[Smithy]

I really didn’t like Max she just served the same look over and over, she reminded me a lot of Milk iirc

I liked Fame she was done dirty, if she’d been on a more design/creative heavy series as apposed to the constant acting challenges, I feel like she’d have done better; or at least gotten a lot less hate. Also she said she’d never do an All Stars so don’t worry about that

[Smithy]

Best Moment(s): Erm...

Fffff Poor Ivy

Wasn’t she a bit deluded with how good her perfume advert was gonna be and then it was tragic

[Daniel-X]

I didn’t mind Fame but she definitely outstayed her welcome.

I’ve never ever understood the love for Ivy, she was annoying and forgettable.

[Samm]

Upon second watch, Fame was ****ing hilarious her little mannerisms were hilarious

[Black Dagger]

I mainly remember Ivy for the "coming up" bit where Jinkx said she had a crush and it cut to her saying I love you but it was to her Mum lol.

[Shaun]

72nd Place: Kim Chi (Season 8) - finished 2nd/3rd (but 2nd, let's face it)

This is my biggest culling so far and I have good reason, so hear me out.

In recent seasons I've had a huge complaint with the amount of production interference and the show trying to orchestrate just who exactly will be the fans' "queen to root for". It's understandable: the show has thrived thanks to loveable underdogs like Katya, Dela, Sharon Needles and Trixie Mattel. But in recent years the edits have become so obviously trite and favourable and with Kim Chi they made quite the mistake: she was neither underappreciated nor wildly-talented*. She came into season 8 with an incredibly strong following on Instagram, and a reputation that preceded her - so it was odd to me that production seemed so desperate to make her look vulnerable and ostracised:



This scene in particular PISSES ME OFF every time I rewatch because it's just so contrived and desperate to come across as a victim, and completely at odds with Kim's ability - all season - to fire back a witty retort at the other queens. Most other queens on Drag Race, if they suck at dancing, don't get such a hugely sympathetic edit, and thus it irked me that they tried it with Kim Chi. It wasn't just sympathy they tried to heavily influence her edit / talking heads with: look at the "doughnut come for me" line in the opening episode. Very similar to that Season 7 talking-head with Pearl having a producer "throw water at her to wake her up" - completely fabricated, artificial and unnecessary, and immediately throws up all sorts of production interference allegations. I know these examples are insignificant in the long run, but they build and every single bit of reality TV editing is there for a damn reason, so wake up pearlople

*Let me rephrase that: Kim Chi is an extremely talented make-up artist. Perhaps the greatest the show has ever seen. She can put together a killer runway.

BUT - can you actually remember a challenge (that wasn't design-based) that she actually did well at? I can't, and I've rewatched the season about 10 times. It is actually one of my biggest frustrations with the show of all time that Kim Chi joined the elite likes of Alaska, Courtney Act, Tyra Sanchez and Violet Chachki in never having to lipsync for her life, ESPECIALLY when she performed so piss-poorly in so many challenges! In RuCo's empire she was almost incoherent and just screeched and tongue-popped ad nauseum. In the Shady Politics episode she SUCKED and couldn't even put emphasis on the phrase "what a fat-ass", but was saved by a BS "judging in pairs" twist because Naomi actually did a good job. She also clunked around awkwardly in Bitch Perfect, but was given a favourable part that had more than 1 line (RIP Laila). It's also a shame that almost all of her stunning runways were undermined by a total lack of stage presence and inability to walk in heels.

She did FINE at Snatch Game, and she put together a competent 'angry punk' performance but was ultimately carried by Robbie Turner in Les Chicken Wings. And I can't hate Kim Chi because she is quite funny on Twitter, and pretty quick and witty too - it's just a shame she really dragged Season 8 down, and I was especially pissed off by her attacks on Bob in the Top 5 challenge for not having "the look" to win Drag Race. She had everything else you shallow bitch.

Also: MUG with Naomi Smalls was excruciating. They have a good friendship but zero charisma.

Memorable quote(s): "Oh, hello Rucius' doctor... it's Rucius' doctor..."
"Chi Chi... your drag is just like turkey neck: cheap and no one wants it."
Best Runway(s): I would opt for the Black & White look; her mime was gorgeous. Should've still lipsynced though
Best Moment(s): That clip that Lee Dawson keeps using in her videos, where she mimics slapping the little woman she's working with and calling her a "****ing bitch"

Youtube video

Same episode: Marc Jacobs' describing of her performance. "The trading of the brooms."

[Smithy]

I haven’t rewatched S8 so I’ve never really had that take on her, but I’d deffo say there’s queens which deserve to be lower than her

[Daniel-X]

Yes @ the Kim cull. Ridiculously overrated, zero charisma and the edit she had was so ****ing contrived.

[Shaun]

71st Place: Trinity K Bonet (Season 6) - finished 7th

Speaking of queens that got hugely favourable "journey" edits that might not've been thoroughly deserved, we now bid adieu to Trinity K Bonet, one of Season 6's many lipsync assassins (Darienne, Adore, Laganja, Joslyn, April, Vivacious ).

At face value, watching Season 6, the path of Trinity for the viewer is pretty straightforward. She enters too timidly, and yet also quite full of delusion ("And you're Beyonce?" "Oh, I am!") and has to be knocked down a peg or two by Bianca Del Rio and various guest judges ("PUT A CORK IN IT. Literally "), in order for the RuPaul School of Overcoming Your Inner Saboteur mantras to fully come into effect. Cue: tearful motherly moment from Ru, a heartbreaking HIV storyline, and a miraculous blossoming from Trinity in the Glamazon advert and stand-up comedy challenges.

Only, the problem is: in the advert she was heavily coached by Bianca Del Rio, and I'm sure I've seen tea somewhere that her jokes for her set were actually written for her and the early-season edit of Trinity was so amped-up in its negativity and hostility that it just further undermines what exactly she supposedly overcome. Almost all instances of her airtime prior to the first Dela/Darienne lipsync are her whining about "this challenge isn't in my comfort zone", "I don't sing live, I don't dance, I don't act", and "I don't want to do ghetto for this role". So it wasn't exactly the most believable turnaround to go from self-doubting, stubborn fool to 'the world is my oyster' optimism in 3 episodes.

All in all, Trinity is one of the few queens who I still haven't really made my mind up about at all: there's no denying her talents, and yet the show was so confusing in its portrayal of her, that you can't help but be left thinking: did she even deserve to be eliminated? Because that episode where Joslyn not only brought up the topic of abortion whilst interviewing Chaz Bono & Georgia Holt, but also wore the ugliest Claire's mishmash in an otherwise glorious Animal Runway (Courtney's wings! Dela's fly! Trinity's bird! Bianca's leopard!) and STILL escaped the bottom two whilst Trinity was thrown to the dogs for mis-pronouncing Chaz's name... still haunts me! It made no sense, but then Season 6's bottom two placements rarely did.

I think on the balance of things, though, Trinity is very much an underwhelming Drag Race girl: her Snatch Game Nicki Minaj was terrible, her Shade: the Rusical showing was mushmouthed, and whilst I didn't think it was the worst, she was panned for her verse in the Oh No She Better Don't rap. Trinity is essentially best remembered for her lipsyncs and a couple of runways. However, that's just season 6 and a few episodes of her drag - she's clearly an articulate, interesting, and talented queen and her interview with Hey Qween is, surprisingly, one of the most engaging. She's definitely a queen I'd like to see more of, because Season 6 left her very...on the scrapheap.

There are also some heavily shady and suspect stories from Reddit about Trinity being something of a scam artist but... well that's just hear-say isn't it (FYI, this is a thread about Trinity ALLEGEDLY faking a story that a container storing all of her drag had 'burned' and she set up a Gofundme to try and 'start again', only for all such posts to later be deleted. There's also a story about Bianca being asked for money by another queen 'for medication' that's heavily implied to be about Trinity, too, but idk go search for that yourselves!)

Memorable quote(s): "The only way we had an opportunity to eat was: our mother would read us recipes from a cookbook. And oh... how I got full, many nights, off the Roast Beef on page 27... but a really unfortunate thing happened: my sister caught an ear infection so she starved to death." - hers or written for her, it was delivered amazingly
Best Runway(s): Absolutely the one she went home in.
Best Moment(s): I don't have a specific, but she was an angel in Untucked and constantly building the other queens' confidence

[Daniel-X]

Miss K Bonet did NOT deserve such a low placing. Like you say, her lip syncs and runways are what she’s probably best known for but I just found her such an endearing presence in S6, especially when I rewatched last year.

[Tom4784]

I always liked Trinity, I think she was in the wrong season though.

[Shaun]

70th Place: Pandora Boxx (Season 2, All Stars 1) - finished 5th and last, respectively

I still don't really know where to sit with Pandora. If I were to base this all entirely on her Season 2 showing, she would almost certainly place higher for reasons I will delve into - but sadly, All Stars 1 happened and a whole bunch of uncomfortable, shady and stupid moments have occurred post-Drag Race that leave a bad taste.

Let's start with the good: Pandora was the prototype that the show needed to usher in a comedic, esoteric, and alternative sense of drag into a pageant-heavy competition where all the competitors were preoccupied with how fishy they passed as. Her Snatch Game - whilst not a winner - was a crucial move that paved the way for future curveballs and queens being comfortable with playing someone older, kookier, quirkier and funnier. It's hard to picture Snatch Game even making it into future seasons without her interpretation of it, and her Carol Channing was absolutely superb. Better than Bob's, and I'm a huge Bob stan (we'll see how much later on!) Across Season 2, Pandora was a calm and muted presence in a whole cast of dramatic, childish bitches - often mediating and totally oblivious to the toxic meanness from the likes of Raven, Sonique and Morgan. She wasn't completely neutral: she did join the queens in exposing Tyra to be "a complete bitch". She also draws natural comparison to one of the show's most beloved queens - Jinkx Monsoon - in that she was a natural with the acting and comedy challenges (she did well in the advert for shortening, and the book campaign), but kept being attacked by Santino for her runways.

I will also say that it was absolutely baffling that she landed in the bottom two for the Makeover challenge: her drag mother looked identical, they performed well, and they had buckets of personality (whilst Tyra painted her mother to look like that baby covered in peanut butter* and Tatianna was saved by her mom pulling a scared face during the performance? I don't see any other reason.) She was sent home by Jujubee for that and that alone. Weird.

*

Spoiler:

I mean...

HOWEVER: her drag looks were far too plain and it was easy to see why Santino, Billy and Bob Mackie were unimpressed by her. She only really had Merle in her corner. But my main concern with Pandora Boxx stems from All Stars. If you're one of the few who've watched AS1 and endured the horrible pairs twist, then you'll have witnessed Pandora completely shut down, isolate herself from the group, and absolutely refuse to work with Mimi Imfurst. Say what you will about having to be partnered with Mimi, but at least Mimi tried. That whole first episode is excruciating, and fixed around this perception that Pandora's evolved and is ready to slay, but oh no she's stuck with Mimi even going as far to sulk "I wasn't picked. Well... Mimi picked me but I didn't pick her". She's even wearing her own damn t-shirt in the workroom. The girl's ego was BRUISED. RuPaul would later ask in the workroom: "Why do you think the universe has put you together?" to which Pandora responds, "...I'm a glutton for punishment?" and Mimi looks physically hurt Later on, she tells the camera "I don't belong in the bottom two. Mimi put us there."

She also has a pretty strong reputation for being standoffish and ***** with meet and greets and fans. So yeah, **** Pandora Boxx. Also, this is the sort of thing that makes her a "comedy queen"? No ma'am.

Youtube video

Memorable quote(s): "What I brought here wasn't what they were looking for. Fuck 'em."
Best Runway(s): The only good one was her Gone With The Wind sewing challenge, tbh?
Best Moment(s): I mean... obviously Carol Channing.

[Smithy]

There are also some heavily shady and suspect stories from Reddit about Trinity being something of a scam artist but... well that's just hear-say isn't it (FYI, this is a thread about Trinity ALLEGEDLY faking a story that a container storing all of her drag had 'burned' and she set up a Gofundme to try and 'start again', only for all such posts to later be deleted. There's also a story about Bianca being asked for money by another queen 'for medication' that's heavily implied to be about Trinity, too, but idk go search for that yourselves!)

a damn MESS

[Smithy]

In the words of Latrice, We don’t count All Stars 1 baby!

[TomC]

Yeah I didn’t like Pandora on AS1.

[Shaun]

Just noticed I forgot to put in a picture showing just how bloody awful Tyra's makeover was. It's in a spoiler since the only good-quality pic I could find happens to be bigger than Ginger Minj's AS2 airtime.

[Shaun]

69th (nice) Place: Blair St. Clair (Season 10) - finished 9th

I'm really playing around with the order a lot at the moment and I'd just like to point out that basically everyone from 75th to 64th is pretty interchangeable.

So... at the start of Season 10 - and indeed before the premiere, when the cast was actually revealed - I had Blair down as the most obvious bit of filler and, with Kalorie, one of the most obvious early sashays. The idea that the likes of Mayhem and Yuhua would fall before her was pretty bizarre to me, and yet: that's what happened.

Whilst I will die on a hill to proclaim that MAYHEM WAS DONE DIRTY, I will admit I was wrong about Blair St. Clair and she was a real dark horse at one point in time. Showing up at Season 10 on what was presumably, at first, a school field trip, Blair quickly became a fan favourite because she's white, young, blonde and skinny with a pretty solid run of performances. She finished in the top for the first 3 episodes in a row, delivering a great turn in the Apps challenge, a cute fairy-godmother character in the PharmaRusical, and constructing a weird space-age valley girl in the Drag on a Dime challenge. Behind the scenes, she was congenial, sweet and full of praise and smiles for the workroom.

She also of course shared her heartbreaking story about being raped at a frat-party and how that had impacted her worldview and what she wanted to bring to drag - which is of course courageous and beautiful of her, and she's definitely cemented herself as one of the show's strongest and most inspirational queens in that respect. Off the show, she's started to forge a rather impressive music career: 'Now or Never' was a bonafide bop!

However, I couldn't quite lodge firmly in the Team Blair camp (and that's not because of the Iraq War) and here's why:



Reason #1 - you cannot tell me these three ball looks are anything other than "Bottom 2 material". At the VERY LEAST she should've been bottom 3 over Asia, but that ill-fitting pink vinyl is hideous, that fur coat is NO BETTER than Alexis Michelle's travesty from season 9, and that bikini is so BASIC. This leads me onto...
Reason #2 - most of her runways, and indeed her drag I fear, were dresses and costumes that were just far too big on her. They truly drowned her out. Take her best drag look:



It's a gorgeous dress, sure, but it makes her look like a 14 year old in a school theatre production of Miss Saigon.

And finally, Reason #3 - she just didn't have the nerve to go far enough. Part of her charm is her effortless loveability, and sweetness, but when asked to throw shade or lead a panel, Blair fell short and left nothing of substance, sadly. I do think she delivered a great lipsync against The Vixen, though, and part of me wishes she'd stayed so we had a better narrative than "Vixen vs. the World".

Also - and this is an incredibly shallow observation of me - but Blair's uh... surgery... just makes her... oh god I hate myself for saying it but... she looks scary to me now. Like sure, it's tradition for queens to get a lip done or some botox after a season, but I don't know why but Blair's face just looks completely different to me now.

Youtube video

Memorable quote(s): "We're here to turn some of your wig woes into...wig...wows "
Best Runway(s): I didn't like the feathered one much, or her 'Best Drag', so I would opt for her Hats Incredible look where she looked like a vintage doll
Best Moment(s): I loved her 'fresh off the bus' performance in that mini-challenge where they had to advertise Ru's peanut butter chocolate bar, where she falls against a ladder for no reason

[Shaun]

68th Place: Joslyn Fox (Season 6) - finished 6th

Look, everyone liked Joslyn Fox. She was the most obvious underdog edit in the history of the show: a loveable girl with nowhere near the level of talent and skill as Courtney, Bianca or Dela, but a huge heart and a whole range of catchphrases waiting to happen. I can't think of someone who watched Season 6 and didn't at least "like" Joslyn, and I'll go into why before I tear the girl down and say "get the **** out of my ranking". In terms of performance, she did a pretty hilarious Teresa Giudice in Snatch Game and her role in the horror-movie sequels as the "GASP!"ing sidekick was understated and yet also great. Her talking heads spouted a whole bunch of memorable moments: "womp womp", "the black horse of the competition", "that's not my...cup of soup", etc. Her 'surprise marriage' at the Season 6 reunion is also one of the show's most heart-warming and nourishing moments in the show's history.

Here's why she's going now: she sucked at way too many challenges. If you take out the two challenges mentioned above, and a pretty good turn in the Rusical as the Butch Queen, she really struggled in pretty much everything else. When it came to design, she constructed a wonderfully tacky Quinceañera dress in her first episode and some monstrous make-up job on her hetero (and ****ing stupid) wedding-challenge partner. When it came to comedy, she was more naturally funny than trying to be, because she bombed at the Standup and decided to put herself before Bianca Del Rio in the lineup, and also did pretty piss-poor in the Glamazon advert with Courtney. But her absolute worst moment was, of course, the interview I've already mentioned in which she begins: "Please welcome someone who has come out twice since coming out of Cher, and someone who's came back 66 years after Cher came out of her.... now, if it weren't for a last minute decision at the abortion clinic, the world wouldn't have known Cher." I just. I can't. It was so awful and I only use in the "oh god make her stop" sense.

Her runways were also critiqued too often for being either too whorey, too basic or too cheap-looking, and that leads us onto her storyline with Courtney which was just ridiculous. The edit taking their interactions to be one big "never meet your heroes!" arc that basically threw Courtney under the bus for treating the show as a competition rather than a sorority was just absurd, and whilst I understand Joslyn was probably put out by Courtney telling her her makeup wasn't polished (IT. WASN'T. LOOK BELOW.) and calling her a "low rent Courtney Act" in the reading challenge, it's....it's drag, darling, and a drag competition at that.


yikes

But yes... absolute sweetheart and I hope she returns for AllStars one day.

Memorable quote(s): "I'm going to be the butch queen" Ru: "Oh the butch queen? Where are you gonna draw your inspiration?" Joslyn: "Bianca Del Rio "
"Cummin." Ru: "Oh, you mean cumin?" Joslyn: "Cummin " Ru: "It's pronounced cumin-" Joslyn: "....cummin "
Best Runway(s): They were all pretty bad but I guess I'd say her RuPaul runway.
Best Moment(s): In compiling all of her challenge moments I nearly forgot arguably her best one: her verse in Oh No She Better Don't was killer

[RileyH]

joslyn

[Daniel-X]

Joslyn could’ve easily been like out 4th/5th it baffles me how she made it so far.

[Smithy]

Blair should have been a bit higher I think, just bc she was such a dark horse in the challenges, she’s so fishy now too, her looks scalp

How Joslyn lasted as long as she did in S6 still baffles me tbh

[zrc]

Outside of Bianca, Ben, Adore, Courtney and Darriene the others could've been eliminated in any order in S6 tbh. And even then I don't think Darriene was all that safe either.

[Shaun]

67th Place: Lineysha Sparx (Season 5) - finished 9th

I don't think anyone apart from Bendelacreme in AS3 has ever won the first two episodes of a season, but if someone was going to buck that trend on a regular season of Drag Race, it should've been Lineysha Sparx. Lineysha did indeed win episode two, the Lipsync challenge where queens had to recreate infamous Untucked moments from seasons past (Lineysha won for an amusing Tyra Sanchez, although it really should've been a joint win with Honey Mahogany's brilliant Mystique impression). However she was pipped to the first win by Roxxxy Andrews in the 'dumpster drag' design challenge. If you look at their two efforts side by side? I love myself some Roxxxy but girl...



She literally made that from card and wallpaper. There's a heel in her hair. How did she not win?

Onto the negatives: sadly, Lineysha did pretty terribly at all of the other three episodes she was on. In the kids TV challenge she literally just translated Ivy Winters' lines into Spanish without any comedy or energy, in the ballet she admitted the cardinal sin of 'not knowing who Diana Ross is', and her Snatch Game character was a mess. I will argue though that she was not anywhere near as bad as Ivy Winters' Marilyn Monroe, or Jade's Taylor Swift, because she was at least awkwardly funny and shouldn't have been in the B2 with Detox, but the show unfortunately has a huge propensity towards ridiculing any non-English speakers and making them seem foolish.

Lineysha is also one of those queens whose lipsync that sent them home wasn't even that bad! Watch it again, Cher's 'Take Me Home' versus Detox. Lineysha does a pretty excellent job, and writhes around the stage looking like a Prince girlband member, but unfortunately Detox pulled out her wobbly-lips shtick and annihilated her

Other than that, all I can remember of Lineysha is that she was damn fine both in and out of drag. But I can't keep her around any longer just for that.

Memorable quote(s): "I'm very fine here my english is not berry good-looking "
Best Runway(s): All pretty good, but I'd have to go for the GIF I used above.
Best Moment(s): Um...

[Smithy]

She should have won ep 1 but her win in ep 2 was a complete fluke, it’s ONLY because she had the role of Tyra and had no idea what she was doing (imo) that she won. She was stunning but she had 0 charisma

[Headie]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Best Moment(s): Um...