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RuPaul's Drag Race: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Good luck, and don't fuck it up!"''}}
''
Each weekly challenge typically consists of the queens putting together an outfit based on a theme, but then tweaking the theme in order to put their signature on the dress. One of the defining elements of the show is the lip sync. After every challenge, the two competitors that have preformed the weakest must compete to stay on the show with a lip sync ''for their lives''. In the [[Grand Finale]] the final two competitors must also compete for the crown with a final lip sync. These have resulted in wigs falling off, splits, and even a kiss.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Always Second Best]]: Pandora Boxx, who is actually likened to Susan Lucci in one episode based on the number of times she just nearly missed winning a challenge.
* [[Annoying Laugh]]: Nicole Paige Brooks.
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** 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 Beyonce is...
* [[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.
* [[Combat Stilettos]]: The filming of
* [[Crazy Prepared]]: The queens seem to bring every piece of clothing they own to the competition, and are prepared for challenges that call for obscure clothing styles, 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 Trope|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.
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* [[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.
* [[Eye Scream]]: Jujubee was accidentally hit in the eye with a stiletto heel while participating in a staged and filmed catfight. Ouch.
* [[Fan Service]]: The "Pit Crew," two musclebound hunks who assist
** 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.
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* [[Freudian Excuse]]: The other queens attribute Phi Phi O'Hara's nasty attitude to her rough childhood as a victim of bullying.
** Most felt that excuse rang hollow when we learned that Sharon was forced to leave school due to being bullied, and yet was a thousand times friendlier and more likeable than Phi Phi.
*** Especially considering when Phi Phi bullied the other queens. She intentionally sabotaged Jiggly and had her eliminated from the show. Made even grosser is when Jiggly revealed in the Reunion episode that, after the show, she had been inviting Phi Phi to her place and Phi Phi had never fessed up to what she had done the whole time.
**** Let's not forget that she had been just as, if not more, nasty toward Willam. Before the episode where she sabotaged Jiggly and after the episode, for the rest of season, she constantly insulted Willam to a disproportionate degree. Hell, in the episode where she sabotaged Jiggly, Phi Phi sauntered over to Willam's work station, acting as if she were buddies with Willam because she thought Willam would laugh alongside her over what she did. Willam instead stared at Phi Phi in disbelief and discomfort as Phi Phi bragged that she heightened Jiggly's chances for elimination.
* [[Full-Name Basis]]: [[
** Mystique Summers Madison
** Stacey Lane Bryant Matthews Latisaw Q.
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* [[Gaussian Girl]]: RuPaul, especially in Season 1.
* [[Ham-to-Ham Combat]]: The "Lip sync for your Life!" danceoff.
** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in the second episode of season four:
* [[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.
* [[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 we finally got a "This is not RuPaul's Best Friend Race!"
* [[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.
** And, to a lesser degree, Season 4's Phi Phi O'Hara.
* [[Keet]] / [[Genki Girl]]: Manila Luzon. Dear God, Manila. Just watch her [http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj00oxV12B1qgp9gko1_500.jpg facial] [http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/feature/blog/2011/02/hyphen-tv-are-you-playing-angry-birds/500x350manila-luzon-qnn.jpg expressions.] True, she's capable of being pretty composed, too, but most of the time…
* [[Large Ham]] / [[Camp]]: It's a show about drag queens, so natch. In particular, RuPaul often takes particular relish in instructing the queens to "lip synch... for your ''LIFE''," and in ordering "bring back... MY GIRLS."
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* [[Meaningful Name]]: Manila Luzon, a Filipino queen, named herself after two of the largest islands in the Philippines.
** 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."
* [[Noodle Incident]]: The true reason behind Willam's disqualification. According to interviews from some of the other queens, the "conjugal visits from Willam's husband" explanation may not be the whole truth, or even the truth at all.
* [[N-Word Privileges]]: The term "she-male" is often considered offensive, but punnishly reclaimed to introduce the first segment: "Girl, you got She Mail!"
** In Season 3, the other queens question Manila Luzon's [[N-Word Privileges]] in regards to some of her Asian stereotype schtick.
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* [[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); and "Apocalyptic couture" (taken while getting spun around and covered in neon-colored paint).
** The first episode also involves making a new, original drag outfit out of whatever random things
** There will always be some kind of acting-related challenge: season one had the queens run through different phases of Oprah's career; season two put the queens in teams to shoot commercials for "Disco Extra-Greasy Shortening"; season three had the queens act in fake sci-fi movie trailers, make fake workout videos, and put together fake newscasts; and season four had the queens acting as professional wrestlers, acting in a fake sitcom ("Hot In Tuckahoe"), making infomercials to hock
** There will always be some group challenge, or several: season one had the queens in girl groups, lip-synching to Destiny's Child songs; season two had the Disco Extra-Greasy Shortening challenge and also made the queens come up with burlesque acts; season three's group challenges are as above; and in addition to the first three examples from above, season four had the "frenemies" challenge, where the queens were paired up in mismatched couples (Willam and Latrice Royale; Chad Michaels and Dida Ritz; and Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara)
** from season two forward: THE SNATCH GAME (the queens impersonate celebrities on a [[Match Game]]-style game show); and the "throwing shade" mini-challenge ([[Catch Phrase|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
** 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 had the girls work on cis female fighters; season two paired them up with older gay men who didn't do drag; season three gave us "Jocks In Frocks," where the girls were matched up with heterosexual male jocks; and season four's "DILFs (Dads I'd Like To Frock)" paired up the girls with macho heterosexual fathers.
** the finale of every season features the top three competitors performing in some new
* [[Perky Goth]]: Sharon Needles.
* [[Pimped-Out Dress]]
* [[Product Placement]]: Anyone thirsty for some Absolut vodka?
**
** "...that's boobsforqueens.com."
** Now being lampshaded in s4, as
* [[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.
* [[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 [[
** 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… [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|I'm talking about cats!]] [[Deadpan Snarker|You're a pervert!]]"
* [[Punny Name]]: Mimi Imfurst, Pandora Boxx, Sharon Needles.
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** {{spoiler|Kenya Michaels}} being eliminated, when she was a major favorite for top 3 in Season 4.
** Also in season four; {{spoiler|Willam, who wasn't even the bottom 2 the week she was eliminated. [[Word of God]] says that she broke a rule, and Ru was forced to remove her from the competition.}}
* [[Stage Names]]: Used by most of the queens, but rejected by Chad Michaels, Willam, and
** Chad and Willam's cases double as [[Gender Blender Name|Gender Blender Names]].
* [[So Beautiful It's a Curse]]: Tatianna, who was frustrated over other queens insisting that she was only about a pretty face.
* [[Spicy Latina]]: Jessica Wild, Yara Sofia, Alexis Mateo, to name a few.
* [[Spin-Off]]: ''
** ''Drag U'' was another spin-off in which former ''Drag Race'' contestants give ordinary, plain women drag-tastic makeovers.
* [[Stripperiffic]]: Many queens have gone down the runway in outfits that would qualify as such, [[Serial Escalation|but Carmen Carerra regularly tops herself]].
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** 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.
** [[Henry Rollins]] confessed in his spoken word shows that he once fantasized about one of the contestants after his guest appearance.
* [[Stylistic Suck]]: Sometimes. Very often on RuPaul's Drag U.
* [[Teeth-Clenched Teamwork]]: Displayed by Sharon Needles and Phi Phi O'Hara in the "frenemies" challenge. {{spoiler|It doesn't work and they end up lipsynching for their lives.}}
* [[The Runner Up Takes It All]]: Both Nina Flowers and Raven, the runner ups 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.
* [[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". When she asks for clarification, the director and Ru agree to go with Tyra's version as it sounds better.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]] / [[Moral Event Horizon]]: Mimi Imfurst lifting up a screaming India above her head during her lipsync.
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