RuPaul’s Drag Race is a competitive reality show on Logo. Either you know every single word in that sentence or you have absolutely no clue what is going on. And that’s fair. Even cable providers that have Logo on their dial don’t always know that this all-gay cable channel actually exists. But if you’re among the million or so viewers that tune into the network’s top show each season, you are probably ardently devoted to one of the best hours of entertainment on television. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to check it out on Monday, 2 March at 10pm EST when its seventh season kicks off.
Hosted by 90s phenomenon RuPaul, the show is like Top Chef, only with a lot more glitter. Actually, it’s quite similar to many other shows where people in specific professions square off against one another. Project Runway is for fashion, Face Off is for makeup, So You Think You Can Dance is for hoofing, Last Comic Standing is for comedy, and America’s Got Talent is for weird stuff we can’t categorise. Then there’s Drag Race, which is for all these skills combined.
Yes, the queens on Drag Race need to be able to apply makeup, sew dresses, deliver snappy insults (they call them “reads”), do choreography, sing songs, tell jokes, and impress a panel of persnickety judges each week. It takes a lot of balls to be on Drag Race, and then those balls have to be pulled back, reinserted into the body, and taped down so that those aforementioned judges can’t see even a hint of a “tuck” when a girl wears a revealing costume.
The challenges on this show are diverse and gruelling. One week the queens are filming a perfume commercial, the next week they’re writing their own raps, and the following week they’re sewing three outfits all built around a central theme. And then, if she winds up in the bottom two, a girl has to lip-sync for her life to see whether she stays or gets booted off the show.
To have such a collection of attributes is clearly rare bordering on genius. Even the queens who come in the middle of the pack have personalities bigger than the gravity-defying patisseries on The Great British Bake-Off. Last year’s winner, Bianca Del Rio, is an insult comic in the Joan Rivers mode who cussed out the fellow contestants so hilariously that even the targets laughed. The season before, the crown went to Jinkx Monsoon, a narcoleptic Jewish queen who did a killer Grey Gardens impersonation and had a penchant for flapper dresses and 40s-inspired musical numbers.
It’s not just the cast that makes the competition such a joy, but the sensibility. RuPaul’s Drag Race is the most self-aware show on the planet. As drag is to femininity, so the show is to reality TV – that is, amped up to the max. RuPaul is like Tyra Banks of America’s Next Top Model taken to her imperious extreme. Ru is all stratospheric wig and catchphrases, shot in soft focus so she always looks her best – even at the expense of the other contestants.
RuPaul’s Drag Race is pure camp, knowing that its prizes (like gift certificates to SequinQueen.com) are low rent in the extreme. But, hey, at least the contestants win something. Sure it’s Logo’s biggest hit but the show knows the stakes are low: after all, how many people in the real world care about the fortunes of a bunch of drag queens? But Drag Race smartly exploits the gulf between this truth and how seriously everyone takes the proceedings, and that’s what makes it so much fun.
Year by year, the show has grown in popularity and importance – especially among the gay community. Not only does Drag Race create new stars that tour the country performing their shows and MCing Pride events, but it influences trends and vocabulary (“hunty” for instance). Drag Race is like the gay man’s football: everyone watches it, there are different teams to root for, sometimes there are bets surrounding the outcome, and it draws everyone together in a common experience.
That’s why Drag Race is a must for fans of reality shows. Not only are the contestants the best and the show a wonderful parody of itself, but it’s a burgeoning cultural touchstone. If you don’t know where Logo is now, you better find out, or else you’re going to regret it when Sharon Needles finally makes it to the cover of Vogue.
- The Guardian’s Dominic Rushe and Megan Carpentier will be recapping RuPaul’s Drag Race from tomorrow.
