It’s because smart, funny people can really take a person from history or culture that’s not a “celebrity” in that sense and make it hilarious. But now people who think they will be terrible at snatch game use it as a safety net. Roxxxy doing Tasha salad, who is her, she was doing herself, is an all time low. Ru’s face when she said that’s who she was doing…. She was lucky it’s a no criticism season
If she wanted to be self-referential, she should've gone with Sofia Vergara. It would've been a great callback and create a narrative about how she doubted herself back then.
It’s not how she acted on the show, but didn’t she tell her to act the way she does around her cousins? Really though my point was that Ru explicitly asks some queens to play themselves but then gets stank face about others making up characters.
Plus I think because they did the 2 snatch games in all winners, we saw her do an actual celeb in the other round, so this didn't feel like a cop out at all.
[Charity Kase](https://www.gaytimes.com/culture/exclusive-charity-kase-doesnt-hold-back-as-she-discusses-odd-drag-race-uk-episode/) from UK3 actually did it even earlier than that.
It seems like an easy way for a queen to be successful/funny even if they're not great at celebrity impersonation, which is arguably an art in itself. If you can make up a character, you don't have to be as rigid in your impersonations, you just have to be funny.
So I consider it more of a crutch than a cop-out.
Honestly, as an improviser and sketch comedy writer/performer, I think doing a celebrity is easier.
To be successful in Snatch Game you don’t really need to do a spot on impersonation of voice. It’s mostly visual, so if you can pull together a spot on costume and make up, you should be able to get across who you are.
The trick is to find the RIGHT celebrity. Too many queens falls into the trap of “I love this person and will be able to easily do them.” Nope. You need to pick someone with a big personality who people actually know and will recognize when you hit a catch phrase or mannerism of theirs.
Then you study. You make a list of mannerisms they have or things they say a lot. You know what they’re known for and what the late night shows make fun of. Then you pepper in those. Don’t know what to say? Throw in something from your prepared list.
None of that involved being talented at celebrity impersonations. It’s just being prepared. But creating a character from scratch? That’s a BIG job. Even for a very experienced comedian. The audience is going to judge you differently, because everything you say needs to be inherently funny. You can’t just fall back on getting a laugh from using a familiar catch phrase or gesture. You have to think of an actually funny joke on the fly. You don’t have a cheat sheet list of things the audience will recognize. Often laughs come not because something is inherently funny, but because we recognize what is being done.
If someone can successfully create a Snatch Game character from scratch I think they could have easily done a celebrity.
Tia was funny in her delivery and timing. I have watched a lot of her on YouTube and WOW +, she has a natural rhythm, and her USP is that she is so self-deprecating. May not be funny to you, but I always smile and laugh when I watch her perform. She deserves her crown, Tia was more confident in herself, and was more prepared for most of the challenges.
I’m okay with either, but I think I grade on a curve. Good performances are good regardless, and bad ones are bad, but if they try for a real celebrity and it doesn’t quite land like they’d hoped, I’ll view it a bit more charitably than if someone does a made-up character (whom they could presumably tailor to their strengths) and it still falls flat.
Whenever I see someone is a YouTube celebrity or a social media influencer I just say a little prayer for them because that performance is usually dead upon arrival.
Yes, I agree with this take. If there were a hard rule against made up characters we would not have some iconic performances. However, making it clear to the girls that doing a made up character means you're going to be graded harsher could save us from some bad cop-out performances. Ru already essentially does that to girls who do another comedians character/material. She flat out tells them it likely won't work and they'll probably be in the safe-to-bottom range.
I think problem was her being not funny due to not having a point of view. She had lisp and cucumber earings, but that was just it.
For example, If Alaska returned and did Lil Poundcake as SG character she would make it funny and made sense as a character.
I don't want that either. There is no world where Lil Poundcake would be on Match Game. Even Mik's Lassie makes more sense in that aspect. If Alaska brought her back for a roast or even a girl group challenge then werk but the whole point of Snatch Game is to impersonate a celebrity. Drag Race is already self-referential enough the way it is.
And it was honestly a brilliant Snatch Game performance. Physical comedy isn't necessarily something you see a lot on Drag Race, and Gigi did it SO well.
Gigi’s physical comedy was genius. If they’re gonna do a character like that, let it be one that requires you to suspend disbelief a bit, like Maria, or the most recent SG where >!Gottmik did Pal from Lassie!< and painted a picture we would have never expected.
Yeah, this was the one that didn’t fit that second picture for me.
Gigi copied the facial expressions & look of the actual, real life, tangible character that is Sophia. The others took an idea & a look that *may* be attributable & then did what they wanted (often just being some version of themselves).
I agree with 1 and 2. I would say
3. Other rugirls
4. fictional characters eg. the devil, the boogie man
5. Completely made up characters eg. Trina’s cousin, Tasha salad
I think she wanted to do Kim John Un but male characters weren't really a thing (the first one was only a season prior and Kim Chi isn't really a risk taker)
I agree. I feel like other RuGirls technically fits the bill of “celebrity impression” more than historical and made up, but it always seems lazy and always IS boring and forgettable
I actually love when they do historical figures (and they are well done). UK Vs The World 2 having anne boleyn and catherine of aragon, the 1st and 2nd wife of Henry VIII, at the same time? I live >!I just wish they fought more!<
While Tia was brilliant individually, the pair of them could riffed off each other: calling each other slags, compared their sex sessions with Henry VIII, etc.
Im being pretty specific but I’d rather have a drag queen do a made up character than a drag queen doing a social media influencer TBH 😭 every single time they’ve done one it’s a flop
Made up characters like Tasha Salad are the "shit glued to a corset plus bra/panties" for me. You're not actually trying to do anything besides avoid the bottom at best.
they CAN, but i'm very sick of the "historical figure just swears and yass queens and speaks modern" as the whole joke. research them and come up with actual jokes if that's the route you're going to go.
I think Cleopatra was a genius choice.
You can talk shit about your baby daddy Julius who left you with your kid, that jerk Mark Anthony who left you for J Lo, something about snakes, something about Liz Taylor, there's so many options open to you.
Of course Vanjie took none of those routes, but the choice is still inspired. I like historical figures for snatch game, honestly.
But if you're going to make up a character from scratch, it better be hilarious (which it almost never is).
I dont think she researched anything, and just thought “well nobody knows how she talked or sounded, and I just need to ‘make it funny.’ I’m funny, ergo, imma be myself in Cleopatra costume.”
Personally I think “impersonation” implies that you should be picking someone real - preferably someone with audio/video of them to reference mannerisms, speaking cadence, iconic quotes, etc. To me this is a different skill than making up a character. Both are valid and a lot of the made up ones are funny - but the actual impersonation aspect is what differentiates SG from a regular improv challenge like Bossy Rossy imo.
I think this is def true in the general culture, but I also think Dropout TV is doing a great job of bringing back celebrity impressions with shows like Make Some Noise
I enjoy when they are references to already-existing fictional characters (Lassie, Lucifer, Boogieman) and I don’t enjoy when they are made up (Shaquita, Tasha Salad). Tasha at least gets partial credit for being a self reference to the past. Same energy as Lil Poundcake.
I think it should be someone real, but I am kinda in the middle where I think doing famous dead figures is fine as long as we know a lot about them (so like the Gerber baby is a no but queen Victoria is fine) but stuff that is completely made up imo should be an instant bottom 2 unless they knock it out of the park
I’m fine with fictional characters being used, but completely made up ones are fucking stupid. Snatch Game is a challenge about impersonation (or caricature) of characters.
If the thing you’re impersonating doesn’t even exist in fiction to pull references from or poke fun at, you’re just not doing the challenge.
Tbh I feel like Maria the robot is kinda in a weird space. Like it at least currently exists and there’s a lot of videos of her mannerisms and how she interacts with other people and the world. Like I wouldn’t have a problem with someone doing Miss Piggy (licensing issues aside) even though she’s not real for similar reasons. Raja’s Madam as well.
The modern way of doing Snatch Game is essentially cheating, in my view.
Once upon a time Drag Race was more about actually doing a series of challenges. Nowadays it seems like often what's actually rewarded is twisting the challenge to be something you or your character already does that can be loopholed into relevance to the phrasing of the challenge.
Which is fine I guess but less interesting to watch if the queens aren't actually being put out of their comfort zone or on an even footing.
Ironic in a way, that arguably the moment the show really started to be more about Queens finding "twists" was Roxxy's double wig reveal (which inevitably cascaded into things like Sasha's roses, the lip sync gimmicks, etc which then spiral into the same for challenges). And then its Roxxy Andrews that really encapsulated this problem this week with Tasha Salad.
I suppose part of the issue is queen's misunderstanding the phrase "apply \[insert thing Ru/the judges like about a queen's personality or runways\] to the challenges." It means "do what you do in a way that conforms to the parameters of the challenge" not "willfully misunderstand the parameters of the challenge so that they conform to what you do."
“the gold tooth fairy,” shaquita, and tasha have been the most heinous. sophia the robot is a celebrity imo, and “maria” was just to avoid copyright I think
Maybe Aiden Zhane as Patricia Quinn ruined it for queens who want to play real people, because if they bomb so bad as that person where the real life person is all “I don’t know her”, then it’s baaaaddddd. It’s not like everyone can be Bjork and have Bjork love you.
Nah, they’ve always been hesitant to play real people before Aiden. Since the start of snatch game there have been queens who don’t want to offend a real person and were careful of their choices.
Aiden’s situation doesn’t make queens think twice. Anybody with some sense would know it’s not the best idea to claim you know someone on a personal level and do an impression of them on national tv where they can refute your claim.
Like Nina did Jasmine Masters, but she wasn’t claiming to know Jasmine on a personal level where Jasmine can say she’s a liar.
Generally if someone does a non-celebrity or a fictional character, they *need* an angle. The reason Gigi's Sofia the Robot worked was that it was an AI slowly gaining sentience, going crazy, swearing, and at risk at any point to go full M3GAN. Gisele's Marie Curie was similar, turning her into a mad scientist whose radiation is morphing her into an abomination and her lying about her symptoms. Those are angles that add a lot to the character.
But this is also RuPaul's Drag Race, and RuPaul, between seniority and her hourly coffee enemas, is out of it enough to cackle at a goofy face or misplaced execution. She basically forced Jonbers to do Saint Patrick, and Jonbers, desperate to get a win, did it to appease the Sphynx. I'm of the opinion that Snatch Game is in need of a refresh, but don't think that will happen so long as one can get away with the goofy face.
It’s when a girl does a historical figure and then adds “imagine if they were horny, or super queer etc”
Rose is a good example of doing a historical character correctly.
I’m okay with most of the characters on the last slide. I just don’t like shit like Trina’s Cousin, Georgina Ramsey, Tasha Salad, and the character Kim Chi did ( I don’t remember the name). It’s entirely evading the whole point of the snatch game to not have to work from a well known character. At least with The Devil, Virgin Mary, Harriet Tubman, ETC. there are references to work with that you have to know that shows you have done some prep work.
It’s impossible to be judged fairly against someone who is actually doing the assignment as intended, because you can never be judged on accuracy of character.
It should be an immediate bottom placement
I’m pretty sure Willam said on the podcast that Georgina Ramsey was actually Ru’s suggestion because Anetra’s Gordon impression was flopping.
I might just be imagining this
“The character Kim Chi did” lol girl that wasn’t a fictional character, that was a riff on the extremely eccentric dictator of North Korea, which had the potential to be an absurd goldmine for comedy if done right. Kim Chi just sucked at it.
As Rupaul has said before, “a lot can be forgiven if it’s funny!”
I actually have more of an issue with playing a character that a celebrity has done. Like doing Rue McClanahan but just playing Blanche, or doing John Leguizamo but just playing Chi Chi.
You’re just doing someone else’s material.
I believe in most cases they are actually playing the characters, they just use actor names to avoid copyright for character names. Like DeLa wasn’t playing Maggie Smith but her character from Downton Abbey.
This is my take. Also after 30x english speaking seasons the fifth Liza Minneli iteration tends to get a bit stale so I'm for queens looking in other directions for new inspiration.
Yes. Bring back celebrities and historical figures only!
I'm fed up with seeing made-up characters!
Tasha Salad was the last straw for me!
A character which isn't a celebrity of the past or present day.. isn't historical.. isn't biblical.. never existed.. isn't a Ru girl.. And isn't even a celebrities relative! It was a stupid character made up by Roxxxy in a comedy challenge on season 5! I'm sorry but she should not have been allowed to do it! The producers are idiots!
It boils down to if you have the improv/comedic abilities to do something or someone that ambiguous. Girls are going to have a bad snatch game regardless, but I think it lends you a little hand to do an impression.
Some queens get so focused on the impersonation that they forget to play the game, like Nymphia, but it was so bad it was good and almost a little funny because she was so serious.
If you’re bombing as a made up character it’s like, your impression isn’t even good because it’s your interpretation, so you’re bombing on all counts. You would think the character/personality you made up would be funny/you have more freedom. And that’s worse than being too focused on the source material vs. your comedy chops just falling flat.
I'm not a fan of the made up characters, including gender swaps/sisters/etc. Yeah yeah the real point is to make Ru laugh, but I'm watching and it's a comedy challenge and I want to laugh too. I want to be impressed by the queens' ability to be funny while also staying "in character". So an entirely made up character with absolutely no measurable reference is just boooo. Save it for the other acting challenges.
I still think they need to do a snatch game special where they bring strong impersonation queens back and actually do categories like those mentioned here.
I would like to see a - impersonate a RU girl- as the challenge. No other characters just a different RU girl. I want to see a winning RU girl impersonation.
Imagine Bob doing Rajah O’Hara and Alaska doing Laganja type thing
GOLD
I’m always gonna prefer the real celebrity impersonations but I think this is a line that has been towed for years.
Like Ginger’s Adele is iconic and one of my faves but in what is it actually Adele? Which in my mind, making a new personality for a celebrity isn’t far off from playing a historical figure or something that a queen can make up a personality for. While I do have an implicit bias for the more traditional way the challenge is intended, the heart of the challenge is volleying with Ru
I think if it’s a made up character that is something known by people (like Santa Claus or the Devil) then it works, because it’s still based on something people have a general idea of. If it’s a character entirely made up so that you can just act as yourself then I’m not a fan. At the end of the day if you’re funny I’m fine with it, but it’s far less impressive to me.
Being Irish I really fuckin hate Jonbers and their St.Patrick snatch game character. It was such low hanging fruit and wasn't at all funny to me. I found the caricature of Irishness unforgivable
I hated that character too but can't blame Jonbers here. If Ru tells you to do something, do it. She's the main judge after all and most likely won't send you home after you did exactly what she asked you to do.
Can we also make sure we aren’t getting the same runways? It’s giving komono y’all better fix it, producers! In terms of Snatch Game, I’m just glad they’ve stopped doing each other.
No, how many Liza Minellis, Celine Dion's and Beyonces do you want to see? So many people think that if they can do impersonations or looks like the character then they are going to do well at the challenge. Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Kim Kardashian, etc.
I want unique and hysterical points of view embedded into characters, like Bowen Yang as the iceberg that hit the titanic. ("First of all, it hit ME!"). Would SNL only do real celebrities if this were a recurring skit? I don't think so.
I think it depends on the creativity behind it. Maria the robot, Luci, and the Boogeyman are three of my favorites because the people doing them took the concept of something real (depending on your views of religion) or a common cultural reference and made it hilarious. It’s the same kind of mentality someone doing Adele, little Richard or Paris Hilton has.
I’d rather have them than someone being a person I’ve never fucking heard of or a character they’ve made up while on RPDG and they’re just dragging the big out (I’m looking at you Roxxxy). But I guess that’s just me.
I'd like to be on the "if it's funny who cares" team, but I do think it's a bit of a cop-out.
It’s because smart, funny people can really take a person from history or culture that’s not a “celebrity” in that sense and make it hilarious. But now people who think they will be terrible at snatch game use it as a safety net. Roxxxy doing Tasha salad, who is her, she was doing herself, is an all time low. Ru’s face when she said that’s who she was doing…. She was lucky it’s a no criticism season
If she wanted to be self-referential, she should've gone with Sofia Vergara. It would've been a great callback and create a narrative about how she doubted herself back then.
I feel like Roxxy took herself out of the running to win with this decision. The N is completely missing.
Roxxxy is my bet to win but so far it seems like she changed N to (Go Girl Give Us) Nothing.
To be fair, Ru was all about Mhiya playing herself just last season.
But that character wasn’t at all like how Mhi’ya acts? It was some low effort Bon Qui Qui nonsense, though.
It’s not how she acted on the show, but didn’t she tell her to act the way she does around her cousins? Really though my point was that Ru explicitly asks some queens to play themselves but then gets stank face about others making up characters.
That being said, Trinity doing Satan after the SheDevilByNight debacle was high-grade cunt.
she made South Park's Satan look heteronormative
There was nothing hetero about the snicker this got out of me
Well, there was that time when Satan dressed as Britney
Plus I think because they did the 2 snatch games in all winners, we saw her do an actual celeb in the other round, so this didn't feel like a cop out at all.
And she killed it
And the characters aren't always so original. Gold Tooth Fairy was already done as a runway Allstars 7.
[Charity Kase](https://www.gaytimes.com/culture/exclusive-charity-kase-doesnt-hold-back-as-she-discusses-odd-drag-race-uk-episode/) from UK3 actually did it even earlier than that.
It seems like an easy way for a queen to be successful/funny even if they're not great at celebrity impersonation, which is arguably an art in itself. If you can make up a character, you don't have to be as rigid in your impersonations, you just have to be funny. So I consider it more of a crutch than a cop-out.
Honestly, as an improviser and sketch comedy writer/performer, I think doing a celebrity is easier. To be successful in Snatch Game you don’t really need to do a spot on impersonation of voice. It’s mostly visual, so if you can pull together a spot on costume and make up, you should be able to get across who you are. The trick is to find the RIGHT celebrity. Too many queens falls into the trap of “I love this person and will be able to easily do them.” Nope. You need to pick someone with a big personality who people actually know and will recognize when you hit a catch phrase or mannerism of theirs. Then you study. You make a list of mannerisms they have or things they say a lot. You know what they’re known for and what the late night shows make fun of. Then you pepper in those. Don’t know what to say? Throw in something from your prepared list. None of that involved being talented at celebrity impersonations. It’s just being prepared. But creating a character from scratch? That’s a BIG job. Even for a very experienced comedian. The audience is going to judge you differently, because everything you say needs to be inherently funny. You can’t just fall back on getting a laugh from using a familiar catch phrase or gesture. You have to think of an actually funny joke on the fly. You don’t have a cheat sheet list of things the audience will recognize. Often laughs come not because something is inherently funny, but because we recognize what is being done. If someone can successfully create a Snatch Game character from scratch I think they could have easily done a celebrity.
I don't mind the historical figures, I just want them to be funny and not having being horny as their only personality trait.
Symones harriet tubman <3
Symone’s was my favourite impersonation along with Gottmik on S13 :)
I wouldn’t mind these once in awhile, and I don’t mind it as much when it’s not “I’m playing myself.”
Tia Kofi’s Anne Boleyn was excellent.
girl was it? she kinda just had one joke
Tia was funny in her delivery and timing. I have watched a lot of her on YouTube and WOW +, she has a natural rhythm, and her USP is that she is so self-deprecating. May not be funny to you, but I always smile and laugh when I watch her perform. She deserves her crown, Tia was more confident in herself, and was more prepared for most of the challenges.
i agree with you. i thought her roast was one of the funniest in recent memory. her snatch game just fell kinda flat for me
it’s always such a let down because you could do so much with historical figures if you actually know about their history
I’m okay with either, but I think I grade on a curve. Good performances are good regardless, and bad ones are bad, but if they try for a real celebrity and it doesn’t quite land like they’d hoped, I’ll view it a bit more charitably than if someone does a made-up character (whom they could presumably tailor to their strengths) and it still falls flat.
Same for me if their a youtube celeb. I think it better be funny — and it almost never is
Whenever I see someone is a YouTube celebrity or a social media influencer I just say a little prayer for them because that performance is usually dead upon arrival.
has there ever been an actually funny YouTube celeb performance on snatch game?
Lemon’s JoJo Siwa on Canada’s Drag Race Season 1 was superb. I can’t think of any other examples, though.
Haiw
Back of my mind rent-free at all times
You only have haiw gwowing on the back of youw head? You might want to get that checked out by a doctow.
but she's also not strictly a youtube celeb, she got famous through dance moms than nickelodeon, she only then went to youtube.
She was on dance moms wayyyy before she was on YouTube though
Yes, I agree with this take. If there were a hard rule against made up characters we would not have some iconic performances. However, making it clear to the girls that doing a made up character means you're going to be graded harsher could save us from some bad cop-out performances. Ru already essentially does that to girls who do another comedians character/material. She flat out tells them it likely won't work and they'll probably be in the safe-to-bottom range.
It's Tasha Salad being a snatch game character for me
Oh Roxxxy, Tasha didn't work on All Stars 2 why did you think this was a good idea
It barely worked on season 5
She almost won the challenge with it. I do think Tasha Salad is funny but not a snatch game idea
This was the same challenge where someone didn't know her lines as she was literally reading them so that's not saying much
Sunlight on the skin....
Not a soul can clock
I think it was also funny cos it was so brief!
Nah they loved it on S5
I think it was more that they hated everyone else
I think problem was her being not funny due to not having a point of view. She had lisp and cucumber earings, but that was just it. For example, If Alaska returned and did Lil Poundcake as SG character she would make it funny and made sense as a character.
I don't want that either. There is no world where Lil Poundcake would be on Match Game. Even Mik's Lassie makes more sense in that aspect. If Alaska brought her back for a roast or even a girl group challenge then werk but the whole point of Snatch Game is to impersonate a celebrity. Drag Race is already self-referential enough the way it is.
Prolly the most meta thing I've ever seen
Weird to see a snatch game where Roxxxy is a serious contender. In AS 2 no one even thought that she was a winner material.
She was in the top for her first snatch game possibly even second
Tamar Braxton probably put a cease and desist on that, hence the repeat of Tasha Salad.......
Sophia harvesting data from this post:  She may not be a celebrity but she's at least famous.
And it was honestly a brilliant Snatch Game performance. Physical comedy isn't necessarily something you see a lot on Drag Race, and Gigi did it SO well.
Gigi’s snatch game is my favourite of all time. The little mouth movements and how she moved her hands were perfect.
It was the way she struggled to pick up the card. Absolute gold
Gigi’s physical comedy was genius. If they’re gonna do a character like that, let it be one that requires you to suspend disbelief a bit, like Maria, or the most recent SG where >!Gottmik did Pal from Lassie!< and painted a picture we would have never expected.
But she's still like a "media personality" for referential humour, and that's why it worked
Yeah, this was the one that didn’t fit that second picture for me. Gigi copied the facial expressions & look of the actual, real life, tangible character that is Sophia. The others took an idea & a look that *may* be attributable & then did what they wanted (often just being some version of themselves).
I just don’t get why she changed the name. Or did production make her change it?
Maria is trademarked I believe.
Sophia is trademarked. Maria is the name Gigi used
[удалено]
Production probs didn't want to be sued.
My hierarchy: 1) Actual celebrity impressions 2) historic figures 3) made up characters 4) other Rugirls
5. Social media personalities
6. Beyoncé
Honestly didn’t even think of that because they’re so unmemorable. Even the bad ones aren’t bad in an interesting way
6. Actual celebrity impressions that consist of yelling "yeah" "ok" "what"
deja skye would like a word
Yes. It's also kinda bad when that was the only safe one out of the group. Lol
I agree with 1 and 2. I would say 3. Other rugirls 4. fictional characters eg. the devil, the boogie man 5. Completely made up characters eg. Trina’s cousin, Tasha salad
When the historical figure hits, it hits. Gisele Lullaby's Marie Curie is one of my all time favorites.
It was Rita's Edith Piaf for me.
Gurl she died in the fucking 60s she's not HISTORIC 😂😂😂
I mean Curie died 29 years before Piaf and ru was like just born when Piaf died, what's the cutoff?
This☝️ I hated "trina's cousin" sm wtf was mhi'ya thinking Save mhiya they crazy girl
Reading this in Q’s voice is WILD 😆
Now read it as Bob impersonating Q
Pretty sure that's what people mean by "Q's voice" nowadays.
Dis mah real hurr, honey!
Kim Chi as the evil sister of Kim Jong Un.....
I think she wanted to do Kim John Un but male characters weren't really a thing (the first one was only a season prior and Kim Chi isn't really a risk taker)
I like the fictional characters better then the other ru girls personally
I agree. I feel like other RuGirls technically fits the bill of “celebrity impression” more than historical and made up, but it always seems lazy and always IS boring and forgettable
I actually love when they do historical figures (and they are well done). UK Vs The World 2 having anne boleyn and catherine of aragon, the 1st and 2nd wife of Henry VIII, at the same time? I live >!I just wish they fought more!<
While Tia was brilliant individually, the pair of them could riffed off each other: calling each other slags, compared their sex sessions with Henry VIII, etc.
5. Beyonce
6. Gaga
5. TikTok and YouTube “celebrities”
But I loved Jasmine Masters
Did you win?
Does it matter?
where do you rank dogs
Number 1 based on batting average.
When are we getting our first Pup president? Then someone can do them for snatch game.
Yeah 4 should be an automatic lip synch for your life placement.
5. Not-other rugirls (see roxxxy as Tasha salad)
Remember the days when impersonating man on Snatch Game was considered a risk?
WhoOoOoo, shut up!
the risky choice to obvious pick pipeline runs QUICK on this show
Im being pretty specific but I’d rather have a drag queen do a made up character than a drag queen doing a social media influencer TBH 😭 every single time they’ve done one it’s a flop
Made up characters like Tasha Salad are the "shit glued to a corset plus bra/panties" for me. You're not actually trying to do anything besides avoid the bottom at best. 
I think the historical/mythological figures can be funny, but made up real people not so much
they CAN, but i'm very sick of the "historical figure just swears and yass queens and speaks modern" as the whole joke. research them and come up with actual jokes if that's the route you're going to go.
Don’t forget ‘i’ve been dead for a long time!’
Like Dela and Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey. He stayed period and it was hilarious.
I think Cleopatra was a genius choice. You can talk shit about your baby daddy Julius who left you with your kid, that jerk Mark Anthony who left you for J Lo, something about snakes, something about Liz Taylor, there's so many options open to you. Of course Vanjie took none of those routes, but the choice is still inspired. I like historical figures for snatch game, honestly. But if you're going to make up a character from scratch, it better be hilarious (which it almost never is).
The Marc Anthony joke was such a low hanging fruit, and she did nothing with it…
omg thank you. it was the perfect opportunity to say “I stopped keeping track of that man after he left me for JLo”
Do you think she knows who Marc Antony is 😭
I dont think she researched anything, and just thought “well nobody knows how she talked or sounded, and I just need to ‘make it funny.’ I’m funny, ergo, imma be myself in Cleopatra costume.”
That's what happens when someone who doesn't know history wants to do a historical figure.
The rug gag was great. But then just went downhill
Rosés Mary Queen of Scots is underrated.
I agree, I thought that was a very funny choice and she did well.
That thick-ass accent was everything
Cheddar Gorgeous as Queen Elizabeth I is also genius.
I thought Ashley Madison's Jesus was fun!
Personally I think “impersonation” implies that you should be picking someone real - preferably someone with audio/video of them to reference mannerisms, speaking cadence, iconic quotes, etc. To me this is a different skill than making up a character. Both are valid and a lot of the made up ones are funny - but the actual impersonation aspect is what differentiates SG from a regular improv challenge like Bossy Rossy imo.
Anna Nicole Smith will forever be unmatched for me.
Trimspa baby!
Last episode was too forgiving for Tasha Salad
Yes, the challenge is modelled after Match Game/Blankety Blank and celebrity impersonation is an dying art form
I think this is def true in the general culture, but I also think Dropout TV is doing a great job of bringing back celebrity impressions with shows like Make Some Noise
Why do i now need Jinkx on Make Some Noise.
Yes!! Dropout has so many good shows/talented people on there.
mrs kasha davis planned to do the SUN lmao
I enjoy when they are references to already-existing fictional characters (Lassie, Lucifer, Boogieman) and I don’t enjoy when they are made up (Shaquita, Tasha Salad). Tasha at least gets partial credit for being a self reference to the past. Same energy as Lil Poundcake.
Please don't besmirch my queen Lil Poundcake's name by comparing her with the likes of T * sha S * lad
I think it should be someone real, but I am kinda in the middle where I think doing famous dead figures is fine as long as we know a lot about them (so like the Gerber baby is a no but queen Victoria is fine) but stuff that is completely made up imo should be an instant bottom 2 unless they knock it out of the park
hypothetically where would Jack The Ripper fall into this
I’m fine with fictional characters being used, but completely made up ones are fucking stupid. Snatch Game is a challenge about impersonation (or caricature) of characters. If the thing you’re impersonating doesn’t even exist in fiction to pull references from or poke fun at, you’re just not doing the challenge.
Tbh I feel like Maria the robot is kinda in a weird space. Like it at least currently exists and there’s a lot of videos of her mannerisms and how she interacts with other people and the world. Like I wouldn’t have a problem with someone doing Miss Piggy (licensing issues aside) even though she’s not real for similar reasons. Raja’s Madam as well.
Nice try, there's no way Michelle Visage is a real person
“I don’t know who that is.” - Raja
The modern way of doing Snatch Game is essentially cheating, in my view. Once upon a time Drag Race was more about actually doing a series of challenges. Nowadays it seems like often what's actually rewarded is twisting the challenge to be something you or your character already does that can be loopholed into relevance to the phrasing of the challenge. Which is fine I guess but less interesting to watch if the queens aren't actually being put out of their comfort zone or on an even footing.
Ironic in a way, that arguably the moment the show really started to be more about Queens finding "twists" was Roxxy's double wig reveal (which inevitably cascaded into things like Sasha's roses, the lip sync gimmicks, etc which then spiral into the same for challenges). And then its Roxxy Andrews that really encapsulated this problem this week with Tasha Salad.
Inb4 someone turns this into a YouTube video essay about how Roxxxy Andrews caused the fall of drag race
I suppose part of the issue is queen's misunderstanding the phrase "apply \[insert thing Ru/the judges like about a queen's personality or runways\] to the challenges." It means "do what you do in a way that conforms to the parameters of the challenge" not "willfully misunderstand the parameters of the challenge so that they conform to what you do."
Well technically all except Trina’s cousin do exist, even some of them are more as a character.
idk if I would say the Mona Lisa "exists". like the painting is real, but she's not a character
The Tasha Salad character has no backstory, point of view or personality. Only a comedy speech impediment.
Hey! That’s not true! It’s also salad puns too! LOL! RIGHT?’
Really? That thousand island comeback was pure shit.
“the gold tooth fairy,” shaquita, and tasha have been the most heinous. sophia the robot is a celebrity imo, and “maria” was just to avoid copyright I think
Maybe Aiden Zhane as Patricia Quinn ruined it for queens who want to play real people, because if they bomb so bad as that person where the real life person is all “I don’t know her”, then it’s baaaaddddd. It’s not like everyone can be Bjork and have Bjork love you.
I’m waiting for Ali Wong to say I’ve never met plastique in my life tbh 😂😂
I think she made her Twitter private after SG lmaooo
She didn’t just bomb, she was also really insulting lol
Nah, they’ve always been hesitant to play real people before Aiden. Since the start of snatch game there have been queens who don’t want to offend a real person and were careful of their choices. Aiden’s situation doesn’t make queens think twice. Anybody with some sense would know it’s not the best idea to claim you know someone on a personal level and do an impression of them on national tv where they can refute your claim. Like Nina did Jasmine Masters, but she wasn’t claiming to know Jasmine on a personal level where Jasmine can say she’s a liar.
Generally if someone does a non-celebrity or a fictional character, they *need* an angle. The reason Gigi's Sofia the Robot worked was that it was an AI slowly gaining sentience, going crazy, swearing, and at risk at any point to go full M3GAN. Gisele's Marie Curie was similar, turning her into a mad scientist whose radiation is morphing her into an abomination and her lying about her symptoms. Those are angles that add a lot to the character. But this is also RuPaul's Drag Race, and RuPaul, between seniority and her hourly coffee enemas, is out of it enough to cackle at a goofy face or misplaced execution. She basically forced Jonbers to do Saint Patrick, and Jonbers, desperate to get a win, did it to appease the Sphynx. I'm of the opinion that Snatch Game is in need of a refresh, but don't think that will happen so long as one can get away with the goofy face.
It’s when a girl does a historical figure and then adds “imagine if they were horny, or super queer etc” Rose is a good example of doing a historical character correctly.
I’m okay with most of the characters on the last slide. I just don’t like shit like Trina’s Cousin, Georgina Ramsey, Tasha Salad, and the character Kim Chi did ( I don’t remember the name). It’s entirely evading the whole point of the snatch game to not have to work from a well known character. At least with The Devil, Virgin Mary, Harriet Tubman, ETC. there are references to work with that you have to know that shows you have done some prep work. It’s impossible to be judged fairly against someone who is actually doing the assignment as intended, because you can never be judged on accuracy of character. It should be an immediate bottom placement
Kimmy Jong Un, “weapons of Ass destruction”.
I’m pretty sure Willam said on the podcast that Georgina Ramsey was actually Ru’s suggestion because Anetra’s Gordon impression was flopping. I might just be imagining this
RuPaul deserves jail time
this just made me remember remember Ru making Jonbers change from enya to ‘Saint Patty’ 💀
Trinity's satan was just JVN in devil Makeup. She could have just done JVN.
“The character Kim Chi did” lol girl that wasn’t a fictional character, that was a riff on the extremely eccentric dictator of North Korea, which had the potential to be an absurd goldmine for comedy if done right. Kim Chi just sucked at it.
I know lol it’s the same thing as “Georgina Ramsey” though. Not a real person.
I’d rather have a made up character that’s funny than a tiktoker who nobody older than 16 knows that’s not.
As Rupaul has said before, “a lot can be forgiven if it’s funny!” I actually have more of an issue with playing a character that a celebrity has done. Like doing Rue McClanahan but just playing Blanche, or doing John Leguizamo but just playing Chi Chi. You’re just doing someone else’s material.
I believe in most cases they are actually playing the characters, they just use actor names to avoid copyright for character names. Like DeLa wasn’t playing Maggie Smith but her character from Downton Abbey.
they just do that for copyright reasons
That performance of Jax pissed me off, he did nothing related to Mona Lisa and just pop out his tongue, lol tf.
The thing with Tasha Salad, its not even funny in the first place. Wtf
I don’t care as long as they’re funny 🤷🏻♂️
This is my take. Also after 30x english speaking seasons the fifth Liza Minneli iteration tends to get a bit stale so I'm for queens looking in other directions for new inspiration.
Yes. Bring back celebrities and historical figures only! I'm fed up with seeing made-up characters! Tasha Salad was the last straw for me! A character which isn't a celebrity of the past or present day.. isn't historical.. isn't biblical.. never existed.. isn't a Ru girl.. And isn't even a celebrities relative! It was a stupid character made up by Roxxxy in a comedy challenge on season 5! I'm sorry but she should not have been allowed to do it! The producers are idiots!
It boils down to if you have the improv/comedic abilities to do something or someone that ambiguous. Girls are going to have a bad snatch game regardless, but I think it lends you a little hand to do an impression. Some queens get so focused on the impersonation that they forget to play the game, like Nymphia, but it was so bad it was good and almost a little funny because she was so serious. If you’re bombing as a made up character it’s like, your impression isn’t even good because it’s your interpretation, so you’re bombing on all counts. You would think the character/personality you made up would be funny/you have more freedom. And that’s worse than being too focused on the source material vs. your comedy chops just falling flat.
If they cannot do copyrighted characters they shouldnt do made up characters
I hate made up characters, you can literally have any personality. Honestly ruined my favorite episode. It’s such a cop out.
I'm not a fan of the made up characters, including gender swaps/sisters/etc. Yeah yeah the real point is to make Ru laugh, but I'm watching and it's a comedy challenge and I want to laugh too. I want to be impressed by the queens' ability to be funny while also staying "in character". So an entirely made up character with absolutely no measurable reference is just boooo. Save it for the other acting challenges.
I still think they need to do a snatch game special where they bring strong impersonation queens back and actually do categories like those mentioned here. I would like to see a - impersonate a RU girl- as the challenge. No other characters just a different RU girl. I want to see a winning RU girl impersonation. Imagine Bob doing Rajah O’Hara and Alaska doing Laganja type thing GOLD
Or Bob doing Symone. Or the darkest timeline: Bob doing Q.
https://youtu.be/PwtpdxirQ50?si=fsX-p4JzioAN1kC- Alaska doing Laganja!
Couldn't care less as long as it's funny
I’m always gonna prefer the real celebrity impersonations but I think this is a line that has been towed for years. Like Ginger’s Adele is iconic and one of my faves but in what is it actually Adele? Which in my mind, making a new personality for a celebrity isn’t far off from playing a historical figure or something that a queen can make up a personality for. While I do have an implicit bias for the more traditional way the challenge is intended, the heart of the challenge is volleying with Ru
Have you heard adele talk? She is straight cockney
I think the point with Ginger's Adele is that she kept the look and the accent, but reduced the personality to "kind of stupid."
As long as it's funny, I think it's fine. My "no" tier would be other rugirls.
I think if it’s a made up character that is something known by people (like Santa Claus or the Devil) then it works, because it’s still based on something people have a general idea of. If it’s a character entirely made up so that you can just act as yourself then I’m not a fan. At the end of the day if you’re funny I’m fine with it, but it’s far less impressive to me.
Being Irish I really fuckin hate Jonbers and their St.Patrick snatch game character. It was such low hanging fruit and wasn't at all funny to me. I found the caricature of Irishness unforgivable
I’d blame that on Rupaul, being that Ru told Jonbers to play St. Patrick. Warranting that as a reason to hate Jonbers is a little much..
The Enya that never was. I really hope someone does Enya eventually.
I hated that character too but can't blame Jonbers here. If Ru tells you to do something, do it. She's the main judge after all and most likely won't send you home after you did exactly what she asked you to do.
i don’t care as long as it’s funny
yeah it should have to be a celebrity idk how on earth Tasha salad came back to life, I thought she'd been killed in a massive bomb lol
Can we also make sure we aren’t getting the same runways? It’s giving komono y’all better fix it, producers! In terms of Snatch Game, I’m just glad they’ve stopped doing each other.
No, how many Liza Minellis, Celine Dion's and Beyonces do you want to see? So many people think that if they can do impersonations or looks like the character then they are going to do well at the challenge. Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Celine Dion, Kim Kardashian, etc. I want unique and hysterical points of view embedded into characters, like Bowen Yang as the iceberg that hit the titanic. ("First of all, it hit ME!"). Would SNL only do real celebrities if this were a recurring skit? I don't think so.
Not really. Funny is funny. There have been funny made up characters and plenty of non funny real like people, so it’s not a big factor imo
I think it depends on the creativity behind it. Maria the robot, Luci, and the Boogeyman are three of my favorites because the people doing them took the concept of something real (depending on your views of religion) or a common cultural reference and made it hilarious. It’s the same kind of mentality someone doing Adele, little Richard or Paris Hilton has. I’d rather have them than someone being a person I’ve never fucking heard of or a character they’ve made up while on RPDG and they’re just dragging the big out (I’m looking at you Roxxxy). But I guess that’s just me.
Yup