ** Also from All Stars 3, Ben won four challenges in five episodes and it was starting to become a ForegoneConclusion that she would likely take the whole season effortlessly. However, so distraught with the emotional toll having to eliminate her colleagues in addition to the constant pressure of having to give 100% every episode, Ben shocks even Ru herself when she chooses to cross out the name on a lipstick and write in her own, eliminating herself! |
| 359 | ** Finally, with Ben gone it became obvious Shangela was the frontrunner of the season, with the most wins and only a single stumble in the sewing challenge. Once she made it past the penultimate episode, it seemed Shangela was the only queen to for sure be in the final running, with maybe Bebe and Trixie behind her and Kennedy a distant fourth. Then Ru changes all the rules and decides there will only be a final two and those two will be selected not by her and the judges, but the ''eliminated queens!'' In a surprise twist they pick Kennedy and Trixie to lip-sync for the crown, and Shangela is eliminated in spite of having the best stats for the season (and Kennedy having the worst). |
| 360 | ** In the All-Stars format, many of the girls will talk about how they might use their chance when selecting a contestant to send home for strategic reasons - to send home a significant challenger. Few follow through with it, but in All-Stars 4 Naomi Smalls chose to eliminate front-runner Manila Luzon instead of Latrice Royale, who had been having a very inconsistent season and had already been eliminated. Interestingly, Manila herself tried to dampen the fan backlash by releasing a music video the week after the episode aired which included Naomi, to show there were no hard feelings. |
| 361 | ** In Season 11, Scarlet Envy, who had a much stronger record than the girl she was lipsyncing against (including her joint win in episode 2)--the lipsync itself was agreed by fans to be incredibly close. SNL's Leslie Jones, who's gained a reputation for livetweeting about the show, [[https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg/status/1115079249742974976 was clearly baffled]]. The vast majority of fans were in agreement that she essentially has a guaranteed spot on a future All Stars season, which would turn out to be All Stars 6 in 2021 - and fans were outraged when she was eliminated there, too, mid-season, after a particularly cold critique from Ru. By this point, fans believe Ru just has it out for Scarlet for being Pearl's drag daughter. |
| 362 | ** Also from Season 11 is Shuga Cain. To recap, Shuga had a problem of being "safe" and OvershadowedByAwesome, which came to a head in the magic show challenge where she was good, but not as good as her teammates. However, the other team bombed so hard that it looked to be easy pickings for the lipsynch. However she was still chosen and lost, which sent the fandom into a cry of foul play and ExecutiveMeddling. |
| 363 | ** On the very next episode: Nina West, especially shocking given her mostly strong performance throughout the season and having won the previous challenge. While many of the fans are in agreement that her lipsync was lackluster (although TLC's "No Scrubs" is admittedly a hard pairing with a queen like Nina West), they were still baffled that Ru chose to keep Silky despite her response to the lipsync ''literally being an indifferent "meh"''. Even fans who don't believe Nina should've been saved still believe that the lipsync should've been a double sashay, but it seems that of all the given elimination/save possibilities, saving Silky and eliminating Nina made the least amount of sense. A running fan theory is that the only reason this lipsync wasn't a double sashay was because the episode was too close to the finale, and that they would've had to nix the last challenge before the Top 4. |
| 364 | ** All Stars 5 got off to a fiery start when Derrick Barry immediately got into it with India Ferrah over tensions working in Las Vegas. This promised a pretty drama-filled season that would never come to pass, because Derrick Barry immediately bombed in the talent show, and went home in episode one. India Ferrah would go on to disappoint in multiple challenges before mercifully being sent packing herself. It is not uncommon to hear fans say that the season never recovered from losing Derrick and her refreshing lack of filter. |
| 365 | ** From UK Series 2: the series starts with a bang when the first episode sends [[spoiler:Joe Black]] packing. A celebrated veteran queen with an established aesthetic, she was frequently seen as a strong contender for the crown from her Meet the Queens interview, yet she's eliminated after being harshly criticized for both looks she presented on the runway. The fans, especially in her hometown, were fuming at what was seen as "wasted potential", especially since she never had the chance to showcase her acting, singing and comedy chops. She would return for a single episode after the pandemic break, but Ru's infamous outburst at her H&M dress ensured that the "returning queen" curse would ''not'' be broken. |
| 366 | ** Also from UK Series 2, Veronica Green's NonGameplayElimination after she caught COVID-19 during the series' production pause, even if it was the right thing to do, was a big shock given how she was one of the frontrunners of the series up to that point. |
| 367 | ** In season 13, a challenge of {{Freaky Friday Flip}}s saw the cast competing in pairs, who would win together, be safe together, or be on the bottom together. [[spoiler:Denali and Olivia Lux]] were unfortunately on the losing end. [[spoiler:Denali's]] lipsyncs were fan favorites right from the premiere onward, and she had a very rabid, very vocal fanbase develop because of her natural talent as a performer. When she gave an uncharacteristically subdued lipsync and went home, said fanbase erupted in anger and conspiracy theories. |
| 368 | ** [[spoiler:Keta Minaj]] from Holland season 2 had won three separate challenges and seemed poised to take the crown. Then she got controversially eliminated by [[spoiler:Vivaldi (who many thought should have been disqualified for having a contraband cellphone)]] just one episode before the finale. |
| 369 | *** This also applies to [[spoiler:Keta]] in UK vs the World series 2, where she came in as the "robbed queen" of the season and, with her incredible performance in the Ball, looked like she would redeem herself from her previous elimination. But then, in a similar fashion to [[spoiler:Pangina from last series (see below) Keta]] bombed the Snatch Game and was unceremoniously sent home over [[spoiler:UK's very first ouster Gothy Kendoll]]. |
| 370 | ** [[spoiler:Alyssa Hunter going home second]] in season 14, especially since she gave a considerably more high-energy lipsync than her opponent, and only lost because she reused a money-gun gimmick from her runway (the money-gun [[CrapolaTech jammed]], to be fair). Other queens dunking on that moment in confessionals only made fans ''angrier.'' |
| 371 | ** UK vs the World probably sports the biggest example of this when [[spoiler:back to back episodes see the two statistical front-runners of the competition, Jimbo and Pangina, sent home. Jimbo was sent home by Pangina for seemingly betraying her alliance with Jujubee and picking her lipstick for elimination, making her seem like an unreliable WildCard, but this also opened the door for the winning queen sending home the strongest competitor, rather than the queen with the worst track record in the bottom. Surely enough, come next episode Pangina is in the bottom and is eliminated by Blu]]. |
| 372 | ** ''Canada's Drag Race'' season 3 saw [[spoiler:Lady Boom Boom, who already had a challenge win,]] shown to be a first-rate sewer with good comedy chops. She had a vocal amount of fans hoping to see her in the winner's circle, if not win the season altogether... only for her Snatch Game performance to be a complete catastrophe, and she's unceremoniously sent home, just like that. |
| 373 | ** [[spoiler: Plasma]]'s elimination in season 16, roughly halfway into the competition, came as a major shock to viewers as she [[spoiler: had two maxi challenge wins under her belt]] and was one of the front-runners at that point. Not since Max all the way back in season 7 had such a clear front-runner with a great track record gotten eliminated so abruptly, sparking all kinds of debate across the fandom since the queen who sent her home had a much poorer record, but handily won the lipsync fair and square. |
| 374 | * ShockingMoments: |
| 375 | ** The infamous [=RuPaul=]/Pearl staredown in season 7, one of the most tense Werk Room moments ''ever.'' |
| 376 | ** Season 9, and Valentina hesitating to take off her mask from her runway look... during the lipsync. See NeverLiveItDown. |
| 377 | ** In "Diva Worship", [=RuPaul=] forces '''ALL 6''' of the queens on the bottom team to lipsync for their lives. Outside of a lipsync extravaganza and musical performances, there's never been that many queens performing on stage concurrently. |
| 378 | * SoOkayItsAverage: Season 9 is seen as having an overall lack of drive and drama previously seasons had, what with a lot of lackluster lip syncs, too many queens seemingly giving up, and the cast acting too nice for the cameras (with only Trinity seemingly willing to stir up drama, normally resulting in her being shot down). |
| 379 | * SpoiledByTheFormat: Season 14 bucked the pattern set by the previous two by actually featuring eliminations in its split-premiere episodes, where Daya Betty and Orion Story were fully told to sashay away after losing their lipsyncs...however, fans who followed World of Wonder's social media channels spotted that the post-show ''Whatcha Packin'' episodes for the two of them weren't posted at all, when typically these videos would go live a few hours after the episode at most. Sure enough, neither queen was actually eliminated, and both of them returned to the competition in episode three, with Daya making it all the way to the finale - a first for a previously-eliminated queen. |
| 380 | * {{Squick}}: The "[[TastesLikeChicken Chicken or What]]?" mini-challenge where, among other things, the queens had to eat deep fried cow brains. Worst is when Morgan [=McMichaels=] vomits and forces herself to keep eating to win the challenge. Ru herself has admitted the challenge made her nauseous, and it's telling that there has not been an eating mini-challenge since this. |
| 381 | ** Averted by Jujubee. Half the time, after being told what she was eating, she just nodded and kept going ... at least until Morgan vomits on her. |
| 382 | ** Moments before her disqualification, Willam's stomach turning and her vomiting over the side of the main stage, the editors didn't show the vomiting ''itself'', but were kind enough to give us all the sound effects, as well as a close-up of Willam as she spat over the side of the stage afterwards. |
| 383 | *** During the Season 6 make-over challenge Joslyn Fox's drag bride, "Bradonna Fox", had to excuse himself off-stage before he also started to throw up from the stress brought on by his feminine transformation. Again, although nothing was actually shown, the audience still gets to hear all of the sound effects. |
| 384 | ** In reaction to Joslyn's tuck on the runway, wearing what was basically akin to a crotch and asscrack pastie: "That was a meaty tuck." |
| 385 | ** Season 7's "Leaf-blower" mini-challenge in which the girls have to give face while being blown in the face ... normally right into their mouths to give a wide shot of all their teeth and gums. Special squicky mention goes to Miss Fame, who looks like she ate Oreos right before her turn with the leaf-blower. |
| 386 | * SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Down Under 1 is widely regarded as one of the lowest points of the franchise and a clear example that the Drag Race empire was getting too big. It was plagued by pre-production issues that saw it move in the eleventh hour from Australia to film in a very small studio in New Zealand (changing it from Drag Race Australia to Drag Race Down Under in the process, as they couldn't film in New Zealand without casting Kiwi queens), the extremely controversial casting of two queens with racist backgrounds (one of whom had become famous for her culturally-appropriative routines) and the CreatorsPet favouritism shown to both of them (as well as Art Simone, who was eliminated very early and then brought back without explanation). The season was also very frustrating to watch, as the judging consistently cast aside the queens widely seen as the fans' favorites (the three Kiwi queens) in order to prop up said CreatorsPet contestants, to the point where with the intense fan backlash to most of the queens who made it to the finale, production really only had one option to crown without a ''serious'' backlash. The second season was an enormous turnaround quality-wise, with higher IMDB ratings across the board and, in a coincidental parallel, a queen who had performed a culturally-appropriative act in the past but actually fully owned up to it on the show. Unfortunately, for much of the fanbase, the damage had already been done, and the second and third seasons were largely ignored by the wider fanbase, despite still being hosted by [=RuPaul=] and Michelle. |
| 387 | * TheyChangedItNowItSucks: |
| 388 | ** Not for the show per se, but for the reunion. Starting Season 4, the reunion has been filmed in front of a live audience as opposed to the intimate studio setting of the first three seasons, and engages in much more filler and is significantly less insightful regarding the contestants. Furthermore, since the reunion is filmed ahead of its airing, each of the final three are filmed as being announced of the winner (with the actual winner's crowning sequence being aired), causing the reactions to look rehearsed and fake. Sharon herself admitted that she didn't feel anything during filming the crowning since it felt very fake to her. |
| 389 | *** The reunion took a drastic shift again in Season 7, where the eliminated queens were given a major push to the sidelines to make room for the final three to give one last original performance. Although unlike the above, this one was more of a BrokenBase, as some people are fine with more spotlight to be given to the final three. |
| 390 | ** Some of this is because months pass between the rest of the season and the finale, giving the queens plenty of time to mend fences in private. |
| 391 | ** As of Season 6 all signature challenges have been moved an episode earlier than they normally appear, which means fan favorite [[CelebrityImpersonator Snatch Game]] was played with 10 queens, instead of the normal 9. At first glance, this would appear to be a good thing, an extra queen to play the game ... however, the show seemed to have serious issues with time management, and most queens barely got to answer one question (or in the case of Darienne Lake, no questions at all!). What's worse, there was no bonus footage offered for the Snatch Game this season, so what we saw during the show is all we're going to get, it seems. |
| 392 | *** In Season 7 they moved Snatch Game ''back'' an episode instead, possibly in response to Season 6, so now it was only played with 8 queens, giving every queen more spotlight. However, this also meant there was an extra challenge before the Snatch Game, and since almost every challenge from Episode 2 to the Snatch Game was a team comedy/acting challenge, many fans grew tired with the tedium in waiting for their favorite challenge. |
| 393 | *** Come All-Stars 2, Snatch Game was moved to the second episode; since the season only had 10 queens to begin with, it seems it's meant to be played with 9 queens again. However, due to Adore Delano's unforeseen departure at the beginning of the episode, it was once again played with only 8. |
| 394 | ** The removal of the You've Got Mail segment (which was itself a rather unfortunate play on the phrase) as mentioned above was removed in attempts to show more sensitivity towards trans people has been received an extreme amount of backlash. Even a large amount of queens from past seasons have complained about it. What's truly strange about it is that the segment in question is only 20 seconds and isn't necessary to the show yet it has probably received the most fan backlash of any change made to the show. |
| 395 | ** Inverted with Season 7's "[[FanNickname Untucked 2.0]]" which has a [[NoBudget reduced budget]] but a much more intimate setting for the queens to relax, especially after complaints that Untucked had started becoming overproduced and overly dramatic, not to mention the Opening intro would normally spoil several future eliminations |
| 396 | ** Season 7 lacking a challenge dedicated to society education, as every previous season tried to have at least one challenge with a focus on a current event in the world (Season 1's Viva Glam challenge where the queens had to film an AIDS PSA, Season 2's makeover challenge with elderly gay gentleman, Season 3 and 5 having a challenge focused on gays in the military, etc,) It made Season 7 seem a little too self-referential and somewhat shallow as a result. Even in the proceeding seasons, social awareness challenges have returned (Season 8 had a challenge about the plights faced by height-challenged individuals, and Season 9 addressing multiple issues such as eating disorders, surviving with or losing loved ones to cancer, and the struggles of homosexuals in other countries). |
| 397 | ** While for the most part Season 8 seems to have been [[WinBackTheCrowd winning back fans after a controversial Season 7]], come the final elimination episode, many fans were not happy that there was no Tic-Tac lunches with Mama Ru, after every previous season had given the final queens a chance to sit with Ru and really open up and normally make them more appealing to the fans. Granted, this season didn't really seem to need that since final four queens had spoken about their issues multiple times before, it was still an unwelcome change from the normal flow of things. |
| 398 | ** Some of the twists done in an attempt to keep the All-Stars formula fresh have been received very poorly. In All-Stars 3, changing who picked the final two from being picked by Ru to being chosen by a jury of eliminated queens was harshly critiqued as the eliminated queens did not pick winners based on who performed best in the show, but who needed the title most for after the show was done. As for All-Stars 4, changing the rules at literally the last moment so Ru could crown two winners was met with the same level of criticism, since it came off as a cop-out so Ru did not have to pick an actual winner and risk upsetting half of the viewing audience (in turn, upsetting almost the entire audience instead). |
| 399 | *** All-Stars 5 tried to reinvent the formula by having a single winner lip-sync against a "lip-sync assassin", and the outcome of the lip-sync determines who decides which bottom queen to eliminate (either the winner or the rest of the competing queens in a plurality vote). While the twist was initially well-received thanks to a very strong battle between India and Yvie Oddly, subsequent lip-syncs were more lackluster either on the winner's or the assassin's part. The twist was used to greater acclaim on All-Star 6. |
| 400 | *** A further twist on All-Stars 5 starting from episode 5 (all queens who weren't the episode winner were up for elimination) was almost universally seen as unnecessary. |
| 401 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: |
| 402 | ** Many fans feel this way about the inclusion of high fashion/high concept queens like Miss Fame, Violet Chachki, and Max in Season 7, since the season seemed to focus ''a lot'' more on {{Camp}}, acting, and teamwork as opposed to fashion and glamour. Ironically, the exact opposite was the complaint about Pandora Boxx in Season 2, as her campy comedy and acting skills were an ill-fit for a season more focused on fashion and polish. |
| 403 | ** For All-Stars 3, Chad Michaels and Alaska keep popping up during the first half of the season in their ''The Handmaid's Tale'' outfits, seeming to capture the eliminated queens to bring back for a redemption episode. Said redemption episode arrives and after a quick cameo at the start ... Chad and Alaska just completely disappear from the rest of the season. Rumor has it the show only had five ''Handmaid's Tale'' outfits, so Chad and Alaska had to take theirs off to give to Milk and Thorgy Thor, but even so fans were not only disappointed the two former winners had nothing to do with the challenge nor judging, but after this episode they also are completely left to the wayside for the rest of the season. |
| 404 | ** Many viewers of All Stars 3 were disappointed that Kennedy Davenport and Chi Chi [=DeVayne=], arguably two of the greatest lip sync assassins to appear on the show, never got the opportunity to lip sync against each other. |
| 405 | ** In All-Stars 5, some of the lip-sync song-lip-sync assassin matches were considered awkward and led to somewhat disappointing performances. For example, Alyssa got the dance-pop "Neutron Dance" and Kennedy the country ballad "[[Music/RebaMcEntire Fancy]]", while arguably they would have been able to play more to their respective strengths were the songs switched. Rumor has it they tried to do this to Roxxxy Andrews as well, but she threatened to quit if they didn't give her a song she could actually perform to. |
| 406 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The teams twist that was added to All-Stars can come across like this, as Ru claimed it was to force her queens to be teamed up with someone with talents and traits the other lacked and vice-versa ... but then let her queens pick their own teams. Most of the queens expectedly picked a partner that was already similar to their style (Chad and Shannel are both Vegas Showgirl queens, Yara and Alexis were both Season 3 Peurto Rican queens, etc.) which meant the dynamics that Ru seemed to be hoping for were ultimately subdued (or outright lost) with some teams. |
| 407 | ** With the announcement by Ru that she would have a new queen entering the competition after the second double elimination in the history of the show many fans got excited at the possibility of a new queen entering the competition. However once episode 3 leaked it was revealed that the new queen was actually Naysha. While some felt that it was good that she was getting a second chance many agreed that it would have been more interesting for someone new to come into the competition. |
| 408 | ** History repeats itself when Cynthia Lee Fontaine returns in season 9's premiere, after finishing 10th out of 12 on Season 8. Many fans appreciated someone as congenial as Cynthia coming back to compete again, as well as getting a second chance after [[TheTopicOfCancer being diagnosed with cancer]] following Season 8. But even then, most fans felt it was clear Cynthia never really stood a chance at going far in the competition, and her spot would have been better given to a stronger early out from Season 8, like Acid Betty or Thorgy Thor. |
| 409 | ** Drag Race France's first season ''finally'' features drag kings... as supporting players in a mini challenge. |
| 410 | * TookALevelInJerkass: Ru and Michelle both rubbed the queens (and, in Michelle's case, fans) the wrong way in the All Stars 2 premiere; Ru by announcing that the contestants would be eliminating each other, quite possibly the most transparent effort to build up drama for TV in ''Drag Race'' history (and one that was met with not just the usual incredulousness that Ru's twists bring but actual sadness and disappointment by the queens), and Michelle by reading Adore's outfit to filth and dismissing her original song (the outfit was very typical to Adore's style), showing an inability to accept queens without an established aesthetic. |
| 411 | * TookALevelInKindness: |
| 412 | ** Roxxxy Andrews and Phi Phi O'Hara, two of the [[BrokenBase more detested]] queens of their respective seasons, both admitted in the All Stars 2 premiere that they were too competitive and bitchy in their seasons and strive to be friendlier. Roxxxy even says the editing of season 5 didn't really distort anything; she really did act like that and she really is sorry. Goes on to prove it when she meets one-on-one with the bottom 3 prior to their elimination and feels extremely guilty when she makes her choice. |
| 413 | *** In the case of Phi Phi, the show's editing says this is Subverted, but Phi Phi disagrees. See BrokenBase above. |
| 414 | ** Ra'Jah O'Hara became an especially strong example of this on All Stars 6, admitting how bitchy and abrasive she'd been during season 11, chalking it up to being in her own emotions. In fact, during episode 3's ''Untucked,'' Ra'Jah even makes a point to make peace with Scarlet Envy, one of the targets of her abrasiveness. It may be one of the most radical turnarounds in demeanor a ''Drag Race'' contestant has ''ever'' made, going from a bonafide villain in season 11 to one of the kindest and most approachable queens of All Stars 6, the latter of which she ended as a respected fan favorite, and made her hugely anticipated for her third run on ''Canada Vs The World.'' |
| 415 | * ToughActToFollow: |
| 416 | ** While some iconic "reveals" (or "[=RuVeal=]", that is taking off a part of the outfit to uncover something else in a spectacular fashion, mostly during a lip-sync) had already happened before, like Roxxxy's wig-on-wig, the one moment that arguably canonized the trend was Sasha Velour's rose petal shower, during her lip-sync to "So Emotional" during the Season 9 finale. Reveals have then multiplied in following seasons, but so far none of them have been as iconic as Sasha's roses. Most fans agree that what made Sasha's lip-sync awesome was that her reveals were unexpected, as nothing in her outfit gave away the fact that she had dozens of petals hidden in her gloves and under her wig, while subsequent tries at it mostly fall into the CaptainObviousReveal trope, usually consisting in a shapeless outer garment covering a body suit or something similarly underwhelming. Case in point: [[https://imgix.bustle.com/mic/6xkpe8hrdud7vjxeqw2shft2in3jpwkb1isu1ocf3dvqlicyavchqlanvlyznxp8.jpg?w=1020&h=576&fit=crop&crop=faces&auto=format%2Ccompress the Season 10 finalists just before the lip-sync smackdown for the crown]]. |
| 417 | ** Violet's astounding hooded zombie ballgown in the Season 8 finale. Subsequent outgoing winners did deliver amazing looks, but each one of them will be inevitably negatively compared to Violet's. |
| 418 | ** ''Drag Race UK'' Series 2 is widely considered one of the best seasons in the whole franchise, and being the first out of ''nine'' seasons airing in 2021 to wrap up[[note]]UK 2 aired concurrently to Season 13, which premiered before but, having more episodes, crowned its winner later[[/note]], it naturally set the tone for the rest of the year. Apart from arguably ''Drag Race España'', with ''All-Stars 6'' and ''Canada's Drag Race'' season 2 closely following, none of the other eight seasons are considered as good as UK 2, especially UK 3, which many fans (both in the UK and abroad) feel has a reduced focus on British drag-style and culture in general, and has strayed into an over-produced, American reality TV format — to the series' detriment. |
| 419 | * TrailerJokeDecay: Happened in Season 6 with Laganja Estranja's "[[CatchPhrase Come on]] Season 6, let's get sickening!!! ''*death drop*''", as it was played in just about every preview trailer before ''and'' during the season. Especially annoying in that afterwards it became obvious Laganja was purposely trying to invoke herself as a FountainOfMemes, and most likely said the line because the clip would be trailer-bait. |
| 420 | ** Also happens with runway outfits. Courtney's angel wings would have been absolutely stunning if we hadn't seen them in every preview. |
| 421 | [[/folder]] |
| 422 | [[folder:U-Z]] |
| 423 | * UnexpectedCharacter: |
| 424 | ** The weekly Lip Sync Assassin segment debuting in All Stars 5 had a tendency to surprise fans with past contestants they haven't heard from in a while. Sure, it felt like we'd just seen Vanjie very recently by that season, but it was a bigger surprise to see [[spoiler:Roxxxy Andrews, after last having an infamously lackluster All Stars 2 run, not to mention that she redeemed herself and ''won'' her lipsync with Miz Cracker, thanks to her slinky, burlesque-style performance.]] |
| 425 | ** All Stars 6 is commonly considered the season where the Lip Sync Assassin segment came into its own, with more competitive matchups and a better cast of returning queens. Probably the biggest surprise of the season was the triumphant return of [[spoiler:season 6's ''Laganja Estranja,'' in one of the most highly-anticipated comebacks ever. Laganja didn't disappoint, either, with an [[Awesome/RuPaulsDragRace incredible dancing display]] that took Trinity K. Bonet to the limit.]] But this season wasn't done with the surprises, when the very next episode brought back, of all people, [[spoiler:Jessica Wild - yes, the Puerto Rican [[CloudCuckoolander goofball]] from season 2 - who [[CurbStompBattle utterly crushed Jan]] with some truly impressive hair-flipping.]] |
| 426 | ** All Stars typically always has one or two "wild card" queens with a lower placement compared to others-- for example, All Stars 4 had season 7's resident meme queen Jasmine Masters despite her originally going home third, and later, Serena [=ChaCha=] on All Stars 6, who was the second out on her original season. |
| 427 | ** All Stars 7: All Winners had various winners from the regular series and All Stars show up to compete, which would be fine on its own. And then, there's a nod to the international expansion of the franchise, when The Vivienne, winner of the first series of ''Drag Race UK,'' is the last to show up in the premiere, to the delighted surprise of the other winners. |
| 428 | ** The cast announcement of All Stars 8 was quite a surprise to fans old and new, being the most unique grab-bag of contestants since All Stars' inception. Contestants like season 13's Kandy Muse and Lala Ri, or season 12's Heidi N. Closet, or even season 2's Jessica Wild, were all expected to be on All Stars sooner or later. What fans didn't expect was ''Jimbo,'' the first contestant from an international series (specifically, ''Canada's Drag Race'') to show up on a regular All Stars, not counting The Vivienne. Even less expected was multiple early-outs from their individual seasons, like season 5's Monica Beverly Hillz, season 9's Creator/JaymesMansfield (who was ''first'' out) and season 11's Kahanna Montrese. |
| 429 | * UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: |
| 430 | ** Season 2 really seemed to attempt to paint Tyra Sanchez in a sympathetic light, bringing up the struggles she faced being kicked out of her home and having no money, and struggling for legal custody of her infant son. In addition, any highlight of her poor attitude seemed to be twisted around to instead be made out that she was "too real" for her competition, that she worked differently than they did and had a drive to win that forgave her questionable behavior. The audience quite loudly proclaimed the opposite, calling Tyra rude and unprofessional, that her talent does not make up for her bad attitude, and that same drive that got praised by the show (including ripping Raven's wig off twice and nearly gouging out Jujubee's eye with a stiletto heel) as borderline sociopathic behavior. She is quite infamous now for being the most despised winner of Drag Race in all seasons, and Ru in spite of shilling Tyra constantly on the show, even acknowledged the fan's outrage for the Season 2 winner during the reunion. |
| 431 | ** Scarlet Adams from Down Under season 1. It was a very hot topic in the fandom before the season aired that Scarlet had a lengthy history of performing in {{Blackface}}, brownface, and various other racially insensitive performances, up until fairly recently before her casting. You can imagine the surprise of viewers when the other queens and the judges were made aware of this in episode 5, and actually discussed the uncomfortable topic, with Etcetera Etcetera especially chewing Scarlet out for her transgressions. It culminates in Ru calling Scarlet out on the main stage and forcing her to publicly apologize for her actions, in what Ru calls a "lesson in humility" before declaring Scarlet safe for the week and moving on. In fact, Scarlet was not only safe, but went on to be the season's frontrunner. This was ''extremely'' contentious, as many felt Scarlet's obvious talents did not excuse more or less giving her a slap on the wrist for a history of racist performances, and many pointed to Sherry Pie being largely {{Unperson}}ed in season 12 of the main series as to how Scarlet ''should'' have been handled. Combine this with both the season's non-white competitors being eliminated by week 3, and episode 5 ending with Etcetera Etcetera being whisked away right after calling out Scarlet, and the whole fiasco left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Thankfully, there was one saving grace for the season, when Scarlet lost to fan favorite Kita Mean in the finale. |
| 432 | * UnpopularPopularCharacter: Season 9's Valentina, the other queens saw her as anti-social, overly driven, and accused her of putting on a fake cheery persona for the cameras. Fans, however, are incredibly protective of her, voted her the fan favorite of the season, and have even attacked other queens on social media for the audacity to not offer themselves up for elimination so that Valentina could have stayed on the show. |
| 433 | * TheUntwist: Every season since Season 2 during the themed Drag Ball the queens have to perform in an original Broadway-style lip-synch, and every single season the queens act like this is the biggest twist ever, acting nervous and upset that they are being taken away from their dressmaking for the challenge, and that it's a totally unexpected twist they are expected to perform in the number. |
| 434 | ** Lampshaded by Pandora Boxx during her review show, ''Drag Center'', complete with air quotes when talking about the so-called "twist". |
| 435 | ** In the All-Stars seasons 2 to 4, there is always an episode in which the eliminated queens fight for a chance to get back in the competition. The first time was legitimately shocking, the next ones no so much. Hilariously, Derrick Barry lampshades this when she's the first eliminated queen from All Stars 5... [[DoubleSubverted and then there's no comeback episode]]. |
| 436 | * VindicatedByHistory: Interestingly, individual looks have sometimes gotten this: |
| 437 | ** During the Season 4 Zombie Apocalypse challenge Phi Phi O'Hara was upset when her outfit, a costume modeled after a sort of road warrior drag queen complete with battle scars, went ignored by the judges and was only deemed "safe". Later that season during the look-back, Phi Phi's battle queen outfit was actually one of the top looks according to [=RuPaul=], and even better, during a series of top lists regarding all of the past 5 seasons, Phi Phi's look again makes it onto the list. |
| 438 | ** Season 6 sees a similar situation involving Darienne Lake's Tony Awards inspired dress, in which the judges don't give it much positive feedback. During the top 10 outfits of the seasons, Darienne's "pond-scum green" outfit makes an appearance. |
| 439 | * {{Wangst}}: Coco Montrese and the whole Alyssa Edwards thing, although Alyssa instigates it as well it never seems to bother her much, whereas for Coco it was always a BerserkButton. [[BrokenBase Many Drag Race fans]] got tired of watching Coco rant and cry and bitch about it every episode, and Alyssa even calls Coco out on the fact whenever things get too real she'll turn on the waterworks. |
| 440 | * WinBackTheCrowd: |
| 441 | ** Season 8 seemed to be going for this, with two extended episodes, a more even spread among screentime for queens, and the first challenge not needing to be blurred out. Also helped that Queens with an already devoted fan following - Such as Kim Chi and Bob the Drag Queen - were cast as well. |
| 442 | ** Season 9 tried this with the Finale reformat: two-fold, in fact. The single traditional episode was split into a Crowning episode and a Reunion episode. The former seemed to attempt to mitigate the long string of lackluster lip syncs throughout the season with a mini-tournament between the Top 4 finalists, who were pretty much guaranteed to put on a good show. Especially considering the season's two arguably strongest lip syncers, Trinity and Peppermint, were among the Top 4. (Of course, who could've seen Sasha Velour coming?) The Reunion episode addressed the long-standing concern that since Season 4, the crowning process has gradually grown to overshadow the actual reunion, where the non-finalist queens would talk about the events of the season after having seen their airing and subsequent fan reactions. With the reunion portion of the season finale being given its own dedicated episode in Season 9, the messy dramas and controversies of the season were allowed to breathe to an extent not seen since Season 3, and the fandom was sated with a veritable armada of Aja reaction faces. |
| 443 | ** Seasons 10 and 11, not to mention All Stars 3 & 4 with their extremely controversial finales, proved to divide up the fandom something fierce and get more than a few accusations of SeasonalRot (as listed above). Season 1 of ''Drag Race UK,'' however, was welcomed as a return to form for the show, while simultaneously a breath of fresh air. You could say it was considered ''[[Memes/RupaulsDragRace "much bettah!!!"]]'' |
| 444 | ** Although clouded by both the [[OvershadowedByControversy Sherry Pie allegations]] and the [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic Covid-19]] Pandemic, Season 12 is otherwise considered to be an improvement both InUniverse and out. Towards the end the judges mention multiple times they are struggling to find issues with the finalists performances, plus the COVID-19 situation required significant rejigging of both finale and the reunion (both of which took place over Zoom). It also helps that the eventual winner was both well-liked and CrazyPrepared for the season and her victory came at a time where racism both inside and outside the LGBT community was a hot topic. |
| 445 | ** All Stars 6 seems to be doing this to All Stars 5, simply with the Lip Sync Assassin segment. All Stars 5 got a lot of flak for having not so much assassins as fan favorites - look, everyone loves Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, but calling her a lip sync ''assassin'' was a bit of a stretch - and popular dancers like Kennedy Davenport and Alyssa Edwards put in lackluster performances that called the format's credibility into question. That changed big time next season. Bringing in either ''actual'' lip sync assassins (Coco Montrese, Brooke Lynn Hytes) or just talented girls (Mayhem Miller, Laganja Estranja, Jessica Wild) in the first five episodes, who are actually giving queens a run for their money, is really bringing some top tier lipsyncs this season. When the worst is Jan vs. Jessica and only due to it being a mediocre CurbStompBattle instead of outright bad, you know you're dealing with something special. |
| 446 | *** And then All Stars 6 does it again with the Lip Sync Extravaganza episode. All Stars 4, it was iffy, and on Season 13, it felt like almost a cruel joke. But All Stars 6 nails it with it being a juggernaut of fantastic songs, and queens actually fighting to secure a place back in the competition. What helped it the most was Silky Nutmeg Ganache giving an incredible amount of performances and putting on a goddamn show. At an impressive 9.2 (at time of writing) rating on IMDB, it's an episode that'll be hard to forget. |
| 447 | *** All Stars 6 is really this as a whole. All Stars 5, though it had its moments, didn't leave much of a lasting impression, not helped by kind of a so-so cast, the unceremonious elimination of long-anticipated season 1 queen Ongina, and one of the most head-slappingly obvious winners in the franchise (even fans of Shea Coulée concede that she practically won just by showing up). All Stars 6, however, had a ''lot'' of fan favorite queens and memorable moments, not to mention ''no'' clear frontrunner. |
| 448 | ** In a similar vein, Season 14 is this to Season 13, which despite having its moments and Symone being a good winner, many felt to be very plodding and production seeming to favor certain queens too many times, along with the very unpopular Porkchop twist in episode 1 that many felt was unnecessarily cruel. Season 14 rectified this by undoing the twist altogether, instead splitting the premier into two episodes to give the cast more time to develop. In addition, despite being as long as Season 13 with stretches of non-eliminations, the entertaining challenges helped make it feel less padded, and it genuinely felt like it was anyone's game come finale. |
| 449 | *** Similarly, the Reunion and Finale were both very well-received compared to the previous seasons, the former for going back to the roots and putting all the queens together, this time not hampered by everybody being on video, and the latter for being a throwback to pre-Season 9 where instead of a lip-sync tournament, each queen got a chance to shine before the final lip-sync which made for some spectacular performances that only served to make the winner less obvious. |
| 450 | * TheWoobie: |
| 451 | ** Jiggly Caliente. '''So much.''' To put it mildly, Jiggly was in over her head as far as the sewing and costuming challenges, and hadn't fully processed her mother's death and her own emotional issues. She's also transgender, which was never mentioned in the show at all. The other queens were fairly ruthless to her, with an almost OnceAnEpisode screaming match in the interior illusions lounge. It got so bad that Kenya Michaels sent a letter ''several episodes after Kenya was eliminated'' continuing to trash her. And ultimately she is undone when Phi Phi O'Hara sabotages her by picking on her body image. In her final ''Untucked'', she looks practically broken. And then you get to the reunion, in which Jiggly talks about how she and Phi Phi lived together and how they were sisters and how betrayed she felt when Phi Phi sabotaged her. All Phi Phi could do was bounce it off saying that this was a competition and she was in it to win it. It legitimately hurts to watch how much she seems to adore and support Phi Phi O'Hara after the competition. After the show though, they became friends again. |
| 452 | *** Jiggly can't even shake off Woobie-dom on All Stars 6. The second challenge is the Ball challenge, and Jiggly is simply no better at sewing an outfit together than she was on her original season, and her frustration over [[HistoryRepeats history repeating]] leads to a DespairEventHorizon in Untucked. [[spoiler:And her early elimination.]] |
| 453 | ** Also, several of the queens become this when they tearfully recount difficult pasts such as abusive or dead parents, childhood bullying, dead boyfriends, etc. |
| 454 | ** Jinkx Monsoon had many moments of this due to being constantly underestimated, ostracized and made fun of by the other queens during season 5, for her campy, quirky style, and even her struggles with narcolepsy. Most of the taunting came from Roxxxy Andrews, TheBully of the season (though she later [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap redeemed herself]] somewhat on All Stars 2). Even though statistically Jinkx did very well, she was ''so'' underestimated that she came off as the underdog, which made her ultimate victory all the more satisfying and well deserved. |
| 455 | ** Joslyn Fox after her hero Courtney Act continuously insulted her drag. Courtney later explained that she was just making jokes that would be acceptable in Australian culture, and that she felt very guilty watching the show and realizing how mean she had come across as. |
| 456 | ** As much as people considered Magnolia Crawford TheScrappy in part due to her attitude, her style, and the fact she refused to watch her season, many viewers actually felt for her when she finally ''was'' coerced into watching her elimination. The look of regret and embarrassment is pretty evident on her face, and afterwards she officially quits doing drag altogether. Magnolia also doubles as a cautionary tale towards fans who think they can pull a Shangela and start doing drag and immediately get on the show, if your heart isn't in it then you shouldn't take the chance away from a queen who really ''does'' want it. |
| 457 | ** Oh, Farrah Moan, where do we even begin with you? During season 9, it becomes apparent that the name Farrah Moan is a pretty MeaningfulName, as she's acknowledged by Shea Coulée as someone whose famous whining and, well, moaning, is strangely endearing. And it remains endearing through the season, whether it's minor gripes like not getting her own workstation, or real hardships like her close friend Eureka getting disqualified because of a knee injury. This gets ''so'' much worse in All Stars 4, when she's so nervous during her burlesque number that she falls on her ass right in the middle of it, and it shatters her confidence. Gia Gunn going out of her way to [[TheBully psyche her out with petty drama]] didn't help at all. Farrah just can't catch a break. (Farrah mentioned in an interview that after filming All Stars 4, she spent months in therapy over it.) |
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