RuPaul’s Drag Race funny — and filthy
British version of TV show gloriously brash and unpolished perfection
Pity the poor American fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race that might be watching the new UK edition of the series right now. With Britain’s first gaggle of Drag Race contestants talking about chavs, trollops, gobshites and going “from gorgeous to minging” last Friday, their friends across the pond must have been furiously googling their way through the whole show.
I have to admit I’ve done some googling myself since it premiered — because this is where I shamefacedly confess to not having watched a full episode of the original RuPaul’s show before.
For years, this award-winning tour de force has been on my TV watching list for when life stops getting in the way. But having watched the premiere of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, I’ve seen enough to bump the whole franchise right to the top. The truth is, the British iteration had me from the moment their first contestant and said, “I’m Baga Chipz.” They sealed the deal when another queen by the name of Crystal struck her opening pose and said, “Maybe she’s born with it . . .
maybe it’s body dysmorphia.”
As the other contestants filed in, running a delightful gamut from queens who’ve been on the drag scene for years — like the “classy, sassy and little bit brassy” Divina De Campo — to baby queens like 19-yearold Scaredy Kat, even a Drag Race novice like myself could tell they were bringing a different vibe.
From the little I’ve seen of the original RuPaul show, these British queens seemed a bit rougher around the edges than their slick American counterparts. But what they lacked in polish, they more than made up for by being very funny and very filthy.
With host RuPaul telling contestants their first photoshoot would see them posing with their own severed head, Scaredy Kat pondered what stance to strike. “I think I’m gonna be shitting my head out,” she told Ru, before Ru turned to camera and deadpanned, “You’re watching the BBC.”
Ru certainly looked as if he’s having a blast in the UK. Even if some references sailed straight over his head, he clearly loved doling out the British-themed tasks. For the first catwalk challenge, he demanded two looks: Queen of Your Hometown (where contestants had the thankless task of trying to embody places like Wiltshire or Leicester) and Queen Elizabeth Realness.
Some of the outfits did have a school production quality about them. Londoner Vinegar Strokes walked out wearing a blue squiggle that was supposed to be the River Thames. Baga Chipz looked rough as guts in her Amy Winehouse get-up.
But then contestant Cheryl Hole embodied her home county of Essex perfectly, with patches of fake tan and a bit of toilet paper stuck to her heels. The Vivienne wowed with a Pete Burns tribute, before donning wellies for her interpretation of the Queen hunting at Balmoral. Meanwhile, two other contestants used their Queen Elizabeth moment to dress up as a stamp — a stamp! — and a pound coin. It was kitschy perfection.
Ru’s fellow judges also came out with some zingers in their first outing, albeit not always intentionally.
Resident judge Alan Carr was on fire with his observations.
“She looked like an estate agent that’s gone to Regent’s Park Zoo and said, ‘could you paint my face for 50p?’ and then she’s gone back into work and gone ‘what do you think girls?”’ he said of one queen.
But the harshest critique came from Ru’s BFF Michelle Visage as she praised The Vivienne for what she thought was a facial prosthesis.
“No, this is just my face,” The Vivienne said. Awkward.
By the time the two bottom contestants lip synced for their lives to Dua Lipa’s New Rules at the end of the show, I was well and truly hooked. How could you not be when Vinegar Strokes was a boob-wiggling vision in gold, who broke out not one, but two, fabulous wig reveals?
As far as debuts go, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK was glorious. With its mix of brash, funny and unpolished perfection, it certainly continued RuPaul’s legacy of putting drag, a once marginalised culture, firmly amongst the mainstream.
As Ru told his British queens at the start of the show, “We can change the mother-tucking world.”
I’ve no doubt it will continue to do so. Because it really is all that and a Baga Chipz.
New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK are available Fridays on TVNZ OnDemand.