‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ UKVTW E1 Recap: Throwing Deli Meats At Ru Is Talent, Actually

Ever since UK vs. The World was announced, I’ve been worried. Not about the quality of the show — an eclectic cast tends to make for a great All Stars, ala S6. I’ve been wondering what on Earth I’d do for my recap headlines: that title is unsightly, and tying it out takes up valuable space to make ‘jokes’ about bussys and depression.

This doesn’t matter for anyone else, but I’ve landed on ‘UKVTW’, though I wish we could just call it what it is: International All Stars. But if that’s the only thing I have to nit-pick, we’re off to a good start — this is going to be a very, very fun season.

(FYI, there is a reason for the name. It’s not terribly interesting, but if it’s bothering you like it is me: UKVTW’s launching BBC3’s return to TV after being a digital-only channel, which itself is mostly due to of the success of Drag Race UK, 3’s biggest show. For branding purposes, it makes sense: for anyone outside of the BBC’s marketing team, it’s annoying.)

What a cast! I forgot how much I LOVED everyone, with the exception of Pangina as I haven’t seen Thailand (I know! I know!). Clearly she knew that’d be the case for many, and came to impress off the bat: I’ve fallen for her instantly (and she’s quite cute out of drag, too…). With just 9 queens and six episodes, each week will hurt to see someone go home: as much as I wanted Lemon to stick around, her (premature) elimination isn’t too much of a sour note.

Poor S14, who now have to face their season airing at the same time as a fantasy league All Stars, where Baga Chipz explains British slang to the co-host of Thailand — a scene that landed somewhere between fan-fiction and COVID fever dream. It has Jimbo throwing deli meats at RuPaul: how can you compete with that?

“It Has Been UK vs. The World For Centuries, Darling” – Jujubee Instantly Reminding Us Why She Can And Should Be On Every Drag Race Season

Let’s run through the cast quickly. On the UK front, we have three queens from S1: comedian and finalist Baga Chipz, lewd makeup artist Blu Hydrangea, and the UK’s answer to Alyssa Edwards, Cheryl Hole (not shade!). S2 gets all the praise, but I forgot how stacked that first cast was — all three are just a joy to watch all episode long.

Then we’ve got two queens from Canada’s Drag Race S1: boob-obsessed clown Jimbo and dance-twink Lemon, who is also a great rapper and actress (don’t believe me?), who came 4th and 5th respectively. Lemon might seem a little basic, but the vocal fry overshadows her wit — someone’s gotta go first, but I’m sad we won’t see her in an acting/comedy challenge.

We’ve also got Holland S1 queen Janey Jacké, who was one of those ‘always high’ finalists (think Trinity in S9, Scarlett Bobo in CDR) who easily could’ve won the whole show —  a really capable workhorse queen. And then there’s Pangina, who comes in never having actually competed on Drag Race.

We’ve also got two American queens rounding out the show, Monique Heart & Jujubee. I love both of these queens (in my fantasy, Monique & Monet are AS4‘s tied winners), but they’re probably the ones I’m least interested to see just as they’ve both had their All Stars moment(s) before. Jujubee arrives with nothing to prove after AS5 so goes back to her ‘ready to wear’ drag this ep, but it’s clear Mo is here to WIN, bringing looks that are leagues and leagues above her S10 days.

FYI, this season was filmed early last year, pretty much straight after Down Under S1/before UK3, which is why there’s no UK2/3/CDR2/Italia/Down Under/etc. queens there. Would have loved to see Etcetera & Anita there in particular: maybe S2?

A Talent Show!

Before this week’s maxi challenge — a talent show, duh — we get served literal and figurative tea. Blu ‘confronts’ Monique about being rude at a gig they both worked, and judging by Monique’s shade all episode, the heart of S10 is stepping into her mean girl shoes. I’m here for it, though she’s unfairly judging people off a post-All Stars standard.

Even the most popular UK queens don’t have the same access and money she or Juju would have, but I also think her comments are just for drama’s sake/it’s not worth getting serious about. Meanwhile, Ru shows us the last thing we all see before we die.

Onto the talent show. Lemon’s dance number is a little low energy, despite the high splits: if she had ‘rapped’ live in the same way the others ‘sung’ live (ie. out of time to a backing track), she would have been safe. It’s obviously her and Janey in the bottom, who decides to do a lip-sync with five reveals, each outfit uglier than the last. (Also, did the editing turn down their music to lower the impact?)

The other song-dance numbers are perfectly fine. Monique goes for a gospel number that’s a little messy, Juju goes for a ballad, and Baga’s catchphrase-filled song is, as Janey says, ‘a drunk woman doing karaoke’, though I’d add it’s in a good way. As I wrote in my notes, “Baga just makes me smile”. Cheryl does the standard ‘I’m a drag queen here to slay mama’ song, but she’s so self-deprecating and stupid that I can’t help but think it’s one of the best of the night.

Pangina also does a lip-sync to her own original track, but it’s filled to the brim with puns, stunts, jokes and waacking (by my limited research, a kind of precursor to contemporary ballroom from ’70s California, now popular in Thailand). She holds nothing back, and it puts most of the other lip-syncs to shame.

The two queens who actually do something unique are Blu & Jimbo. Blu elevates her lipsync with a puppet chorus: yes, a common-ish drag bit, but we somehow we haven’t seen on the show before (I think…). Funny, silly, and her song included lyrics equating Ru’s cum to ‘dinner’!

And then there’s Jimbo, who outdoes himself with an absurd, freakish skit about a pregnant alien who births deli meat and throws it around stage and to Ru. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much watching Drag Race since… well, since Jimbo was last on Drag Race. Not to compare queens, but this is the level of performance art Willow Pill thought she was giving (don’t get me wrong, I loved that too).

I had mixed feelings about Jimbo during CDR. She was so funny, so sharp, so unique, but her fixation on hyper-hypersexual female characters reminded me of how queer men can belittle and objectify women as play toys or accessories. I’m not saying that’s her intention with drag, but it’s nice to see Jimbo this episode balance that hypersexuality with her other impulses towards the dark and alien. I love the big titted bimbo character, but the variation is welcome.

I’m very excited to see her back and celebrated for being weird: her and Pangina are the top two, and despite Ru’s refusal to simply say this season runs by ‘All Star rules’ (another BBC marketing thing, I guess?), they lip-sync it out to the Spice Girls for a chance to send a bottom queen home. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Coronation Street? No That’s A Runway

This week’s runway is ‘Euphoria high’, and Ru goes for a modern-day Josie Grosie moment.

Baga arguably should be in the bottom this week for her atrocious ‘Sydney Sweeney’s inevitable Oscar’ look combined with her off-time performance, but like me, the judges can’t help but be enamoured. Some people are simply stars.

Jujubee is barely trying with her parent-teacher interview ballgown (good for her! so she should!); Lemon, Cheryl and Janey look very pretty but don’t go beyond that; Blu decides this is her chance to be Euphoria‘s chief MUA, while paying homage to Mark Fisher’s unfinished work Acid Communism.

Three queens make a statement on how their drag character would do at the non-existent school portion of Euphoria. Monique understands the ‘assignment’; Pangina submits a beautiful, ornate book report; Jimbo lights the homework on fire in front of his teacher and manically laughs while smearing the ash over his face, purely to get out of class.

The top two are Pangina and Jimbo, and they lip-sync in front of (a very sassy) guest judge Mel C to the Spice Girls’ ‘Say You’ll Be There’. Pangina seemingly pulled out every move during her talent show, but has even more tricks here: Jimbo keeps falling over and running into her, to the point I wonder whether it was intentional.

Pangina wins a Gold Rupeter badge and sends Lemon home. Next week’s a sewing challenge, which bodes badly for Baga. Predictions, because why the fuck not: I see either Cheryl or Pangina taking home the win.

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RuPaul’s Drag Race UK vs The Worlds is available to stream in Australia on Stan, with episodes dropping each Wednesday at 10am AEDT.

Jared Richards is Junkee‘s Drag Race recapper, and a freelancer who writes for NME, The Big Issue, The Guardian and more. He’s across the internet as @jrdjms