Drag Race Down Under power-bottom ranking: episode 4
Snitch game!(bc Minnie snitched on Bev)
Hello! It’s me, Ellen! And we’re back with another startling and physically beautiful power ranking of Drag Race Down Under, brought to you by me, Dame Judi Dench. Just kidding! It’s me, Patrick.
But what I did there was part of the joy of the game called Snatch Game, where queens pretend to be famous people - I pretended to be someone else. But I’m not them! See the humour. If I was Dame Judi Dench, it wouldn’t be nearly as funny, it would have just been a statement of fact. But what would have been funny is the idea of Dame Judi Dench writing a drag race recap newsletter. I’d read it!
I have a lot of thoughts about Snatch Game, and the most insufferable of those thoughts is this: Snatch Game is a long form improv format, and if queens understood that, maybe did a casual six levels of improv at an improv comedy school, sunk their life savings into the cult, got super stressed about something called “the harold” and learned how to say “yes, and” - then they would actually be able to play the game well. I genuinely believe 8/10 mistakes made on Snatch Game would be solved by basic 101 improv.
I think the problem is that queens think snatch game is about impersonation and mimicry - but it’s really not. You can look and sound EXACTLY like the celebrity you’re doing and still not manage to be funny. The goal of Snatch Game, is above all, to be funny (or to make Ru laugh, which isn’t always the same thing). In improv we call this “finding the game” - and to be brief, it’s finding out what is funny about your character. Sometimes, and this is where it gets confusing for people, the funny thing IS that you’re doing such a good impersonation. Sometimes proper mimicry HELPS the joke.
Look at Jinx Monsoon in the latest All Stars, with her Judy Garland - she LOOKED just like her, and brought enough vocal flags and mannerisms to make it a good mimicry. But, more importantly, it was still a DRAG QUEEN’s impersonation - with elements of Judy’s character dialled up into absurdity, her mannerisms familiar but overly exaggerated. The “game” was the fact that Jinx was playing a silver screen hollywood golden age legend with the conceit that she was truly at the drag race snatch game. Hilarious! One of my personal favourites was Gigi Goode’s Maria the Robot - she committed to a presentation of what she imagined this robot would be (famously Maria the robot doesn’t have a personality), with a really funny physical game to play the whole way through (pretending to be a robot), with the added game of giving her a drag queen’s vocabulary (her first line was, robotically: “what’s up bitch”).
It’s about playing a character, and the character doesn’t have to have ANYTHING to do with what they’re based on, really. But it works best if those identity tags, the things that make them familiar to us, are either heightened into absurdity, or absurdly contrasted (see, Jujubee’s Eartha Kitt and Trinity The Tuck’s satan for examples of the former and latter).
If you can find a game to play with your character, you’ll avoid literally all the mistakes that the DRDU s2 crew made. It wasn’t the worst Snatch Game I’ve seen, but it wasn’t good.
Let’s power rank:
WINNERS
Yuri +3 points
I feel weirdly proud of Yuri? I guess because they are really cute in boy drag, and I want the best for them? Anyway, I thought they were great this episode, and proved that quiet doesn’t mean shy. They found a fundamental truth of improv/ performing/ snatch game - be silly and have fun.
“I thought i’d just be a weird little miss who doesn’t know what she’s doing - so just myself”.
Her Courtney Love wasn’t groundbreaking but it was fun and silly. It was about the same level of Jaida Essence Hall’s snatch games - she’s not doing a great character but she is having fun.
Kween Kong +3 points
Similarly, I thought Kween was really solid in the snatch game - i’m not a real housewives fan, so i didn’t know the reference, but I could see physicality and consistency to the character she chose, and some wit with her replies, so it didn’t matter. There was no game - she didn’t offer us anything beyond the character, but at least she stuck with it.
Also I thought that the discussion about “having fun” and family guilt was really interesting. I’m someone who is often guilty of losing the joy in what I do, because I’m ambitious and goal oriented, and the crazy thing is that it destroys your creativity and productivity. You have to find the joy!
Hannah Conda +4 points
Hannah deserves this win! I don’t think her Liza is particularly elevated, certainly not among the gods of snatch games, but definitely the winner of this one. She had some recognisable imitation flags, and she dialled them into absurdity, and made some “risky” and very silly choices. The decision to sing RuPaul as Liza was very funny “Now shishi that walk”.
When Molly pointed out that she sounded like a mixture between Liza Minelli and the Tassie Devil, that’s EXACTLY the game she found. Stupid and fun! Well deserved.
Not as good as Kristen Wiig’s impersonation however.
LOSERS
Molly Poppinz -2 points
Orville Peck could have been a genius choice - even with the mask. The mask and his entire mystery personality gives him a kind of blank slate, which means you could make literally any kind of comedic choice with him and it would be funny - as long as you stick with it. Even the choices Molly did make (which were all low energy/ low status) weren’t consistent.
“All of a sudden Orville is a fan of the snatch” says RuPaul.
However, where Molly failed in snatch game, she was very good at impersonating Minnie Cooper later.
“I’m minnie cooper and it really hurt my feelings when you came for me after I threw you under the bus”.
Beverley Kills -3 points
Congrats to Beverly on another lip-sync win, which I really think she deserved. Beverley made the classic trio of Snatch Game mistakes:
choosing a lesser known character and aiming for a carbon mimic, with a catch phrase or two thrown in as a replacement for “game”
Not elevating, exaggerating, or even camping the character - why is she funny, and why would a drag queen be mimicking her?
Suddenly shifting into an “outrageous” but inconsistent choice - in her case, she gave Val a blacked out tooth and a lisp. Why? Sometimes in comedy we call this a “hat on another hat” - where instead of elevating a joke, you just add another one on top. Two hats. useless.
“Are you considered funny by your friends?” asked RuPaul, which is brutal lol.
Minnie -5 points
“Get out of here you disaster” said RuPaul, and it was the best summary of Minnie’s time on the show, and this episode in particular. I really liked Minnie, but good lord was she a disaster. From beefing with seemingly every queen, AND being super sensitive, AND getting concerned about ageism, but also being kinda matriarchal… disaster. luckily i love disasters.
Her Ellen was so close to being chaotically hilarious. Funnily enough, years ago at a writers festival, I hosted a chat show where everyone had to pretend to be celebrities for humour, and I chose Ellen, and I chose a similar chaotic game, screaming “I’m Ellen” and mostly just dancing weird. It wasn’t perfect, but its funny at how close we both were.
Part of what made Minnie feel more confused than hilariously chaotic was that she didn’t have any internal logic, just kept making the same choice over and over again without finding the inherent hilarity in repetition, AND chose weird jokes - aka “I had a daddy”.
Anyway, it landed her in the lip sync against Bev, and oh my god - it was the most unintentionally funny lip sync I’ve EVER WATCHED in my life. This is a masterclass in comedic juxtaposition.
You had Bev, playing it big for drama, playing it (as far as drag goes) seriously.
And then you had avatar of chaos, Minnie Cooper, just absolutely surrendering to being a clown on roller shoes, zipping back and forth and just being STUPID.
Drag Race has been going for a long time now, and like with all longtime franchises, what you start to lose is true risk - people have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen, and what tends to work, and what not to do.
Minnie, icon and star that she is, either ignored that, or is fundamentally incapable of being anyone other than her own insane self (i think its the latter). Its rare that you get someone so bizarre that someone makes this face:
Im not gonna miss Minnie’s beef with the queens - i just don’t think drama is interesting. But I am going to miss this disaster clown.
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That’s it for this week! I love you all. I need to walk the dog.