Trivia / RuPaul's Drag Race

• Approval of God:
  • It's common for celebrities who are impersonated on Snatch Game or other impersonation challenges to express their approval of their portrayal. Judge Judy, Kris Jenner, Carol Channing, Lisa Rinna, and even Nancy Grace of all people have filmed positive messages and had them aired on the show.
  • Ditto for Alyssa Edwards watching Violet Chachki's performance as her for Snatch Game.
    I know she didn't cinch her waist for that gig.
  • According to her Reddit AMA, Björk has seen Katya's performance as her on Snatch Game, and absolutely loved it.
  • Despite Max's Snatch Game performance of Sharon Needles getting her eliminated and the former apologizing for it, Sharon responded by telling her she still enjoyed it. Granted, she enjoyed it for different reasons but the intent is still there.
  • Leslie Jones, who commonly live-tweets Drag Race and appeared as a judge that same season, also enthusiastically received Heidi's take on her in Season 12's Snatch Game, although she questioned Heidi's description of her as "thirsty."
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The rollerskating runway theme of Season 8's Empire episode let Robbie Turner use her experience performing in skates (though Thorgy and Chi Chi knew what they were doing too). When Robbie landed in the bottom two, she used her skates to slay the Lipsync against Cynthia. The trailer shows her falling of the stage, but it turns out she intentionally leapt off as a grand finale, since there was padding around the stage and runway to keep the less experienced girls from killing themselves in case they fell.
  • Season 13's Denali is a professional ice skater as well as a choreographer. She eventually comes out on the runway in roller skates. Denali twirls, skates backwards, even glides on one foot at one point and even did a lot of this while drunk. She finally gets to show off her ice skating skills proper in the reunion episode in a music video she made that flaunts her spins, loops, jumps, and even a back flip^note An illegal move in the competition world given how dangerous it is.
• Channel Hop:
  • The flagship series (as well as All Stars) originally aired first-run on the niche, LGBTQ-focused cable network Logo until season nine, when it moved to VH1. It's since received a significantly larger audience on average and more visible promotion across all media. And as of Season 15, the show has moved to MTV^note Though not without controversy, MTV edited down the episodes to an hour as opposed to the 90-minute format the show has had since season 10 in order to better promote another gay-themed reality show, The Real Friends of WeHo. This decision has been derided by the fans and former constestants, and finally after enough social media backlash and The Real Friends... series underperforming, MTV announced that 90-minute episodes would return in March 2023. The 90-minute episodes would also be shown on Paramount+ when the season ended on MTV.
  • As previously mentioned, the first season of All Stars aired on Logo, while the second season aired simultaneously on Logo and VH1^note likely to test the viability of moving the main series there before officially making the move. Seasons three and four proceeded to air on VH1; it was announced that season five would debut exclusively on Showtime as part of a broader experiment throughout Viacom to air their shows across different networks, but due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic causing scheduling and programming issues it remained on VH1. Season six is due to air on Viacom's new streaming service Paramount+, making it the first US season to originally air on a streaming platform.
  • Zig-zagged by Untucked. It originated as bonus web content for the first season (with the title Under the Hood of RuPaul's Drag Race) before airing as a post-episode accompaniment on Logo until season seven, when it moved to World of Wonder's Youtube channel the day after new episodes aired. This continued until season ten, when it moved back to television on VH1 as part of a two-hour block with the main series.
  • Drag Race Italia's first two seasons were produced by Discovery, and were aired on their streaming platform Discovery+ (followed at a later date on their free-to-air TV channel Real Time). From season 3 onwards, it's produced by Paramount and premieres on Paramount+.
• Continuity Nod: In the first episode of season 13, Denali scratches up the floor during her entrance due to wearing ice skates. It's clear that someone attempted to fix the scuffs but you can still see the scratch marks in the subsequent episodes of the season.
• Contractual Purity:
  • Averted. More than one contestant has done porn in the past. RuPaul has never commented on the matter, which implies that she doesn't care and that it doesn't affect her decisions. This is particularly defied in Season 7 with winner Violet Chachki; by the time it was known she was in the top 4 (before she won), a user on Reddit identified a then-18 year old Violet/Jason in a porn video where it spread like wildfire. Violet's Twitter response? "Lol vintage smut". Jade Jolie and Detox have both also done porn, Sharon and Alaska have literally kai kai'd onstage while performing their song "Let's Have A Kai Kai", there are even pictures floating around on the internet of Max in bondage gear. And Willam... casually fisted a slave once during a gig, while singing, because he's Willam.
  • The contestants are forbidden from having any interaction with their boyfriends/lovers during the competition, although not for any morality reason, but for fairness among the other queens. When Willam was disqualified, this was even used as a faked reason for his dismissal (he actually lied to producers to get kicked off because he felt he had done enough for his image and was ready to quit).
  • This has gotten more severe in more recent seasons, with queens admitted when not filming they are required to stay secluded in their hotel rooms, and the staff actually duct tape their doors in order to catch them should the queens try and escape.
  • Unfortunately this trope is played straight after appearing on the show. Canada Season 1 contestant Ilona Verley revealed that they weren't allowed to perform sex work on OnlyFans while under contract, which killed their finances since the season aired during the worst of the Covid pandemic and they couldn't tour, resulting in a bout of homelessness.
• Corpsing:
  • Highly present in Season 10, there's just something about how Michelle Visage says " ... Miss Vaaaaanjie" that sends Ru into a fit of hysterics!
  • In the Season 2 All Stars, Tatianna visibly drops character during the Snatch Game when Detox's Nancy Grace tries to play off of Tati's Ariana Grande. It's one of the first times a queen has dropped her celebrity impersonation on camera during the challenge (and may be a part of why she ends up in the bottom 3).^note This is only the first time such a character break is actually down in the final edit of the episode, there have been plenty of queens who confirm there's a lot of corpsing that goes on during Snatch Game, usually edits are done around it unless it is important to the story
  • In the Season 4 All Stars, Lady Bunny corpses (while she's playing an actual corpse) at Monét X Change's spot-on roast of her.
  • Season 6 All Stars: Yara sometimes has issues with focusing during acting challenges, seen during the Commercial challenge where she cracks herself up in the middle of takes. Michelle (acting as director) actually reminds Yara they need a take without her laughing that they can use for the final product.
  • In Season 11, when Vanessa Vanjie Mateo says "Thank you, Miss Vanjie! ...I thanked myself." during the diva worship challenge, Nina West can be seen cracking up, and she admits that she couldn't help but fall out of character hearing her say that.
  • Season 12 contestant Heidi tends to crack herself up in the confessionals and tell the producers that what she said was too good not to air. Heidi has a hard time not laughing at the other queens' jokes as well. This is especially the case in the Choices 2020 challenge where she keeps backing away from the microphone because someone made her laugh.
  • According to a tweet from Shea, this was the case during the All Stars 7 Snatch Game, where Jinkx's performance as Judy Garland was so funny the other queens couldn't stop laughing at it.
• Deleted Scene:
  • In Seasons 7 and 8, all queens in the top 4 filmed scenes for the final music video challenge, but the one who got the chop before the other 3 moved on to the live finale had her scenes removed from the final edit. "The Realness" was eventually re-edited and re-released to include Chi Chi's scenes after her passing.
  • More recently, "proper" deleted scenes (like extended mini-challenges or werkroom conversations) get a release on YouTube as bonus content.
  • According to Trinity, the queens of All Stars 7 did receive negative critiques from the judges, but the vast majority of these were kept out of the final edit.
• Disowned Adaptation: Usually when a living celebrity is impersonated on the Snatch Game, they're a good sport about it even if the performance goes poorly. Not Patricia Quinn. She hated Aiden Zhane's performance in season 12's version, was insulted by Aiden portraying her as a senile drug addict, and she made it clear that she doesn't know Aiden despite Aiden's claim that they had lunch together (or more likely it was one event out of countless others).
• Executive Meddling: In All Stars season four, both Rupaul and production vetoed Manila Luzon's original Padded to the Gods look due to it being based on a period pad, complete with a streak of blood coming off of it. Manila was hoping to show that such a bodily function was normal on the show, but had to settle for revealing it on instagram instead.
• Foiler Footage: For the series finale, all possible series winners have their announcement and coronation filmed, with the actual winner only being chosen shortly before the episode airs. Some unusual foiler footage has been created on occasion; Season 6 had a double victory shared between Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio filmed.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Many of the shows design challenges were originally done on Project Runway, to the point where nearly every design challenge could be described as "Project Runway Season X Episode Y, but with drag queens."
  • Season 6's April Carrion was the first queen to elect to post her runways online for episodes after her elimination. After this, many queens have done the same to help boost their public image after they've left the show (Laila McQueen even posted looks for All-Stars runways, seasons she was in no way affiliated in just to get some good publicity).
• Fountain of Memes: Willam, Latrice, Alyssa, Laganja, and Bianca are perhaps the most quotable queens in the history of the show.
• Friendship on the Set: While most examples of contestants working together outside the show are queens that were already friends beforehand, there are a few that bonded during their season and went on to work together afterwards. One of the most notable examples are the Season 6 finalists Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, Courtney Act, and Darienne Lake.^note Darienne was actually the last queen eliminated before the finale, but close enough Not only was this the first season to lack any sort of rivalry among the finalists as they all readily loved and supported one another, but a few years after the season, the four queens embarked on the "ABCD" Tour.
• Hostility on the Set: Most of the onscreen arguments and rivalries can be chalked up to stress from long shooting hours and Manipulative Editing only showing contestants at their worst and editing out any apologies afterwards, with a couple notable exceptions:
  • Season 1 finalist Rebecca Glasscock didn't get along with the other two finalists, Bebe Zahara Benet and Nina Flowers, who had bonded and hoped to work together again afterwards, but Rebecca made it very clear that she wasn't friends with either of them.
  • The Season 2 contestants have minced no words saying that they did not get along with season winner Tyra Sanchez. When Tyra was crowned, runner-up Raven's farewell message was, "Keep reaching for the stars, because you'll never be one." This has only continued after the season; Tyra was banned from DragCon for threatening violence against Tatianna (among other antics too numerous to list here). Pandora Boxx summed up the cast's feelings when she tweeted, "Tyra Sanchez you were an asshole 8 years ago and you're an asshole now."
  • According to Stacey Layne Matthews, Season 3's famous argument between Shangela and Mimi Imfurst led to an all-out fight between the two that caused production to be halted for three weeks while producers figured out how to move forward, before ultimately allowing Shangela and Mimi to stay on the show.
  • One of the most famous on-set rivalries has to be Season 4's infamous feud against showgirl Phi Phi O'Hara and lovable spook Sharon Needles. However, the two have gone on record as stating while their hostilities were genuine at first, at some point during the season (many fans theorize during/after the "Frenemies" main challenge) the two resolved their differences but decided to keep pretending to hate each other for the cameras since they knew their bickering would make good television. Later on, the two claimed there had never been any hostility between them, and they had fabricated the rivalry from the beginning (joking how the show refuses to acknowledge this since it was a plot thread the queens had created in spite of the producers, who usually like to be in total control of what characters the queens play on the show).
  • Invoked in Season 5 with Alyssa Edwards and Coco Montrese, who were rivals outside the show due to drama surrounding the Miss Gay America pageant. Despite their constant bickering during the season, when it came time for the ballet challenge, Coco chose to work with Alyssa because she respects that the latter is a choreographer. Their scene just so happened to be a black swan and white swan squaring off.
  • Invoked again between The Vixen and Eureka O'Hara on Season 10. The two seemed to have a terrible time working together, which resulted in a screaming match between the two in Untucked. That is not anything too outlandish for this show, however, afterwards Eureka purportedly approached The Vixen in private and asked her 'how she wanted to handle this' and fabricate a storyline for the show. The Vixen was so insulted about the attempt to manipulate the situation and trivialize their fight that she treated Eureka with contempt and hostility for the rest of her time on the show.
  • In Season 13 there was Tamisha Iman and Kandy Muse; during Untucked, Tamisha read a few of the girls by giving an open backhanded compliment that although some of them were arrogant and had real nasty attitudes, she respected their drag. Kandy was quick to figure out Tamisha included her in that group, and the two ended up in an uncomfortable screaming match with Kandy threatening violence before storming outside. While the two seemed to quash the feud the next episode, online and during the Reunion they have repeated that neither of them liked the other very much, would "never be friends", and Tamisha revealed had it come to blows she would have happily responded in kind, but didn't want it to come to that since it would mean their disqualification.
  • Also during season 13, Kandy Muse made no secret to the press of her friction with Elliott With 2 Ts - in fact, Kandy accused Elliott of inappropriate comments, including racial microaggressions, on set. Fellow contestant Symone backed her up.
• I Am Not Spock: The queens constantly assure fans that onscreen antics don't necessarily define them outside the show, especially with Manipulative Editing and Accentuate the Negative in effect. Many of the "villains" are actually lovely people, and supposed rivals are often friends or at least friendly off camera.
  • Some of the queens have actually stated they do not even want to be called by their Drag Names anymore, as they dislike how the fandom only sees them as that put-on character. Queens who have officially distanced themselves from their drag personas include James William Ross (formally Tyra Sanchez) and Jaremi Lee Carey (formally Phi Phi O'Hara). They may still perform in drag, but they have made it clear they are playing a character and the Drag Queen may not be who they really are as a person.
• In Memoriam:
  • The first episode of All Stars was dedicated to Season 2 queen Sahara Davenport after her unexpected passing.
  • The finale of Season 12 had a segment dedicated to long-time producer Jacqueline Wilson, who sadly passed away shortly after filming.
  • The music video for "The Realness", aka season 8's final challenge, was re-released including Chi Chi DeVayne's scenes as a tribute after her passing in 2020. Chi Chi was also honoured in a segment during the Season 13 finale.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Drag Race Season 1 is notoriously hard to find, as it has not been released on DVD, is not available on Logo's website, and unlike everything else with RuPaul's name attached to it, is not available on iTunes.
  • Finally averted, as Logo aired Drag Race's "lost season" September 30th, 2013. Although still played straight for the unedited version of Season 1 that doesn't include all the "RuVealed" pop-ups.
• Lying Creator: Paolo Ballesteros consistently denied that he was going to be the main host of Drag Race Philippines, even going so far as to claim he wasn't right for the role and wasn't interested in it. (He recommended Vice Ganda instead.) Even up to mid-2022, his status as the main host was kept under wraps (lightly teased in a faceless shot in the sizzle reel), but now it's been confirmed he is the main host.
• Marathon Running: It's very common for the show to replay several of the preceding episodes before any new episode is shown, not to mention when the new episode does air it usually plays at least twice in a row, for those who may have missed it at it's premier time. Also, in general, it's very rare for Drag Race episodes to ever be shown individually, usually being shown on LOGO in a block of between 2 to 4 episodes at a time.
• Meme Acknowledgment: This catchy little number features samples from Season 5's Alyssa Edwards's time in the show. She often performs it on tour.
• Milestone Celebration: The 8th season premiere was the 100th episode of the show and featured the 100th contestant overall. The show celebrated these milestones by having a main challenge that called back several design challenges from the entire run of the show, as well as cameos from many past queens including all of the season winners (except Bianca del Rio, who they replaced with a circus clown).
• Missing Episode:
  • Season 6's 4th episode "Shade: The Rusical" has been pulled from the airwaves and from LOGO's website due to the unfortunate "Female or She-Male" incident that caused a backlash from the transgender community, although the episode is still available for purchase from Amazon and iTunes.
    • The episode is eventually brought back into circulation, albeit with the "Female or She-Male" scene completely removed.
  • Season, 6, episode 10 "Drag My Wedding" was pulled from circulation as well. Rumor has it that the groom that Joslyn Fox got (the basketball player who got sick on stage) was blackmailed by his fiancé into participating on the show after she found out he had cheated on her. Whether the groom's sports agents pressured the episode into being pulled, or the producers pulled it themselves to distance themselves from the story, however, is unknown.^note There are other controversies surrounding this episode as well, such as the rumor production intentionally screwed Joselyn over by giving her the only African-American man and then removing all foundation meant for darker skintones from the Werk Room under the pitiful excuse that they removed it by mistake after Trinity (the last black queen of the cast) was eliminated, yet couldn't just bring the makeup back
• Money, Dear Boy: Season 6 queen BenDeLaCreme had said in previous interviews about joining an All Stars season that she would refuse as she did not agree with the Manipulative Editing she received during her season (affecting both her image and the image of other queens from her season). However, she returned to participate in the third season of All Stars purportedly in exchange for a higher salary per episode for her return.
• No Budget:
  • Each season there's at least one "Thrifty Queen" who lacks the funds for elaborate drag outfits and relies on secondhand bargains, costume wigs, and improvised materials for their drag. Season 6's Adore Delano, 8's Chi Chi DeVayne (you'd never know her entrance dress was a trash bag until she proudly revealed it), and 10's Monique Heart are the most well-known in this regard. Aiden Zhane became particularly infamous for this during season 12, and by that point, the budgets that contestants have to work with once they're cast on the show had become a hot-button fandom topic.
  • In hindsight, season 1 comes across as having this feel compared to the glossier feel of season 6 onwards as the show gained popularity.
  • Untucked starting Season 7, as it's now a web series on the WOW Presents YouTube channel. Tropes Are Not Bad is definitely in effect here, as fans have celebrated the more intimate and subdued Untucked, compared to the overproduced and overly dramatic versions we've had the last few seasons.
  • In the S01E04 episode of Alaska and Willam's podcast Race Chaser, Willam and Tammy Brown confirm during the Tammy Tidbits segment that All Stars 1's long-reviled team format was also in large part due to this, as production didn't have the budget to make enough episodes for all the queens they wanted to cast individually. Eliminating queens in pairs was production's idea of keeping the episode number to a minimum.
  • Drag Race UK has a smaller budget than the US show, with viewers noting that the prizes are lackluster in comparison; main challenge winners get a pin^note a "Ru-Peter Badge", in fact, which although it doesn't seem like much, for any UK queen, this evokes childhood memories of classic children's programme, Blue Peter, and as Baga notes, if she ever sells the badge on Ebay, she'll make thousands for their troubles, and the season winner will get a trip to LA to produce a webseries for World of Wonder. This at least has justifiable reasons; the show airs on BBC, which forbids commercials or any other kind of corporate sponsorship (which also explains the lack of Ru's famously campy plugs).
  • Canada's Drag Race was filmed in a defunct ammunition factory, and the heating was an issue throughout the season.
  • Drag Race Holland has much less glitz and glamour than the other seasons, with the grand prizes aside from the crown and scepter being a Cosmo photoshoot and a couture dress valued at €18k (US$21k, £16.3k). However, due to the much smaller size of the Netherlands compared to other host nations, the queens were allowed to just load up small moving trucks with their drag to bring to set, instead of the five suitcases that contestants on US and Canada are limited to taking with them.^note This little fact explains how queens were able to take massive costumes and props with them, with Sederginne's Marie Antoinette rolling dress and the water-squirting baby carriage, Ma'Ma Queen's Maria cross, and Roem's entrance look serving trolley.
  • Drag Race Down Under also has a notably lower budget. Like Drag Race Holland, this likely owes to the smaller size of New Zealand where the show is set. The grand prize is only NZ$30,000 (US$21,487), and the queens' entrance looks doubled as their promo looks. At least part of this is due to Troubled Production. The show was originally supposed to be filmed in Australia (and feature only Australian queens) but it was decided late in development to be moved to New Zealand for safety reasons at the cost of financial set backs and lower grade production, the entirely of the season was allegedly filmed in just over two weeks
  • In spite of being Emmy-winning, the original incarnation of the show isn't immune to budget cuts, either. "Night of 1,000 ____s" runways have been retooled to force the queens to pay homage to looks from award shows and public appearances only, as the show doesn't want to pay the licensing costs for looks derived from movies or music videos. This was confirmed by Season 14's Maddy Morphosis, whose Jennifer Lopez look from The Cell had to be scrapped for this very reason.
• Older Than They Think: Applies to multiple memes and catchphrases from across the show's herstory. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Most of the drag slang used on the show ("shade," "reading," "serving ____ realness," etc.) has been present in American drag culture and/or the ball scene since at least the 80's.
  • Alaska's signature "hieeee": Appears on the show as early as Season 1 with Ongina.
  • Adore's catchphrase "Party!": Comes from the renown LA fixture and Season 10 Rugirl Mayhem Miller.
• Out of Holiday Episode: Drag Race UK Series 2, Episode 4 has a Monster Mashup runway theme complete with a unique stage and lighting setup, yet it aired in February 2021. It's possible that, since the series was originally scheduled to air in late 2020 before production had to be halted, the episode was going to be aired around Halloween.
• Persona Non Grata:
  • After it was revealed that Season 4's Willam actually lied to the producers to be kicked off his season on purpose (previously it was explained to be that Willam had broken the rules by having contact with his husband during filming), the show has effectively cut all ties with him. Fans were especially disappointed since he was one of the most anticipated queens to return for the second season of All-Stars, with Willam even calling the producers out for ignoring the fan's wishes to see him return. After the fact, however, Willam seems to have embraced her status as the "Blackballed Ru Girl" and is one of the few contestants who will openly criticize Ru on her alleged scandals, including Ru's supposed transphobia or the whole fracking controversy.
    • According to Willam's podcast Race Chasers, anything in regards to his conduct on Season 4 had nothing to do with the show cutting ties with him. He claims they officially stopped any correspondence with him after he accidentally leaked that All Stars 2 was going to happen, in spite of the fact he admits everyone pretty much knew it was happening anyway.
  • After All-Stars 2, it appears Phi Phi O'Hara has cut all ties with Ru and World of Wonder. In return, they seems to have cut all ties with her as well (Ru going as far as to outright block Phi Phi on Twitter).
  • Season 1 second runner-up Rebecca Glasscock made it a point to cut all ties with the show after her season, feeling she was portrayed unfairly. Years later after the show has taken off Rebecca seems to have made an attempt to get back into the Drag Race fold (she purportedly campaigned heavily to win the fan vote for the first season of All Stars), but World of Wonder seems perfectly fine in keeping ties severed with her, having not featured or invited her back for a single event.
    • If there was any "ban" in place, it appears to have been lifted as Rebecca Glasscock was invited to participate in the Season 10 finale, along with the rest of the Season 1 girls (minus Tammie Brown, who was unable to attend due to a gig in Australia).
  • After season 7 finalist Pearl's interview on Hey Qween! in which she spoke at length about her disillusioning experience on the show, she was purportedly called by a WoW producer to be told she'll never be in an All-Stars season.
  • Season 12 saw contestant Sherry Pie not only disqualified from the show but also barred from the finale in response to her scandal in which she catfished several aspiring young actors for nudes and degrading sexual videos while pretending to be a casting director. Unlike Willam, who was only disqualified from the competition but is not blackballed entirely from the show, (such as when she appeared as a surprise guest in All Stars Season 1 and featured in Drag U), Sherry has the "honor" of being the first and only queen disqualified from the show as an entity and banned from future events, retroactively stripping her as a "Ru Girl".
  • Season 3 contestant Venus D-Lite has complained that the show invoked this on her, after in Season 10 when they invited Cher Impersonator Chad Michaels to cameo for the Cher Rusical, the producers did not extend the same offer to Venus, a well-known Madonna Impersonator, for Season 12's Madonna Rusical. Venus claims the show is still punishing her after "not playing their game" during her season and is purposely ignoring her in spite of the work she has done outside of Drag Race. The show has not commented at all on if there is any validity to this claim, however.
  • India Ferrah attempted to pull this on the show itself after Season 3, claiming she was retiring as the show had 'taken the fun out of drag'. It didn't last long though, India was back in drag and involved in the show as soon as Season 5, and eventually appeared as a returning contestant on All Stars 5.
  • Tamisha Iman seemed to be doing everything in her power to burn every bridge with the show after Season 13 finished airing. During her run on the show, she claimed to be interested in being in a sisterhood with the other girls, not caring if she won, and being preemptively excited about returning for an All Stars season. After the show, she has distanced herself from the other contestants, claims the show was fake and she was cheated, and has stated she has no intention of ever returning to the show in any capacity. Not only that, she started breaking the terms of her contract left and right, from breaking nondisclosure, posting videos that are by contract owned by World of Wonder, to starting her own paid service within the contract period where she is not allowed to, with her only defense seeming to be calling production's bluff if they would actually risk losing face by taking her to court to silence her.
  • After Heidi N. Closet stormed off the set and quit during All-Stars 8, the show effectively gave her the Un-person treatment for the rest of the season. She was disqualified from the online Fame Games and was not only not invited back for the Talent Show or Finale, but she was not even mentioned, nor were any clips of her shown barring a quick shot of her leaving on the "Previously on" segment.
• Playing Against Type: Happened twice in a row to April, which landed her in the bottom two both times. In the horror movie challenge she was cast to play a Butch Lesbian despite not having a single butch atom in her body (though it wasn't by choice). In the musical challenge, she chose to play the role of a big queen despite being thin, and completely failed to sell it, leading to her elimination.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: In All Stars the teams of queens get names like this, for instance Latrila (Latrice and Manila) Brown Flowers (Tammie Brown and Nina Flowers) and Rujubee (Raven and Jujubee).
  • Amusingly in season 2 this is discussed about Raven and Morgan, as they always had each other's back until Morgan gets eliminated by a spurned slightly bitter Jujubee who Raven didn't pick first to choose a wedding dress despite without Juju she wouldn't have won the mini challenge. Her and Tatianna think of different couple names to call them by.
  • Season 5 also gives us Rolaskatox for the triad of Roxxxy Andrews, Alaska and Detox, who quickly form their own little clique.
  • For the Romance on the Set between Vanessa Vanjie Mateo and Brooke Lynn Hytes in season 11, their fellow queens coined the term "Branjie".
  • Crystal and Gigi are intentionally very ambiguous and trolling on whether they're actually romantically involved or not but fans have dubbed them Crygi with inconsistent pronunciation.
  • Season 13 has the platonic coupling of Rosé and Denali, aka "Rosénali".
• Promoted Fanboy: One of the criteria Ru was looking for in a new full-time judge for Season 7 was to be a big fan of show, which she found in Carson Kressley and Ross Matthews.
  • Part of the reason the guest judges will appear is that they're fans of the show.
  • Since Season 7 onwards, quite a number of the competing queens have said not only are they, themselves, huge fans of the show, but some of them were actually inspired to get into drag because of watching the show. Season 8 winner, Bob The Drag Queen, mentions on her Meet The Queens video that she started doing drag after watching the first season.
  • UK Season 1's Scaredy Kat was 19 during filming and the youngest contestant in the show's history. She talks about how she grew up watching Drag Race, which puts things in shocking perspective as she would have only been seven years old during Season 1.
  • Dutch drag queen Roem, creator of the popular parody series Rapal Dark Res, would eventually be cast in the first season of Drag Race Holland.
• Referenced by...: Has happened more & more with the show's increased popularity.
  • In the Riverdale episode "Death Proof", as Archie and Jughead are preparing to race the Ghoulies, Kevin notes that this in "Not the type of drag race I ever saw myself attending."
  • Saturday Night Live has aired several skits referencing the show, including one where Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren references Sasha Velour's finale rose petal reveal, and another where several straight men discuss the show.
  • Rapal Dark Res, the show's Affectionate Parody, is 90% composed of references to the show, along with references to every spinoff, the personal life of every queen, as well as pretty much anything related to the show.
  • The Abridged Series: Several of these have emerged in recent seasons, although two of the most popular are The Ru-Up and the Ru-Cap. Most of them snarkily edit the show to poke fun at the queens, and very often make references to Drag Race inside jokes. And yes, The Ru-Cap and Rapal Dark Res have both referenced each other.
  • Iceman has served as a guest judge on Drag Race in the Marvel Universe.
  • In Marvel's Immortal X-Men, villain Mister Sinister uses technology to reboot his own personality based on Oscar Wilde, Deadpool and "five choice seasons of Drag Race".
• Romance on the Set:
  • While established couples have competed in separate seasons, there has yet to be an actual romance between contestants during a season, though a few queens came close. The Princess flirted with Sharon Needles in Season 4, and Jinkx Monsoon admits an attraction to Ivy Winters on the Confession Cam in Season 5.
  • May finally be actually happening in Season 11 with Brooke Lynn and Miss Vanjie, much to the delight of their castmates. The reunion revealed that the pair dated for four months afterwards, but broke up due to their busy schedules; they remain on friendly terms, however.
  • Season 12's Gigi Goode and Crystal Methyd either had some kind of fling or are the biggest trolls in Drag Race history. Since the start of the season, the two have made numerous jokes on social media about being soulmates. Much of what they have said has been obvious jokes and teasing but their sheer commitment to the bit has led many fans to take it seriously. On the show the duo are clearly close and at one point share an air kiss. Come the Reunion, Ru asks them point blank if they're dating and the two give extremely dodgy questions. While this is most likely them wanting to keep the joke going, the other queens at the reunion teasing them about it (including Jackie claiming to have seen them 'canoodling' in the van on set) blurs the line even further.
  • During the puppet challenge on Canada's Drag Race, Scarlet BoBo implied that Rita Baga had a crush on Lemon. After Lemon's elimination, Rita heavily praised her on Instagram, and on-set wore one of Lemon's signature lemon-patterned boy shirts and on the Snow Ball runway she got a lemon out as a reference to her departure. Whatever subtext or budding romance there may have been completely got lost on the cutting room floor leaving viewers in the dark.
  • In the second episode of Drag Race UK, A'Whora and Tayce admit that they find each other attractive and start to flirt — and production helpfully puts a Sexophone as the soundtrack of the scene. It comes out later that they dated briefly in the past, but then decided to be Better as Friends.
  • After her elimination on Season 13, Utica Queen revealed she and Olivia Lux had been flirting during filming, and at some point Utica had asked Olivia out on a date after the show, which Olivia had accepted.
  • In season 14, Angeria and Lady Camden quickly became very close. Their lighthearted Ship Tease with each other turned out to have actual attraction behind it, however, as Angeria confirmed a while before the reunion aired. Angeria said that she and Camden weren't in a relationship (at the time the article was released), but were "working" on it and open to possibly dating each other when they're less busy. The two also echoed the same sentiments during the reunion episode itself, saying they were just taking it slow and seeing where things go.
  • In an Untucked game of Two Truths & A Lie, Monét implies that she had previously hooked up with one of the other queens of the season. Raja and Yvie are pointed out as suspects, but neither confess.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: On Drag Race UK, Vinegar Strokes' "Queen of Your Hometown" look was going to be based on the Victoria Line, but she was unable to secure licencing permission from TfL in time, forcing her to use the maligned "River Thames" dress that put her up for elimination.
• Star-Making Role:
  • As the show is pretty much the only mainstream source of exposure to drag, any queen who appears on the show during its first seasons becomes a massive name in the drag world. It's gotten to the point where a common complaint of non-Drag Race queens is that the DR girls are able to make an amount of money off of booking fees and tips that they will never see, despite many being just as talented as (if not more talented than) some Drag Race queens.
  • As more seasons are made and more spin-offs are launched, the above has become less true. Even with Drag Race being a mainstream source of exposure, there are just so many queens now and only so many high profile gigs, coupled with the strictness of the show's contract and real-life events such as the COVID crisis that has revealed that getting on the show is no longer the career-assuring move it used to be. Queens like Season 3's Stacy Lane Matthews and Canada Season 2's Ilona Verley have both revealed they've struggled with homelessness after the show in spite of the popularity they gained from it.
• Throw It In!: The tradition of leaving lipstick messages on the mirror after an elimination actually started in Season 2 by Shangela. She did so unprompted by the producers, but they realized it was a brilliant ad lib and have encouraged all future queens to do so from that point on.
• Troubled Production:
  • The first season of All Stars had quite a bit of trouble behind the scenes, as the show wanted to have a full season of 12 episodes (thus why they had 12 returning queens) but LOGO was firm in only greenlighting 6 episodes, forcing the team twist to make it work. In addition All Stars had some unknown issue regarding casting as Willam has stated he was, in fact, contracted to appear as a returning queen (which would have meant every past season would have had an equal number of representatives at 3/3/3/3 instead of the 3/3/4/2 that it ended up being) and that she was cut because the producers 'didn't see her having any stakes with the other queens' (as Phi Phi was unable to participate due to being under probation), and was replaced with Mimi Imfurst.
  • Also speaking of Willam, she has revealed that in her original season, the episode 'Dragazines' which had the queen photo and design fake magazine covers was also fraught with issues. Specifically the graphic designer the show hired to build the magazines did not know how to use a Mac, which was the only system the show used. Willam's smartassed comments on the main stage were said in reference to the ineptitude of the designer, and that the only reason Phi Phi did as well as she did was because she knew how to use the Mac software and forced the designer to let her do it herself (something some of the other queens did try to do, but most were told outright they were not allowed, Phi Phi just refused to take no for an answer).
  • The Christmas Episode had a lot of issues regarding long filming days that were further delayed when Shangela was constantly late to set. This was compounded by the fact the Drag Queens were the only employees on set who were not being paid overtime for the delays, since the queens had to be non-union to work on Drag Race. This led the queens to actually threaten to walk off the set if they were not paid fairly, which they eventually were (but not before Jasmine Masters actually left - notice her absence in the Dream Sequence or the Confession Cam).
  • Canada's first season was filmed during late fall and early winter 2019 and in a former munitions factory, meaning it was already particularly difficult to keep the set warm. Queens in the Werk Room were usually wearing some fairly warm clothing, but one day the heater they were using broke and during the most inopportune challenge: the Single Use Queens recyclable materials runway. So not only were the girls subject to a broken heater during a usual Canadian winter, but they were wearing outfits made out of paper, cardstock, tarps, safety fencing, screen door, mylar blankets, and copper scouring pads; to compensate, production had to give them blankets for the backstage segments. Later episodes show them still using those blankets, but the only time the lack of heating got brought up is when Ilona and Jimbo were having their fight.
  • The COVID-19 Pandemic had important effects on the seasons and episodes filmed in 2020 and 2021:
    • Season 12: The live reunion and finale had to be scrapped and replaced with two episodes filmed over video chat, with each queen connected from her home (the rest of the season had already been filmed the previous summer).
    • Season 13 and All Stars 6 featured a larger workroom to facilitate social distancing and the judges sat in separate plexiglass booths.
    • Drag Race UK Series 2: The filming had to be stopped halfway through and resumed seven months later with additional safety measures including once again distanced judges, and as a result its airing was postponed to January 2021. This production pause also saw Veronica Green, a frontrunner of the series up to that point, be forced to drop out after catching COVID-19.
    • Down Under season 1: The filming of Drag Race Australia was moved to New Zealand (with both Aussie and Kiwi contestants) for unspecified reasons connected to the pandemic situation, and as a result it was renamed RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.
• What Could Have Been: Has its own page.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Subverted. The reason later seasons go for the "reveal the winner at the finale" format is because previous winners had been leaked, most infamously by Perez Hilton, who revealed the winner of season 3 on his website almost as soon as it started airing! This means that Foiler Footage is filmed for multiple queens as mentioned above, and the winner's circle has to wait months before knowing who won. Sucks for the queens, but this turned out to be good for the fandom, since it lets Ru consider fans' opinions before picking a winner. The final decision is hers alone, as she's quick to assert, but it lets her avoid picking a winner who turns out to be The Scrappy, as was the case with Tyra Sanchez.
  • The one drawback for fans and the fandom is that the live reunion means the winner's real reaction to being crowned can't be seen since all three queens are filmed receiving the crown and none of them actually know who won until the finished episode airs. The show addressed this by releasing videos online of the final 3 queens watching the season finale together, and we see the winning queen's genuine reaction.
  • Season 10's Miss Congeniality vote was attacked by bots that continuously voted for The Vixen, either as a statement for equality for black queens in the drag community, or as a joke as The Vixen was probably the single most polarizing character this season. Either way by the time the polls were forcibly shut down, The Vixen was leading by a 12 million-vote lead! Come the reunion, Ru calls the bots out, and instead turns voting for Miss Congeniality to the other Season 10 queens, who elect Monét X Change as the Season 10 Miss Congeniality. This was largely accepted by viewers—especially compared to Valentina's controversial win in Season 9—and the practice was brought back for Season 11 onwards. Having the contestants themselves vote is actually how beauty pageants award Miss Congeniality, and Season 7's winner of the title, Katya, admitted that if it had been up to her season's cast, Jaidynn Diore Fierce would have won.
  • Fashion Photo RuView for All-Stars 7: All Winners was pulled from YouTube purportedly at Violet Chachki's demand after the sheer level of toxic hate she was receiving from the fandom due to her not automatically loving all of Raja's runway looks (while the majority seem to like Raja's aesthetic, one has to remember everyone's tastes can be different, especially when it comes to fashion). Rumor has it she actually called production while at a viewing party at Roscoe's and told them they either pull the episodes or she would quit drag altogether.
• Word of Gay: Daya Betty is a pretty unusual example for Drag Race, which is dominated by gay men as contestants with the occasional bi/pan men, straight trans women, and other LGBTQ+ folks (and Maddy Morphosis being the only cis, straight contestant so far). But the contestants' drag personas are assumed to be straight femmes most of the time. Daya Betty confirmed on a behind-the-scenes Instagram Live, though, that her drag persona is "very attracted to women in general," in response to lesbian fans claiming her. In real life, outside the character, Daya Betty/Trenton Clarke is a gay man.