So everyone who is anyone (or at least anyone who is gay) knows that RuPaul’s Drag Race is one of the most fun shows on TV. I started recapping the season in earnest, but then I realized that much like making fun of Ke$ha or delivering a dramatic reading of Jewel’s poetry, it is difficult to be snarky about things that are already their own most over-the-top parody. But it’s been a few weeks, so I thought we’d check in and see how the duct tape is holding up on RuRu and her remaining seven girls.
The point of reality television is to get a group of extreme personalities together and make them hate each other, right? Thank goodness that Drag Race wears its heart on its sleeve: tonight’s episode opens with the queens “reading” each other. For those of you who went to church camp, it’s like an inverted affirmation circle: one by one, each contestant takes a turn talking shit about the others. If you never went to church camp, imagine a family Thanksgiving at the Farrell house. It’s kind of like that. Raja’s reaction to being read seems like the face I’m making any time I watch this show:
The readings are mostly not that funny: everyone goes for Delta’s weight, Yara’s jokes are indecipherable, and pretty much everyone works less on their material and more on straight-up stealing Jujubee’s delivery style from last season. Unlike previous seasons, not all the readings are shown, which must mean that what we saw was actually the pick of the litter. You can almost see the tiny pink gears turning inside RuPaul’s head as she introduces the girls with every book/reading/library-related reference in the entire English language. She never mentioned due date slips, which, although antiquated, could have been tied into some kind of hilarious pregnancy joke, right? Oh god, now I’m going to get read.
