Series / RuPaul's Drag Race

"Racers, start your engines! And may the best drag queen win!"

"Good luck, and don't fuck it up!"

RuPaul's Drag Race is a reality show in which a group of talented drag queens compete in challenges to impress host RuPaul, the world's most famous drag queen, in order to win a cash prize along with a crown and the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar". It originally aired on LOGO from 2009 to 2016, then moved to VH1 in 2017, and then yet again to MTV in 2023.

The bulk of each episode consists of a main challenge, usually some form of performance or fashion design, sometimes both. Then the queens participate in a themed runway show, where one is declared the winner of that week, while two others are announced to be up for elimination. The bottom two must then compete to stay on the show with a lip sync for their lives. These tend to result in wigs falling off, jumping splits, death drops, and the occasional kiss. Sometimes both queens survive the lip sync, but sometimes neither are saved. There was once even a six-way lip sync when one team performed especially bad as a unit. Currently joining RuPaul on the panel are regular judge Michelle Visage (season 3 —) and rotating judges Ross Matthews (season 7 –), Carson Kressley (season 7 –), and Ts Madison (season 15 –), while former judges include Merle Ginsberg (seasons 1 — 2), Santino Rice (seasons 1 — 6), and Billy B (seasons 2 — 3).

Most episodes (including some of the international spin-offs) include the Pit Crew, a group of hunky, underwear-clad models who help Ru set up the challenges while providing eye candy for both the queens and the viewers. For RuPaul's Drag Race UK the equivalent is the appropriately named "Brit Crew", a group of models wearing only Union Jack-patterned boxer briefs.

In addition to the main series, there is also RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, which premiered in 2012 and brings back returning queens to compete for the distinction of being inducted into the "Drag Race Hall of Fame". Another spinoff, RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race, premiered in 2020 and features various Drag Race alumnae putting celebrities into drag to compete for charity. There's also the companion aftershow Untucked, which has aired since season 1^note (originally known then as Under the Hood) and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the queens during the judging segments of each episode.

The Drag Race franchise has also expanded internationally, although Ru only hosts and judges series with her name on them. This started with Chile's The Switch Drag Race in 2015, Drag Race Thailand in 2018, and RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2019. Canada's Drag Race and Drag Race Holland followed in 2020 (the latter of which having the distinction of being the first to complete production and air during the COVID-19 Pandemic) while further new additions in 2021 included RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, Drag Race España, Drag Race Italia, and spiritual spinoff Queen of the Universe. Drag Race Philippines and Drag Race France joined the family in 2022, as well as the new Versus the World format, functioning as an international All Stars with seasons based in the UK and Canada franchises. Even more spinoffs premiered throughout 2023, including the likes of Drag Race Belgique, Drag Race Sverige, and Drag Race México, Drag Race Brasil, and Drag Race Germany.

The show has helped to bring Drag into mainstream pop culture. Regardless of how well a contestant does in the competition, most of the queens have found success and a dedicated fanbase after their season.

Drag Race franchise

Official works in the Drag Race franchise include:

Television series

• RuPaul's Drag Race (2009 — present): The flagship series.
  • Under the Hood of RuPaul's Drag Race (2009): A companion series that aired as bonus web content for the first season, which then became...
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked (2010 — present): Another companion series that specifically focuses on the queens during (and after) deliberations on the main stage. Originally aired on Logo immediately after new episodes until season seven (when it aired a day later on Youtube) but eventually returned to television starting with season ten, now airing alongside the main series on VH1.
  • RuPaul's Drag U (2010 — 2012): A makeover competition show where returning contestants makeover cis women into drag queens.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (2012 — present): The all-stars edition, bringing back past queens for another chance at the crown. Originally aired for a single season in 2012 on Logo until returning in 2016 (on VH1) with a more frequent production cycle. Notable for frequent format changes that have varied from a team-based format in season one, to something more akin to Survivor from the second season onwards, wherein eliminations are determined by the queens themselves rather than Ru. Moved from VH1 to Paramount+ starting with the sixth season.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Untucked (2012; 2020 — present): The All Stars edition of Untucked. Only aired with the first season until coming back for season five; it then followed its progenitor series to Paramount+.
  • RuPauls's Secret Celebrity Drag Race (2020, 2022): The celebrity edition, wherein famous people from various industries compete for charities of their choosing with the help of returning queen as their partners. Something of a spiritual successor to Drag U. Season one plays like a condensed version of the main series with smaller groups of contestants competing for the win, while the second season onwards is more akin to that of The Masked Singer.
• International Drag Race franchises:
  • The Switch Drag Race (2015, 2018): The first international version (as well as the first non-English language version and the first not hosted by RuPaul) and the second in the Americas, based in Chile with a cast of Latin American queens. Notable for utilizing a different format than the American and other international versions, with an emphasis on live singing over lip syncing. Hosted by Karla Constant.
  • Drag Race Thailand (2018 — 2019): The second international version, based in Thailand, and the first in Asia. Co-hosted by fashion stylist Art Arya and drag queen Pangina Heals.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race UK (2019 — present): The third international version, based in the United Kingdom, and the first in Europe, featuring queens from the four UK Home Nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Also the first international edition hosted by RuPaul, who's joined on the judging panel by Michelle Visage, with television presenters/comedians Graham Norton and Alan Carr alternating as a third judge.
    • RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs the World (2022, 2024): The franchise's first-ever international all stars edition, bringing together a cast of past queens from around the world to compete at another shot for the crown. Visage, Norton, and Carr rejoin Ru from the main series.
  • Canada's Drag Race (2020 — present): The fourth international version, based in Canada, the third in the Americas, and the first English-language one not hosted by RuPaul, who instead appears in pre-taped video segments and narrates the intro. Hosted by US11 runner-up Brooke Lynn Hytes^note but introduced by various guest judges in season 1, such as Tom Green, Elisha Cuthbert, and Allie X and a rotating panel of regular judges that has included actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman (season 1), model Stacey McKenzie (season 1), actress Amanda Brugel (season 2), stylist Brad Goreski (season 2 —), and TV personality Traci Melchor (season 2 —)^note "Canada's Squirrel Friend" in season 1
    • Canada's Drag Race: Canada Versus the World (2022, 2024): The franchise's second international all stars edition. Hytes, Goreski, and Melchor return as hosts.
  • Drag Race Holland (2020 — 2021): The fifth international version, based in The Netherlands, and the second in Europe, featuring a cast of Dutch-speaking drag queens from both the Netherlands and Belgium. Hosted by TV personality and former drag queen Fred van Leer, with RuPaul appearing in pre-taped video segments, and a rotating judging panel that has included fashion designer/actress/model Nikkie Plessen (season 1), event organizer Marieke Samallo (season 2), actor Carlo Boszhard (season 2), and musician/actor Raven von Dorst (season 2), with recurring guests judges like actress Sanne Wallis de Vries, fashion designer Claes Iversen (who designed the first season's grand prize dress), beauty vlogger NikkieTutorials, and pop music artist Roxeanne Hazes.
  • RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under (2021 — present): The sixth international version, the first in Oceania, and the second to be hosted by RuPaul (seasons 1-3), featuring queens from Australia and New Zealand. Michelle Visage returns as one of the judges (and serves as host for season 4) alongside Aussie comedian Rhys Nicholson.
  • Drag Race España (2021 — present): The seventh international version, based in Spain, the second Spanish-language series, and the third in Europe. Hosted by drag queen Supremme de Luxe, with permanent judges including award-winning fashion designer Ana Locking and actors, directors, and romantic partners Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, the minds behind the biographical TV series Veneno.
    • Drag Race España All Stars (2024): The all stars edition of España, and the first country-specific All Stars series outside the USA..
  • Drag Race Italia (2021 — present): The eighth international spinoff, based in Italy, and the fourth in Europe. Hosted by drag queen Priscilla with actress and comedian Chiara Francini, TV personality Tommaso Zorzi (seasons 1-2), singer Paola Iezzi and actor Paolo Camilli (season 3) as permanent judges.
  • Drag Race France (2022): The ninth international spinoff, based in France, and the fifth in Europe. Hosted by US12 alumna Nicky Doll (who originally hails from Marseille), with DJ/LGBTQ+ activist Kiddy Smile and television presenter Daphné Bürki as regular judges.
  • Drag Race Philippines (2022 — present): The tenth international spinoff, based in the Philippines, and the second in Asia. Hosted by actor, comedian and celebrity impersonator Paolo Ballesteros, while Jiggly Caliente (US4/AS6) and comedienne/impersonator KaladKaren round up the judging panel.
    • Drag Race Philippines: Untucked (2022 — present): The behind-the-scenes companion series, and the first international Untucked spinoff.
  • Drag Race Belgique (2023 — present): The eleventh international spinoff, based in Belgium, the second French-language series, and the sixth in Europe. Hosted by Rita Baga (Canada S1, CvTW S1), with influencer/blogger Lufy (season 1), actor/singer Mustii, and singer Lio (season 2) as permanent judges.
  • Drag Race Sverige (2023): The twelfth international spinoff, based in Sweden, and the seventh in Europe. Hosted by actor/drag queen Robert Fux, with personality/presenter Farao Groth and singer/personality Kayo Shekoni as permanent judges.
  • Drag Race México (2023): The thirteenth international spinoff, based in Mexico, the third Spanish-language series, and the fourth in the Americas. Hosted by Valentina (US9, AS4) and Lolita Banana (France S1), with model/television personality Oscar Madrazo serving as a regular judge.
  • Drag Race Brasil (2023): The fourteenth international spinoff, based in Brazil, and the fifth in the Americas. Hosted by Grag Queen, winner of Queen of the Universe season one.
  • Drag Race Germany (2023): The fifteenth international spinoff, based in Germany, and the eighth in Europe, featuring a cast of German-speaking queens from the titular country as well as Austria and Switzerland. Hosted by drag queen Barbie Breakout and personality Gianni Jovanovic, with fashion designer/socialite Dianne Brill joining them as a regular judge.
• Werq the World (2018 — present): A docuseries following the ongoing touring show of the same name, featuring a rotating cast of Drag Race alumni.
• RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue (2020): A docuseries spinoff following the RuPaul's Drag Race Live! residency in Las Vegas; the first non-competitive series to bear the Drag Race name.
• RuPaul's Drag Race Live Untucked (2024): A docuseries (and spiritual successor to Vegas Revue) following the queens of RuPaul's Drag Race Live!

Specials

• RuPaul's Drag Race Green Screen Christmas (2015): A non-competitive holiday special.
• RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-slay Spectacular (2018): A competitive holiday special.
• RuPaul's Drag Race: Bring Back My Ghouls (2020): A non-competitive Halloween special featuring the queens of season 12.^note To allow them all to promote themselves due to the cancellation of the usual worldwide tours as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic
• RuPaul's Drag Race: Corona Can't Keep a Good Queen Down (2021): A behind-the-scenes look at the build-up and filming of Season 13 amid the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Live events

• RuPaul's DragCon (2015 — present): An annual drag expo created by RuPaul. Began in LA exclusively but has since branched out into editions held in New York City and London; held digitally in 2020 because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• RuPaul's Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons (2015 — 2016): A touring show hosted by Michelle Visage that featured a rotating cast of Drag Race queens from the first seven seasons, which then became...
• Werq the World (2017 — present): An ongoing touring show featuring a rotating cast of queens from Drag Race; spawned a docuseries of the same name.
• RuPaul's Drag Race Live! (2020-present): A Las Vegas residency directed by RuPaul, choreographed by Jamal Sims and starring a revolving cast of fourteen former contestants, performing a mix of dance numbers, original music and lip-syncs. Started in January 2020 and ran until March before being put on hold because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Also spawned a docuseries (see above).

Web originals

The VH1 YouTube channel has two web shows to tie in with its broadcast of Drag Race:

• Whatcha Packin': Michelle Visage has exit interviews with recently eliminated queens to talk about their time on the show and the fashions they didn't get to show to the world.
• The Pit Stop: The official Drag Race aftershow featuring recaps of episodes RuPaul's Drag Race, All Stars, and the first season of Canada's Drag Race. Originally hosted by YouTuber and comedian Kingsley with a Drag Race alumna as a guest, the show has since been hosted by other Drag Race queens including Raja, Alaska, Trixie Mattel, Manila Luzon, Bob the Drag Queen, Monét X Change, and Bianca del Rio.

The WOWPresents channel on Youtube (and its own dedicated streaming service, WOW Presents+) produce official web shows starring Drag Race queens. Long time staples of the service are:^note Entries in bold indicate shows that are still being made.

• Fashion Photo RuView: Raja and Raven Toot and Boot Drag Race contestants' outfits on the show and also their social media posts afterwards. Some recurring segments have included "New Outfit Who Dis?" and "Shoe Better Work" where the hosts have to guess a queen's identity based on their outfit or just their shoes and "What Would Raven Say?" where in her absense the hosts wonder what Raven's opinion is on a featured outfit. In 2021, other queens hosted and co-hosted the show: Raja and The Vivienne for UK Series 2; Raven and Bimini Bon Boulash for UK Series 3, until switching to Denali with Cheryl Hole for the latter half of the season; and Nicky Doll and Alexis Mateo covering España, Holland Season 2, and Canada Season 2 as well as a joint episode with Denali and Cheryl for Italia.
• UNHhhh: Trixie Mattel and Katya talk about whatever they want, because it's their show and not ours. The show picked up by Viceland and expanded into a season of The Trixie & Katya Show, until its cancellation and return as UNHhhh a year later.
• Be$ties for Ca$h: A game show like The Newlywed Game where two contestants answer questions about each other, usually featuring at least one Drag Race queen or other prominent drag queens and "WOWlebrities" as contestants, with several variations on the premise including Couple$ for Ca$h, $tranger$ for Ca$h, Ca$tmate$ for Ca$h, and a special Throuple$ for Ca$h featuring Derrick Barry and his polyamorous partners Nick and Nebraska.
• Losing is the New Winning: Eliminated Drag Race queens of earlier seasons give their support and encouragement to the queens eliminated on the same episode they initially lost on.
• Alyssa's Secret: Alyssa Edwards gives her thoughts on various subjects, from life, love, her Drag Race sisters, and her dance company Beyond Belief.
• Ring My Bell: Drag queens answer phone calls from fans.
• Bro'laska: Alaska and her brother Cory talk about various topics, sometimes about their relationship growing up or Cory's ignorance of the world of drag.
• Cool Mom: Jinkx Monsoon talks various topics with her gay, homosexual son Kamikaze (Jinkx's comedy partner Nick Sahoyah) because she wants to be an active part of his life. Because she's not a regular mom - she's a cool mom.
• Detox's Life Rehab: Detox talks various topics in the style of 80s magazine shows.
• Really, Queen?: Bianca Del Rio reads her Drag Race sisters to filth.
• Bobbin' Around: Bob the Drag Queen and her personal assistant Luis travel the world together.
• Wait, What?: Kimora Blac and various guest hosts including Derrick Barry and Mariah Paris Balenciaga are quizzed on various scholarly topics to see how much they actually paid attention during school.
• Morning T&T: The Vivienne and Baga Chipz reprise their Snatch Game performances as Donald Trump and Margaret Thatcher in a parody of British morning talk shows.
• Can Do Queens: Asia O'Hara and Kameron Michaels are challenged to do every day tasks while in full drag.
• What's My Game?: Priyanka hosts her own trivia game show with Drag Race queens and celebrities compete against each other in general and Drag Race trivia knowledge.
• Gay Sex Ed: Vanessa Vanjie Mateo and Kameron Michaels talk about sex ed for a gay man's perspective.
• How's Your Head, Queen?: Michelle Visage has a little chat in her dressing room with the recently eliminated queen off of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.
• Review met Sederginne: Sederginne recaps episodes of Drag Race Holland Season 2.
• Tras la Carrera: Ana Locking has a Whatcha Packin'' style interview with the most recently eliminated queen off of Drag Race España''.
• Bitch I'm Busy: Priyanka catches up with her Canada's Drag Race Season 1 sisters after leaving them on read for all of 2021.

Many other queens have short shows where they talk various topics to viewers in the same vein as Alyssa, Trixie, and Katya:

• Jasmine Masters' Jasmine Masters' Class
• Laganja Estranja's Puff Puff Sessions
• Miz Cracker's JewTorials
• Silky Nutmeg Ganache's Shantay You Pray
• Heidi N Closet's Gap Chat
• Aja's AYO Sis
• Tatianna's Tea with Tati

And there are several original series on the WOW Presents+ platform:

• Pure Camp: A comedy series featuring then couple Sharon Needles and Alaska going camping (while attempting to do "manly" things such as put up a tent and cook on a grill) and the madness and hilarity that ensues.
• Drag Tots: A Spinoff Babies featuring the voice talents of RuPaul, Bianca Del Rio, Valentina, Latrice Royale, Detox, and Adore Delano.
• The Vivienne Takes On Hollywood: The Vivienne travels to Los Angeles to record and produce a music video, as part of her prize package for winning the series 1 of Drag Race UK.
• Working Out Is a Drag: Celebrity personal trainer Jason Wimberly coaches Drag Race queens through a workout.
• God Shave the Queens: A behind-the-scenes look of the national tour taken by the Drag Race UK girls after the finale, with Alyssa Edwards as their host.
• Werq the World: A behind-the-scenes look at the Werq the World tour, focusing on the queens featured on the world tour.
• Highway to Heel: Australian drag queen Art Simone takes a drive through the Australian countryside challenging another Aussie drag queen to a "challenge" to win what's inside her glove box.
• All the Queens' Men: Latrice Royale's husband Christopher hosts a series talking to other drag queens' husbands.
• Painted with Raven (2021 — present): A makeup competition show hosted and judged by Raven and a co-host in studio while all of the contestants compete remotely in their own homes. The inaugural season's grand prize was US$25,000.

Drag Race-related projects

Miscellaeous projects related to (but not officially part of) the Drag Race franchise include:

Film

• Hurricane Bianca (2016): A comedy starring season six winner Bianca del Rio.
  • Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia With Hate (2018)
• Trixie Mattel: Moving Parts (2019): A documentary about All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel.
• The Queens (2019): A documentary following season four winner Sharon Needles, season five winner Jinkx Monsoon, All Stars 2 winner Alaska and season seven and All Stars 2 runner-up Katya behind the scenes on the 2016 Battle of the Seasons and Christmas Queens tours and taking an inside look at their lives and histories in the drag world.

Television

• AJ and the Queen (2020): A Netflix dramedy series created by RuPaul and Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City) with plentiful cameo appearances from Drag Race alumni.
• Dancing Queen (2018): A docuseries following the day-to-day life of Alyssa Edwards and her Mesquite, Texas, dance company Beyond Belief. Also features appearances from Alyssa's drag daughters Shangela and Laganja Estranja.
• Dragnificent! (2020): A TLC makeover show starring Jujubee, Thorgy Thor, Bebe Zahara Benet, and Alexis Michelle as they help women prepare for big events in their lives; began as a 2019 special titled Drag Me Down the Aisle.
• Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul (2016 — 2017): A trivia-based game show on Logo, with frequent appearances from Drag Race alumni.
• RuPaul (2019): A syndicated daytime talk show hosted by RuPaul that aired for a brief test run, but was officially not picked up to series.
• Super Drags (2018): A Brazilian Netflix adult animation comedy series in which a trio of drag queen super heroines protects the LGBT community. Notable in that multiple queens star in the English voiceover, including Ginger Minj, Shangela, Trixie Mattel and Willam.
• We're Here! (2020 — present): An HBO docuseries following various queens (Shangela, Bob The Drag Queen, and Eureka from seasons one to three; Jaida Essence Hall, Sasha Velour, and Priyanka from season four onwards) as they host drag shows in small towns with some of their residents.
• Dragging the Classics (2021 — present): A Paramount+ branding of specials that remake classic sitcom episodes starring Drag Race alums as well as original actors from those series.
• Queen of the Universe (2021 — 2023): An international, all-drag reality singing competition produced by World of Wonder for Paramount+. Hosted by Graham Norton (UK) with Michelle Visage & Trixie Mattel on the judging panel, while contestants include the likes of Jujubee (S2, AS1, AS5) and Leona Winter (The Switch Drag Race S2). The initial season's grand prize was US$250,000.
• Call Me Mother (2021 — present): A Canadian drag reality competition show on OutTV where newer drag performers of any gender expression join Drag Houses and compete to become the "Next Child of Drag". It is hosted by Entertainment Tonight Canada correspondent Dallas Dixon, judged by "Aunties" Farra N Hyte^note Brooke Lynn Hytes' drag mother and Miss Butterfly, and with the mentor Drag Mothers Peppermint (S9) of the House of Dulcet, Crystal (UK1) of the House of Glass, and Barbada de Barbades of the House of Harmonie. The initial season's grand prize was CA$25,000, cosmetics from BPerfect, and a single produced by PEG Records.

Web Video:

• Give It To Me Straight: A YouTube Talk Show hosted by the franchise's resident heterosexual queen, Maddy Morphosis, where she spends an hour in an intimate one-on-one interview with various Drag Race alumni, discussing their history with their drag, sexuality/gender, experience on the show itself, and much more.

Drag Race alumni with their own pages on this wiki include:

• Adore Delano (runner-up, Season 6; 9th, All Stars 2)
• Alaska Thunderfuck (runner-up, Season 5; winner, All Stars 2)
• Aja (9th, season 9; 7th, All Stars 3)
• Ariel Versace (11th, Season 11)
• Bianca Del Rio (winner, Season 6)
• Bob The Drag Queen (winner, Season 8)
• Courtney Act (runner-up, Season 6)
• Gia Gunn (10th, Season 6; runner-up, The Switch 2; 8th, All Stars 4)
• Ginger Minj (2nd/3rd, Season 7; 8th, All Stars 2; TBA, All Stars 6)
• Heidi N Closet (5th, Season 12)
• Jaymes Mansfield (14th, Season 9)
• Jiggly Caliente (8th, Season 4; 12th, All Stars 6)
• Jinkx Monsoon (winner, Season 5; winner, All Stars 7)
• Katya (5th, Season 7; runner-up, All Stars 2)
• Laganja Estranja (8th, Season 6)
• Milk Queen (9th, Season 6; 9th, All Stars 3)
• Miss Fame (7th, Season 7)
• Miz Cracker (5th, Season 10; runner-up, All Stars 5)
• Mo Heart ^note Went by Monique Heart while competing on Season 10 and All-Stars 4 (8th, Season 10; runner-up, All Stars 4; runner-up, UK vs the World 1)
• Nina Bonina Brown (6th, Season 9)
• Pandora Boxx (5th, Season 2; 11th/12th, All Stars 1; TBA, All Stars 6)
• Peppermint (runner-up, Season 9)
• Plastique Tiara (8th place, Season 11)
• Shangela (12th, Season 2; 6th, Season 3; 3rd/4th, All Stars 3)
• Sharon Needles (winner, Season 4)
• Shea Couleé (3rd/4th, Season 9; winner, All Stars 5)
• Trixie Mattel (6th, Season 7; winner, All Stars 3)
• Valentina (7th, Season 9; 7th, All Stars 4)
• Willam Belli (6th, Season 4)
• Yuhua Hamasaki (12th, Season 10)

Recurring Drag Race challenges

• The 'Unconventional Materials' Challenge: The queens are tasked with making an outfit out whatever junk Ru can throw at them, such as dollar store items, Christmas decorations, organic vegetables, etc. Early in the series, this was the very first challenge, but later seasons have moved up a few episodes, sometimes including it as part of the Ball challenge described below.
• Reading Is Fundamental: The library is open for the queens to read each other to filth.
• Everybody Loves Puppets: A good old-fashioned bitch-fest where the queens mock each other by making over puppets of their other competitors.
• Snatch Game: Perhaps the most iconic recurring challenge, and an institution since season 2, queens combine improv comedy and celebrity impersonation in a parody of Match Game for main seasons and The Dating Game in recent All Stars seasons.
• The Makeover: Queens get paired up with complete strangers, celebrities, family members, or eliminated contestants to make them over into a member of their drag family.
• The Ball: Queens must present two or three looks on the runway, all part of a theme, and one of those looks has to be made from scratch in the Werk Room.
• The Rusical: Queens perform to original music as part of a group musical number. This includes lip-syncing to a prerecorded track made by other singers, recording their own voice and performing to it later, or even singing live onstage.
• The Roast: Queens must comedically mock their fellow competitors and judges in a roast.
• The Talent Show: All Stars reintroduce themselves to the competition with a short performance of their choice.
• The Final Challenge: Until Season 8, queens have to act in one of RuPaul's music videos. Starting from All Stars 2 and Season 9, the top queens have to write, record and perform a verse in a group performance to one of RuPaul's new songs.

---

*sirens blaring* Ooh girl! She done already done had her tropes!

# - D

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Phi Phi O'Hara certainly reacts this way during Untucked when special guest Kelly Osborne is hanging out with the queens in the back room and asks them which contestant they would sleep with, and Milan says Phi Phi a little too quickly. One can only imagine her reaction when learning that Sharon Needles and Willam, the queens she hated most, admitted the same thing during the lie detector test later in the season.
  • Rebecca Glasscock had this reaction towards Tammie Brown in Season 1. While Tammie in boy mode is fairly attractive, her personality is downright weird.
  Rebecca: Every time I look over at Tammie, she is winking at me and it's creepy.
  • Joslyn Fox started fangasming at first sight once she realized she was sharing the same season with Courtney Act. However, in the Feast of Fun podcast, Joslyn revealed that she actually wasn't as big a superfan as she appeared, it was just that she was the only girl in her group who knew who Courtney was and she felt that she needed to 'school' the other girls.
  • Averted in Season 7 when Jasmine Masters geeked over Kennedy Davenport. Although Kennedy certainly had a look of hesitance over Jasmine's behavior, the two actually did become fast friends in the competition and still remain close after production.
• Aborted Arc: Eureka vs. Trinity was set up as one of the major sources of conflict for Season 9, but aside from a small argument on Untucked, never went anywhere due to Eureka injuring her knee and getting a Non-Gameplay Elimination early on.
• Accentuate the Negative: The "Next on..." segments before commercials with invariably focus on negative criticism from the judges or shade from the queens, taking lines out of context if necessary.
• Actor Allusion: This wasn't the first time in Latin America where Johnny Torres hosted a reality show.
• Adapted Out: Season 9's "Gayest Ball Ever" saw the five remaining queens construct a runway look based on the Village People, specifically the Cowboy, Construction Worker, Native American, Cop, and Leather Biker. As there were only five queens for this challenge, the sixth member of the Village People, the Military Man (a.k.a. Alex Briley) was not only left out, but his persona was not even mentioned during the episode.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: During an All-Stars 2 comedy challenge, Detox and Tatianna's comedy act has lots of this.
  Tatianna: It's a benefit for babies battling bulimia!
  Detox: And I already see a bevy of beautiful bitter bitches here hitting the buffet!
• Affectionate Parody: The All Stars 2 "Drag She-quels" challenge had the queens making these for Showgirls, Thelma & Louise, and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.
• Agent Peacock: During the "Super Troopers" challenge in Season 5, where each queen had to give a drag makeover to a gay military veteran, Detox's partner already knew how to sashay in heels with no input from her necessary. And both Roxxxy and Alaska's partners looked like they could be contestants themselves. In fact, Alaska's partner Nebraska went on to become an actual drag queen.
  • Sarge, the show's ex-military camera operator, has the time of his life in drag during Season 9's makeover challenge.
• All Gays are Promiscuous: Often invoked in the challenges, many of which revolve around the mostly naked pit crew.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Often winds up happening to contestants who for whatever reason don't mesh with the others.
  • Season 2's Mystique was a continual source of ridicule to the other queens for her general lack of polish and her weight. Even after she was eliminated, the queens continued to make fun of her. Tatianna received a similar amount of shade for "not being drag enough"—she was easily the fishiest girl in her season, but several queens made comments on her basic makeup and simple looks.
  • Season 3's Stacy Layne Matthews was constantly ostracized by the other queens for the same reasons as Mystique, exemplified by the queens not just saying they were more talented than her (which is par for the course for Drag Race), but by constantly and almost venomously stating in interviews that she did not deserve to be on the show in the first place. Raja, to her credit, tried to make it up to Stacy in the reunion.
  • Madame LaQueer's short stint in season 4 had her as this, being picked last for team challenges twice in a row, and once during an Untucked episode was referred to by the other queens as their season's Stacy Layne.
  • All-Stars Mimi Imfurst. Not a single one of the girls wanted to be paired with her during the team ups, and the partner she did get did not hide the fact she was miserable with the outcome. Not only that, the other queens had no problem telling Mimi to her face they did not consider her an All Star and that there were plenty of other queens that deserved her spot more than she did.
  • Season 5's Jinkx Monsoon got some of this since her style is much more comedic, but in her own words she tries to deal with it like "water off a duck's back".
• All There in the Manual: A rule has been implemented since Season 3 that during any "Lip-Sync for Your Life", a queen is no longer permitted to leave the stage during their performance. This was in response to several events, including Mimi Imfurst hefting India Ferrah over her shoulders, and Carmen Carrera leaving the stage to kiss Guest judge Johnny Weir. In season 7, although the rule was still in effect, Kennedy Davenport performed a mid-air split landing in front of the stage, and successfully avoided elimination. This caused a fair bit of tension with the other queens, even if the fans were not aware of the rule change — it had never been made explicit on the show (although it was mentioned during the 21 and a Half Moments that made us Gag! special).
• An Adventurer Is You: A rare non-video game example. After several seasons across multiple countries, the queens can be easily divided into two broad categories: high-brow queens that are outwardly glamorous and take performance and fashion very seriously, and low-brow queens that take a more irreverent or comedic approach to drag. Within these two are several "classes." Each one has produced at least one season winner and several fan favorites. Naturally, many queens fall under multiple categories, and those that don't fit into at least one tend not to last long on the show:
  • High-Brow:
    • Look Queens like Kim Chi and Gottmik are focused on unique high fashion, professional-quality makeup and avant garde performances whilst also modelling on the runway and/or Instagram.
    • Fashion Queens like Raja and Violet Chachki who focus less on the avant-garde and more on looking like they just stepped out the pages of Vogue, always presenting a flawless, fashion forward and high concept look on the runway.
    • Celebrity Impersonators like Chad Michaels (Cher) and Derrick Berry (Britney Spears) base their act around one specific celeb and have the unique challenge of proving that there's more to their drag than just impersonation.
    • Dancing Divas like Aquaria and Kennedy Davenport are focused on giving high-energy performances while serving high-femme ("fishy") looks.
    • Pageant Queens like Alexis Matteo and Jaida Essence Hall spend their time competing in Beauty Contests and often have multiple titles under their belts. If Black or Hispanic, they might also be active in the Ball scene.
  • Low-Brow:
    • Banjee Queens like Monet X. Change and Vanessa Vanjie Matteo are ghetto fabulous and often specialize in making creative looks on a limited budget.
    • Comedy Queens Like Willam Belli and Bianca Del Rio specialize in humor, whether it's through stand-up comedy, parody music, or other comedic performances.
    • Alternative Queens like Sharon Needles and Yvie Oddly focus on the macabre and freaky with a dark sense of humor, often dancing on the fine line between "shocking" and "tasteless."^note Relatively few alternative queens have competed on the show since the creation of Dragula, which specifically caters to this style of drag. In fact, Sharon winning season 4 of Drag Race and seeing the mainstream audience embracing alternative drag was actually one of the Boulet Brothers' inspirations for creating Dragula in the first place.
    • Kooky Queens like Trixie Mattel and Crystal Methyd go beyond drag and create characters that are outright clownish and cartoonish (in a good way), and are known for thinking outside the box.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: It's not unusual for Mini Challenge or Maxi Challenge prizes to be unique fashion or gift certificates to clothing retailers. However, Drag Race Holland has made one of the grand prizes a couture dress by Claes Iverson, a fashion designer who has made garments for the current queen consort of the Netherlands Queen Máxima, valued at €18,000 (over US$21,000 or over £16,000).^note This hasn't stopped fans of the original American show from deriding the apparently lower quality prize.
• Anti-Climax: The Reunion special for season 4 built up the whole "WHAT DID WILLAM DO" reveal so much and people seemed to be okay with the answer. That was until it has been pretty much said by everyone that this was indeed not the case. Apparently the reason no one has outright said what REALLY happened is due to a confidentiality agreement. Much later it was finally revealed that the real reason for the disqualification was that Willam had lied to the producers in order to get kicked off, since she had felt the show had done everything for her that it needed to and she had other conflicting scheduled gigs she wanted to attend (an off-Broadway performance to be specific). Presumably this left a very bad taste in the producers' mouths, hence why they've cut all ties with Willam.
  • Willam has since gone on the record as saying the producers wanted to be rid of her for being a "troublemaker" on set by bringing up concerns about safety and the queens' wellbeing. How much of this is accurate and how much is Sour Grapes, we may never know.
• Armor-Piercing Question: After several weeks of Trinity complaining that the challenges haven't been her style, Bianca straight-up asks her, "What do you do successfully?" Trinity evades the question.
• The Artifact: The Pun-Based Title of Drag Race was a bit more relevant in that first season, which had a motorsport promo theme and even use a Hood Ornament Hottie photoshoot as its very first challenge. The drag racing theming was largely done away with for later seasons, but it still permiates the Title Sequence, with RuPaul waving flags in a racing suit with a theme song that incorporates tire screeching.
• Ascended Extra: Nebraska, Alaska's veteran from the Season 5 makeover challenge, has since become a professional drag queen on her own, and is dating Season 8 contestant Derrick Barry. Nebraska makes a cameo in the Vegas Revue spinoff.
• Ascended Fangirl:
  • Leslie Jones as a guest judge on season 12 spends most of her time geeking out.
  • Many contestants in the later seasons have said that Drag Race was what inspired them to do drag in the first place, with Season 8 winner Bob the Drag Queen being the first to admit this. Also, many of the younger queens have said they've grown up watching the show.
• Ascended Meme:
  • Willam Belli's "I'm not gonna RuPologize" became the title of a Season 5 competition, a ballet based on Ru's life entitled No RuPologies.
  • Ru's catchphrase for Tyra Sanchez was "The Other Tyra". This has since become Tyra's official web address.
  • In All-Star 3, Aja wears a T-shirt printed with her infamous, emoji-laden Linda Evangelista rant.
  • Kerri was given the nickname "Tranos" by fans after several other Season 14 queens came out as transgender and cited her as a reason why. At the Season 14 finale, Kerri comes out wearing a recreation of the Infinity Gauntlet associated with Thanos.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Sum Ting Wong's drag name is meant to be "something wrong" pronounced with a stereotypical Asian accent. For Sum Ting, it also doubles as a reclamation of this kind of stereotype.
• The Atoner: Invoked in All Stars 2 whose big theme is "Rudemption." The queens chosen aren't just fan favorites, but they each have a reason to want to redeem themselves: Tatianna, Phi Phi, Roxxxy, and Detox all came across as shady and bitchy during their seasons; Coco and Alyssa were defined by their feud and a string of embarrassing defeats; Alaska was defined by her relationships with others; Adore was constantly read for being unpolished; and while anyone from the much-hated Season 7 would qualify, Ginger's shadiness and Katya's anxiety stood out in particular.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Phi Phi O'Hara, Sharon Needles, and Chad Michaels in the video for "Glamazon." Eventually stomped by an even bigger RuPaul.
• Attention Whore:
  • Mimi Imfurst is accused of this by the other queens, and in All Stars they even point out that it's all there in the name (i.e. "Me! Me! I'm first!"). In fact, her tendency to be an Attention Whore is what got her eliminated from season 3 in the first place - in her lip sync with India Ferrah, Mimi became so desperate to hog the limelight that she forced India up onto her shoulders against her will. Mimi never really lived that one down.
  • The Pit Crew's Jason Carter was accused of attention seeking by the queens when they noticed that whenever he's having his picture taken, he will "eye-fuck" the camera.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: All of the contestants, naturally, but also some of the guys brought in for makeovers. Special mention goes to Slava◊, from season three. Part of the reason his partner, Alexis Mateo, didn't win is because the judges thought Slava overshadowed her!
• Author Appeal: Ru has a soft spot for queens from Atlanta, as that is where she started her own drag career. This doesn't spare them from elimination, but more than once she has taken the opportunity to reminisce about the drag scene there. "Hotlanta" is the fourth-most represented city on the show, behind the obvious trio of NYC, LA, and Chicago.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Occurs in the Grand Finale of each season.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The ending of Episode 5 of All Stars 3 made it seem like only three of the five eliminated queens would get a chance to return, leaving a cliffhanger of which three it would be. The very beginning of Episode 6 dismantled this, having Ru ask why only three queens were there and the remaining two running onstage afterwards. The popular fan theory is that the show only had five Handmaid's Tale outfits, and Chad and Alaska quickly had to change out of them before the final two queens could enter.
  • Seasons 5 and 6 of All Stars had a twist where the winner of each week's challenge had to lip sync against a "Lip Sync Assassin"^note A queen who was incredibly good at lip syncing on her original season from the show's herstory. On Episode 5 of All Stars 6, the curtain rises and the lip sync assassin is revealed to be... Bianca Del Rio, who won Season 6, but is 46 years old, never lip synced on the show (apart from the obligatory one to determine the final three and even then given her track record, her making it was inevitable), and is not known for being a good dancer in any way. A few moments later, Bianca reveals she was just looking for the bathroom, and after she leaves the stage the true lip sync assassin comes out: Season 10's Mayhem Miller.
• Berserk Button:
  • If you imply that Shangela has not worked for her achievements and/or she has a Sugar Daddy, you may get a drink in your face.
  • Likewise, don't say that Tatianna is just a pretty face.
  • Mentioning that Coco was the runner-up of the Miss Gay America pageant (having lost to Alyssa, before Alyssa lost the title again), and sometimes just Alyssa Edwards being catty in general was enough to cause Coco to go cuckoo.
  • Early in season 9, Eureka made a crass joke about eating disorders, prompting Sasha Velour to immediately call her out, since she's dealt with an eating disorder before and she considers it nothing to joke about. This was a bit surprising coming from Sasha Velour, one of the most soft-spoken queens in the show's history.
  • For the most part, Ru has kept her cool on the show and doesn't blow up at any of the queens... with two exceptions.
    • After the Season 7 challenge "Shakesqueer", Ru attempts to figure out why one group did so poorly, leading to lots of finger pointing at each other. This ends with a rare moment of Ru cussing out the queens for making excuses. We see a clip of this on the show, but according to on-set rumours, Ru's yelling went on for much longer than was shown, and the cameras were turned off at one point.
    • On UK Season 2, Joe Black reveals that the dress she wore for the challenge was from H&M. Ru is appalled that Joe would wear an off-the-rack dress on the Drag Race stage without doing anything to make it special, and tells her "Don't waste my time" and "I don't want to see any fucking H&M." Though she later apologized for her tone.
• Bifauxnen: In Season 6's wedding makeover challenge, while the queens were making over the men into drag brides, the women were whisked away to be fitted for tuxedos from a designer that specializes in masculine suits for feminine body types. The "grooms" didn't reappear until the actual wedding portion at the end, but they beautifully invoked this trope on the main stage.
• Big Applesauce: Due to the city's huge drag scene, often a considerable percentage of queens each season hail from New York, to the point where non-NY queens have occasionally expressed discontent over feeling underrepresented.
• Big Beautiful Woman: There is at least one each season, and has become a sore point that a big girl has yet to win the crown, and with that comes added pressure on plus-sized queens each season to be the First.
  • Stacy Layne Matthews is a much-beloved example, and she wasn't above Self-Deprecating Humor when it came to her big figure.
  • Latrice Royale in particular became a fan favorite for her flawless presentation and using her size as an advantage and not a hindrance or excuse, and won Miss Congeniality for her good nature and being the Team Mom.
  • Darienne Lake in Season 6 also wonderfully used this trope. It also helps that being a big guy gave her all natural boobs.
  • Of all the plus-sized queens on the US show, Ginger Minj and Eureka O'Hara have made it the farthest, both placing second twice each (including a shared runner-up spot in All Stars 6).
  • Natalia Pliacam from Drag Race Thailand Season 1 has the honour of being the first big girl winner in the entire franchise, while Lawrence Chaney finally broke the curse for English-language and Ru-hosted seasons by winning UK Series 2 in 2021.
• Big Damn Kiss: Alaska and Detox, while Alaska is dressed up as Phi Phi O'Hara, and Detox is dressed as Phi Phi's rival — and Alaska's boyfriend — Sharon Needles, in the middle of a lip-synced re-enactment of a fight between the two.
  • In Season 11, when Brooke Lynn Hytes eliminates her then-partner Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, they share a kiss on the main stage before Vanjie leaves.
• Big Fun:
  • There's a few of these types - Season 4's Latrice Royale, season 6's Darienne Lake, season 7's Ginger Minj, and Canada season 1's BOA.
  • Season 3's Mimi Imfurst tried to be this, and tried very hard, but she wound up annoying and putting off people around her, right up until her infamous elimination. Likewise, Silky Nutmeg Ganache was this at first but wore out her welcome pretty quickly, due to being so thin-skinned and standoffish.
• Big "YES!": Joel McHale, when he was a Season 11 guest judge, spent much of his time during the runway looks repeatedly shouting "YEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" and generally hooting and hollering at the queens with a big, goofy grin on his face. Michelle hated it.
• Bilingual Bonus: After Eureka's medical Non-Gameplay Elimination, she leaves the stage saying "You found it once, and you'll find it again!" This seems to just be a cute line by Eureka referencing her return for Season 10, but it gains an additional layer of meaning when you realize that "Eureka" is Greek for "I found it."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A tactic quite often employed by the queens, to act kind and supportive one minute and then read for filth the next.
  • Special mention goes to little Kenya Michaels, who was always so sweet on the show, sent the remaining queens a letter after her elimination trashing several of them.
  • Jade Jolie really does consider herself a very kind and sweet person, but ended up unleashing her inner bitch in response to the loud personalities of some of the season 5 queens (Serena ChaCha and Alyssa Edwards, specifically).
  • Valentina, oh boy. She's all smiles and positive attitude to the other queens during season 9, right up to when she wins the fan vote for Miss Congeniality in the reunion. No longer content to put up with what they now know to be a facade, the other queens start going off on Valentina for, amongst other things, doing nothing to calm her very rabid fanbase who've been trolling the queens on social media, not to mention completely ghosting Farrah, who thought they were friends, after production. It is never more apparent than this incident that her constant smile is just as easily The Unsmile. (Valentina and Farrah made up eventually.)
• Bittersweet Ending: The new Untucked, which started in season 7, always ends with a black-and-white segment where the queen who got sent home is seen packing her bags and making the walk out of the studio while a drab acoustic guitar solo plays that wouldn't be out of place in the soundtrack for The Last of Us. Nevertheless, the queen usually speaks at length about how she was happy with what she accomplished during her time on the season.
• Black and Nerdy:
  • Mystique. It's not obvious, but her full drag name IS Mystique Summers Madison.
  • Season 8's Dax ExclamationPoint is a comic book cosplayer, and both her entrance look and her finale look were both legally safe looks inspired by Storm from the X-Men^note Her entrance look was based on the 80's mohawk Storm look, sans the mohawk, and her finale look was based on on Storm's Queen of Asgard look.
• Black Is Bigger in Bed: Invoked jokingly with Latrice Royale, who is a very large black man out of drag. Willam even asks if tucking for her is a one-man job, and Jujubee coined the phrase, "once you go black, you're in a wheelchair!" in reference to Latrice.
• Blue Blood: The majority of the nations represented by the franchise are monarchies (Australia/Canada/New Zealand^* Commonwealth nations who all have King Charles III as Head of State, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and of course the United Kingdom), so the royals and aristocracy of said nations often find themselves the subject of Affectionate Parody (or just plain parody) for runway presentations (the UK's Queen Elizabeth II formed the theme of the very first Drag Race UK runway), as well as the perennial Snatch Game (the UK's Queen Elizabeth II via Anita Wigl'it, Belgium's Queen Mathilde via Vanessa Van Cartier and Spain's Duchess of Alba via Dovima Nurmi). Sometimes they're even the topic of maxi-challenges — for example, Drag Race Holland's "Maxima: The Rusical", which portrays the Dutch queen as a social climbing usurper.
• Boob-Based Gag: Alexis Mateo and Carmen Carrera's comedy acts centered around breasts.
• Book Dumb: Some of the queens.
  • Lashauwn Beyond in season 4 doesn't seem to know the term "post-apocalyptic", famously mangling it as "post-apopalopic".
  • Gia Gunn's infamous "What's a Tony?"
  • During Season 7's Shakespeare challenge, it also became painfully clear which queens slept through their high school English class.
  • Kimora Blac in season 9 needs some help filling out an ad-lib as she doesn't know what an adjective is.
  • This only skims the surface. Queens not knowing things is a Running Gag in the fandom.
• Book Ends: Season 7 began with the episode "Born Naked" and the final competition episode was named "...And the Rest is Drag", playing on Ru's quote "We're all born naked and the rest is drag." The former included a nude illusion challenge and the latter involved shooting Ru's video for the song of the same name.
  • Eureka's final line before leaving Season 9 was "You found it once and you'll find it again" a reference to the Greek translation of her name. On Season 10, her final runway consisted of a dress with the definition of "Eureka" printed on it. Eureka confirmed this was an encapsulation of the beginning and end of her time on Drag Race.
  • Season 12's first episode involved a rap challenge called "I'm That Bitch". The final challenge of that season was another singing challenge which included the repeated line "I'm still that bitch".
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Jade Jolie had this problem. For most of the challenges, she was never the best or the worst, just safe. As a performer outside the show, she's a very skilled and energetic dancer, but on the show she was frequently drowned out by all the loud personalities. She currently holds the record across all seasons for the contestant who went the longest on the show without being either in the top or on the bottom, at four consecutive weeks.
    • Season 16’s Xunami Muse broke this record at 6 consecutive safe weeks.
  • Chad Michaels delivered perfection in her poise and style, almost to a fault. Near the end of Season 4, Michelle Visage even says she's growing bored of Chad because she always delivers the same flawless presentation, and that it's become predictable.
  • Season 9 is often derided as "boring" due to having a relative lack of conflict among the contestants. Many of the queens were making a conscious effort to be nice to each other and avoid getting the Bitch Edit and being the villain of the season.
  • Hannah Conda of Drag Race Down Under season 2 ultimately fell into this. She was an extremely talented competitor with an incredibly good showing over the season, but she was never the most memorable queen, and by the end of the season viewers still didn't really know anything about her other than that she was a consummate professional comedy queen. When Ru asks for her backstory in the top three and Hannah responds amiably that she had a good childhood, Ru's Disapproving Look says it all about her chances of winning.
• Borrowed Catchphrase:
  • Pretty much any catchphrase popularized by a queen on the show will get recycled for seasons to come:
    • Stacy Layne Matthews' "Henny", her North Carolina pronunciation of "honey".
    • Michelle Visage's "Stop relying on that body".
    • Also, Roxxxy Andrew's "Where my people at?"
    • William's "Sorry 'bout it" by Detox (and everyone else later on), makes sense since the two have worked together a lot.
    • Shangela's "Halleloo!" has gotten around quite a bit.
    • Alaska's "Hieeeeeee!" has been adopted by Ru as "Byeeeeeeee!" at the end of each episode, plus it has pretty much become general drag slang.
    • ”Miss Vanjie! Miss Vanjie! Miss...Vanjie.”
    • Adore Delano's "Party!" was originally the catchphrase of Mayhem Miller, who wouldn't appear on the series until a full four seasons after Delano.
  • Santino borrows Tim Gunn's "Make it work!" from Project Runway (where Santino got his start) when he joins Ru for a workroom visit in season 7.
  • An interesting example is Ru's "she done already done had herses!", often pronounced as fast and garbled as possible. In the countdown episode to Season 7's finale, Ru revealed he stole it from a fast food worker at Krystal Burger in Atlanta in his younger years, who shouted it at a woman trying to take food from the counter that wasn't hers.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Rolaskatox gets temporarily broken up after Alaska tries to get some distance from the other two (mostly to avoid being lumped in with them) but they get reformed later on. Eventually broken up for good by Detox getting sent home by Jinkx. Lampshaded in All Stars 2 when all three members are back and Alaska remarks that it doesn't mean the band is getting back together.
• Broken Pedestal: Joslyn Fox idolized Courtney Act prior to season 6, but some harsh critiques and shade from the latter pretty much ended that during the show. Courtney later elaborated that she had no idea her Australian sense of humour sounded so harsh.
• Bribing Your Way to Victory: In general, the competition can reward queens who are successful enough to bring a large wardrobe, but only mildly.
  • This approach backfired on Naysha Lopez, who was eliminated in the first episode of season 8 after saying, "I don't do drag on a dime." Her inexperience with making, rather than buying, her outfits caused her to produce a subpar runway that she also couldn't dance in when it came time to lipsync for her life.
  • Hilariously inverted with Bob the Drag Queen, whose chosen look fell apart at the last minute and so she walked the runway in a $25 Amazon.com bought Halloween costume.
  • Done literally when Alaska, following a bad performance in All-Stars 2, offered to PayPal the winning queen $30,000 not to eliminate her.
• Brick Joke:
  • During the Season 4 finale, Willam coined the phrase "RuPaulogize", and Ru immediately stated she was going to steal that line at some point. Come next season, one challenge involves the girls putting on a ballet entitled "No RuPaulogies".
  • Roxxxy Andrews, during Season 5's original song challenge, gets called out for saying "sequenced" instead of "sequined" in the song. She honestly thought "sequenced" was the correct plural/adjective. Nonetheless, "sequenced" still made it into the final cut and has come back in subsequent seasons.
    • This gets referenced again some All Stars 2, in which Roxxxy pronounced 'sash' (like a pageant sash) as 'shaw' or 'shawl'. When corrected by Michelle Visage, she looks horrified and says "oh god, this isn't another 'sequenced' moment, is it?"
  • The premiere episode of season 8 featured the girls doing a photoshoot of past winners. Due to not being able to get Bianca to be a part of the photoshoot they instead had a circus clown in her place. Fast forward to episode 9 during the music video filming, Bianca comes in saying she's there to do the winners photoshoot. Mocked again in the finale, when RuPaul brings back the same clown to join the past winners on stage.
• Brutal Honesty: Also called "Reading" or "Throwing Shade" (or sometimes "Throwing Dust"), its when a queen is completely honest in critiquing or just outright insulting another queen on something, which sometimes accidentally (or sometimes, purposely) leading to anger and hurt feelings. Being "Read to Filth" is considered the up to eleven version of this. Some queens are admittedly a lot better at throwing shade (Bianca Del Rio for instance) than others. The expression "No T, No Shade" (If there wasn't some truth to it, it wouldn't insult) plays on this as well.
  • To be more specific, "Reading" refers to up-front Brutal Honesty, and "Throwing shade" is a more back-handed or disguised insult.
• Butt-Monkey: Michelle Visage to RuPaul, although Michelle loves every minute of it.
• Call-Back:
  • Before awarding the season 5 crown, RuPaul stops to joke that Coco Montrese had offered to fill in if the winner couldn't fulfill her duties. Coco taking over as Miss Gay America caused her friendship with Alyssa Edwards to collapse and was referenced constantly throughout the season.
  • When Jiggly Caliente has to make a parade float and runway outfit using the color orange, she references back to the first episode's challenge when she says she's gone from baked potato couture (having a dress covered in tin foil) to sweet potato couture.
  • In Season 2, Tatianna dealt with the critiques that she was just a pretty face in the competition, until she angrily refuses to be considered her season's Rebecca Glasscock.
  • In Season 3, Shangela's country look was likened to Season 2's Mystique's "Country Couture" failure.
  • In Season 4, Madame LaQueer's large body in tights was compared to Season 3's Stacy Layne Matthews, another big girl who liked wearing spandex.
  • In Season 5, Ru makes a joke at Alaska utilizing Lucille Ball's famous "eww", Alaska counters it with LaQueer's infamous imitation of the sound. Ru also makes good on her threat to steal Willam's "RuPaulogize" euphemism in titling her ballet challenge "No RuPaulogies".
  • In Season 6, during the first walkthrough as RuPaul comes up to greet her, Bianca Del Rio casually mentions that Ru can call her "Jiggly". Ru still uses last season queen Alaska's Catchphrase of "Hiiiiiii" on occasion, as well as referencing the Alyssa/Jade "Backrolls?!" incident. Also, in the "Scream Queens" challenge, the movie's killer was based on Lil Poundcake, a very popular meme from Season 5.
  • In Season 6's Snatch Game, Trinity tries to change wigs mid-sketch as a gag. Bianca calls her out on it in the talking head, noting that Chad Michaels used the same gag in Season 4.
  • The season 6 finale features the Ornacia Dancers, a tribute to the headpiece worn by Vivacious in the opening episode.
  • In Season 7, Latrice Royale Cameos as her Tuckahoe Prison Guard character which won her a challenge in season 4.
  • The very first challenge of Season 8 had the queens tasked with recreating a look based on the design challenges from the entire run of the show, including Season 1's "Drag on a Dime", Season 2's "Gone with the Windows", Season 3's "The Queen Who Mopped Christmas", Season 4's "Rupocalypse Now!", Season 5's "Sugar Ball", Season 6's "Glitter Ball" and Season 7's "Hello, Kitty Girls!" among others. Fitting for a challenge that celebrated the 100th episode of the series.
  • In Season 8, Derrick Barry revealed that he was in a three-way relationship with Nebraska, Alaska's gay vet makeover from season 5.
  • Season 8 included the runway challenge "Night of 1,000 Madonnas" in which several contestants wore duplicative kimono outfits. The following season brought "Night of 1,000 Madonnas II" and there were still two sets of duplicate outfits.
  • In Season 8, the black and white runway show was inspired by Detox's black and white look from the season 5 crowning episode.
  • In All Stars 2, the two looks in one runway was inspired by Violet's fall look from the season 7 fashion show challenge. Also in that episode, Alaska's second look is based on Lil' Poundcake, her baby pageant creation from a season 5 mini-challenge.
  • During the season 9 finale, after Ru asks previous winner Bob to hand over the crown, Bob responds "I'd like to keep it on, please," an infamous line spoken by Valentina earlier that season.
  • All Stars 3 challenged the queens to re-imagine an outfit that was poorly received in their original season. This was repeated in All Stars 6.
  • In Season 13, Ross is trying to find the words to critique Rosé's runway and says "Your outfit tonight is... I don't want to say 'crafty' because I got dragged through the mud for that last season." A reference to Ross calling one of fan-favorite Shea's outfits "crafty" on All Stars 5 and getting lambasted for it on social media.
  • Upon Laganja Estranja's elimination in season 6, she declared that instead of simply walking off stage, she would be the first contestant to "chassé away," which she does like the dancer she is. On All Stars 6, Laganja returns as a lipsync assassin, and after an incredible performance, Ru gives her a fond sendoff, and Laganja proceeds to... chassé away.
  • In her Snatch Game performance as Judy Garland in All Stars 7, Jinkx references her makeover partner Dave from season 5, who imfamously stated he might be responsible for Garland's death.
  • Wintergreen, the iconic drag transformation of Drag Race cameraman Sarge from Season 9, reappears during the Kennedy Davenport Center Honors roast challenge on All Stars 7.
• Camp Gay:
  • Many of the contestants fit this at one time or another (and a fair number of the guest judges, too), not to mention RuPaul himself. You'd expect anything less from a show about drag queens?
  • Subverted once in a while as there have been some bisexual queens competing, most notably Scaredy Kat from UK Season 1.
• Camp Straight: Maddy Morphosis, from season 14, is a cisgender, heterosexual male out of drag, the first of her kind in the franchise. Upon Ru revealing this to the other queens in her first episode (to Maddy's embarrassment), Maddy had to spend a chat by the mirror explaining herself, and further elaborates in that episode's Untucked about her reverence for the art form, which goes a long way in winning the respect of the other queens. The "camp" part of this trope can't be overemphasized — Maddy has a wry sense of humor about her drag, like how her entrance look is a dragged up version of Guy Fieri.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: UK Season (Series) 3 features some seriously cute queens across the board out of drag (of particular note are Scarlett, Charity, Anubis, Elektra and Ella) and has been dubbed the 'hottest cast yet' by news outlets and the fandom alike.
• Cat Fight: Besides the genuine cat fights, usually in the Untucked lounge, the season 2 final challenge featured a staged and choreographed cat fight for the "Jealous of My Boogie" music video. First Jujubee got hit in the eye with a high heel, then Tyra got a bit too into it and "accidentally" pulled Raven's wig off. Twice.
• Celebrity Impersonator:
  • Since Season 2, the queens will impersonate a celebrity of their choice for the Snatch Game (in the format of the Match Game). All-Stars, instead of the Snatch Game, had RuPaul's Gaff-In, a skit based on the Variety Shows of the 1960's.
  • Chad Michaels in particular, in addition to being a Drag Queen, is a professional celebrity impersonator. His Cher impersonation has even fooled US Weekly into thinking he was the real deal.
  • Derrick Barry is a professional Britney Spears impersonator and Coco Montrese is one of Janet Jackson and Rihanna who work together in the same Las Vegas show.
  • Played with in the first episode of Season 9, where guest judge Lady Gaga infiltrated the contestant introductions in the guise of a Lady Gaga impersonator, getting some admiring (and nervous) reactions from the contestants to the quality of the "impersonation" before she revealed her true identity.
  • Also played with in the opening episode of Season 10, with Christina Aguilera introduced as supposedly returning contestant Farrah Moan.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Mostly averted, but sometimes played with. In season 2, Raven won a golden knuckles that was so Raven but she never sported it in any look following that episode. Of course, it wasn't clear if she have actually won that in the spot, or if she was to receive it later. Also, Carmen Carrera casually wore the same model of glove Johnny Weir was using in the last episode as guest judge, when she kissed him. But it was never stated if it was his actual glove or even if she got the idea from seeing his.
  • A very minor one occurs in Season 9 that ends up having a major impact on the competition. During the main challenge of episode 2, which involved the queen performing a cheer routine, Eureka briefly mentions in the confessional that she could feel her knee pop after landing a split. Eureka hurting her knee isn't mentioned again for the rest of the episode, and seems to be nothing big... until 3 episodes later, when Eureka ends up being eliminated for medical reasons regarding the knee injury she sustained during that challenge.
• Chekhov's Skill: It's interesting that mere hours after a conversation between Yara Sofia and Carmen Carrera where we learn that Carmen is Puerto Rican and can speak Spanish, the two are forced to lip sync for their lives to the Spanish version of a song.
• Christmas Episode: RuPaul's Drag Race Holi-Slay Spectacular, which was advertised as a Christmas-themed competition one-shot. Purely Just for Fun, with lots of Camp and musicals numbers to go along with.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Occasionally, Yara Sofia. She was compared to an Alien Petting Zoo, and even more strange is that the comparison actually made perfect sense at the time.
  • Kenya Michaels steps into that role in Season 4, especially with her rendition of a spasming, farting, pill-popping Beyonce. Many were left wondering if she even knew who Beyoncé is...
  • Also Tammie Brown. The judges have explicitly said that she's the queen they'd most want to just walk around on stage because they have no idea what she'll do next.
  • Milk and Vivacious' drag personas in Season 6.
  • Katya's a bit more down to Earth than some of these others, but she's definitely on a very different plane than the rest of us.
  • Crystal Methyd's drag persona in season 12.
  • Canada season 1 gives us Jimbo, who's so spaced out and offbeat that no one quite knows what to make of her.
• Cluster F-Bomb: The show as a whole uses the F-bomb quite a lot, among other curse words. RuPaul herself curses so often she sometimes crosses into Sir Swearsa Lot territory, in fact, one of her Catch Phrases is "Don't fuck it up", which she says at least twice an episode.
• Color-Coded Characters: The promo for Season 9 had every queen dress in a specific colour. This was repeated for UK series 2, this time with the colours taken from the "Progress" Pride Flag◊ plus the hot pink from the original Gilbert Baker design; several queens were assigned colours that reflected their drag names (red for Cherry Valentine, yellow for Ginny Lemon, green for Veronica Green and black for Joe Black).
• Combat Stilettos: The filming of RuPaul's "Jealous of My Boogie" video put this to use. Unfortunately, it also resulted in actual injury.
• Content Warning:
  • Every episode of Season 12 was aired with the disclaimer that the season was filmed before the producers knew of Sherry Pie's sexual harassment allegations, but that she would be disqualified from the finale, and donations to charity were made matching her prize winnings.
  • For All Stars 7's game show ball episode, each queen was given a dress color based on a travel destination, and the red one was based on Russia's Red Square. The season was filmed long before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, so the episode was aired with a disclaimer about the country being given a spotlight.
• Continuity Nod: In the All Stars 2 finale, Alaska points out the similarities between the All Stars 2 final four and their original Season 5 final four, using it to justify her fear of Katya.
  "The last time it was the three of us and a lovable weirdo, we all saw how that fucking worked out."
• Cool vs. Awesome: A major theme in the show is the various different styles of drag coming together, often with arguments over whose style is better. These clashes include:
  • Pageant Queens vs Comedy Queens. The most frequent conflict, and the most frequently lampshaded. Pageant queens tend to look down on comedy queens as being unpolished and too silly for their own good, while comedy queens think the pageant girls take themselves way too seriously and are always gunning for a win.
  • Veteran Queens vs ingénue Queens. Veteran queens will comment that it is unfair that the younger queens are using the competition as a sort of "drag charm school", when the veterans are already so polished and therefore deserve to win more. Conversely, younger queens will comment how veterans refuse to update their style and their more stifled view of drag isn't as fresh or exciting as what an ingénue queen can bring to the table.
  • How convincing a queen should be as a woman is another hotly debated topic. "Fishy" queens try to look like a biological woman, "camp" queens are the classic larger-than-life caricature, and "genderfuck" queens go for androgyny.
  • Season 7 brought a new queen dynamic up for debate, with six previous seasons of Drag Race prior to this one, queens who started their career before the show and therefore had to do things the "old school" way (starting in clubs, finding a mentor/Drag Mother, etc.) vs. queens who started their careers after the show premiered, and therefore were able to use the show as an almost cheat sheet to get a jump start on their drag personas.
  • What makes Season 8 unique is that every contestant fills a specific drag niche (Bob is comedic, Dax is a cosplayer, Derrick is a celebrity impersonator, Naysha is a pageant winner, etc.), and almost all of them are at the top of their game. This makes elimination difficult for viewers because all 12 queens are beloved by different sects of the fandom.
• Costume Porn: The runway dresses, especially with certain themes like unconventional materials, "Your Best Drag", and the themed drag ball at the end of the season.
• Couch Gag: In the fourth season, when Ru is introducing the prizes at the beginning of the episode, the $100,000 check is being held by the glum-looking queen who was eliminated in the previous week.
• Crazy-Prepared: Queens that get accepted to the show they are told to bring certain looks with them to the competition, like country, futuristic, or patriotic. There are a few instances in which certain contestants perform poorly on the lipsync, but in general the queens are extremely prepared to lipsync to the song of the week, even if they don't expect to be up for elimination.
  • Justified, as various Untucked episodes have started showing, as we see that the contestants are given iPods with the lipsync songs on them prior to the final judgment.
  • Many of the queens employ sewing machines to fix up anything that could meet the challenge.
  • Many queens who are concerned that they are in the bottom and will be forced to lip synch will sew in an entirely different costume or hide a second wig, specifically to pull a dramatic reveal.
  • Averted in that at least one queen per season has no idea what celebrity to impersonate in Snatch Game, even though this challenge has existed since Season 2.
• Credits Gag: The second episode of season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under ends with a cancelled lip sync battle after one contestant collapses onstage. Episode 3 starts the normal opening credits, but the music awkwardly grinds to a halt and titles cut to Ru, sitting alone at the judges desk in a deserted studio, trying to swat a fly. The rescheduled lip sync battle then happens, after which the normal credits resume.
• Cringe Comedy: Tends to happen on reality TV, but perhaps no more cringeworthy example on this show exists than season 11, when the infamously messy Silky Nutmeg Ganache is teamed with the inexperienced Soju for a design challenge. Every moment of them together in the Werk Room feels like a comedy of errors, starting with Silky's Oh, Crap! face (the first of several) when she realizes Soju can barely even walk in heels. Ru doesn't exactly help when he does the walkthrough and reminds Silky of her recent problem with her padding, and Silky offers excuse after excuse. Frankly, it's a miracle Silky survived this episode.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Alyssa Edwards, who is so focused on being a pageant queen that she doesn't do well in competitions involving comedy or impersonation. This eventually leads to her getting in the bottom twice and getting eliminated the second time in a lip sync with Coco.
  • Queens who have a more comedy/camp style frequently get reamed by the judges for not having much in the way of glamour. The queens who seem to do best tend to have a mix of the two abilities.
  • Season 7's Miss Fame is so focused on serving model beauty and stunning fashion that she stumbles in everything else, including her lipsyncing. Even when the runway theme was specifically "Ugliest Drag," her dress was appropriately hideous but her makeup, hair, and accessories were flawless like always, meaning she was still beautiful, leading to her elimination.
  • Season 8's Dax ExclamationPoint is primarily a cosplayer, so most of her drag is based on superheroes and video games. When she's tasked with creating a glamorous evening gown, the end result is a hot mess with ugly muted colors, misshapen padding, and an unfinished hemline, leading to her early elimination.
  • Also Season 8, Derrick Berry is one of the most famous celebrity impersonators in the US, but unlike other impersonators who have appeared on the show, Derrick had difficulty showing more than Britney Spears. Chad Michaels and Coco Montrese both produced a diverse set of looks in their seasons that didn't rely on their chosen celeb (Cher and Janet Jackson respectively).
  • Kahmora Hall showed up in season 13 as a huge fashion lover, dropping names like Bob Mackie and showing some impeccable looks. A girl group challenge and a subsequent acting challenge go so poorly for her that it seems like serving looks is all she can do. Poor Kahmora goes home first after a lipsync against Denali that amounts to a Curb-Stomp Battle (since Kahmora can barely move in her immaculately-produced runway look).
• Crossover:
  • Though not an official crossover, Drag Race shares a decent part of its viewership with Project Runway, and viewers of both will recognize Santino Rice (runner up of season 2) and several guest judges who have appeared on both shows. The shows are also sometimes considered sister shows to each other.
  • "The Real Dragwives", where queens from Drag Race reenact scenes from Real Housewives of Atlanta.
  • Two Season 6 queens are former Idol contestants: Adore Delano is Danny Noriega from American Idol Season 7, and Courtney Act is from the first season of Australian Idol. This connection is Lampshaded and exploited when the two end up playing the lead singers on two separate teams for a musical theater challenge. Courtney wins.
  • Season 6 featured Khloe Kardashian which was intended to be a crossover with her show, with a deleted scene later shown during the Clip Show that was supposed to be aired on Keeping Up with the Kardashians featuring her walking a runway against Season 2's Raven and Season 3's Manila Luzon. No word on exactly why the footage never aired on Khloe's show, however.
  • Season 8's make-over challenge featured the cast of Little Women: LA being made over along with the queens themselves into characters from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Referred to several times.
  • Invoked, as this is the judges' opinion on Manila's stereotypical Asian interviewer in the QNN news segment, which they said was so over the top that it became not offensive and actually won the challenge.
  • Also referred to in regards to Yara Sofia's hyperactive little person character from the "Rue Ha Ha" challenge, which was apparently inspired by a real life little person Yara knows. When questioned about it Yara also claims it's a fairly standard comedic bit in Puerto Rico.
  • In season 4's presidential campaign's challenge, Phi Phi O'Hara played Sarah Palin caricature that referred to the two remaining black contestants as "the help". The judges panel was heavily divided on whether or not it was offensive, but ultimately Phi Phi was allowed to stay.
• Cruel Twist Ending: In a shocker for the season 4 finale, Ru makes all 3 finalists lip-sync for their lives...and then it's revealed the winner won't be revealed until the Reunion next week, which was filmed much closer to the airdate than the rest of the season, meaning the queens had to wait months before knowing. The "twist" part is lost when Ru does it again for Season 5. Come Season 6, however, she adds tension back to the final challenge by doing it with four queens and eliminating one.
  • In the All Stars 3 finale, Ru suddenly announces that the top 2 is going to be determined with a vote by the six eliminated queens. Despite everyone expecting Shangela (who, after De La's self-elimination, was the frontrunner) to win, the queens vote for Trixie and Kennedy in the final pair. The disappointment on Shangela's face is palpable.
  • In many of the "Live" finales, Ru announces two of the girls will be advancing to the final lip synch and allows the others to remain backstage until the final crowning. In Season 15, she announced the two finalists but then had an additional segment on stage with all the queens, and the two who had not advanced, Mistress Isabelle Brooks and Luxx Noir London, were visibly crushed.
• Crutch Character: Alexis Mateo is this for Team Yarlexis on All Stars. Yara and Alexis have the "synergy" requirement down, being good friends who work and communicate well together, which nabs them some early praise and a few wins. However, it becomes clear that the team is only as strong as its weaker asset, and Alexis' limitations end up holding them both back, leading to their elimination in the second-to-last team challenge.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: This sometimes happens in the lip sync, say if one queen is a dancer and the other isn't, if the song is more one queen's style than the other's, or if one of them is wearing an outfit that constricts her movement.
  • Quite possibly the most famous example is Season 9’s lip sync to Britney Spears’s “I Wanna Go” between Charlie Hides and Trinity Taylor. Charlie spends the entire time standing in place, awkwardly swaying back and forth, while Trinity shows no mercy and gives a solid performance that takes up the entire runway, complete with somersaults. At one point, some of the other queens, clearly baffled, began yelling “let’s go, Charlie!” to try to convince her to do something, to no avail.
  • In later seasons, there's often a queen who gets dubbed the "lip sync assassin" after nailing one or more spectacular lip sync victories. One notable example is Peppermint from season 9, who actually mimed cocking and shooting a shotgun at her opponent during a lip sync
  • Deliberately averted by Anetra during Season 15's Lip Sync Smackdown. When given the choice of saving Spice or Jax from lip syncing against her for the episode's elimination, she saves Spice and acknowledges in the confessional that her lip syncing against Spice would have been brutally unfair.
• Curse: A few actions are jokingly referred as "cursed" by the fanbase, since they systematically result in low placement and/or elimination for the queen who did them:
  • Doing the robot dance in a lipsync for your life. To date, the only survivors of the curse are Peppermint in season 9 and Heidi N Closet in season 12.
  • Playing Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rue McClanahan, or Mariah Carey in the Snatch Game.
    • For Beyonce, Tyra Sanchez (season 2) managed to be safe, but Asia O'Hara (season 10) placed low and Kenya Michaels (season 4) was eliminated.
    • For Gaga, Phi Phi O'Hara (season 4) and Miz Cracker (All Stars 5) both placed low while Sonique (season 2) was eliminated.
    • For Rue, Crystal (UK season 1) placed low and Elliott with 2 Ts (season 13) was eliminated.
    • For Mariah, Kiara (Canada season 1) and Pangina Heals (UK vs. the World) were both eliminated.
  • For the makeover, doing disco-inspired or black-and-white outfits. Victims of the former are Jaidynn Diore Fierce, Kameron Michaels, Silky Nutmeg Ganache, Jackie Cox and Heidi N Closet; of the latter, Adore Delano, Alaska (in All Stars 2), Shea Couleé, Manila Luzon (in All Stars 4) and Gigi Goode. With the exception of Gigi, all of them ended up in the bottom, with Jaidynn and Manila getting eliminated.
• Dance Battler: The lipsyncs are a variant of this trope. They're not actually trying to hit each other, of course, but they are trying to make a flashier, more gripping performance than the other queen, to keep their spot in the competition. The battles are won, moreso as the seasons pass, with dynamic, eye-catching dance moves, with Denali and Leganja Estranja as popular examples.
  • Sometimes the queen wields a weapon of sorts, such as a reveal - like Roxxxy Andrews' famous hidden wig - or a hidden prop - like Maxi Shield pulling out a microphone on Drag Race Down Under.
  • There are often aversions of this trope when a queen wins a lipsync with sheer emotional power, like season 4's Latrice Royale bringing the house down to "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin, while barely moving an inch.
  • At the end of the first episode of season 3, this trope was made uncomfortably literal, with Venus D-Lite getting too into her lipsync with Shangela by physically shoving her aside and grabbing her by her outfit, both multiple times, to the point that Ru was vocally uncomfortable about what he'd witnessed. And then there was what Mimi Imfurst did to India Ferrah a couple of episodes later, much to the discomfort of the judges. As Ru himself said after the lipsync:
  Ru: Drag is not a contact sport.
• Dance Party Ending: The end of every episode, though in later seasons it tends to get truncated by the intro to Untucked when broadcast on TV.
• Darkhorse Victory: In season three of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, Ru is so unimpressed by the contestants' Reading Challenge that Pit Crew member Ben, who was only there to deliver reading glasses to the contestants, is named the winner instead. This means that Ben gets the cash prize - and also gets to divide the contestants into teams for the next challenge.
• A Day in the Limelight: Unexpectedly, All Stars 6 Episode 10 turned into this. The general idea of the episode was that the eliminated queens would lip sync against each other in a tournament to return to the competition. However, the episode turned into watching Silky Nutmeg Ganache demolish lip sync after lip sync with an increasingly elaborate array of props, reveals, costume changes, and other stunts. She won six lip syncs in a row in the span of a single episode and faced a 50/50 chance against Eureka of returning to the competition. It was an especially fitting victory arc, given that she had been in her head and felt defeated in the episode she went home. Even though Silky ultimately did not return, Ru herself says that "legendary" is the only word to describe her now, and Silky walks away proud of what she accomplished.
• Deadpan Snarker: Raven, Manila Luzon, Bianca Del Rio, Kennedy Davenport, Katya and Pandora Boxx are the standout examples.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Raven, who was often criticized for being too cold, showed a warmer side in the Golden Gals challenge, when she bonded with her appointed "drag mother," an elderly man who lived through the gay rights movement. She even carried him off the stage at the end of their lipsync presentation when he seemed to be exhausted. She also starts forming strong bonds with her True Companions despite claiming she's not there to make friends. A prime example is her lip sync with Jujubee in All Stars where both are clearly emotionally distraught.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Detox's outfit for the season 5 reunion accomplished this effect through makeup and clothing, making her look like she stepped out of a black and white movie. It was quite impressive especially next to the other girls. Max Malanaphy's aesthetic also draws heavily on this.
  • Season 8 included a Black and White Movie Realness runway challenge based on Detox' look.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • Alyssa is famous for this, such as, "Bitch sit your ass down and shut the hell up, bitch!", "Coco was the one backstabbing me behind my back", and also, "Girl look how orange you fucking look, girl!"
    • Alyssa's drag daughter Laganja gave us "did you not or did you not come for me?"
  • As said by Delta Work: "I'm terrified and scared as shit."
  • Ru herself became guilty of this in later seasons by introducing new features to the show that were almost identical to existing features:
    • Season 8 saw the creation of the "Shade Tree", a room where the queens can go to confess negative feelings they have about the other girls... forgetting about that little reality show feature called the confessional, which was specifically created so that people could share their honest opinions about others. Unsurprisingly, the Shade Tree was only used once throughout the entire season, and was never mentioned again.
  • Then Season 9 featured a lovely new wax statue of Rupaul in the workroom. A few episodes pass and Ru mentions that the statue also contains a hidden camera which may catch any shady comments the queens make if they aren't careful. Except this is the same room where a full camera crew films the girls at all times anyways! What do they expect the hidden camera to catch that the main cameras didn't catch anyways?
• Denser and Wackier: Drag Race Down Under is thought of this as some. It's a shorter season with only ten queens but many find the editing to feel rushed and that the show suffers from an overuse of sound effects that make it feel more like a youtube edit then the actual show.
• The Determinator:
  • Alaska shows shades of this, since she has auditioned for the show multiple times before finally getting in for the fifth season (which boyfriend Sharon Needles may or may not have had something to do with).
  • Season 11's Yvie Oddly, in spades. Not even Ehlers-Danlos syndrome stops this queen from delivering on stage, and her incredible flexibility as a result makes her a very memorable performer, even though it hurts her (and will likely leave her physically incapacitated later in life). At one point she twists her ankle, and she just turns it into a comedic runway look like it ain't no thing.
• Disapproving Look:
  • They're drag queens, so plenty of them give this off, though Violet Chachki's "stink face" is worthy of note. Bianca Del Rio doled that face out like Halloween candy.
  • The judges of course don't have to be the least bit shy about this, especially Michelle Visage, who's a notoriously tough customer. She plays it up in the season 7 episode when Merle Ginsberg makes a surprise return.
  • Henry Rollins was a guest judge in season 2, to judge the queens singing a rock song. Jessica Wild came out with this high-pitched scream that made Rollins visibly cringe.
  • If a queen whips off her wig during a lipsync, expect Ru to be visibly unimpressed by that old cliché.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • Happens to Coco Montrese in "Drama Queens". During the telenovela challenge, Wilmer Valderrama enters for his cameo. Coco immediately forgets all of her lines.
  • Happens to all the queens during the "match the underwear with the jock" mini-challenge.
  • The main reason Detox ended up in the bottom two for the "Super Troopers" challenge is that she spent most of her time lusting after her military vet partner instead of focusing on the competition.
• Double Entendre: The show is built on it, but Season 14 has possibly the largest example. In Episode 7, The Queens act in a soap opera called "The Daytona Winds," which most of them play for exaggerated drama. After the queens perform, and without their knowledge, RuPaul edited in fart noises to turn their dramatic lines into joke setups.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect:
  • By this point in the show it has been well established that a queen has to show vulnerability at some point to make it to the final three. Many a judge (including main judge Michelle Visage) has quipped that until a queen shows that weakness they can't really root for them.
    • This arguably cost Season 4's Chad Michaels to lose to Sharon Needles as Michelle Visage would call Chad too perfect and poised to be engaging. Come All-Stars, however, they twist this around and decide that Chad's perfection is her weakness, which ultimately seemed to make her more endearing to the judges.
  • Sometimes having been in the bottom once or twice can actually turn out to be an asset for a finalist, especially if they "showed their fire" by turning the lip-sync out (keep in mind that the show basically considers lip-syncing as the "essential skill" of a drag queen), rather than having the best track record statistics-wise. Examples include Jinkx Monsoon (1 bottom) winning Season 5 over Alaska (0 bottoms) and Jaida Essence Hall (3 wins, 1 bottom) winning Season 12 over Gigi Goode (4 wins, 0 bottoms).
• Drag Queen: All of the competitors, naturally.
• Dramatic Irony: Untucked airs after the main show but is filmed backstage during the judge's deliberations, and can create a lot of instances of this if the queens have the wrong idea about who's in the top or bottom, such as Trixie Mattel thinking she might win the Prancing Queens challenge (it was judged in teams and she went home) or the queens assuming Kim Chi is in the bottom for the shady political ad challenge (it was judged in teams and she was safe).
• Dresses the Same:
  • In the first episode of season 3 Phoenix and India Ferrah wore very similar outfits and hairstyles when arriving at the competition. They proceeded to glare daggers at each other.
  • Season 4's 'Platinum and Gold' runway had The Princess in a silver hooded catsuit ... that looks incredibly like RuPaul's silver hooded gown. RuPaul can't help but playfully cry out "She stole my look!" while The Princess struts down the runway.
  • Also expect this whenever there's a challenge that involves making a runway look and two queens wind up with similar ideas, complete with accusing each other of copying.
  • Exaggerated in Season 8's Madonna runway. FOUR girls came out with the kimono from "Nothing Really Matters". The look on Michelle's face was priceless. Since this was one of Madge's more unusual looks, it's likely that each girl thought they were being unique by going with it, which backfired hard. And on the spinoff show Fashion Photo Ruview, Raja got noticeably more and more pissed off with each look.
    • And the Madonna challenge returned in Season 9 and there were still two sets of duplicate outfits.
  • Leads to an awkward moment in Season 8 when Robbie Turner walks out to the photoshoot with the previous season's winners and sees that Jinkx Monsoon is in almost the exact same wig. Since the two are both based out of Seattle and know each other it's very likely they bought it from the same place.
  • It looked like UK Season 1 would have a repeat of Kimonogate when the runway theme was Bond Girls and both The Vivienne and Sum Ting Wong wore a hooded ensemble inspired by Grace Jones as May Day. Fortunately it was just the two of them, and the outfits were different enough not to draw instant comparisons.
  • Also from UK Season 1, both Baga Chipz and Divina De Campo intended to portray Margaret Thatcher during the Snatch Game. In the end, Divina allowed Baga to have free reign over the character, something she ended up regretting.
  • All-Stars 5 saw India Ferrah once again end up in this situation, this time with Miz Cracker, who wore a similarly colored blue dress with blonde accessories. Mariah and India herself both lampshade how this was eerily similar to the above Season 3 moment.
  • In the UK Season 2 premier, the queens had to do a look inspired a British queer icon. The two black girls of the season, Astina Mandella and Tayce, both decide to do Naomi Campbell. But rather than fight over it, they admit that there aren't many black queer icons from the UK to emulate, so they both give each other their blessing to do Naomi.
  • Also from UK Season 2. A'Whora and Sister Sister both wear a "bag of chips" dress for the "A Day at the Shore" runway. A'Whora had brought her outfit to the competition from the very beginning, while Sister made hers while the queens were in quarantine, leading to accusations of theft.
  • Ended up happening a bizarre amount with Season 13. Rarely did people wear the same thing on the runway at the same time, but across the season a number of girls ended up wearing the same outfits as each other, including:
    • Olivia wearing a boxer outfit two weeks after Symone wore a boxer outfit.
    • Olivia wearing a "Little Black Girl" outfit with pom-pom hair two weeks after Kandy did.
    • Gottmik wearing a crash test dummy outfit three weeks after Denali. In the same runway both Elliott and Tina wore looks inspired by taxicabs.
    • Averted with the Trains for Days runway. Three queens (Tina, Gottmik and Rosé) originally had the idea to dress as train conductors, but Rosé planned another outfit before the show when she realised that someone else would have had the idea as well, and Gottmik wore her unused We're Here, We're Sheer look which it fit the category as well, leaving only Tina dressed as a conductor.
    • UK Season 2 was airing at the same time as Season 13, Season 13's Snatch Game episode aired one week after UK's did. This gave us Tina as Richard Simmons doing a "flexible leg" joke the week after A'Whora did one as Louie Spence.
• Drives Like Crazy: Ongina and Delta Work in All Stars.
• Duct Tape for Everything: Duct tape, as pointed out in the show, is a drag queen's best friend. From fixing costumes and helping fit wigs, to shaping their bodies into a more womanly form, it has a multitude of uses in the art of drag. A mini-challenge in Season 3 was actually dedicated to it, in which the queens had to use various styles of duct tape and simple, black leotards to make fashionable outfits.
• invokedDude, Not Funny!:
  • Delta Work's comedy routine in Season 3, at one point she starts talking about how she doesn't want to lose weight because she is afraid of being raped on the street. Cut to the audience, you can literally see their smiles disappear. It should be noted Delta was eliminated for her failed comedy routine.
    • A similar thing happened to Laganja Estranga in Season 6's stand-up comedy challenge, when her jokes towards the senior citizens in the audience came off more like mean-spirited insults. And just like Delta, Laganja gets eliminated for it.
  • Phi Phi O'Hara calling Latrice Royale and DiDa Ritz "The Help"^note they are both black during the presidential debate challenge. However this was more a split reaction, half the judges were offended and called out this trope, others, however, understood where Phi Phi was coming from and what she was trying to do, but that her delivery just made it seem insulting.
  • Invoked by Ru. During one season 7 challenge mocking Ru's large catalog of products, Ginger Minj lampshades Drag U's failure. Ru immediately interrupts her, offended, as he found doing the show and helping women very meaningful. Ginger gives a massive Oh, Crap! in the Confession Cam. But considering Ginger's team would go on to win the challenge, it's possible Ru was just toying with her
  • Invoked by Trinity during a runway when she overheard Santino talking in an exaggerated lisp assuming he was making fun of the way she spoke while wearing her dental flipper, and was genuinely hurt that he would make fun of something she was obviously struggling with. This trope was averted, however, as in an Untucked first RuPaul has an audience aside where she explains Santino wasn't making fun of Trinity, he was making fun of the way she herself was speaking, which she was ok with.
  • While mock-interviewing Cher's mother, Georgia Holt, Joslyn brought up a sensitive subject in mentioning that as one point Georgia had considered giving her child up for abortion and asking her stance on Pro-Life/Pro-Choice now. Though slightly averted in the sense that she brought it up as a serious topic and not as a joke, on the main stage Michelle Visage scolded her outright for talking about things that just should not be talked about. This brought some accusations of Manipulative Editing, as the documentary she was being interviewed about (Dear Mom, Love Cher) includes discussion about that exact subject and was not brought up as out of the blue as it appeared. The issue was further complicated when it was revealed that Georgia being very vocally pro-life had been included in the information that the queens were given, giving the impression that the topic was open for discussion.
  • More of a meta-example but RuPaul herself has come under quite a lot of criticism for re-appropriating slurs that are used against transgender people and drag queens, and making those slurs into something funny and mockable. Many people believe that Ru is transphobic. Her Catchphrase "You've Got She-Mail" and her songs "Tranny-Chaser" and "Responsitrannity" are examples of this. Things finally escalated over the line into Dude, Not Funny! (according to many people) in Season 6 when a mini-challenge called "Female or She-Male" asked contestants to guess if an extreme close-up photo was of a biological woman or a "psychological woman" i.e. a drag queen and not a transsexual. Fan outcry became so bad that the episode in question has been pulled (it's since become available again, but in edited form) and the she-mail sound clip has been removed from future episodes completely. For years after that fateful Season 6 episode, the show was quite noticeably walking on eggshells regarding the transgender issue. Season 13 saw a noticeable effort by Ru to turn this around and be more trans-inclusive - for example, Ru changed her runway intro from "Gentlemen, start your engines, and may the best woman win," to the more gender-neutral "Racers, start your engines, and may the best Drag Queen win!" This neatly coincided with the first trans male competing on the show, Gottmik.

E - M

• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • In Season 1's recap episode, Ru shows a montage of rejected auditionees who would go on to appear in later seasons: Pandora Boxxx, Nicole Paige Brooks, Sahara Davenport, Raven, Alaska (who would also appear in the Season 3 casting special and in the audience in Season 4 before finally getting in the show for Season 5), and Detox (who, like Alaska, also reappeared in Season 3 before finally being chosen for Season 5).
  • In addition to Alaska and Detox, the Season 3 casting special also features Mrs Kasha Davis, Jasmine Masters, Katya, Dax Exclamationpoint, and Thorgy Thor - who will all go on to be contestants in later seasons.
  • Invoked in the first episode of Season 5 where the queens pass various people who will serve as guest judges while on a bus touring Hollywood, though it's fairly obvious that they're green screened in.
  • Ivy Winters' unique style of dressmaking starred on the show before she did, as she had created many of Manila Luzon's praised runway outfits. Ditto for Lashauwn Beyond creating a few looks for Morgan McMichaels.
  • Graham Norton was a guest judge in All Stars 2, a few years before he would become a permanent judge in Drag Race UK.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The oft-mocked Season One blur filter put on to try and hide the low-quality cameras they were using, in which it appeared the show was hosted by a vaguely RuPaul-shaped glowing blob◊.
  • Season One's Under the Hood, the precursor to Untucked, was hosted by a sassy RuPaul Barbie doll for some reason.
  • In the first season, judges were particularly concerned with queens being able to pass as female, with comments similar to "you look like a man in a dress" being common. The highlight of this is in the season's makeover challenge, which Rebecca Glasscock won on the basis that she looked near-identical to her drag partner, despite walking the runway in an extremely basic dress that would land anyone in the bottom in a future season. Later seasons are more open to androgyny, and runway critiques are mostly limited to the outfit itself and the queen's presentation of it.
  • Season Two introduced the beloved Snatch Game, a Match Game parody featuring celebrity impersonations by the queens. The problem is that none of the queens were sure how irreverent they were intended to be. That episode of Untucked features a lot of chatting about certain queens disrespecting their chosen celebrity, when nobody cares about that in later seasons, to say the least.
  • The elimination mirror message didn't exist until Season Two, courtesy of Shangela who did it unprompted. This Throw It In! moment caught on among the show's producers, and it became a staple ever since.
  • The show was always a drag competition that owed a lot to America's Next Top Model and Project Runway, but in the first few seasons it was also something of a general reality TV parody, for example featuring challenges based on Fear Factor and Deal or No Deal.
  • The first All Stars season is only half the usual length and features the queens competing as set pairs until the finale, where they split up into individual competitors. In each episode, the bottom two teams are up for elimination and battle it out in a tag-team lip sync. Other than having past competitors on, All Stars 2 and 3 have more in common with each other than with the first season: both feature individual competition as in the normal seasons and use the "Lip Sync for Your Legacy" twist, where the judges set both the top two and bottom two and the tops lip sync to determine which of the bottoms to eliminate. 2 and 3 also feature a talent show as the first maxi challenge.
  • Seasons 2-5, as well as the first All Stars season, all had "on the street" segments or challenges where the queens would go out into Los Angeles in full drag, and capture people's reactions to seeing/interacting with drag queens. These disappeared as the show worked harder to keep the cast under wraps during filming.
  • The first few seasons had the queens enter the work room for the first time very casually, a far cry from the Incoming Ham entrances that every queen does to establish themselves the first moment they appear on the show. It was likely Leganja Estranja's "Okay season six, let's get sickening!" and death drop that inspired future queens to stand out that much from the start.
  • Canada's Drag Race tries to emphasize the fact that all 3 judges share equal importance, and Brooke Lynn isn't the "RuPaul" of the group. As a part of this, the first season had the guest judges serve as guest "host" for the episode: at the beginning of the runway segment the guest host would walk out to the chorus of "Cover Girl" and would introduce the judges and challenge to the audience. This is the only season of the show to do this, and it was changed the very next season: all three judges are shown walking the runway, but Brooke Lynn is the one who comes out to "Cover Girl" and introduces the judges, in line with the other versions of the show.
• Eat That: The "Chicken or What?" mini-challenge, where in addition to chicken, the queens also had to eat bull testicles, frog legs, and deep fried cow brains.
• Elimination Catchphrase: "Now, sashay... away."
• Enemy Mine: Serena ChaCha was obnoxious enough to unite every other Season 5 queen against her.
• Enraged by Idiocy: When Phi Phi O'Hara, Jiggly Caliente, and Kenya Michaels turn ugly during Season 4's Snatch Game, Latrice Royale gets royally fed up with their bullshit, calling them out on their unprofessional behavior.
• Entitled Bastard: One of the (many) complaints leveled against Shangela, she was quick to ask for help due to her own inexperience in drag, but when another queen asked for her help she would claim that she had to focus on her own work in the competition.
• Epic Fail: The commercial challenge on Drag Race UK Season 3. After both teams produce extremely generic Infomercial parodies, Ru minces no words expressing his disappointment and announces, for the first time in the history of the show, there will be no challenge winner.
• Establishing Character Moment: From the moment the queens walk through the door, they are given a prime moment to establish themselves and set themselves apart from the pack. Some queens make better use of this opportunity than others, however.
  • Became painfully ironic with Vivacious. She walked in the door wearing a dramatic alien costume, only to have trouble unzipping herself as the other queens awkwardly looked on. She would then become the third queen eliminated after lipsynching both episodes she appeared in, as she is naturally Awesome, but Impractical.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Terri Nunn's reaction after seeing Raven in drag.
  • In season four, Jennifer Love Hewitt has the same reaction to Phi Phi O'Hara and Gi Gi, her partner in the "give a non-drag queen a makeover" challenge, "DILFs (Dads I'd Like To Frock)."
  • Carmen Elektra's reaction to Season 3's Raja's punk style and performance, she starts saying how she wouldn't mind if Raja wore a strap-on for her ... before realizing that Raja wouldn't have to.
• Everybody Wants the Hermaphrodite: Every season there's one or two queens who are strikingly attractive in both boy mode and drag. Many contestants will admit to wanting to kai-kai with her even if her personality is abrasive. This article sums up the more handsome contestants from the first five seasons. In Season 6, Milk is frequently cited as being the hottest as a man. In season 10, Kameron Michael's "Bodybuilder Barbie" aesthetic is seen this way.
• Everyone Meets Everyone: In season 6 and season 12, the premiere is split up, debuting half the contestants in episode 1, and the other half in episode 2. In both cases, at the end of episode 2, both halves meet each other, and it's initially tense.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Zombie Drag Queens, no less! Former drag race competitors showed up as zombies in the first episode of season 4.
• Evil Gloating: After tricking Jiggly Caliente into shooting herself in the foot with the Dragazine challenge, Phi Phi O'Hara proudly gloats about it to Willam, punctuated by an Evil Laugh.
  • A few of the confessionals can come off like this as well, especially if said queen is trying to be a Manipulative Bastard.
• Evil Twin: The final 5 challenge of season 10.
• Exact Words:
  • In the All Stars 2 premiere, Ru announces that she will not be eliminating any of the queens. The queens find out later in the episode that they will be eliminating each other with the All Stars rules in play instead.
  • During Season 11's televangelist/diva worship challenge, Team Mariah utterly failed the challenge and Ru asked them on the runway who was responsible for the trainwreck. They all said that they were equally to blame for not knowing enough about the singer and not making it funny. So Ru, being Ru, took their words literally and made all six of them lipsync for their lives.
• Expy: In the "Snatch Game" challenge, some competitors play their chosen celebrities by taking on or mocking one of their characters. In Season 3, Stacy Layne Matthews played Mo'Nique but was channeling the mother from Precious, in Season 6, BenDeLaCreme played Dame Maggie Smith, but was more directly channeling the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey, and in Season 8, Bob the Drag Queen played Uzo Aduba specifically as her character "Crazy Eyes" from Orange Is the New Black (in addition to a black Carol Channing). Interestingly, all three of these queens won the challenge in their respective seasons.
  • In All Stars 2, Alyssa Edwards ostensibly played Joan Crawford but basically spent the whole time directly quoting Mommie Dearest. Katya mentions this in her recap show Total Rucall:
  Katya: It's Alyssa Edwards as Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford as Alyssa Edwards!
• Eye Scream: Jujubee was accidentally hit in the eye with a stiletto heel while participating in a staged and filmed catfight. Ouch.
• Fake-Hair Drama: High-quality wigs are one of the biggest investments in a drag wardrobe, so if a queen shows up in a shake-and-go wig, the judges and fellow contestants usually call them out on it.
• Fan Disservice: Invoked in-universe during the Season 3 nude photoshoot mini-challenge by Delta Work, Stacy Layne Matthews, and a bit more surprisingly, Alexis Mateo, who were all very uncomfortable in posing nude and saying outright no one would want to see them without their clothes on. Delta went as far as to say that she doesn't even have sex naked.
  • The first main challenge of Season 7 was "Nude Illusion", to which Jasmine then says in her Confession Cam that after seeing her competitors out of drag, she was pretty sure Ru definitely didn't want to see them naked.
• Fanservice:
  • The "Pit Crew," musclebound hunks wearing only undies who assist RuPaul in setting up the challenges. The Queens are also usually fairly blatant about Eating the Eye Candy when it comes to them.
  • The competitors have different examples of acting as fanservice themselves (or trying to, or serving up performances designed as satires of conventional fanservice sexiness). Some of them include:
  • Tatianna's description of her entire character and appeal, and all the bragging she does about being so pretty that straight men love to hit on her.
  • Season two's "Starrbootylicious" challenge (where the competitors have to put together burlesque acts and garner tips from an audience of men).
  • Carmen Carrera's description of her entire character and appeal. See, "Carmen is nudity and sex."
  • Season three's "America" challenge wherein Raja and Carmen both style themselves as pin-up girls for the main challenge, Carmen came to the runway in a Bettie Page and Dita Von Teese-inspired get up, and Carmen's performance involved macking on Johnny Weir.
  • Season three's "Jocks in Frocks" challenge initially failed when Carmen dressed her rather beefy sister, Lolita Cruz-Carrera, up in a showgirl bikini that didn't even try to craft a more female-presenting silhouette; then successfully accomplished during Carmen and Raja's rather Sapphic lipsynch to Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" — which Alexis Mateo described as "softcore porn" and "kinda hot," and which the jocks seemed to enjoy, based on their reactions, seen in that episode's Untucked.
  • Attempted by season four's Alisa Summers in her Apocalyptic couture outfit. It doesn't work. She ends up lip-synching due to the lack of vision in her costume, and Jiggly Caliente sends her home.
  • The entire premise of the "Float Your Boat" mini-challenge, where the queens are given enormous breastplates and made to compete in a wet t-shirt contest.
  • The underlying idea behind a LOT of Willam's runway outfits and style of presentation. Fortunately, she brought other things to the table as well.
  • Inverted by Sharon Needles, who says of herself: "I never want to create a character that someone would want to fuck. I like to mock sexiness."
  • And then there's Detox, who has a little black dress that looks normal from the front, only to reveal lacing on the back that goes all the way down and shows a massive amount of buttcrack.
  • In Season 5, Fanservice crashes headlong into Product Placement when RuPaul has the Queens match the designer underwear on a room full of musclebound jocks. Gains an immediate Lampshade when Ru declares "And the winner is... all the straight women and gay men in America!"
• Fashion Show: The runway portion of each episode.
• The Fashionista: While fashion and runway walks are part and parcel of the Drag Race experience, every season has one or two "fashion queens" who tout this as their main strength. Season 7 had both Miss Fame and Violet Chachki in this role. Season 8 had Kim Chi bring an anime influence into her high fashion. Aquaria's runways in season 10 were always a highlight, which considering her young age made her even more of a prodigy. The original fashionista of Drag Race is almost universally considered to be season 3's winner, Raja, whose supermodel sensibilities, and impeccable walk, set a whole new standard for what could be accomplished on the runway.
• Fat and Skinny: Any pairing involving Latrice Royale ended up as this, Latrice and Kenya Michaels, Latrice and Willam, and during All Stars, Latrice and Manila Luzon.
• Feet-First Introduction: This is a common way to introduce queens for their work room entrances, particularly on All Stars.
• Five-Token Band: Each season has a fair share of minority contestants and at least one plus-sized queen, but Season 4 was the most diverse season so far, with four black queens, three Latinas, two Asians, three BBW's, and three queens over the age of 35.
• Flag Bikini: The RuPaul's Drag Race UK Pit Crew equivalent, the Brit Crew, get Union Jack briefs.
• Flat "What": The Queens' reactions when Coco Montrese picks Alyssa Edwards for her team during the No RuPologies ballet challenge, what with the bad blood between them. Coco's reaction is to shrug and point out that Alyssa is a professional choreographer, so it would be stupid not to pick her.
  • Michelle has a flat "What the fuck" while watching Elektra Fence start breakdancing in the middle of her second lip sync.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: A staple of drag for years, so it's bound to make an appearance often. One runway in season 10 was devoted entirely to this concept.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Invoked in season 5 when Roxxxy Andrews comments on Coco and Alyssa's rivalry by saying the two "need to go off and fuck or something" and just get over their bad blood.
  • Also made fun of when Detox and Alaska impersonate Sharon and Phi Phi's rivalry from the previous season. They end their re-enacted argument by giving each other a bloody kiss.
• Foil: The special guest judges for the first episodes of Season 9 and 10 were introduced to the queens in similar yet opposite ways. Lady Gaga in Season 9 entered the work room after all the queens at the very beginning of the episode, while Christina Aguilera walked the runway just before the judges' critiques. Both singers were presented as another queen joining the competition (Gaga as an impersonator of herself named "Ronnie" à la Derrick Barry, Christina as a returning Farrah Moan) before revealing themselves.
• Foregone Conclusion: Halfway through Season 5, it became clear that Jinkx, Alaska, or Detox would take the crown. Ru had been criticized in the past for neglecting comedy queens on the show, and this might be why Season 5 contained more comedic challenges than usual.
• Foreign Remake: Several examples of note:
  • For Drag Race UK and Canada's Drag Race, see Transatlantic Equivalent, below.
  • Drag Race España, the Spanish iteration of the series is right up there with Drag Race UK in terms of successful, fan-beloved international spin-offs. The series received praise from its debut for educating viewers on and celebrating Spanish culture — including challenges themed around Spanish artists and iconic celebrities — whilst still maintaining the key components of what makes the Drag Race format a success. This, alongside host Supremme de Luxe's infectious hosting skills and the series' positive representation of the trans and non-binary communities, has cemented España Season 1 as one of the best international debuts in Drag Race herstory.
  • Drag Race Holland, the Netherlands' edition of the series, has also been well-received both at home and abroad. In terms of tone, it's wacky, manic, and anarchic at times — it's certainly the only iteration of the franchise where marijuana was smoked live on stage, and in which the girls sometimes nip out back for a smoke. And in typically direct, blunt Dutch style, there's no-holds-barred critiquing courtesy of loud and proud judge Fred van Leer (who compared to the stately RuPaul and the warmly maternal Supremme de Luxe is positively headmistressy), and amongst the queens themselves. There's also plenty of Gratuitous English, due to the Netherlands' very high proficiency with the language, so for Anglophonic viewers, it's possible to follow along without (too much) help from subtitles.
  • Despite the four celebrated examples above, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, the Australian/New-Zealand version, whilst being an irreverent iteration that doesn't take itself too seriously, has been mired by considerable controversy. As well as the production feeling cheaper and more like a Youtube edit (including the implementation of wacky sound effects), the Werk Room itself feels smaller and unfinished. The season has also been dubbed the meanest so far, and is at-times unwatchably catty, with a lot of forced drama and unrelenting baiting — particularly via the Aussie queens, who have received a lot of backlash on social media for the mean-spirited nature of the Werk Room — and that's even before it came to light that some of them also have problematic pasts and have exhibited racist behaviour, namely Scarlet Adams^note who has previously performed drag looks in blackface, with her skin darkened, teeth blacked out and wearing an Aboriginal flag, as well Karen From Finance^note who had a collection of golliwogs — dolls that depict minstrel performers that have long been condemned for their obvious racism — that she was photographed with for a magazine. She even had a depiction of one tattooed on. A glimmer of hope lies with the Kiwi queens, who were warmer, funnier (more like the UK queens in tone), and not for nothing became the fan-favourites, though it remains to be seen if the Down Under iteration can rescue itself from being the least-liked and worst-reviewed franchise in the series.
  • Drag Race Italia provides an interesting example, as the first season is condensed into six 90 minute episodes and just 8 queens participate, suggesting a proof-of-concept approach. Thoughts are that drag has never really been presented on Italian TV particularly positively (and certainly not in the Drag Race style), and the very concept of drag hasn't quite hit the mainstream appeal in Italy as it has in the US and in the franchise's other European territories, making Drag Race Italia a somewhat risky manoeuvre for the network — hence a prototype season. In terms of tone, Italia is similar to the other European series in terms of exhibiting its own regional style and themed challenges, though the arguments and dramatics are on occasion explosive and sadly, almost all of the queens have experienced parental rejection (thankfully becoming less of a regularity across the franchise) which lends the series a sometimes sad, but at the same time hopeful, groundbreaking quality.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Queens sometimes unwittingly foreshadow future contestants.
    • In season 6 episode 3, Bianca, Vivacious and Trinity discuss a famous Britney Spears impersonator in Vegas, who is one of Trinity's inspirations. Two seasons later, that impersonator (Derrick Barry) becomes a contestant.
    • In season 9 episode 6, Alexis Michelle wears a tank top emblazoned with Dusty Ray Bottoms, who entered the next season.
  • In UK Vs The World series 1 episode 1, there's an infamous moment where Blu Hydrangea marches up to Mo Heart (formerly Monique Heart) and tells her how disappointed she was in Mo's diva-like behavior when they first met backstage at a gig in Belfast. Mo is stunned by Blu's honesty, but apologizes for her actions. Come the finale, Mo and Blu have another face-off... as the final two of the season.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: In season 13, the top 8 get into pairs, with the challenge being for each queen to dress up their partner like themselves, and walk the runway as each other. This posed quite the challenge for Kandy Muse and Gottmik in particular, as they were Fat and Skinny.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • The other queens attribute Phi Phi O'Hara's nasty attitude to her rough childhood as a victim of bullying and parental abuse.
  • This is also suggested to be one reason for Alyssa Edwards' antagonistic attitude, due to having a verbally abusive father.
• Full-Name Basis:
  • We have two from season 2. Nicole. Paige. Brooks. From. Atlanta. Georgia. Although she goes by NPBFAG online these days. Also, Mystique Summers Madison.
  • We have another two from season 3. Stacey Lane Bryant Matthews Lattisaw Q. Also, Shangela LaQuifa Watley!
  • Iveee Winturrrrssss! And yes, Ru pronounces it like that every episode until Ivy goes home. Then again in the reunion.
  • Monica Beverly Hillz, which Ru pronounces so fast that it comes out as "Mamagaburburlyhill."
  • In season 9, RuPaul extends Nina Bo'nina Brown's name with additional last names, such as "Nina Bo'nina Brown Kennedy Onassis" or "Nina Bo'nina Brown Rodham Clinton". She is eliminated and called Nina Bo'nina Brown André Charles.
  • Jaida Essence Hall from season 12.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • "Girls, use your Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent!"
  • From season four: the "Wrestling's Trashiest Fighters" league.
  • Latrice explains that "bitch" means "Being In Total Control of Herself"
• The Fundamentalist: A lot of the pageant queens come off this way, claiming that only their style of drag is "real" drag, and that comedy/unconventional queens use humor/quirkiness to compensate for a lack of glamour. Predictably, such queens end up sounding like close-minded bullies.
• Funny Background Event: The reactions of the safe queens at the back of the stage during a lip-sync, especially if it's a particularly awesome one. Special mention goes to Alyssa, Ginger and Phi Phi synchronizing as background dancers in episode 2 of All Stars 2.
  • Divina's "red wig and a silver dress" rant is especially funny and ironic when you notice that Divina has five red wigs sitting at her station in the background.
• Gag Penis:
  • According to the other queens, Alaska. After the first challenge she strips to the nude, inviting comparisons to the horse mask she wore during her entrance.
  • During Season 5's military makeover challenge, Coco's partner had this problem, almost resorting to duct tape despite Coco insisting that that's a Very Bad Idea.
  • In the Season 5 finale, Alyssa finally revealed her "secret"
  It's nine inches and very functional!
  • Season 6's Bianca Del Rio, saying that her heritage gives her "a big dick, no credit, and a tendency to take things that don't belong to me."
  • In Season 4, Willam made a few comments implying this was true for Latrice Royale.
  • Trixie Mattel, causing the other queens to flock to her cock because they hadn't seen one for a few weeks.
• Gaussian Girl:
  • RuPaul, particularly in Season 1. She even tells Milk to "use the Season 1 filter" when she has Milk take a selfie of all the queens together on the season 6 reunion show.
  • Parodied and lampshaded in Pandora Boxx's season 2 audition tape; when "interviewing" herself (out of drag as the interviewer and in drag as the interviewee), Pandora stops to seemingly rub Vaseline all over the lens to give that effect. The "interviewer" calls his alter ego out on it, telling someone to clean that gunk off the camera.
  • One of the Ad Bumpers for the show proclaimed, "Available in stunning standard definition! The queens will thank us."
  • Hilariously parodied by The Big Gay Sketch Show:
  Chocolate Puddin': Miss RuPaul I've got to know, why are you so motherfucking blurry? It's like, we're in the same fucking room but you're glowing like some kind of spooky ghost or angel from Heaven or some shit!
• Gayngst: Though all the queens are out and proud now (what with them being on national television) this factors into many of their backstories, including being thrown out by parents, homophobic bullying and discrimination, and many call being drag queens the way they chose to deal with it and reclaim power for themselves.
• Gender-Blender Name: Many of the queens, including RuPaul herself, don't take feminine stage names in drag but perform under their real names. Some, like Alexis Matteo and Kelly Mantle, still manage to sound feminine, while others like Chad Michaels, Willam, and BenDeLaCreme enjoy the irony of performing drag under their male names. Season 8 holds the record, with half the cast having a drag name that's some variation of a male name. Bob The Drag Queen and Robbie Turner stand out since neither of them are actually named Robert and they willfully created gender blender names (Robbie Turner was a character from a novel and "Bob" supposedly stands for "Big Old Bottom").
• Gender-Concealing Voice: Most contestants maintain the same cadence in and out of drag, but a few queens do put in the effort to disguise their voices:
  • Season 6's BenDeLaCreme has a low, gravelly voice with a decent amount of vocal fry out of drag, but she kicks it up about two octaves while in drag.
  • Season 9's Jaymes Mansfield's natural speaking voice is about the standard pitch for a man, but in drag she speaks with such a cartoonishly high-pitched and nasal voice it sounds like she's just inhaled helium.
• Get Back in the Closet: It's a well-known secret that in early seasons of Drag Race queens who identified as transgender had to be in the beginning stages of transitioning only and had to stop taking any hormones while on the show. Not the show's proudest moment, although newer seasons have started to (slowly) welcome the transgender drag community more openly (Season 5 finale Ru said they were not screening out trans contestants, although Season 4 Willam has gone on record stating this was a lie at that time, Season 9 introduced the first openly trans woman contestant before the season started airing with Peppermint, and Season 13 introduced the first trans man queen with Gottmik).
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In the Season Five premiere, RuPaul promises the girls a Beverly Hills shopping spree, followed immediately by a preview of the girls diving into dumpsters.
  • In the reunion episode of season 2, when Tatianna is asked why she barely did anything during the Reading challenge and backed out quickly, she claims that reading wasn't really her thing. Cue a montage of all the times when she'd read other queens to the Confession Cam, the only apparent difference being that it wasn't face to face and the challenge was.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Surprisingly, in a show with a cast comprised almost exclusively of gay men that caters to a (predominantly) gay male demographic, Raja and Carmen Carrera managed to provide some grade-A lesbian erotica in their season 3 lip-sync to "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul.
• Girls With Mustaches: The "Bearded Lady" runway theme in Season 7, inspired by Conchita Wurst, as the season was filmed shortly after her victory in the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Golden Snitch: All Stars 7, as an all-winners season, had no eliminations and instead had up to two queens each week win a Legendary Legend Star. At the end of the season the four queens with the most Stars would compete in a Lip Sync Smackdown. In the final challenge, the winners each won three Stars, which would mean they would automatically be in the top four regardless of how they did beforehand. Partially justified, however, as at that time Shea Coulee only had one Star and there would be no point in her even attempting if the prize couldn't get her in the top.
• Good-Looking Privates: Several of the veterans in the season 5 competition to make over gay military vets into drag queens. Mini-challenge winner Alaska paired up the queens and the vets and picked the tall twinkish blonde for herself, but this backfired when "Nebraska" ended up looking better in drag than she did, and Detox spent more time lusting after her vet than focusing on the competition.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: The "Jealous Of My Boogie" video features Raven breaking an (obviously fake) bottle over Jujubee's head.
• Hairstyle Malfunction: Queens have often had their wigs come off during lip syncs. Sometimes it's by accident (as in the Phi Phi vs. Sharon lip sync), but more often queens purposefully take it off. It was more common in the early days of the show, but it's since been discouraged as a cliche. Unless you've got a fantastic reveal (like Roxxxy's wigs-on-wigs or Sasha's rose petals), taking your wig off can seal your fate and send you sashaying away.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: The "Lip sync for your Life!" danceoff.
  • In the second episode of season four, RuPaul has her girls star as tag-team wrestling divas in the WTF league.
  • Many episodes of Untucked also devolve into this.
  • And according to Alaska, fights with then-boyfriend Sharon Needles often turned into this, since it's "two big egos in one tiny house."
• Hard Work Hardly Works: On the runway, what matters is what the judges can see and not the effort that went into it. Queens have been known to protest a negative critique by saying they worked their butts off to make a look, but still get read for looking sloppy, unpolished, or just plain basic.
• Harsh Talent Show Judge: Michelle Visage, who is notorious for her incredibly harsh (and often somewhat arbitrary) standards and tendency to not mince her words in the slightest during critiques. Her Brutal Honesty is so unending that other judges responding to her biting commentary with "I have to disagree with Michelle" and launching into a compliment-fest has effectively become a Running Gag.
• The Hecate Sisters: Contestants can be roughly divided into three age groups. All three have found both success and failure on the show:
  • Ingenue Queens in their early- to mid 20's (or starting in their late teens in international versions) who bring a fresh perspective and adaptability with them, but may be lacking in experience and budget, and are accused of using the show as "drag finishing school" rather than a showcase of the skills they already have.
  • Prime Queens in their late 20's to mid 30's who are more experienced and financially well-off than the younger queens while still being youngish themselves: the prime of their careers. For this reason they often come across as arrogant and entitled.
  • Veteran Queens in their late 30's and older who may have been doing drag longer than the younger queens have been alive. That being said, they often have a hard time stepping outside their comfort zone.
    • Subverted by Shuga Cain. Despite being the oldest queen in Season 11 at 40 years old during filming, she had only been doing drag for a few months when she auditioned for the show. However, she left a well-paying corporate career and has a well-off husband, so she was still able to look as polished as a queen with years of experience.
• Heroic BSoD: Occurs twice in one episode! First, Alexis Mateo falls victim to stress and nearly leaves the competition. Then, later on, when she and Yara Sofia end up in the bottom two, Yara breaks down and falls to the ground crying, unable to continue with the lipsync.
  • It's implied that Jiggly Caliente went through this when she saw the episode where Phi Phi O'Hara sabotaged her, since the two were close friends before the show (they have long since patched things up).
• Hidden Depths: At first the Pit Crew were only there to be eye candy (in the first two seasons, Ru never even referred to them by name), later seasons have given members some additional developement, reaching a peak in Season 6 when they got their own special series on WOWPresents, Oh Pit Crew, and were featured in RuPaul's album The CoverGurlz.
• His Own Worst Enemy:
  • Pandora Boxx in RuPaul All Stars. When she gets teamed with the All Stars unfavorite, Mimi Imfurst, it's obvious she mentally checks out of the competition, leading to their elimination in the first episode. The queens even state outright that Team Mandora could have been a fierce duo if Pandora had not just given up.
  • Lashauwn Beyond had a lot of dressmaking talent, but a very demure personality. During her first runway she managed to talk herself out of the top and into the bottom due to acting so unsure of herself.
• Homage:
  • The opening for season 5's Untucked lifts/homages/parodies the opening to PBS' Masterpiece, complete with RuPaul introducing himself as Laura Linney.
  • In Season 7, the queens lipsync a flight attendant safety routine which is modeled on Virgin America's "Safety Dance."
  • Season 7 also included an episode where the main challenge involved hamming up scenes from classic John Waters films, with the man himself judging.
• Home Field Advantage:
  • Every now and then, a lip sync will feature a song that very obviously plays to one queen's strengths over the other's. Some examples include Latrice vs. Kenya (to "[You Make Me Feel Like A] Natural Woman," a grand, soulful song right up Latrice's alley), Jinkx vs. Detox (to "Malambo No. 1," a campy, retro song perfect for Jinkx), and Cheryl vs. Blu (to a Girls Aloud song, which Cheryl obviously slayed).
  • During "Rusical" challenges, queens with a background in musical theater naturally shine, while others hope to coast by with a Safe.
  • Season 16 had a flamenco mini-challenge with Charo as the guest judge. The Latina queens had an obvious leg up, though Plane Jane did well too, given her background in ballroom dance.
• Humiliation Conga: Alyssa Edwards seems to suffer one up until her elimination in Season 5, starting with her poor performance in the Snatch Game, where she had to tweet an apology to Katy Perry for portraying her so poorly. She's then forced to work with her rival, Coco Montrese, in the singing challenge, then fails spectacularly in next three challenges: the RuPaul Roast, perfume challenge (after claiming she had finally been given a challenge she could excel at with her pageant skills), and telenovela challenge (which she had to work with Coco and Jinkx Monsoon, who constantly outshined her in acting and comedy challenges). She then gets told by Santino Rice that the dress she wore was the 'worst in five seasons', and as the icing on the cake, finally gets eliminated by her longtime rival, Coco, in a lip sync.
• Hurricane of Puns: A category 5, starting with the title on down.
• The Hyena:
  • Ru's extremely distinctive laugh is even used on one of the show's eyecatches.
  • Latrice Royale also has an extremely distinctive laugh.
  • Jade Jolie in Season 5, who describes herself as liking to laugh a lot.
  • Trixie Mattel - AHHHHH!
  • Sharon Needles, after playing Michelle Visage in Snatch Game, noted that one of the most important things to perfect was her laugh, which she claimed could be heard from anywhere in the studio.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Made evident by every Untucked episode. Most prominently displayed by Rebecca Glasscock, Raven, Phoenix, and Shangela, who claims to be "keeping it real" about six times an episode.
  • Averted somewhat by Manila. In a normal episode, she says to Shangela "I don't want you to feel like I'm attacking you... but I am attacking you, because this is a competition and I'm trying to beat you." However, she also says to Ru that she did like making friends in the competition, and she seems to be actively avoiding fights in the Untucked room.
  • In Season 4, Lashauwn Beyond gives us "This is not RuPaul's Best Friend Race!"
• I'm Standing Right Here: When BenDeLaCreme and Darienne Lake lipsynched against each other, Ru made it sound like she was eliminating DeLa, only to reveal that she would keep both of them. When the queens got back to the workroom, Courtney Act said to DeLa, "I was ready to yell 'Noooo! You made the wrong choice!'" Darienne was not amused.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Happens at least once (usually more) during any challenge where the queens have to make their own clothing, especially the first challenge of the season using unconventional materials.
  • Alyssa Edwards gets called out by Santino for having the "worst dress in five seasons" during the Telenovela runway. When Santino is later reminded of some of the horrid ensembles that have made it across the runway over the course of the series, he maintains his position by explaining how those previous dresses were made on a deadline using random scraps, meanwhile Alyssa's Telenovela dress was something she brought from home and planned on wearing.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara's "pet names" for each other were "Party City" for Sharon (after the chain of cheap costume stores) and "Busted-Ass Showgirl" for Phi Phi.
  • In season 3, the group of Raja, Manila, Carmen and Delta begin calling themselves the "Heathers" after the movie of the same name.
• Incoming Ham: Most of the queens do this in their entrances in each season opener, moreso as the show went on and the entrances became more produced. Special mention goes to Pandora Boxx ("HEY, FAKE "LADIIIIIIIES!"), Laganja Estranja and her epic death-drop, Cynthia Lee Fontaine showing everyone her cucu, Shangela popping out of a gift-wrapped box, Sasha Velour screaming at the top of her lungs, and, from Canada's Drag Race, Ilona Verley walking in with her phone while on an Instagram live stream.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex:
  • Shannel, who seemed to have extreme levels of confidence ("I should have won this challenge!") but couldn't handle the judges not complimenting her regularly.
  • To a lesser degree, Season 4's Phi Phi O'Hara. She then lost the "to a lesser degree" and became blatant about it in All Stars 2. After having been the villain of her original season, she was so desperate to get a "redemption edit" for having grown and changed that her attitude just alienated her competitors and fans all over again.
  • Mimi Imfurst from Season 3 liked to act confident much of the time, but more than a few of the other queens had accused her of being very self-conscious in her skills and ability to be glamorous.
  • Exaggerated with Laganja Estranja in Season Six.
• Informed Ability: Ross Matthews gets introduced the same way pretty much every runway:
  Ru: The hilarious Ross Matthews!
• Informed Flaw: Raja from season 3 often had her age referenced as being "so old" compared to the other queens, being age 36 at the time of the show, making her the oldest competitor of her season. However, most of this ribbing came from Manila and may have been part of their Vitriolic Best Buds relationship. Since then, there have been queens her age or older in subsequent seasons, not to mention Pandora Boxx (37) and Victoria "Porkchop" Parker (39) preceded Raja.
• Inherently Funny Words: Lake Titicaca and Tuckahoe, especially in Season 4.
• Irony:
  • When Bob wins Season 8's Snatch Game and develops something of an ego, Derrick and Robbie are very vocal in wanting to see her stumble in the Wizard of Oz makeover challenge. However, it's them who land in the bottom two due to their very poor outfits (though Bob did place poorly).
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: A lot of the East Asian contestants invoke anime in their drag, despite not being Japanese. Ironically, the one ethnically-Japanese contestant, Gia Gunn, was more into Western glamour for her look. Lampshaded by Rock M. Sakura (who has Vietnamese and Filipino ancestry) in Season 12:
  Rock: Am I truly Japanese? Who knows. Is it cultural appropriation? We'll find out.
• It's All About Me: After Laganja Estranja gets a video from her parents in the Gold Bar, the other queens start talking about their own family situations. Laganja actually interrupts them to complain that they are intruding on her moment.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bianca Del Rio. Rude, brash, and snarky, with an acidic sense of humor, she nonetheless is always willing to help less experienced queens (even though their her direct competition) and often shows moments of true compassion, particularly when Trinity reveals that she's been living with HIV for the past year and a half. Bianca Del Rio isn't really that mean; she's just the drag queen version of Don Rickles.
  Bianca: [to Trinity] I think what you've done is an amazing thing, and if you ever need anything, call a hateful bitch like me. Even if it's for a laugh.
  • At first, season 12's Jaida Essence Hall seemed like a bit of a no-nonsense grump, but it quickly became apparent as we got further into the season that she very much cared for the other girls.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Phi Phi O'Hara, in one of her many rants against Willam, pointed out that Willam won the "Hope Floats" challenge for the exact same thing that got Milan eliminated: making her Pride float about herself rather than the LGBTQ community.
  • Bianca Del Rio is this trope personified. She reads everyone to filth, but she doesn't do it to hurt the other queens — it's just her strength (she's an insult comic) and everything she says is the truth.
  • Alyssa pointing out that the challenges seemed to favor queens with more comedic backgrounds versus pageant or glamour queens like herself.
• Joke and Receive: 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.
• Keet:
  • Manila Luzon. Dear God, Manila. Just watch her facial◊ expressions.◊ True, she's capable of being pretty composed, too, but most of the time...
  • Yara Sofia, which is quite a combination with her nearly unintelligible accent.
• Kick the Dog: Phi Phi O'Hara purposely tricking Jiggly into taking the wrong direction with her magazine, after the two had been established as good friends. Phi Phi doesn't help matters by gloating to Willam afterwards about how she's getting Jiggly eliminated.
• Large Ham / Camp: It's a show about drag queens!
  • In particular, RuPaul often takes particular relish in instructing the queens to "lip synch... for your LIFE," and in ordering "bring back... MY GIRLS." In the finale episodes from season 9 onward, Ru orders them to "lip synch... forrrrr theeeee crooooooown!!!"
  • Invoked in season 5 for the Telenovela challenge. Jinkx Monsoon is in the Confession Cam just relishing the opportunity to make big faces and overact her heart out, and she does not disappoint.
  • Cynthia Lee Fontaine deconstructed this. She's a big ham, but only in her own Cynthia schtick, which worked against her as much as it worked for her.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Many acting challenges are pastiches of famous films and TV series, with the original work and its characters being alluded to through puns but never openly named for copyright reasons. Subverted in Drag Race UK series 2 with "BeastEnders", where such considerations don't apply since EastEnders is produced by the BBC.
• Left It In: In the episode of All Stars 3 featuring an acting challenge based around the fictional comedy film "My Best Squirrelfriend's Dragsmaids Wedding Trip", one of the to-camera segments is a series of Hilarious Outtakes as Kennedy attempts to say something about the challenge but repeatedly stumbles over the title, before giving up and requesting that they not use that segment in the show.
• Leg Focus: Naomi Small's main selling point was her legs. To quote her entrance confessional, "she's got legs all the way up to her asshole."
• Letting the Air out of the Band: Happens in All Stars 7's Snatch Game when introducing the second wave of celebrities. RuPaul attempts to introduce Leslie Jordan (as played by Trinity the Tuck), only for the music to grind to a halt when Leslie is apparently too short to reach the podium.
  Trinity!Leslie: Can somebody get me a booster?
• Lifelines: In All Stars season 1, during a lipsync if a queen's partner was having a "Shemergency", she could hit the button, tag her partner, and finish the lipsync herself. The button could only be used once by any pair in the entire run of the show, however. (It was only used once, and the queens who used it were eliminated anyway.)
• Lighter and Softer:
  • Season 4, in comparison to Season 3. The latter devoted a lot of focus to the clique warfare between the "Heathers" and "boogers" whereas Season 4 does away with that and draws attention to issues faced by the drag and LGBTQ communities, such as bullying and the tough lives of the queens. Main challenges such as Hope Floats (for Pride Week) and Frock the Vote (done in conjunction with the It Gets Better Project) really hammer this home.
  • Zig-zagged with Untucked. Half of Untucked is the queens sharing heartwarming stories and forming "a sisterhood" with each other, while the other half is the screaming matches and fights that take place in almost every episode. One fight between Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara was so heated they fought through RuPaul's message to head to the Gold Bar. (It was edited to pretend that they even unknowingly missed out on an opportunity to meet Dita von Teese, who waited patiently as Muzak played in the background.)
  • Could be said of the show's effect on how drag is viewed in the public eye. Sharon Needles has said in an interview that although she still loves the program, in her opinion it has taken the art form of drag, which used to be mature and underground, and turned it into something more "PG-13".
  • The final three of Season 6 (Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, and Courtney Act) showed the very first time in six seasons that all three finalists seemed to be nice people who genuinely enjoyed each other's company. This is a stark contrast to the previous five seasons, where the final three almost always included The Scrappy of the season, the Designated Villain, and/or a bitter rivalry between the queens.
• Little People Are Surreal:
  • The killer in both versions of the fake horror movie from season 6 is a little person for no adequately explained reason, though it was apparently a reference to Lil' Poundcake from season 5.
  • Completely averted in Season 8 during the make-over challenge which featured the cast of Little Women: LA. Their situation is treated as nothing but sympathetic and serious, and is never used for a cheap laugh. Many of the queens spend the episode bonding with their partners and relating how being accepted due to one's size is very much like seeking acceptance for being gay, since both are something that are beyond a person's control.
• Living Prop: Literal example in that it's not unusual for the pit crew to be offered to the queens as props for a challenge.
• Loophole Abuse: The queens are not allowed to impersonate fictional characters in the Snatch Game, but they can impersonate the character's actress and base their performance on that one character. For instance, Stacy Lane Matthews played Monique but was essentially the mother from Precious, and BenDeLaCreme was Maggie Smith... as Countess Violet from Downton Abbey.
• Losing Your Head: The horror challenge in Season 6 included the role of a disembodied head. Darienne and Vivacious played the head for their respective teams and, showing how the same role can go in vastly different directions, Darienne won the challenge while Viv was eliminated.
• Lost in Translation: When the judges likened Yara Sofia's traditional Puerto Rican bomba dress to a "Snuggie" (a blanket with sleeves), she had no idea what they meant until it was explained to her later on in the lounge. It was only then she realized she should have been offended by their critique.
• Lucky Seven: Invoked with All Stars 7, which is the first season in the franchise exclusively featuring former winners.
• Manipulative Editing:
  • Despite Latrice Royale stating that it's not used as much as the queens would like to claim, it is said to happen (just like any reality show). For example, Season 5's Jinkx Monsoon/Roxxxy Andrews dynamic had Jinkx-the-bullied-odd-duck as the hero, and Roxxxy as the close-minded-bully villain. All of the queens involved — including Jinkx herself — have said that she wasn't the meek victim she was portrayed to be, and although Roxxxy did snap at Jinkx (and Alaska), she constantly apologized for it.
  • The commercial-break trailers do this all the damn time. Statements are taken out of context or paired with different reaction shots to, for instance, make a sarcastic or joking comment seem like a genuine, deliberate insult. One Untucked segment in season 4 even seemed tailor-made for this treatment, with clips showing Dida Ritz flying off the handle...when in reality, the queens were asked to imitate other queens, and Dida was imitating Phi Phi's infamous "Party City" line.
    • A particularly egregious example came in season 5 when Jinkx’s lighthearted statement that she had a crush on Ivy (which she even says in a talking head in the episode isn’t serious and just developed because the queens have to spend so much time around each other) was edited in the pre-commercial segment to look like a heartfelt, sincere love confession with tears.
  • RuPaul and Michelle have claimed that the editing is to help the queens look better.
  • Willam actually called out a rather erroneous use of this trope used at the Season 4 reunion/finale. During the "What did Willam do??!" segment he revealed the reason he got kicked off was because of a contract-breaking conjugal visit from his husband, which was followed by the camera cutting to a man in the audience, presumably Willam's partner. However, the whole excuse was a lie and Willam's husband actually refused to be any part of it, so the camera cut was actually to just some random old guy who Willam didn't even know.
  • Shangela's famous "sugar daddy" rant in Untucked season 3 is bleeped to sound a bit worse than it actually was. In the censored version she closes the rant with "you [bleep] bitch", but in the uncensored version there's no "fucking" or any other extra word—it's simply "you bitch".
• Mama Bear:
  • Raja. Even before appearing on the show she had a drag mother relationship with a couple of the other competitors, putting Delta in shows and helping Shangela to dress for the Season 2 reunion.
  • In season 4, Chad Michaels, who spends most of one Untucked episode alternately comforting Sharon Needles and reminding her teammates from the challenge that Jiggly Caliente's feelings should taken into consideration. Chad even stands up to a big, burly DILF and in the Untucked episode cautions, "you don't come for [attack] my people, not while I'm around."
  • We also have Latrice Royale, who takes on something of a drag mother role to Lashauwn Beyond, whom she knew from back home, and called Jiggly out in the interests of helping her grow as a person.
  • Bianca became this in season 6, especially to Adore and Trinity.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: In Season 1, the queens had to give glamorous makeovers to a group of tomboyish female martial artists who had never worn makeup or high heels in their lives. The gender dynamic was explored in full.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Manila Luzon, a Filipino queen, named herself after the Philippine capital, and the country's largest island, which it's set on.
  • Pandora Boxx's name is a pun on Classical Mythology, Delta Work got her name from Designing Women star Delta Burke, Nina Flowers' surname comes from her real surname out of drag (Jorge Flores), Victoria "Porkchop" Parker's name out of drag is Victor, and as Ongina put her name: "Well, my middle name is Ong, and God didn't bless me with a different kind of -gina."
  • Vivienne Pinay is a Filipino; Pinay is used colloquially to refer to a Filipino woman, though her pronunciation differs. Jade Jolie got her name by combining the name of the Mortal Kombat character and Angelina Jolie. Jinkx Monsoon's name comes from the fact that if "there's a one in a million chance of something bad happening it's going to happen to her" and Edie Monsoon from Absolutely Fabulous. Alyssa Edwards got her first name from Alyssa Milano.
  • Detox's full name is Detox Icunt. (Detoxicant/cunt.)
  • From Season 1, Akasha named herself after the title character from Queen of the Damned.
  • Jiggly Caliente's first name is after the Pokémon Jigglypuff.
• Mistaken for Racist: Invoked during the presidential debate challenge, Phi Phi O'Hara refers to DiDa Ritz and Latrice Royale (who are both black) jokingly as "The Help", and it appeared that DiDa and Latrice were offended. Phi Phi addressed this on social media and it turned out the two black queens both laughed at her joke, and their "dour" faces were just neutral expressions from other parts of the segment.
• Mood Whiplash: A major one in season 10. When the judges point out to Miss Blair St. Claire that her dainty and cutesy outfits are becoming somewhat one-note, she reveals she's obsessed with surrounding herself with pretty things because she feels dirty after being raped at a college party.
  • Another one in Season 12, where we go from Jackie giving an emotional speech to Jeff Goldblum in response to his question about what it means to be both queer and Middle Eastern and the importance of her runway look, to the same guest judge asking Gigi about their tuck and how it is maintained. While emotional followed by jokey moments aren't new, in such a politically heavy episode it can be quite jarring.
  • Drag Race Thailand Season 2, Episode 10: Pangina is about to announce who from the bottom 3 queens will be safe and who will have to lipsync, while tense music plays. Srimala, one of said bottom 3 and who was dressed a Sailor Moon-esque character, clutches her toy wand in anxiety, but she accidentally presses a button and the wand starts playing a twinkly version of "Let It Go". Cue everyone in the room losing it.
    Pangina: (laughing) We are not filming a sitcom, bitch!
• Moose and Maple Syrup: Canada's Drag Race, which premiered in July 2020, and wasted little time in playing up Canadian cultural references. The Werk Room doorway has a giant maple leaf around it. One of the queens even walked the runway while eating cheese curds. There was even a Céline Dion-themed runway.
• Morton's Fork: the makeover challenge can be this. Queens have received negative criticism both for not putting enough effort into their partner, making the partner look substandard on the runway, and for allowing their partner to outshine them.
• Motor Mouth: Of course, a lot of drag queens in general get pretty animated and chatty when they kiki together; by and large that's just how queens roll. Especially notable examples of this are:
  • Season 8's Cynthia Lee Fontaine, an incredibly silly Puerto Rican queen who talks a mile a minute. Often, it's about her surgically enhanced butt, aka the "Cucu."
  • Eureka being on the loud and opinionated end of this trope got her in lots of trouble during her time on the show, especially where it concerned The Vixen.
  • Kandy Muse from season 13. She can not turn that mouth off, talking incredibly fast with other queens and in confessionals to the point that she's sometimes hard to understand.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • The final four of season 5 is described as "Rolaskatox... and Jinkx."
  • RuPaul's All Stars Drag Race featured various fan favorites and top four contenders from the first four seasons of Drag Race... and Mimi Imfurst, who was top 11th in her season.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Many of the "evil" queens after seeing themselves on TV for the first time (Roxxxy Andrews went as far as to apologize to Jinkx and her fans on Facebook after "Sugar Ball" aired). This is true for many reality show "villains," unless they were purposely playing it up, since seeing yourself the same way others see you can be a bit of an eye-opener.
• My Greatest Failure: One of the gay sailors in the "Super Troopers" episode claims that he introduced Judy Garland to the sleeping pills that would eventually kill her. Ru is completely speechless. #ikilledjudygarland
• My Greatest Second Chance: Essentially the point of the All Stars season, but averted for everyone except the eventual winner.
  • Alyssa Edwards from season 5 also describes being on the show as this, to prove that she still has it after the as-of-yet-unspecified incident that dethroned her as Ms. Gay America. In the end she gets eliminated in a lipsync with Coco, the very person who "took" the crown in the first place, though Coco winds up only lasting one further week before she herself is eliminated.
  • Played straight with Shangela. She was the first queen eliminated in Season 2, but came back for Season 3 where she won two challenges and finished at a respectable sixth place.
  • In Season 7, the eliminated queens are given a chance to redeem themselves by teaming up with the remaining queens and win a chance to rejoin the competition. Trixie Mattel teams up with Pearl and wins, allowing her to rejoin the competition.
  • All Stars 2 featured "redemption" and "second chances" as a theme in all of its casting decisions. Each of the 10 returning queens were there because they had something to prove to the world:
    • Phi Phi and Roxxxy were there to prove they weren't the bitches they had been made out to be on their original seasons.
    • Coco and Alyssa were there to prove that they had moved past their infamous rivalry, and to prove that they had grown on their own as queens outside of the feud.
    • Alaska and Detox were both there to prove they had what it took to win the show, after Alaska had finished as a very close first runner-up on her original season and Detox had been eliminated just before Final 3.
    • Ginger was there to defend Season 7, which is often viewed as not being on the same level of quality as some of the other seasons.
    • Adore was there to prove she had grown from the amateur queen she was seen as during her original season, as well as to defend the merits of her "grunge/unpolished" style of drag.
    • Katya was there to prove that she was no longer holding back as a performer like she had during her original season.
    • Tatianna was there to defend the merits of Season 2 and the other "old" seasons of Drag Race, proving that they still had their place in the modern drag scene.
  • All Stars 6 was also notable for featuring a running theme of redemption among most of the contestants, even though it wasn't as prominently discussed as four seasons earlier:
    • Kylie Sonique Love had transitioned and wanted to reintroduce herself to the modern fan after her underwhelming season 2 run. Bonus: she came back from being the first queen eliminated after a Snatch Game, and came this close to winning it this time around.
    • Ginger Minj wanted to redeem her blink-and-you'll-miss-it All Stars 2 run.
    • Ra'Jah O'Hara was especially abrasive during her season 11 run and wanted to Take A Level In Kindness for this season.
    • Jan got hers mid-season by winning a musical challenge, after she narrowly missed winning a musical on her original season.
    • Trinity K Bonet redeemed multiple challenges that she bombed on her original season, and a couple times she won them.
    • Defied by Silky Nutmeg Ganache, who began the season by telling the audience she still loves everything she did on her original season - and then played straight when she redeems her messy lipsyncs in season 11 during the Lip Sync Smackdown, where she decisively wins several lipsyncs in a row.

N -R

• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers between episodes have a tendency to show upcoming footage in such a way that either confuses or outright lies about what actually happens in the episode. In one notorious example, a "coming up next" segment from Season 5 shows Jinkx Monsoon admitting she has a crush on Ivy Winters followed by Ivy telling her boyfriend she loves him over a phone call, making it seem like Ivy was confessing love to Jinkx.
  • This trope was invoked with the Season 14 "Super Tease" challenge, where the contestants had to make ridiculously exagerrated trailers for the season, including fake confessionals, fake Untucked fights, and even fake challenges. Ironically, several of these moments made it into the actual trailers for the season as if they actually happened!
• No-Damage Run:
  • It's certainly a feather in the cap for a queen to get to the winner's circle with no bottom placements, and quite often, queens who do that, like Tyra Sanchez, Bianca Del Rio, Violet Chachki and Sasha Velour, go on to win... but it's not a guarantee, as they still have to win a lipsync at the end. In UK Series 3, both Kitty Scott-Claus and Ella Vaday got to the end with no bottom placements, a rarity for the franchise. They both lost, to young prodigy Krystal Versace.
  • Averted in season 14 - a disastrous Snatch Game gave a bottom placement to almost the entire cast, ensuring that no one would get to the finale without one.
• Non-Gameplay Elimination:
  • Happened most infamously with Willam during Season 4, who was ejected from the game for rule-breaking. No reason was given for her elimination at the time other than "She broke the rules," leading to the "What happened to Willam?" controversy that wasn't answered until the Season 4 finale. However, several queens later said that the reason given for Willam's disqualification on the show (conjugal visits with her husband) was not the actual reason she was kicked off. Several years later it turned out Willam invented that story because she wanted to leave the show, not getting along with the producers and feeling the show had done all it could for her career.
  • Adore ended up voluntarily leaving the show during the second episode of All Stars 2 after receiving extremely harsh critiques during the first episode and realizing she wasn't in the right place mentally to be on the show.
  • During Season 9, Eureka was asked to leave the competition for medical reasons due to a knee injury she had sustained a few episodes prior. This ended up being a happier example than the usual Non-Gameplay Elimination, though, as Eureka was given an open invitation from Ru to return and compete in Season 10 if she wished to (which she took up and made it to the Top 4).
  • All Stars 3 had BenDeLaCreme choosing to eliminate herself halfway through by blacking out a name on the elimination lipstick tube and writing her own name in. She felt that the other girls in the competition had more to gain from winning than she did.
  • Just as Season 12 started airing, several men came out and revealed that Sherry Pie had catfished them, posing as a New York casting director to get them to perform sexual acts on camera. Once this came to light, World of Wonder officially pronounced Sherry disqualified from the competition: she wasn't invited to the finale filmed later that spring, her challenge winnings were donated to the Trevor Project, and she was edited out of the show as much as possible.
  • In UK Series 2, Veronica Green left the competition after she caught COVID-19 during the series' production pause. Like Eureka above, she was compensated by being given an open invitation to return for Series 3.
  • Also in UK series 2, Ginny Lemon was the first queen ever to quit by simply walking away from the lipsync once it started. When Veronica Green was unable to return after lockdown and the eliminated competitors were given a chance to fill her spot, Ginny was expressly not included.
  • In UK Series 3, Victoria Scone injures her knee during a lip sync in episode 1, and has to withdraw from the competition two episodes later. Unlike the other medical eliminations, Victoria is not explicitly invited to return for the next season, although Ru states "I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of her." Ru wasn't kidding — Victoria later showed up on next year's Canada Vs The World.
  • Similarly, Kornbread injures her ankle during the fourth episode of Season 14 and has withdrawn from the competition by the start of the next episode, leaving a video message to explain to the other girls what happened.
  • Baby spends UK Series 4 gradually getting more in her own head, and visibly struggling emotionally with the rigors of competition. Before Ru declares the winner of a lip-sync between Baby and Dakota Schiffer, Baby chimes in and decides to forfeit, needing to take care of herself more than she needs to be competing. It says a lot that Ru, who insists on seeing a fire in all his contestants, immediately understands.
  • Canada Vs The World had a rarity in that a former season winner, Icesis Couture (from Canada's Drag Race season 2), returned to compete one more time with contestants from around the world. By episode 4, however, Icesis finds herself exhausted and struggling mentally, and with the blessing of the other contestants, she quits the competition right in the middle of the episode.
  • Heidi N Closet spends several episodes of All Stars 8 dropping hints to the other queens that she isn't enjoying the experience and might drop out. She makes good on that promise in Episode 5, when she walks off set following an argument with Kahana and Kandy. Kahana almost quits a few episodes later, but decides to stay after Ru gives a pep talk telling everyone not to let their emotions get the best of them.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: When Aiden Zhane impersonates the British Patricia Quinn for Snatch Game, she forgets to use a British accent and ends up sticking with her American accent for the entire thing. Michelle immediately clocks her on this during the judging.
• Not So Above It All: Ru is a friendly and playful host, but also exudes a constant air of professionalism — until season 10, where she starts giggling uncontrollably every time she's reminded of Vanessa Vanjie Mateo's famous exit. Michelle Visage takes particular delight in breaking her.
• N-Word Privileges:
  • The term "she-male" is often considered offensive, but punnishly reclaimed to introduce the first segment: "Girl, you got She Mail!" This was phased out in season 6.
  • In Season 3, the other queens question Manila Luzon's N-Word Privileges in regards to some of her Asian stereotype schtick.
  • Later that episode, Stacy dresses as Mo'Nique's character from Precious. While Stacy is black, she is very light-skinned (and only brings up her Native American heritage in a later episode), so she decided to dress in borderline blackface. This went unmentioned by the other queens.
  • In season 4, we end up with a discussion of the line between racially charged, off-color humor and offensiveness when, acting as a Sarah Palin-esque character in the "Frock the Vote" challenge, Phi Phi O'Hara refers to Latrice Royale and DiDa Ritz as "the help".
  • Another example of something going unquestioned: in the runway presentation for season three's "America" challenge, Raja comes to the stage in an outfit inspired by Cher and Janis Joplin, which features a Native American war bonnet. While Raja is a PoC, she's Indonesian, not Native American, and while some commenters in the fandom have commented on this and whether or not it went over the good taste line with regards to cultural appropriation, the judges and other competitors did not. She actually received high praise for the outfit. Raja generally enjoys imitating other cultures in her drag.
  • Sharon Needles (white) skirts the same line in a season four mini-challenge, when she designs a pair of shoes (inspired by an Absolut Berri Sour cocktail), and claims that she wanted to represent "the plight of American Indians." It doesn't win the mini-challenge, but also attracts no comments. In real life outside the competition her tendency towards this has caused some backlash.
  • A term that is thrown around quite a bit is the term "tranny" — a slur aimed at both trans* people and drag queens that was used quite often and casually on the show.
  • Happened again in season 6 with the use of the term "shemale" in the "female or shemale" mini challenge, where the racers had to guess if the extreme close up on screen was a cis woman or a famous drag queen. "Shemale" has also been used on the show playfully in the "You've got She-Mail" intro to mini challenges, and in the wake of this the show and LOGO have announced that they will avoid using that term in the future, removed the episode featuring that challenge and replace the "You've Got She-Mail" challenge intro soundbite.
• Obvious Rule Patch:
  • Starting with Season 7, every season has had a challenge involving a large group lip sync performance. This was done to help out queens like Coco and Trinity K. Benet, whose main strength was their lip syncing abilities and struggled to win challenges on the show since the only time queens lip sync is when they're up for elimination.
  • The final challenge of Season 11 (writing, recording and performing a verse to RuPaul's song) had Vanjie and Brooke in the bottom two (when in previous seasons no one was eliminated, the top four or five all lipsynced together, or the weakest queen was simply eliminated without a lipsync) but no winner was declared, even when many people thought Yvie was the best performer of the week. In Season 12 the final challenge gets upgraded to a "regular" challenge, with a clear winner and a bottom two lipsyncing.
  • All-Stars 6 brings back the "queens impersonate historical figures/singers in a lip-sync extravaganza" challenge previously seen in All-Stars 2 and 3. Both preceding times were the source of controversy, as roles were assigned by production and many viewers felt that some queens were deliberately set for success or failure depending on the role they were given (i.e. Shangela's Mariah Carey and Thorgy's Stevie Nicks, respectively, in All-Stars 3). This time, queens themselves got to choose the person to portray to even the playing field.
• Official Couple: Drag queens rarely date each other, but there have been a few such couples within the show: Sharon Needles & Alaska, and Manila Luzon & Sahara Davenport before her death. Pandora Boxx and Darienne Lake dated long before the show. Season 11 featured the first onscreen romance between Vanessa Vanjie Mateo and Brooke Lynn Hytes; however, they broke up at some point between the shooting of the last episode and the reunion.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The guaranteed reaction whenever Ru appears in the workroom halfway through a challenge and announces "a little twist."
  • Willam when Ru reveals that the mini challenge that week would be a lie detector test, since she was supposedly getting visits from her husband behind the producers' backs. The test wasn't about that (it was about pairing the queens off based on who was the least compatible).
  • An epic one from Alaska after seeing how terribly her chosen Marine walks in heels.
    • And a moderate one from Jaida while watching her superfan partner try to do the same.
  • The heavier queens in Season 3 when Ru announced that the mini challenge one week was nude photos.
  • Bianca decides to play Judge Judy for the Snatch Game challenge, then has this reaction upon learning that Judge Judy is RuPaul's favorite TV show.
• Old Maid: Pretty much the opinion of any queen over the age of Gasp! 35 is that they are a relic of the drag community, and may even be treated with joking to casual disdain from the younger queens in the competition.
  • Raja and Bianca Del Rio are perfect examples of this, both of them were only 37 during their respective seasons, but were often the butt of jokes that would make a viewer guess they were well over 50 instead. Interestingly, Bianca wasn't even the second oldest in her season (Vivacious and Darienne were both older than her) but she had the most authentic "grumpy old lady" attitude.
    Manila Luzon: [regarding Raja] I'm first runner-up, so if Raja dies of old age then maybe I'll get the crown.
    Adore Delano: [regarding Bianca Del Rio] She's everything I want to be when I'm 57. [Beat] Oh my god she's going to kill me!
    Bianca Del Rio: [to Darienne Lake] For the record, I get called the old one. But you? Oooooold. (Darienne is 41.)
  • Gia Gunn basically called BenDeLaCreme old to her face during the introductions. (Ben is 31 while Gia is 23, so the age difference isn't that much, but Gia was very shallow and judged her competitors on their appearance alone.)
    Gia Gunn: I feel like you must be the motherly figure.
    BenDeLaCreme: [offended] Motherly... you called me old, alright.
  • Kandy Ho flat out asked Tempest DuJour her age and then made disdainful comments about her style. Tempest is naturally offended.
    Kandy Ho: So... how old are you?
    Tempest DuJour: How old am I? Really. [Confession Cam] Who the hell does that? Who in the first meeting says "how old are you"!? You don't stop dreaming at a certain age.
• Once a Season: Several things are RPDR traditions.
  • The first episode of every season features a photo-shoot challenge. Themes so far have been: wet and sexy poses with the Pit Crew, on the hood of a car; a Gone with the Wind-inspired shoot (featuring a large fan, a dramatic piece of fabric, a cannon between the competitors' legs, and the Pit Crew); a Christmas card photo (taken on a wintry backdrop, while the competitors bounce on a trampoline, are bombarded with fake snow, and/or play with a gag candy cane); "Apocalyptic couture" (taken while getting spun around and covered in neon-colored paint); "Hollywood Splash" (posing gracefully while submerged in a glass tank full of water); Season 6 had half the queens experience a drop shot (photographing the queens as they dive from a ledge into a padded pit), while the other half have a sexy pillow fight action-shot with the Pit Crew; a group photo with previous winners for Season 8; Season 11 had every queen paired with a different Drag Race alumna; in the first UK Season the queens posed with their "severed" head; and in the first Canadian season the queens scaled a replica mountain and posed with a flag before getting hit with the industrial fan.
    • Oddly enough, Seasons 7, 9 and 12 did not do this. They instead had two runways (Seasons 7 and 12 had three, actually, with a spring fashion and fall fashion runway for the mini-challenge along with the main runway; 9 had two main runways, hometown and Lady Gaga).
    • Neither did Season 10, which had the queens dance and strike poses on a large, X-shaped stage (X being the Roman numeral for 10) surrounded by past contestants.
  • The first episode also involves making a new, original drag outfit out of whatever random things RuPaul can throw at her queens. The materials they had to work with were: assorted thrift store clothes and accessories (Seasons 1 and 10); curtains (Season 2); Christmas-themed (Season 3); apocalyptic themed (Season 4); random garbage (Season 5); and a nude illusion (Season 7). Season 6 had each queen work with materials themed to a specific TV series (for the first half of the premiere) or party style (for the second half); in Season 8 each of them had to replicate a design challenge from a previous season; in Season 11 each one was assigned materials inspired by a past contestant; and Canada season 1 had each contestant assigned materials with Canadian themes (with punny drag names).^note Examples: Yukon Gold Digger, Man of Green Gables, Calgary Glampede, Quebefroid, Muskokurrrr
    • Again, Seasons 9, 12 and UK 1 did not do this at all, with two pageant-like runways for 9 and UK 1 and two group performances for the two Season 12 premieres.
  • There will always be some kind of acting-related challenge. So far, the list has included: scripted challenges often parodying other films or TV series; shooting commercials for different products; fake trailers for films or TV series; newscasts and talk show improv; a ballet about RuPaul's life; parodies of Shakespeare, John Waters or Ru herself; presidential debates; and lipsyncing to previous seasons' Untucked dramas.
  • There will always be some group challenge, or several, especially towards the beginning of the season when the number of competitors is still high.
  • From season two forward: THE SNATCH GAME (the queens impersonate celebrities on a Match Game-style game show); and the "throwing shade" mini-challenge (The library is OPEN!).
  • From season two forward: some kind of music and/or live performance-related challenge. Season two had the queens dress as rockstars to sing RuPaul's song "Ladyboy" to a live audience; season three had the queens perform stand-up comedy routines in one episode, then record different versions of RuPaul's song "Superstar" and lipsynch their versions; season four's "frenemies" challenge involved the queens singing, "Better Than You," and putting together a live nightclub act; season five had the queens write and sing a charity single then roast RuPaul; season six had a live-sung musical and a stand up comedy routine; season seven had the queens present and receive at a fake awards show; season eight had them write and perform live a new wave song; season nine had another roast (this time dedicated to Michelle Visage); season ten had them host a Drag Con panel and another musical; season eleven had a magic show; season twelve had a group number in the two premieres, a musical and a stand-up show.
    • Starting from All Stars 2, in the first episode the queens showcase their abilities in a talent show. All Stars 2 also had a stand up challenge in pairs, and All Stars 4 had the roast of Lady Bunny (under the pretense of it being her funerary eulogy).
  • An episode where someone who isn't a drag queen gets made over to be the queens' drag sister/mother/daughter/other relation.
    • Season one: cis female fighters
    • Season two: older gay men who didn't do drag
    • Season three: "Jocks In Frocks": heterosexual male jocks
    • Season four: "DILFs (Dads I'd Like To Frock)": macho heterosexual fathers
    • Season five: "Super Troopers": gay military vets
    • Season six: bridegrooms into drag brides (and the queens themselves as the mothers of the brides) while the real brides were given tuxedos; Ru herself presided over the subsequent mass wedding.
    • Season seven: eliminated queens from earlier in the season, for a "conjoined twins" look
    • Season eight: the cast of Little Women Of LA, with looks inspired by The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    • Season nine: members of the show's crew
    • Season ten: social media stars
    • Season eleven: eliminated queens (though, unlike season seven, the eliminated queen in the winning pair did not return in the competition)
    • Season twelve: female superfans of the show
    • Season thirteen: due to Covid restrictions, the top eight were paired with each other and had to make over their partner in their own signature drag style.
    • All Stars 2 and UK 1: queens' relatives
    • All Stars 4: "Best Judies": queens' best friends/significant others
    • Canada 1: gay refugees granted asylum in Canada through the efforts of the Rainbow Railroad charity
  • The "Halfway Curse". Halfway through each season, Ru will announce that winning a challenge will no longer grant immunity from elimination the following week. Once this announcement is made, there will come a time where a queen who won the previous challenge will be sent home the next week.
    • This changed from Season 6 onwards, though, when Ru announced in the premiere that there would be no immunity at all granted to challenge winners. See Wham Line below.
  • This trope is subverted slightly in the case of the Balls. They're irregular but they often happen nearing the final four or five of the competition, where the queens are assigned to do three themed runways (two in Season 7). Since Season 10, these balls have been occurring earlier in the season.
  • Everybody Loves Puppets: From Season 4 to 9, the top 4/5 queens had to imitate a fellow competitor using a hand puppet for a mini challenge, including putting it in drag. It was absent in seasons 10 and 11, but brought back in 12 and featured in both UK 1 and Canada 1.
  • The finale of every season features the top three competitors performing in some new RuPaul music video, one gets eliminated based on that challenge, and then the top two lipsynch against each other for the crown. Usually, at the beginning of these episodes it's Michelle Visage, not Ru, who enters the workroom and introduces the challenge.
    • This was changed from Season 4 onward due to previous winners being leaked. Instead, Ru will make all three finalists lipsynch for their lives, then lets viewers weigh in before making her decision in an episode filmed shortly before its airdate. Since the rest of the season is filmed in late summer/early fall, this means the queens have to wait months before knowing who won.
    • Changed again starting from All Stars 2/Season 9. Each queen in the top 4/5 writes and records a verse for a new RuPaul song, then performs it live with full choreography. In regular seasons, the top 4 then proceeds to the finale where they have to lip-sync for the crown in a tournament bracket fashion. This format was not used in season 12 due to Covid and the post-season Non-Gameplay Elimination of Sherry Pie, but reinstated for season 13.
• Once per Episode: During Season 5, Alyssa Edwards's and Coco Montrese's falling out over the Miss Gay America Pageant had to be given the spotlight at least once per episode, usually more during any challenge where the two were forced to work together. The only exception in this is the episode for the final challenge, and that's only because it had been a whole episode since the last of the pair had been eliminated.
  • Consider "Miss Vanjie" to be said at least once every episode in Season 10.
• One Judge to Rule Them All: Although RuPaul takes into consideration all of the critiques of her judges, and of the Drag Race fans during the final elimination, she has said several times over that every decision on the show is hers and hers alone.
• One-Steve Limit: Semi-averted when Season 7 gives us two queens partly named after Beyoncé's alter-ego Sasha Fierce: Sasha Belle and Jaidynn Dior Fierce.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: The queens are only ever referred to regularly by their drag personas, in and out of drag. This does make sense, however, since they are considered to always be "on" during the competition and to be prepared for anything.
  • Averted during an emotional moment on Untucked, when Latrice Royale senses she's not getting through to Jiggly Caliente, so asks for her "boy name" and refers to her by it for the rest of the conversation.
• Only One Name: About half the queens. Some of those do have full names outside the show, but had them cut due to containing naughty words (Alaska Thunderfuck, Detox Icunt), while Shangela seems to have cut it down since her first name has more zing than the rest.
• Opinion Myopia: Michelle Visage hates green and will read a queen to filth for wearing it. According to Raja, this is because Michelle doesn't like green on herself and so considers it an ugly colour on everyone.
• Overly Long Scream: Sasha Velour, in season 9, introduced herself to the world by walking into the Werk Room and screaming at the top of her lungs for a full ten seconds. Sasha Velour, it should be noted, is one of the most soft-spoken queens to ever compete on the show.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Jinkx Monsoon from season 5 describes herself as "Seattle's premiere narcoleptic Jewish drag queen."
• Pandering to the Base: In-Universe, it's suggested that Coco may be trying to do this by naming her fragrance "RuAnimal" in an attempt to appeal to Ru. It is not well received.
• Parental Abandonment: Roxxxy Andrews tearfully recounts how her birth mother left her and her sister at a bus stop when she was 3 years old during an Untucked episode. Later while on the main stage after the lipsync she breaks down and is reassured by Ru and the other queens that they are her family now.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: It is a reality show about drag queens.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Pearl in season 7 gave us "flazé-da", presumably an unintentional Portmanteau of "blasé", "laissez-faire", and "la-de-da". Nonetheless, people seemed to understand what she meant.
• Perky Goth: Sharon Needles.
• Perma-Stubble: Some queens have a harder time keeping their five o'clock shadows in check than others. *Cough*Roxxxy Andrews*cough*
  • Willam got read on this constantly in season 4, although this may only be an invoked example since it was just the shading of his make-up that made his cheeks and chin look unusually dark, giving the illusion of stubble.
  • Jackie Cox got read for this in season 12 and fixed it quickly.
• Phrase Catcher:
  • Quite a few times Ru has introduced Santino Rice with or with some variation of: "shake the dice and steal the rice, it's Santino!"
  • Ru has a few for some of the queens as well: "Jiggly Caliente. May I call you Jiggly?", "Iveeeeeeee Winterrrrrrrs", and "Bob the Drag Queen, not to be confused with Bob the [random occupation]."
  • Ru also loves geography-based catchphrases when introducing queens: "Bebe Zahara Benet. Camerooooooon!", "Paris... London... Milan", "Alaska, the 49th state", as a Call-Back to Milan, we get "LaGuardia... Newark... Kennedy" (the three major airports in the New York City area), and "Syracuse... Schenectady... Utica" (cities in Upstate New York).
  • Ru continues the tradition in Season 9 with Nina Bo'nina Brown, always giving her additional last names, such as "Nina Bo'nina Brown Kennedy Onassis" or "Nina Bo'nina Brown Rodham Clinton". She is eliminated and called Nina Bo'nina Brown André Charles.
  • In season 10 there's "I do declare, Blair St. Clair!"
  • For the pit crew there's "Oh Pit Crew!" and, in Season 6, "Oh Scruff Pit Crew!"^note Cue the queens barking at the scantily clad men
• Picked Last: A frequent part of challenges where the queens pick their teammates. See All of the Other Reindeer above.
  • One example in particular is Violet Chachki of Season Seven, who is such an arrogant bitch that she gets picked last twice. This is before she (at least somewhat) Took a Level in Kindness.
• Pimped-Out Dress: This is a show about drag queens, it's a guarantee there will be at least one in each episode.
• Playing a Tree:
  • In season 2 Raven gets assigned the role of a chicken in the commercial the queens have to put together and is not happy about it. She gets critiqued for half-assing the performance, especially compared to Jessica Wild, the chicken on the other team, who produced a stand out performance despite her difficulty with English.
  • During the Draggle Rock challenge, Coco Montrese was assigned the role of a ventriloquist dummy, much to her chagrin. Afterwards, the judges point out that by playing the dummy she had (and missed) a great opportunity to steal the show.
  • In Season 13 Kahmora Hall gets eliminated after literally playing a tree.
• Pointand Laugh Show: The Bossy Rossy Show from season 10 is a parody of one with such segments including "Save Me From My Deadly Fear of Pickles", ""My Freaky Addiction Is Ruining My Life!", "I Married A Cactus.", "Why Are You So Obsessed With Me?", & "Look at Me! I'm A Sexy Baby!"
  • It returned in season 13 under the label “After Dark” with segments like “Pregnant with my imaginary boyfriend’s baby”, “ my escape from the church of mimeology”, “former teen idol attempts comeback”, and “my 600 pound ass”
• Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Ross Matthews once criticized Vanessa Vanjie Mateo on her acting by saying she's hardly Meryl Streep up there. Vanjie, completely serious, replied "Who 'dat?"
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Happened in-universe during the first ''All Stars" when the queens were paired into teams: "Team Shad" for Chad Michaels and Shannel, "Brown Flowers" for Nina Flowers and Tammy Brown, "Yarlexis" for Yara Sofia and Alexis Matteo, "Latrila" for Latrice Royale and Manila Luzon, and "Mandora" for Mimi Imfurst and Pandora Boxx.
  • Real life couple Sharon Needles and Alaska were often referred to as "Shalaska", or the longer version "Shalaska ThunderNeedles"^note The "Thunder" part referring to Alaska's full drag name, Alaska Thunderfuck.
  • In Season 5, "Rolaskatox" for the trio of Roxxxy Andrews, Alaska, and Detox.
  • During Season 6 fandom came up with "Biadore" for the ship involving Bianca and Adore. The eventual top 4 was also sometimes referred to as "the ABCD of drag": Adore, Bianca, Courtney and Darienne.
  • Season 8 gave us "Kim Chi Chi" for Kim Chi and Chi Chi DeVayne, who develop something of an Odd Friendship during the season.
  • Season 9: "SaShea" (appropriately enough, pronounced like "sashay") for Sasha Velour and Shea Coulee.
  • Season 11: The queens themselves gave the name "Branjie" to the Romance on the Set between Brooke Lynn Hytes and Vanessa Vanjie Mateo.
  • Season 12: Fans coined the name "Crygi" for the ambiguous relationship between Crystal Methyd and Gigi Goode.
  • Season 13: "Rosénali" for the platonic coupling of Rosé and Denali, coined by fans but acknowledged by the two queens.
• Power Hair: Whenever there's an "executive" runway challenge, most queens will whip out their short wigs.
• Precious Puppy: Invoked during The Fabulous Bitch Ball by Filan the Chinese crested dog and Babyface the Pomeranian, who succeed quite well at melting the hearts of Chad Michaels and Latrice Royale.
• Pro Wrestling Episode: The "Wrestling's Trashiest Fighters" challenge from season 4, where the queens were given wrestling training, and put on three tag-team matches. This challenge was only done once, which is probably for the best - Willam revealed years later on the Race Chaser podcast that herself and some of the other queens suffered real injuries from this challenge. In addition it featured Joey Ryan, who was revealed years later to be a serial sexual predator.
• Product Placement:
  • Anyone thirsty for some Absolut vodka?
  • Ru Paul's "Champion", now on iTunes!
  • "...that's boobsforqueens.com."
  • Was lampshaded in s4, as RuPaul would regularly smile and wink at the camera after a moment of product placement. Part of the show's delightful campiness.
  • As of season 6, the social network Scruff had the genius idea to sponsor the pit crew's underwear.
  • In Season 6, an entire challenge centered on the queens producing commercials for RuPaul's new line of "Glamazon" cosmetics.
  • The pit crew wear Andrew Christian briefs, the only clothing they wear on the show. Some have even modeled for him outside the show.
  • In Season 7 the pit crew are sponsored by Justin Case Underwear, the site even has 'RuPaul Exclusives' called "RuPairs".
• Pronoun Trouble: Occasionally crops up, though most of competitors and judges refer to themselves and each other as "she" in costume and "he" he out of it, which is considered standard drag etiquette. One refers to someone as the gender being presented unless told otherwise by that person.
  • Averted with Ru herself. "Call me he, call me she, just call me!"
  • Also averted with Willam, whose stance is "IDGAF", but who never uses feminine pronouns for himself even when in drag.
  • Jerick (Jinkx) is nonbinary and goes by they/their/them in daily life.
  • Sasha Velour is genderfluid and uses she/her or they/them pronouns.
  • Lampshaded by Gottmik, who is a trans man in her regular life. She expressed discomfort with people tiptoeing around accidentally misgendering her by completely avoiding female pronouns, thereby actually treating her different from her cis male competitors, whose drag personas are consistently referred to as she/her in the show's context.
• Proud to Be a Geek:
  • Jade Jolie in the fifth season. She's a proud video gamer and is even named after the Mortal Kombat character. She also has a shirt of the Pink Power Ranger and at one point wears a hat of Jake from Adventure Time.
  • Jiggly Caliente is also prominently wearing an Avengers shirt at one point, and took her name from the Pokémon Jigglypuff.
  • Alyssa Edwards, of all people, is seen wearing a Legend of Zelda shirt.
• Pungeon Master:
  • RuPaul herself, Once an Episode, usually when calling out the girls or telling them they get to stay. Examples include: "You made a meal out of this challenge, but it left a bad taste in some of the judges' mouths"; "You were pretty in P!nk, but your performance left us blue"; "Raven, you may live to fly another day." And it only gets a lot worse.
  • In season four's "Dragazines" challenge, Sharon Needles tries to take the cake, filling her Cat Fancy-esque magazine's cover with all kinds of pussy-related puns. When this is pointed out on the runway, she replies with, "Well, I don't know… I'm talking about cats! You're a pervert!"
• Punny Name:
  • Mimi Imfurst, Pandora Boxx, Sharon Needles, Penny Tration, etc.
  • Also seen in some of the names given to the non-drag queens the competitors make over. Raven's and Pandora's drag mothers are Golda Lamé and Litter Boxx, respectively; and Sharon Needles rechristens her DILF, "Robin Mansions."
  • RuPaul's Drag U includes such gems as Candy Graham, Paya La Renta, and Sarah Tonin.
  • Most of the gay military veterans in Season 5's makeover challenge had names to match their drag mothers. Detox's partner was "Beth Adone," a pun on Methadone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction; Coco's was Horchata, a Latin grain-based beverage; Jinkx's was Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck; and Alaska's was Nebraska, and since Ru would introduce Alaska as "the 49th state," she appropriately added "...and Nebraska, the 37th state."
  • Courtney Act. She's originally from Australia where her name is a pun on "Caught in the act," but this is lost on American tongues. Whenever Ru and the other queens announce Courtney for something, they say her name with the accent, so that the pun is always present.
• Questionable Casting: The other queens' in-universe reaction to team captain Adore's casting choices in Season 6's Scream Queens challenge, such as casting April as a Butch Lesbian despite not being the least bit butch, or not casting Vivacious as the mother even though she was the oldest one in the group. Oddly enough, this lands them in the bottom two instead of Adore.
• "Rashomon"-Style: “Ru Hollywood Story” from season 7. The queens re-enact how Merle Ginsburg left the show following the 2nd season from the perspective of Merle (which portrays Michele an evil usurper), Michele (which portrays Merle as attempting to eliminate Ru and have the show to herself), and Ru (which portrays both Merle and Michele as indistinguishable crazy women).
• Race Lift: Debated in the Season 9 Kardashian musical challenge. Nina Bo'Nina Brown raises a fuss when she's assigned to play Khloe Kardashian, because she wanted to be Blac Chyna instead (whose role went to Shea Coulee), and as a result she puts zero effort into the challenge. Fellow black queen Peppermint was tasked to play Britney Spears, but she didn't complain nearly as much and told Nina to grow up and deal with it.
  Peppermint: Girl. There are 3 black queens but only one Blac Chyna. Somebody's gonna play a white bitch.^note Adding insult to injury, Shea ended up winning the challenge as Blac Chyna after stealing the show in her one scene.
• Real Men Wear Pink:
  • It's been said in the show outright that it takes a real man (with some really big balls) to dress up in women's clothing and be a drag queen.
  • This is also arguably the whole point of the Once a Season challenge of making a man (some straight, some gay, almost all of them very manly) who has never done drag before into a queen. In fact, these episodes are the ones where the above comment is uttered most often, mainly from the mouth of the jocks/military men/dads.
• Real Women Never Wear Dresses
  • Averted in the challenge where the contestants had to give makeovers to some very tough women. Even though some of them had trouble even walking a few steps in heels, all of them seemed happy with the change and enjoyed feeling pretty, then again, they did volunteer for the makeover.
  • Turned on its head with some contestants being criticized for wearing pants in some of the most high fashion related challenges, apparently fake women always wear dresses.
• This Is Reality: In All-Stars 2, many fans were hoping the Season 5 queens would pick up their old dynamics again, but three years had passed and naturally people change. Coco and Alyssa have long put their feud behind them and got along just fine before Coco's elimination (for that matter, this was implied as far back as the Season 5 finale), and "Rolaskatox" is now just "Rotox" because Alaska has drifted away from Roxxxy and Detox and would rather just do her own thing.
• Reality TV Show Mansion: Averted. The queens stay in hotel rooms, and are generally not shown in activities outside of the competition.
  • Discussed in Season 8 when some of the queens talk about being up all night rehearsing for a challenge or working on an outfit in their off-hours, and that the queens who don't put in that extra effort deservedly end up in the bottom two.
• Reality Show Genre Blindness: As noted by the examples below, if a queen is completely unprepared to do anything else besides looking pretty and lipsyncing, they're going home, especially if it looks like they might stumble in that too.
  • Brought up in season 5 where Alyssa Edwards says that she was unprepared for the Snatch Game challenge and bombed it since impersonation "isn't my thing", but the other Queens point out that the show has done it so often that she should have been expecting it and prepared beforehand.
  • Ditto for Lineysha Sparx, who didn't know whether she wanted to do Michelle Obama or Celia Cruz and only had half-formed ideas for both. She ends up doing Celia Cruz but falls flat, leading to her elimination.
  • When Jiggly Caliente was complaining that she didn't know how to sew at all, Lashauwn Beyond's response was, "This is not the first season," and that she can't use that as an excuse because she should have been aware sewing challenges are a staple of the show.
    • In the Season 6 opener, Adore Delano can't sew either, and Ru herself expresses bewilderment at how sewing is a lost art among younger drag queens.
  • Whenever a queen in the later seasons complains about the acting/comedic challenges. By now it should be clear that Ru wants a well-rounded queen who can be both glamorous and campy.
  • Courtney Act gets called out for her Stripperiffic "Republican Party" ensemble, since Michelle has spent three seasons telling queens not to rely on their body and a pretty face.
  • In season 6, Joslyn Fox gets to pick the line-up for a comedy challenge. All the other queens expect her to try to sabotage Bianca Del Rio (a professional comedian) by putting her on first. Instead, she puts Bianca on last and puts herself in the worst spot of all, right before Bianca. Bianca, predictably, kills the challenge and wins the week while Joslyn is directly called out by the judges for this blunder and forced to lip sync.
  • During interviews and her commentary on the season 7 premiere with Alaska, Bianca points out that if a queen can't sing, dance, act, do comedy, or sew in some capacity, they really had no business being there in the first place.
  • This is the reason Naysha Lopez was the first queen eliminated on Season 8: she didn't know how to sew and the main challenge was to make an outfit. But because she's a high-budget pageant queen, she relied mainly on buying her dresses and her inability to make a presentable outfit resulted in her landing in the bottom two and getting eliminated.
  • Charlie Hides, whose act involves live singing, does not lip sync and professes to be proud of not lip synching — and nevertheless entered a competition that regularly features lip synching. Apparently the plan was to always be good enough to stay out of the Lip Sync For Your Life bracket; that didn't work out, and Charlie was sent home after intentionally not trying during her lip sync.
  • If a queen doesn't even know how to lip sync or the words to the song, they're definitely going home. Like Charlie Hides before her, part of the reason Valentina gets sent home was she didn't know the words to the song she was lip synching to and wore a mask to cover up this glaring error. She fooled no one, and became one of the most infamous eliminations of all time.
• Recursive Crossdressing:
  • During one season 2 challenge the queens had to play both the bride and groom in a wedding photoshoot, and Pandora Boxx comments that the challenge felt like this.
  • Milan dressed up as Janelle Monáe once — specifically in Monae's iconic tuxedo from her early career and made famous by her "Tightrope" music video. The judges weren't impressed, although that was because it looked like a man's tuxedo instead of being cinched in to create a feminine silhouette.
  • In the Season 5 "Draggle Rock" challenge (teams have to create a Subverted Kids' Show), Alaska dresses as the male farmer "Buffalo Bill". Once again, the judges call her out and she places low.
  • Also apparently what Milk was going for with her "Workroom Ru" (i.e. dressed as man) look. While it visibly puzzled the judges it didn't land her in the bottom either.
  • The one situation in which portraying a man is accepted is during the Snatch Game, especially when the chosen male celebrity is flamboyant and/or over the top. The first one to do so was Kennedy Davenport as Little Richard, who won, and most other queens who later chose to portray a man placed high or won the challenge (including Thorgy Thor as Michael Jackson, BenDeLaCreme as Paul Lynde, The Vivienne as Donald Trump, Shea Couleé as Flavor Flav, and ChelseaBoy as Joe Exotic). On the flipside, other male impersonations (Sum Ting Wong as Sir David Attenborough India Ferrah as Jeffree Star, Utica Queen as Bob Ross) resulted in the queen placing in the bottom.
• Recycled Premise: After the massive positive reception received by Lady Gaga's appearance in the Season 9 premiere, each season since has repeated the "highly advertised star appears in the first episode and surprises the queens" trope with Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, and Nicki Minaj respectively.
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • In Season 7, Kennedy Davenport chose to play a male celebrity on the Snatch Game. While competitors have done male characters before, they have all been read for it and none was particularly successful in the challenge. Kennedy waffles a bit before deciding to play Little Richard and went so over the top with it that she tied for the victory.
  • In the presidential candidates challenge, the contestant were tasked with preparing an inauguration look for the runway. Sharon Needles wore a futuristic sci-fi outfit and justified herself claiming that, being realistic, America won't elect a drag president in a hundred years.
• Reunion Show: Once a Season after the show has aired, where the queens get to air out any lingering drama among them, as well as crown the season's Miss Congeniality. As of Season 4 onward, the Reunion is also when the Awesome Moment of Crowning for the actual Drag Race winner takes place.
• The Rival:
  • In Season 4, Sharon Needles and Phi-Phi O'Hara arguably became the feud by which all others on the show are judged.
  • In Season 5, Coco Montrese and Alyssa Edwards, who previously competed in Miss Gay America where Alyssa won but was dethroned, leading to runner-up Coco unexpectedly taking the crown. Their bad blood becomes a driving plot in the season.
  • Eureka O'Hara and The Vixen became one of the most heated feuds on the show in season 10.
  • Yvie Oddly and Silky Nutmeg Ganache spent much of season 11 butting heads.
• Ripped from the Headlines: In season 6's makeover challenge, one of the men is a pro basketball player who is visibly uncomfortable with the process and worries about how his teammates will react. The episode was filmed shortly after Jason Collins became the first active openly gay professional athlete in the four major US team sports. Before the episode aired, some other athletes followed his example and it was a major topic in the sports media for months.
• Royal Decree: Invoked for the UK Versus The World premiere, in which the queens are challenged to perform in a talent show dubbed the Royal Command Performance — a Shout-Out to the real Royal Variety Performance, a variety show held annually in the United Kingdom and attended by The British Royal Family. Interestingly, of the nations represented by queens competing in the competition, four out of the five are monarchies — Canada, The Netherlands, Thailand, and of course, host nation the United Kingdom. Only the United States is a republic.
• Rummage Sale Reject: In the first episode of every season, where the queens are challenged to make dresses out of random junk, the end result ranges from stunning to... this◊.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All:
  • Both Nina Flowers and Raven, the runners-up of Seasons 1 and 2, seem to have enjoyed greater success than the actual winners.
  • This may have something to do with the winner's prize including a headline slot on the Drag Race tour, which would seem to be a fairly time-consuming engagement, while the runners-up are free to take on other, more high-profile jobs.
  • Pandora Boxx seems to have found the most success of all, seeing as she's now omnipresent on just about every LOGO show.
  • Shangela may have found the most mainstream success, having guest-starred in shows such as The Soup, Community, Glee, and 2 Broke Girls
  • And in terms of the judges, recurring judge Santino Rice came in second on his season of Project Runway but is probably now more well known than the actual winner of his season, Chloe Dao. Alyssa Edwards gets a Kick the Dog moment about this during the RuPaul Roast when she says that the thing that both Coco and Santino have in common is being runners-up.
  • Speaking of Coco and Alyssa, this is the major source of tension between them, since Coco came in second in the Miss Gay America pageant that Alyssa won, but wound up taking over the crown after it was taken from Alyssa for unspecified reasons.^note Later revealed to be scheduling conflicts between Alyssa's activities as the reigning Miss Gay America and her day job running Beyond Belief dance studio.
  • Just like Pandora, Alaska is virtually omnipresent on the LOGO website and WorldOfWonder's Youtube page. The show even asked her to provide running commentary on Season 4 and 5's Untucked and two episodes of Season 7.
  • Katya managed to achieve this on All Stars 2. Already a fan favorite, her time on the show pushed her popularity to new heights. Going into the final episode, a poll on the Drag Race Twitter account showed that Katya was the fan choice to win by a lot. Although Alaska ended up winning, her win was marked by controversy around rigging and some comments she had made on the show, whereas Katya's popularity continued to soar.
  • Though not runners-up, Alyssa and Tatiana also became much more popular with the fans after their appearance on All Stars 2.
• Running Gag:
  • Ever since Season 3, whenever the queens are told there will be a surprise at the start of the season, or there's a big box, they will panic that Shangela will be popping out of it.
  • During Season 7, Miss Fame not understanding the "how's your head?" joke, instead interpreting it as a literal question.
  • Monet X Change's sponge dress on Season 10. Sponges constantly popped up for her to joke about despite the other queens having no idea where they keep coming from weeks after the initial challenge.
  • Season 12 had several:
    • Dahlia popping up in her broccoli costume.
    • Ru's obsession with Crystal Methyd's mullet, including comparing it to the mullet of El DeBarge.
    • Ru hating on Heidi's name, and Heidi changing her name several times as a result.

S - Z

• Sadistic Choice:
  • The most difficult elimination choice in the show's history was in Season 1 between Bebe Zahara Benet (a strong contender throughout the season) and Ongina (the underdog who had come out as HIV positive and won the previous challenge) when they landed in the bottom two. Ru even excused herself from the judges' table for a minute because it was such a difficult choice (obviously she kept Bebe, considering she went on to win the season). In later seasons, she'd simply keep both queens when faced with such a choice.
  • Played for Laughs during the season 7 interviews, in which queens were asked if they would rather be bitten by a shark or mauled by a lion.
  • Invoked with the format of All Stars Seasons 2 and 3, where eliminating one of the other queens in the competition was a responsibility given to the queen who won each week's challenge.
• Sassy Black Woman: It's a show about drag queens hosted by RuPaul; even the non-black contestants have the attitude down cold.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Tammie Brown in Season 1. She was already in an uphill battle because the Destiny's Child-inspired challenge was not her style, and she didn't vibe with group leader Akashia, who ignored her ideas and made her sew the outfits since Akashia didn't know what else to do with her. When the two had to lipsynch against each other, Tammie didn't even try since she was just over it by that point.
  • Also in season 1, when the queens were asked who deserved to go home, Shannel chose herself and said she wanted to go home due to the overly and (in her opinion) unfairly negative critiques she received from the judges (Santino Rice, in particular) week after week. She wound up in the bottom two after that and ended up losing the lipsync, claiming afterwards that she lost on purpose because she wanted to leave.
  • Delta Work came very close to asking to leave the show, after deciding she did not want to lip sync for her life for a third time in Season 3, Raja however convinced her not to give up^note Unfortunately, she was still sent home after her performance.
  • Alexis Mateo also came close to leaving the show in the penultimate episode of Season 3, when she left the studio for several minutes during her Heroic BSoD.
  • After being told several times she did not deserve to be on All Stars, Mimi Imfurst left the studio ready to quit. That is until her partner, Pandora Boxx, convinced her to get her butt back in there and not ruin both their chances on the show^note And then got sent home by Chad Michaels.
  • Willam later admitted that her Non-Gameplay Elimination was on purpose. She admitted to the producers that she'd broken the rules just so she could leave the show.
  • Adore Delano in All Stars 2. After receiving an especially brutal round of critiques from Michelle during the first episode (to the extent that even Phi Phi let out a genuinely shocked "Oh my God" while listening to what Michelle was saying), Adore had a meltdown backstage and came very close to leaving the show. She was convinced by the other queens to stay for the rest of the episode, but later made up her mind to leave during the second episode. This makes her the first queen to explicitly walk from the show.
  • In All Stars 3, BenDeLaCreme won the Lip Sync for Your Legacy, but opted to eliminate herself from the competition instead of one of the bottom queens.
  • In UK Series 2, Ginny Lemon quit and left the stage during the final lip sync as soon as the music started. Sister Sister, the other contestant, still performed a fierce lip sync and won a lot of respect from the other queens and a large chunk of the fanbase.
• Screw Yourself:
  • By implication in the season 2 wedding challenge that involved the queens posing as both the bride and the groom in a photoshoot.
  • In the "Queens in space" challenge the hermaphrodite villain of the fake trailer reveals he/she is the both heroine's father and mother, since s/he literally screwed him/herself without the need of another self.
• Second Place Is for Losers: The concept of "Safe" plays with this. It may seem like petty bitching for a queen to complain about being Safe after the main challenge, but being Safe for too long with no wins will indeed make a queen unlikely to win the crown and more likely to be eliminated during a lipsynch. Hence why, even though being Safe can be a relief after a grueling challenge that isn't a queen's usual style, Ru makes it clear that it's not a desirable outcome in the long run.
• Self-Deprecation: Very common among the queens.
  • Detox admits to having "some work" (i.e. plastic surgery) done and cheerfully refers to herself as having so much plastic in her that she belongs in the Glad line of products.
  • Trinity Taylor poked fun at herself for having plastic surgery, and would jokingly claim she couldn't move her face because of Botox. Her entire self-written verse in Season 9’s finalist song revolves around her being “plastic”, and her entrance outfit for All-Stars 4 was made of plastic zip-ties to again refer to this.
  • Bianca Del Rio, an insult comic queen, often begins her routines by making fun of herself, since this warms up her audience and makes them more open to laugh at the many insults she throws at them afterwards.
• Separated by a Common Language: Season 11 guest judge Todrick Hall received backlash from UK fans for describing dancing as "spastic". He had to explain on twitter that while in the UK it is a slur against people with cerebal palsy, in the US it simply means "clumsy".
• Series Continuity Error: Lampshaded by Tia Kofi in UK Series 2, after she notices several people had cosmetic surgery during the 7 month break in filming.
  Tia: I mean, I kept my hair the same for continuity purposes.
• Serious Business: Many of the girls have celebrities whom they idolize (and occasionally) impersonate. They take them very seriously, to the point where some will refuse to mock them and threaten those who do. Whenever one of the queens chooses a Snatch Game character because it's someone they really admire Ru shows concern over the possibility that they admire the person so much that they are unable to play a funny mocking caricature of them.
  • Most obviously in Season 4 with Chad Michaels, who has perfected Cher to such a degree that US Weekly has confused him for the real deal.
  • And in season 5 Alyssa Edwards botches her impersonation of Katy Perry so badly that Ru makes her tweet an apology to Perry herself, and it's heavily suggested that the only reason she wasn't on the bottom was because she had immunity from the previous week.
  • Alyssa has this attitude towards drag in general, looking down on queens with a more comedic style like Jinkx and Detox.
  • Roxxxy also goes on a rant in the second-to-last episode about this, lashing out at Alaska and Jinkx for their more comedic styles and claiming they're denigrating the art form through it. Jinkx's response is that she takes the comedy itself very seriously, like any other comedic performer.
• Sexy Secretary: Inevitable whenever the competitors are asked to give an "Executive Realness" look.
• Shameless Self-Promoter:
  • RuPaul has no qualms about working her own pop songs into the challenges (and of course, makes a grand entrance to "Covergirl" Once an Episode). Totally gets away with it by staying on the right side of Camp.
  • Willam, although funny, plays this straight. He constantly brags about all the shows he's been on. It can get annoying.
• She's Back:
  • Shangela, who returned to the competition in Season 3 after being the first competitor eliminated in Season 2.
  • And she shows up again in Season 4 episode 1, before getting eaten by zombies.
  • Cynthia Lee Fontaine's return in Season 9.
• Shout-Out: Given the show's long run and campy nature, there are many. So many, in fact, that it has its own page.
• Shrinking Violet: People who fit this trope might have trouble on a show like this, which favors Large Hams and big personalities.
  • Season 3's Stacy Layne Matthews is a notable example, as Ru desperately wanted her stop being so meek and come out of her shell. Stacy gave Ru what she wanted in the Snatch Game.
  • Season 9's Sasha Velour, despite being soft-spoken and not a huge personality, managed to make it work simply because she was such a smart, innovative queen in her own right.
• Sleepyhead:
  • Tyra Sanchez once fell asleep on the couch while in the workroom, only to be woken up by Ru. The other season 2 queens were very unhappy that she didn't receive more consequences for this.
  • Jinkx Monsoon from Season 5, who has narcolepsy. In the first episode they're shown to have dozed off on a couch at one point, prompting the other queens to ask about it, and then later they seem to fall asleep when in front of the Confession Cam, prompting someone offscreen to ask if they're okay. They also explain that it's "not like on TV" where someone falls asleep right away, and that they can feel it coming and usually tries to get to a couch or someplace similar.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Many of the challenges present this conundrum to the queens, whether they should take the challenge seriously, or make it funny and campy.
  • A great example would be in Season 5 during the perfume challenge. The queens were split right down the middle in silly vs. serious, half of them making professional-looking (if boring) perfume ads, while the other half made funny, goofy ads.
  • Another great example was the presidential candidates challenge, where the contestants were coached about some serious real world issues. Most of the contestants chose to make characters somewhere in the middle of the scale. Yet, in a twist, Chad Michaels (Probably the most professional queen of the season) went full camp and played an all out joke candidate, while Sharon Needles (The oddball subversive queen) played her campaign very seriously and addressed real issues. The judges loved them both.
• Small Name, Big Ego: A lot of contestants throughout the show's run come off as having this, though it really may be part of an act.
• Small Reference Pools:
  • Something Ru worries about frequently when it comes to Queens impersonating characters who are lesser known. In season 5 when Jinkx Monsoon announces that she'll be Little Edie from Grey Gardens Ru questions whether enough people will get the reference. These fears luckily prove to be unfounded as Jinkx completely steals the show and actually wins the challenge.
  • Happens on the main stage when Carson said Sherry Pie's makeup reminded him of Wayland and Madame, and is met with blank stares from the queens. Ru cuts in and explains that Wayland and Madame were a puppet act from the 70's and 80's.
  • Controversially invoked on Drag Race UK when Michelle criticized Joe Black's David Bowie for not being recognizable as David Bowie. Except the look in question was a clear reference to Life on Mars, arguably the second most famous David Bowie look behind only Ziggy Stardust. Some fans criticized Michelle for going too small on her reference pool for something that would clearly read as David Bowie to most people, Brits especially.
  • This became a sticking point on Down Under Series 1, where the queens would make several Aussie/Kiwi references in their drag and comedy that would go right over Ru's head.
• So Bad, It's Good: The judges' opinion on Jessica Wild's interview during the Absolut Acai Berry/book challenge. invoked
• Soap Within a Show: Season 5's Telenovela challenge, complete with Chewing the Scenery and fake accents galore.
  • Season 9 had an acting challenge from {Empire} with both Thorgy Thor and Bob the Drag Queen serving up orders of Large Ham.
• Spicy Latina: Jessica Wild, Yara Sofia, Alexis Mateo, Monica Beverly Hillz, Serena Cha-Cha, Lineysha Sparx, just to name a few.
• Spin-Off:
  • RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked. It showcases the time between critiques and the elimination, where the queens discuss the challenge and often get into arguments, brought to you by Absolut Vodka.
  • Drag U was another spin-off in which former Drag Race contestants give ordinary, plain women drag-tastic makeovers.
  • As mentioned earlier, many of the queens are given webseries of their own via WOWPresents. The most popular of these is Alyssa's Secret, in which Season 5 fan favorite Alyssa Edwards sounds off on various subjects.
  • Willam's Beatdown, where Willam comments on Youtube videos in a manner similar to Equals Three. It's explicitly not affiliated with World of Wonder, to the point that they don't even let him feature their videos.
  • An interesting example is Nebraska Thunderfuck, aka Mack, Alaska's partner from the veteran makeover challenge. As a man, Mack was already a model before appearing on the show, and after getting made over and managing to look more polished than Alaska herself, he kept the Nebraska schtick and became a drag queen in his own right. Between that and her increased visibilty as part of Derrick Berry's romantic throuple, Nebraska is often viewed as a Ru-Girl—and has a bigger following than some actual Ru-Girls—despite having never been a normal contestant.
• Spinoff Babies: If you can believe it, a WOW Presents Plus-exclusive YouTube original show called Drag Tots came about, featuring the voice talents of Season 4's Latrice Royale, Season 5's Detox, Season 6's Bianca Del Rio and Adore Delano, Season 9's Valentina, as well as RuPaul herself.
• Spiritual Successor: To Paris Is Burning, a documentary about the ballroom subculture. While the ball scene is primarily the domain of the Black and Hispanic LGBTQ community, much of its slang and concepts have been adopted by the general drag scene thanks largely to this film: "fish," "reading," "shade," "realness," etc. Lines from the film are frequently quoted by Ru and the other queens, even innocuous bits like "Category is..." and Ru's pronounciation of "psychological."
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Coco and Alyssa's feud in season 5 takes up a disproportionate amount of screen time to the point that the other queens get annoyed by it and mince no words telling them both to get over it.
• Statuesque Stunner:
  • As Drag Queens, many of the men qualify while in their female personas—especially the ones north of six feet—but none moreso than RuPaul herself, who stands a towering 6'4 before platform heels and big hair!
  • Tempest DuJour stands as the tallest queen in Drag Race herstory, measuring in at 6'6.
• Sticky Situation: In the season 6 premiere, Adore Delano is forced to hot glue her outfit together because she cannot sew. She accidentally glues the whole outfit to the dress mold and has to yank it off in a panic shortly before the runway segment.
• Stripperiffic: Many queens have gone down the runway in outfits that would qualify as such, but Carmen Carrera regularly tops herself.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In the "Sleeves" runway challenge of Canada's Drag Race season 3, both Vivian Vanderpuss and Gisele Lullaby come out with artificially extended doll-like arms, much to everyone's amusement since they had also been partners in the challenge that week.
• Stunned Silence: The judges' response to Milk coming out in the "Night of a Thousand Rus" challenge dressed as Workroom Ru — i.e. dressed as a man.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: Whenever a heterosexual-identified male judge appears on this show, he's almost guaranteed to have this reaction. Highlights include Wayne Brady of all people. Henry Rollins admitted after his appearance that he felt this way.
  • The straight jocks that appeared on the show to be transformed into a Drag Queen for a day had these moments in abundance. One jock seemed to be flirting with his partner, Alexis Mateo, throughout the show, and most of them admitted to a crush on Carmen Carrera. And of course, their reactions to the extremely sexual lipsync at the end.
• Stylistic Suck: Sometimes. Very often on RuPaul's Drag U.
• Subverted Kids' Show:
  • Season 5's "Draggle Rock" challenge, complete with cramming as much innuendo as possible into the sketches.
  • Backfired in Season 7's Hello Kitty Ball, where one of the outfit challenges was to conceive a character to be Hello Kitty's new BFF. The more innocent creations had a much better reception from the judges (and Kitty herself) than Pearl's hooker and Katya's cigarette-smoking Russian. While the Season 5 challenge was explicitly a parody of kids shows and had more room for sex humor, this one involved official Hello Kitty products and likenesses, so the R-rated characters just didn't land.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: During the rap challenge in Season 6, Courtney Act's verse ended with "Looking like this ain't a goddamn stunt, all you other bitches better lick my... foot."
• Suicide by Cop: During the final four challenge of Season 1, Ru asked each queen who they believed didn't deserve a spot in the Top 3. Shannel chose herself to go home, believing the judges had unfairly critiqued her throughout the competition. RuPaul and the other judges apologized to her and reassured her that she was talented, but ultimately Shannel got her wish and was eliminated in that episode.
• Superdickery: In true reality show fashion, many promos take conversations out of context to make the queens look more aggressive than they really were.
  • Alaska's "I WILL WHOOP YOUR FUCKING ASS!" was playful acting, and Alyssa's "It's not personal, it's drag" was part of a civil conversation and not the cold blow-off it was made out to be.
  • This extends to the judges as well. Many of their comments in the "After the break" previews are made to sound negative ("You reminded me of a savage beast"), but turn out to be praise.
  • In the opening to Season 4 of Untucked!, the normally good-natured Latrice Royale is shown aggressively saying "Take your hat off, bitch! You balding bitch!" followed by a quick cut to Willam sheepishly taking off a hat. It was actually cut together from two separate episodes; Latrice was venting about what she wanted to say to judge Santino (who wasn't in the room), after he harshly criticized her look. The shot of Willam was even mirror-flipped to seem like she was looking at Latrice!
  • Season 6 Bianca Del Rio's "I will show you versatility when Santino wins a sewing competition and Visage wears a fucking turtleneck!" was shown in previews inter cut with shocked reactions from the two judges. In the actual episode it was part of Bianca's stand up comedy routine and both Santino and Michelle laughed at it, while their shocked reactions were actually from when Milk came down the runway in "drag" as Workroom Ru.
• Super Drowning Skills: The very first photo shoot in the fifth season was underwater, but not all the queens could swim...
• Surpassed the Teacher:
  • Ru lampshades this while trying to convince Tia of her potential:
    Ru: Look at those long legs, that cafe au lait skin. You know who you would look like if you had my team of 50 people working on you? You'd look like me!
  • A more direct example happens with Dax ExclamationPoint and her drag daughter, Violet Chachki. Whereas Violet won Season 7, Dax was eliminated early in Season 8 and has the "honor" of being part of the show's second-ever double-elimination.
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: At the tail end of every season, each finalist has a chat with Ru and Michelle where they talk about their life, drag experience, and so on. Most times, the contestants will talk about their Gayngst and moments of personal difficulty they overcame with their inner strength, but once in a while a queen will relate her perfectly normal and loving youth (e.g., Tayce in UK Series 2). Since it's no surprise that Ru likes "dramatic" backstories, this usually means that the queen's not getting the crown!
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Henry Rollins admits in his spoken word tours that he, uh, remembers some of the girls he judged during his cameo appearance.
• Take a Third Option:
  • While Ru has often declared ties in challenges and lipsynchs (or sent both girls home after a lipsynch), All Stars 4 was the first time she crowned two season winners in Trinity The Tuck and Monet X Change, after both queens showed an exemplary display of talent throughout the season all the way up to the finale.
  • In Season 11's "Diva Worship" challenge, Ra'Jah's team of six bombed so hard, Ru decided that rather than choose which four did the least poorly to declare safe, she made all six of them lipsynch for their lives in a franchise first.
  • UK Series 3 had a landmark of its own: the "Draglexa" challenge was the first time Ru decided there'd be no challenge winner because both teams fell completely flat.
• Take That!:
  • A Once a Season challenge: reading the other contestants.
    RuPaul: The library is OPEN!
  • During All-Stars, guest judge Vicki Lawrence comments that Manila Luzon's celebrity impersonation of Madonna was spot on ... because Madonna is "so full of shit".
  • Kelly Mantle is an actor and has appeared in several TV shows prior to Drag Race, but she promised that she won't read off her IMDB page at every challenge "like a certain previous contestant" (ie, Willam).
  • In the "Spoof" challenge, a parody song was written by some of the queens about Ru's merchandise. Ru herself is a bit taken back by the dig at Drag U being cancelled.
• Technician Versus Performer:
  • Can be said of many queen dynamics, but can really be seen between Chad Michaels, a veteran queen and a drag technician to perfection, and Sharon Needles, a spooky but lovable little monster and an outrageous performer the fans adored.
  • The finale of UK Series 2 brought another one of these debates into the open. The big two frontrunners were Bimini Bon-Boulash, who was great at just about everything the show had to offer, and Lawrence Chaney, who had far more obvious weak spots but possessed a much stronger natural personality. In this case, Ru sided with the performer and declared Lawrence the winner of the series, while fan opinion strongly prefers Bimini the technician, as a Radio Times poll showing just about every demographic wanted Bimini to win by a margin of around 60% proved.
• Teeth Clenched Team Work:
  • Displayed by Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara in the "frenemies" challenge. It doesn't work and they end up lipsynching for their lives.
  • Also displayed by Pandora Boxx and Mimi Imfurst in the first episode of All Stars. It also doesn't work and they both go home.
  • Despite hating each other, Coco Montrese chose Alyssa Edwards for the No RuPologies ballet challenge because dancing is Alyssa's biggest strength (she's a professional choreographer out of drag). Their history also works to their advantage since they wind up playing the black swan and the white swan during a section of the ballet, and the tension between them (especially when Coco pretends to strangle Alyssa near the end, which judging from the sound Alyssa makes may have been a bit too real) isn't entirely acting.
  • Happens to them again when Detox puts the two of them on the same team during the original song challenge, though this time their ire gets directed more at Detox than each other, at least on Coco's part.
  • It then happens to them a third time in the Telenovela challenge, this time adding Jinkx Monsoon to the mix, who had several times that season gotten into arguments with both Alyssa and Coco over their dismissing her as just a 'comedy queen'.
  • Seemed to be done on purpose for Season 6's "Glamazon by Colorevolution” challenge, although this time without the lie detector excuse used in Season 4's "Frenemies" challenge. DeLa gets paired with Darienne Lake, who's said outright she thinks Ben has a big head and needs to be sent home, Trinity gets paired with Bianca, who personally begged the universe not to pair the two up again due to Trinity struggling with anything acting related, Joslyn is paired with Courtney, who while the former adores Courtney, the latter considers Joslyn and unpolished 'low-rent version' of herself, and finally, Adore and Laganja who although they have worked together in the past, Laganja also considers Adore a Poor Man's Substitute of herself, with Adore fully aware Laganja resents how well she's doing in the competition. Most of the pairs do end up making it work though despite the friction, so well in fact, that RuPaul does not send anyone home during this episode.
  • UK Season 2 gives us another intentionally problematic pairing when Tia and A'Whora are paired up for the Morning Glory challenge. Ends up being a rare positive example: the two work well together and end up working out several of their differences and growing closer at the same time.
• Tempting Fate: Thanks to the plethora of Confession Cam sessions, its quite simple for the editors to inject one or more queens going "I hope it's not an X challenge today" right before Ru will reveal that, in fact, it is an X challenge that day.
• That Russian Squat Dance: At the end of her faux fur runway where she wore a Russian themed outfit, Sasha Velour did the famous Cossack dance.
• This Is a Competition:
  • "This isn't RuPaul's School for Girls!"
  • Stacy Layne Matthews and India Ferrah's most common criticism.
  • Alyssa Edwards also gets "It's not personal, it's drag."
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Jan's stare after losing the Madonna challenge that she believed she was a shoe-in to win. Her look quickly became memetic.
• Took A Level In Jerk Ass:
  • Roxxxy Andrews after Alaska left Rolaskatoxxx, and Alaska noticeably drifts away from her after Detox gets sent home while getting closer to Jinkx. The Reunion episode helps explain this by stating that Detox and Alaska already knew each other, and Roxxxy also knew Detox from before, accounting for her and Alaska drifting apart after Detox was sent home.
  • The other queens call Valentina out during the season 9 Reunion, in that she tried being constantly cheery and supportive during the show, but once she was eliminated she immediately started ignoring the other queens and did nothing to stop her dedicated fans from attacking the others on social media.
  • When Baga Chipz, originally on series 1 of Drag Race UK, returned for UK Vs The World, she'd gotten a bit of a swelled head from all the media she'd done since her original run. Infamously, Baga's ego hits a low point where she bristles at the prospect of making a dress for a design challenge, and fellow contestant Pangina Heals does most of the work for her while she takes a nap.
• Toothy Issue: Thanks to the American dental health system and the queens often not having a decent income pre-show, lots of participants sport teeth that are either hardly cared for at all or, the other extreme, really obvious veneers.
  Bianca del Rio: I feel like it's my duty to show America that some queens have good teeth and good hair.
• Throw It In!: Invoked while the queens were filming a music video with RuPaul in the second season. Tyra mishears "act hurt" for "act hood" due to the director's thick accent. When she asks for clarification, the director and Ru both agree that they like Tyra's version better.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The pre-season trailer and the Untucked opening will show clips from several episodes ahead. Any fan with a keen eye can easily pick out outfits the queens are wearing, and it can spoil some of the bottom two lipsynchs since if the queen on the bottom was in one of the those clips wearing an outfit she hasn't worn yet, she's obviously going to be sticking around until she wears it.
  • For example, in Season 6 the Untucked intro shows Adore Delano wearing her "White Diamonds Tutu", an outfit she would not end up wearing until the penultimate episode!
  • In the Season 13 premiere it appears that half of the cast will be eliminated after just one lip-sync, and in their entrance looks to boot. Any viewer who had kept up with promos knew that there was a twist incoming, especially since each queen had an individual trailer which showed unseen runways and outfits.
• Transatlantic Equivalent:
  • Drag Race UK, the British version of the show, which began in late 2019 and assembles queens from across the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom; England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Despite initial fears of a simple rehash, the show has garnered a strong following both at home and abroad — mostly due to the difference in British versus American drag. British drag has its roots in more raw, less glamorous venues (pubs, working-men's clubs, etc), and lacks the look-based pageant/ballroom culture of the US drag scene, which lends the UK iteration a tone that is a little grittier, more humour-based, and full of outrageously shocking language. And since there's no big cash prize, the queens are more able to have fun and not outgun each other like their American counterparts.^note In some ways, the US and UK drag scenes (before drag became more universally mainstream) are relatively antithetical and each other’s Foil. It’s not a universal truth, but historically, in the prominent ball culture and pageantry of the American drag scene, the ‘rich lady’ lifestyle is celebrated and aspired to, with queens, often from (very) humble backgrounds, wanting to be like the rich, Dynasty-style women they portray — see Paris Is Burning for additional insight. However, the British drag scene, especially with classic pub queens, compères and the venerable institution of the pantomime dame in mind, has its origins in making fun of and sending up the affectations, cattiness and airs and graces of the aspirational women of the middle-classes, who would have (certainly in the past) been a higher step up on the British social class ladder than the more humble drag performers (and their appreciative audiences). There's nothing the British love more than poking fun at class distinction and, for the working-class, indulging in a spot of épater la bourgeoisie. Ru has clearly leaned into the British setting in a big way, and along with a newly badged, Queen's Guards themed "Brit-Crew", he has tasked the queens with a multitude of British-themed challenges and main-stage looks: "Day at the Races," "Downton Draggy, "Bond Girl Glamorama", "Wimbled'Hun" and of course, THE (former) Queen herself, Useful Notes/Elizabeth II. When Ru quizzes The Vivienne on the subject, she perfectly sums up all of the above: "I want to go to the pub on a Sunday, get a pint, and have someone like Baga make me laugh."
    • Further clarified by UK judge Graham Norton:
    "I think what makes the British Drag scene special is how funny it is. It doesn’t just have a sense of humour, it has a sense of humour about itself. I think that’s a real difference that you get watching the other versions. No matter how dramatic or tense it is the British Queens are still having a laugh."
  • Canada's Drag Race, the Canadian version of the show began in 2020. Like the UK version above, the show maintains the same overall premise, but with its own twists. The Canadian iteration is further removed from the original than the UK version, as for one, Ru is absent from the judging panel and only appears Once per Episode via video message to deliver the weekly challenges. The judges are made up of Drag Race US (but Canadian) alumna Brooke Lynn Hytes as the lead judge, alongside fashion model Stacey McKenzie, actor Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman and a weekly guest judge. In tone, the series is fairly similar to the US version, but the levels of hysteria are toned down somewhat, and due to Canada being a francophonic nation there is also a liberal smattering of French chic via the Québecoise queens and memorably hilarious challenges like Night of a Thousand Celines. While the US version has been criticized for favoring contestants with high wardrobe budgets over anything else, the Canadian version has had more unpolished looks but strong performances and lip syncs.
• True Companions: Several queens know each other from before the show and have this type of bond with each other.
  • Shannel and Chad Michaels, for instance, have known each other for over 15 years.
  • Raven and Jujubee also describe themselves this way, which makes it excruciating for them both when they're forced to lip sync against each other in the penultimate All Stars episode.
  • Sharon Needles and Alaska were a couple (and drag sisters in Pittsburgh's Haus of Haunt) during their respective seasons (four and five) and were in a romantic relationship for four years until they broke up in late 2013, but they remained close friends even after the split, regularly performing and touring together and also appearing in many of each other's music videos.
  • Alyssa Edwards, Laganja Estranga and Shangela are a drag family, The Haus of Edwards. Vivienne Pinay and Gia Gunn eventually join them after bonding with them during the show.
  • Ru also invokes this idea after Roxxxy Andrews breaks down on the stage after recounting how her mother abandoned her, saying that as gay people they get to create their own families.
  • Pretty much every season, usually in an Untucked episode or the behind the scenes special in the first season, there'll be at least one point where the remaining queens say they're like sisters and have formed a bond, even if they're still competing and may fight with each other at times. A lot of the queens who have met through the show have gone on to regularly work together and perform in shows with each other after their stint on Drag Race.
  • The Final 3 of Season 6—Bianca, Adore, and Courtney—all form a close friendship that lacks the rivalry/drama of all the other Top 3's. They remain close friends who enjoy working together when they get the chance.
• Uncanny Valley: Invoked when Ru says that Coco's rendition of a ventriloquist puppet should be "More Pinocchio, less the doll from Saw."
• Uncanny Valley Makeup:
  • One challenge in season 5 involves the queens having to put on their makeup in the dark. The results range from passable to this.
  • In Season 6's bridal makeover challenge, Joslyn was tasked with making over a black man and failed miserably. Whether it was due to lack of experience working with dark skin, or lack of dark makeup altogether since the last black contestant — Trinity — had been eliminated, her partner ended up looking "metallic." Or as Bianca put it...
  "She looks like that girl gremlin. Remember that one girl gremlin? Don't get her wet, you do not want her multiplying!"
• Understatement: Lucian's comment during the "Can I Get an Amen?" challenge on Season 5.
  "Coco Montrese and Alyssa Edwards have strange chemistry."
• Undesirable Prize: For the most part, the prizes on the show are things the queens would actually want to win: a vacation, something fashion-related like wigs or jewelry, or plain old cash. However, there are a few exceptions:
  • One of the grand prizes offered to the winner used to be a headlining spot on the Drag Race tour. While this seems like a good prize in theory, being on the tour takes up a good chunk of the winner's time in the year where they are most popular (the year following their season, when they're still fresh in the audience's mind), while the runners-up are free to go on and take more high-profile gigs.
  • There are also cases where the prize offered to the challenge winners end up being useless based on their circumstances:
    • During Season 7, Pearl won a weekend trip to New York City for one of her challenge wins...except she already lives in NYC to begin with.
    • Sasha Velour won a year's supply of haircare products...despite being bald.
  • There's also the fact that winning the mini-challenge of an episode often means being named team captain or some other position of authority for the main challenge. If her team does poorly, she'll be the first one thrown under the bus and is more likely than her team-members to end up having to lipsynch.
• The Unintelligible: In the early seasons there's at least one contestant — usually from Puerto Rico — with a flawed grasp of English and an extremely thick accent, meaning the other queens have no idea what she's saying half the time, and due to the language/culture barrier, certain jokes and references might fly over her head. Yara Sofia was well aware of this and actually used it as a joke in several challenges. And as her friend Alexis Matteo points out, Yara is frequently The Unintelligible even in Spanish.
  • Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Upon elimination, the unintelligible queen of the season will give an eloquent and perfectly clear farewell speech in Spanish in her last interview. The two exceptions are Season 1's Nina Flowers, since she made it to the Final 2 and Season 6's April Carrion, who can smoothly switch between Spanish and English.
  • In season 6, Trinity K. Bonet is criticized for her enunciation, due to the false teeth she wears in drag.
• Unintentional Period Piece: A minor example. When Robbie Turner comes out in a Cowardly Lion-inspired outfit in Season 8, Ru says "okay nobody mention Cecil" to the other judges. A reference to the controversial killing of Cecil the Lion in July of 2015, which was still a hot topic when the show was filming late summer 2015, but was old news by the time the episode aired the following Spring.
  • Another example came in Season 12, when in the episode "World's Worst", to prove they are gay, the fruits are asked by Ross which team won the Super Bowl that year (being 2019 when it was filmed) to which they answer "The Patriots!" yet by the time it aired in March 2020, the Kansas City Chiefs had already won the Super Bowl.
• Unlimited Wardrobe:
  • Nearly everyone, but Ru especially.
  • In season 11, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo subverted this by having a seemingly limitless supply of swimsuits. Michelle got sick of that runway look really quickly, but Vanjie just kept wearing swimsuits until Michelle could barely even stand to give the same critique anymore. Vanjie eventually got the hint.
• Un-person: In the UK Series 5 premiere, it was quickly noted by fans that despite some incredibly clever editing, at some points, particular when the ten advertised queens are standing in a row, a mysterious 11th pair of legs is visible. Unsubstantiated rumours swirl that an 11th queen was kicked off the show after filming began, though a vestige of her remains in a few select shots.
• Unusual Euphemism:
  • "Fish" or "Fishy" for convincingly faking a woman. Unusual to the mainstream, anyway. It's been gay slang (especially among Blacks and Latinos) for decades. An unsuccessful fish, by the way, is a "trout". Note that this term is now somewhat discredited in drag culture for being a demeaning reference to the vagina.
  • Also the term "Ruphemism", which is basically an Unusual Euphemism popularized by RuPaul herself.
  • The Ruphemism "Peanut Butter" refers to a gorgeous set of legs, as in "smooth and easy to spread". Jinkx Monsoon makes up her own euphemism during a read, "Crunchy (peanut butter)", in regards to a queen who has obvious face stubble under her makeup.
  • "Reading" a queen means you're poking fun at or insulting a queen based on their looks or talents, whereas "Reading for/to filth" is a more severe and less humorous version (at least for the recipient) of this term.
  • "Kai-kai", for when two queens have sex, technically referring specifically to sex in drag. Not to be confused with "kiki", which means to socialize and make small talk with a queen.
  • Asian drag queens on the show are often called "ladyboys" after Thailand's notorious transgender prostitute culture (even if they're not Thai), and also the RuPaul song.
  • "Serving realness". In usage, queens will use this to summarize their look; for example she might be "serving country realness". Since it's just a look put on by a drag queen, it isn't actually "real", but it's as real as possible.
  • Raja, when hosting Fashion Photo Ruview, refers to feet as biscuits and shoes as biscuit-baskets, especially if she dislikes them; the term is likeliest to come up when a queen wears open-toed shoes with tights.
• Visual Pun: The teaser for Season 6 has the queens do several actions which refer to drag and gay lingo.^note "serving fish", "realness", "spilling the tea", "working it", "turning looks", "throwing shade", "reading"
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Several queens who know each other before the show have this dynamic. Raja and Manila from season 3 are one of the more obvious examples, with Manila making potshots at Raja's age and Raja firing right back. After Raja is crowned the season's winner Manila got in one last zing by saying that at least if Raja died of old age she could take over the crown as the runner up. Bianca also has this dynamic with everyone.
• Vocal Dissonance:
  • Inversely, several queens have deep male voices that they make no attempt to disguise when in drag. Rebecca Glasscock, Tyra Sanchez, Bianca Del Rio and Raja come to mind. Ironically, all of them were often praised for their feminine presentation (Tyra, Bianca and Raja won their respective seasons and Rebecca made the Final Three in hers), though the judges often lampshaded Tyra's contrabass voice.
  • Intentionally invoked by Detox in the perfume commercial challenge, where she starts out using her usual feminine voice and switches to a deep masculine voice when saying the name of the perfume, Heroine.
• The Voiceless: Unless Ru asks the pit crew a direct question, they are usually there to be seen, and not heard.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: The pit crew are almost always walking around in just their underwear. It's part of the job.
• War for Fun and Profit:
  • During the runway presentation, Ru likes to ask the queens who they think should be sent home, knowing full well it will lead to backstage drama for Untucked.
  • Ru also also likes to try doing this during the Reunions, like in Season 5 when she asks Jade Jolie about the "backrolls" incident involving Alyssa Edwards, hoping to stir up drama. When Jade doesn't take the bait and just states sweetly that she thinks Alyssa is fabulous, Ru abruptly ends the interview and moves things along.
  • Was quite obvious during the Season 7 Snatch Game, when both Miss Fame and Violet Chachki wanted to do Donatella Versace, with Miss Fame stepping back and letting Violet have it. Ru came into the workroom and pretty much strong-armed Fame into going back to doing Versace, then turns right around and convinces Violet to not do Versace for the exact same reasons Ru told Fame to not change her pick. Violet even says outright in Confession Cam that Ru was just trying to stir the pot between them.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: It's gonna happen from time to time.
  • Heidi N Closet's first runway walk in season 12 sees her lose her gigantic hat, and have to keep on walking as if nothing happened. She later loses her wig during a lipsync, and again she just puts it right back on and keeps performing.
  • Played with elsewhere in season 12. During a lip-sync, Rock M Sakura's Impractically Fancy Outfit, complete with rigid panniers, gives her little room to move so she attempts to tear it apart, but the actual malfunction is that the dress is too well built and she keeps trying to fully tear the skirt off only for it to continually hang on by a thread. It leads to her going home earlier than anyone expected.
  • In the first episode of Canada's Drag Race alone, we see Rita Baga pop her tuck and Juice Boxx getting her jewelry caught in her tights, during her entrance.
• We Hardly Knew Ye:
  • The first queen eliminated each season, especially since the first challenge usually involves designing an outfit out of unconventional materials. Anyone who watches Project Runway knows the random scraps challenge is difficult even for experienced designers, let alone performers who might not make their own costumes or even know how to sew. As a result, many talented queens have been eliminated due to being unable to overcome this one hurdle, leaving many fans wondering What Could Have Been. Averted by Shangela, who famously returned in Season 3 and All Stars 3; Naysha Lopez, who was brought back within Season 8; and Season 10 where Vanjie's elimination statement quickly became an internet meme.
  • The second queen eliminated arguably has it worse. Whereas the first is remembered simply by being the first and will have everyone debating whether or not they went home too soon, and the third lasts just long enough to gain a following (or notoriety), the second queen is almost always met with indifference. So far only Tammie Brown and Vivacious (by way of her headpiece Ornacia) have managed to buck this trend.
  • Season 9 attempts to prevent this by making the first episode non-elimination, meaning that even the first out got at least two episodes to shine. Season 12 takes this a step further and makes the first two episodes non-elimination, and splits the cast up between the two so that each of the queens gets more exposure amongst a smaller cast for their first episode. Season 13 made half the cast think they were eliminated in the first episode, but didn't actually eliminate anyone until episode 4.
• We Used to Be Friends: Coco and Alyssa, who refer to the fallout from the Miss Gay America pageant as ending their friendship.
• Wham Episode: Snatch Game is this on a meta level, as it has a tendency to flip the script and change the trajectory of the season. Quite often, a middle-of-the-road or even struggling queen will emerge as a serious competitor (Pandora Boxx, Jinkx Monsoon, BenDeLaCreme, Kennedy Davenport) and a queen who was doing well until then — sometimes even a frontrunner — will end up going home (Kenya Michaels, Lineysha Sparx, Max, Acid Betty, Pangina Heals, and Lady Boom Boom).
• Wham Line:
  • It's Season 4. Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara have just had an epic lip sync battle in matching angel and devil outfits to fight for their place in the competition. The world stands poised, waiting to see which of the two rivals will go home and which will continue on. Suddenly, Ru opens her mouth and reveals her decision: "Willam, will you please step forward..."
  • "Vivienne Pinay... Honey Mahogany... I'm sending you both home." Especially notable for the copious Jaw Drops that happened after it.
  • When Ru announced at the start of Season 6 that there would be no immunity this season. That is, winning a challenge one week won't protect a queen from being in the bottom two the next.
    • The sting was later taken out of this when BenDeLaCreme was spared from elimination after a particularly bad week due to her previous successes.
  • Cynthia Lee Fontaine vs. Farrah Moan, in season 9, is an average lip sync, until Ru's decision: "Eureka, would you please step forward?" Eureka, on crutches from hurting her knee in an earlier challenge, obliges, and Ru reveals that given what she's heard about Eureka's knee from the doctor, she can't, in good conscience, allow her to keep competing. Everyone is horrified, but to soften the blow, Ru drops another Wham Line, and extends an open invitation to Eureka for next season, which she accepts.
  • Later in season 9, Ru stops production during the lip sync between Nina Bo'nina Brown and Valentina because Valentina's been wearing a veil throughout the performance:
    Ru: Valentina. This is a lip sync for your life, we need to see your lips. Take that thing off of your mouth.
    Valentina: I'd like to keep it on, please.
  • All Stars 3, Episode 6. When BenDeLaCreme wins the Lip Sync For Your Legacy and reveals who she's eliminating:
    "I'm going home."
  • UK Season 2, Episode 5 drops a doozy:
    Ru : "My dear queens, in light of the rapidly changing coronavirus situation, we must cease filming immediately. Drag queens know a thing or two about survival. I pray we'll be back together soon, even stronger than before. For now, with all my love, sashay away."
• Wham Shot:
  • A common runway tactic involves a queen initially hiding part of their outfit before suddenly revealing it to (hopefully) shock and impress the judges with what they were covering. Examples include Detox turning around to reveal that her dress didn't cover her butt, and any queen who makes use of a tearaway.
  • During a lip sync against Alyssa Edwards, Roxxxy Andrews infamously pulled off her wig only to reveal she was wearing another wig underneath it. Both Ru and Michelle were left astounded, and Alaska ended up making fun of this moment in a later challenge.
  • During her season 9 semi-final lip sync, perennial underdog Sasha Velour first tears the petals from a rose, then dramatically removes her gloves, creating small showers of rose petals. At a climactic moment, she removes her wig and a huge volume of rose petals cascade down, in one of the most famous reveals in the show's herstory. And that's how Sasha eliminated the season's frontrunner, Shea Coulée.
  • All Stars 3, Episode 6: BenDeLaCreme begins to pull out the lipstick with the name of the queen she chose to eliminate... and reveals her own name written in on the lipstick tube. Combine with the Wham Line of "I'm going home".
  • There's another Wham Shot that turns the same season's finale on its head, when Morgan McMichaels reveals which of the final four contestants the eliminated queens chose to be in the final two, and pulls out the lipsticks: Kennedy Davenport, and Trixie Mattel. To the surprise of many (especially Trixie) the jury chose to unceremoniously eliminate the season's clear frontrunner, Shangela.
  • Season 11's final two, Yvie Oddly and Brooke Lynn Hytes, go head to head in the last lipsync of the season. The latter delivers the beautiful dance moves fans came to expect from her, but suddenly, Yvie, who's been wearing a mirrored headdress that makes her look like she has three faces, turns around to reveal a fourth face on the back of her head, and makes the rotating faces part of her choreography. It's such an innovative, inspired twist on the typical reveal, that she wins the crown despite only having one win through the entire season.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Jiggly and Willam to Phi Phi in the Reunion episode over her actions throughout the season.
  • Coco towards Detox for deliberately putting her on the same team as Alyssa during the original song challenge, knowing their tensions and difficulty working together would put at least one of them up for elimination. Detox's Wounded Gazelle Gambit where she acted like she didn't realize it (which would suggest she's been blind and deaf for the entire competition up until now) didn't help.
  • Judge Michelle Visage expressing her disgust at "Rolodex" (RuPaul: "You mean 'Rolaskatox?'" Michelle: "They're 'Rolodex' to me.") ganging up on Jinkx when they're in the top four.
  • Visage called out her queens again after All Stars after she got to watch exactly how they were treating Mimi Imfurst backstage, she said she was disappointed in Pandora for given up on her partner, and appalled at how the other queens could outright bully one of their own.
  • Michelle even expressed her disapproval towards Ru when she named Adore and Laganja as the winners of the makeup commercial challenge, since Michelle (and most viewers) thought Bianca and Trinity had the superior commercial.
    • And for a double dose of this trope, immediately after Michelle's quip, both Laganja and guest judge Leah Remini call Michelle out on her bad attitude about the win, Leah even pushing Michelle and playfully calling her a "nasty bitch".
  • When Baga Chipz managed to make her own mother cry by going on about how she was "at a disadvantage" in the makeover challenge, the entire judging panel gives her a Death Glare, followed by the other queens tearing her a new one backstage.
• Who Will Bell the Cat?: In many challenges, there's usually one or more roles that put someone at a disadvantage. It might be something like having a lot of lines or difficult choreography to memorize, or the opposite problem of a small part that's hard to shine in. Even individual performances can be subject to the dreaded lineup (no one wants to go first. Or last. Or after someone really good...) Since assigning roles like this is often given to one of the queens themselves, at least one person will usually be unhappy and make accusations of sabotage.
• With Friends Like These...: Season 8's Thorgy Thor and Bob the Drag Queen were both performers from New York and friends from before the show aired. However, during the competition, Bob frequently beat Thorgy in the competition, especially at tasks where Thorgy did do well - just not better than Bob. Thorgy grows increasingly and obviously bitter about it.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • During a lip sync for her life Shannel lost her wig and headpiece, having to perform the entire song without her hair. In the Reunion special she admits to having done this on purpose, as the judges had just told her they wanted to see more vulnerability from her.
  • Willam breaking down in tears and talking about all the friends she'd made during the competition came miraculously well timed as earlier in the same episode the judges had told her they wanted to see more emotion from her. Despite claiming the tears were real, the other queens (namely Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara) called them out as Crocodile Tears.
  • The other queens would accuse Jinkx Monsoon of this when she complained about her critiques on the runway, since she always seemed to perform well in the challenges (she was constantly in the top three). Possible aversion, as Jinkx has stated that her insecurities were genuine, and not a ploy to play the other girls.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Forced on New York girls Brita Filter and Jan Sport when they both ended up on season 12 together, resulting in them dropping the second halves of their drag names to be just "Brita" and "Jan". Both of them play up the names they had to change when they enter the Werk Room, with Brita downing a cocktail glass full of water and Jan coming in dressed as a cheerleader with a sequined backpack. And when Jan introduced herself to the other queens viewers got a great exchange:
  Jan: Hi! I'm Jan, nice to meet you.
  Rock M. Sakura: Jan. Oh! Jan [*bleep*], right?
  Jan: (visibly concerned) Uh, it's just Jan!
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • In season 4, Dan Savage guest hosted and judges a politically-themed episode, complete with a mock presidential debate. While most of the competitors initially tried to camp it up, Dan kept criticizing them and their proposals as if they were legitimate candidates. Several queens were flustered by this and turned in sub-par performances.
  • During Season 5's perfume challenge, Aubrey O'Day would constantly criticize the queens while they tried to perform in their commercials when she felt they were being too campy or silly (acting like the queens were actually making real perfume ads). The comedy queens seemed to just ignore her and did their own thing, but the more serious queens appeared shaken by this and ended up turning in less than stellar commercials as a result.
• Wrote the Book: In one episode, Michelle Visage is introduced by Ru saying that when it comes to being a diva, Michelle wrote the book. Cut to Michelle at the judges' table reading The Diva Rules, the actual literal book on being diva that she wrote.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Pandora Boxx, Lineysha Sparx, Jinkx Monsoon, Roxxxy Andrews, Monica Beverly Hillz, and so on.
• You Are Fat:
  • Alyssa Edwards had some of this directed at her, but mostly from other queens, particularly Jade, retorting after being read.
  • Delta Work and Jiggly Caliente were targets of this during their season's respective reading mini-challenge. Delta even points out that since this is about the only read the other queens could give her, the insult had lost its punch.
• You Keep Using That Word: The term "Realness" when talking about certain assigned runway looks, since the judges are just as likely to praise a highly unconventional look as they are a 'real' one. An example would be Phi Phi O'Hara's "Dog Park Realness", that got high marks despite looking like an Anime Magical Girl with a pink-glittered pooper scooper. (Santino even calls Phi Phi's look out on its lack of "realness", but Rose McGowan tells him she has no interest in anything real, and in the end, the outfit still receives positive feedback overall.)
  • The term realness itself goes back to the ballroom scene and originally meant that someone could pass for straight/cisgender to non-queer people. How the term got bastardized to what is (basically the word has become a filler word on the show) to this point is unknown.
• You Need to Get Laid: Gets thrown around between the drag queens, especially towards a pair of bitter rival queens who are usually told at least once to "stop the drama and just fuck already!"
• Your Makeup Is Running:
  • Inevitable, given that it's a show about drag queens, but Untucked especially often features this. Lampshaded at one point by Jujubee after a particular emotional conversation where she asks if anyone has any eyelash glue.
  • Intentionally invoked in the mini-challenge in the season 5 episode "Drama Queens," where the queens are tasked to cry in front of RuPaul.

---

"'Cause if you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love someone else, can I get an amen up in here? (Amen!) Now let the music play!"