The cruel failure of “RDR Live”

The RDR Live script is so bad that it’s impossible to tell how the queens will actually perform in the challenge. It’s cruel to watch. Photo: MTV

There was a time when I too defended RDR Live as a concept. “As a general rule, I’m against comedy challenges where girls don’t write their own material, but RDR Live was a lot of fun,” I wrote in 2023, when the challenge first appeared. At the time, I had no idea what level of unpleasantness this show would reach. Typically, the show has a pretty rough script, and one of the challenges is making it workable. It could be anything. Some queens like Bob, Simone, and Onya actually managed to get the song to sing, which made them clear winners.

But this week I realized that the writing was so bad that it was very difficult to tell who was doing a good job and who was doing a bad job. To no avail, I just stared at the screen in a kind of stunned silence for the entire 15 minutes the challenge lasted. Perhaps one queen stood out throughout the entirety of the challenge. On the runway, queens were praised and criticized, but in ways I could barely understand. During the actual challenge, I had no idea who performed well or who performed poorly. Then an incomprehensible winner was chosen and we moved on.

I think part of the problem is that, as this challenge was originally designed, the sketch is meant to be a direct parody of a Saturday Night Live sketch. I didn’t record many of them this time, except for the evergreen “Weekend Update” and host monologue segments. Creating a version of an SNL sketch would be helpful since Drag Race writers aren’t very good at conceptualizing sketches or writing jokes in them. Take away the responsibility of creating the situation from them and you have at least a semi-legitimate segment. Inevitably, the characters become more fully formed, and it becomes easier to see how the Queen embodies them. This time, it was just your average Drag Race, complete with butter-churning competition and “Young Michelle.” It was the worst.

The episode begins with the girls returning after DD Fuego is eliminated. They are clearly a little shocked to see Mandy Mango standing among them, but they all admit that she won with the lip sync. We also see that Briar is starting to piss off Athena, which makes sense to me. Other than Juicy, Briar is the youngest contestant there, and she clearly has a sixth sense for who is poking or being prodded. Athena, on the other hand, is a grand dame who can’t shake anything off. Sure, I think Briar is annoying, but what we see of her doesn’t cross the line of Drag Race trolling. Not really up to baseline mistress level either.

The other main plot of this episode is that Jane is starting to feel the claws are growing on her as she establishes herself more and more as the clear frontrunner. On some level, I sympathize with Jane here. I don’t think she’s actually producing this storyline herself. She strikes me as someone who seriously struggles with this feeling and who knows that complaining about how good she is is annoying. On the other hand, complaining about your own excellence is annoying. After winning season 15, I spoke to Sasha Colby and she said she was struggling with the same thing. She used the time alone in her hotel room to process her trauma and resolve the issue by walking away. At the time, I remember thinking, “The problem with season 15 is that Sasha is so calm that she can spend a dark night of the soul alone, process her emotions, and come back to the workroom without showing it.” Jane doesn’t have that ability, but at least our frontrunner has some tension, so the season is better that way so far.

Although the part goes well, Athena is left with the unwanted role of host. Sarah Sherman comes along and gives some good advice. She also gives some not-so-good advice, similar to RuPaul’s creepy “Be funny!” mode. Juicy, who plays Michelle Visage’s mother, gets a little flustered by Sarah’s comment, but she gets help from her scene partner, Mike. Mikey, on the other hand, loves SNL so much that he cries. Ru tells Discord that the way he walks is extremely abnormal, but asks him not to change it because it’s funny, which feels like bullying.

Then the challenge begins. Judging from the “Butter Whirling Competition” sketch, it’s terrible. Discord and Mia have a very simple role as announcers, but Discord still goes overboard and does it badly. Mia is fine, and I think she just wanted to stay safe until her next performance challenge. Darlene ends up coming out on top with the butter-churning character — sure? It wasn’t funny, but it’s a fully realized character. Mandy ends up showing her boobs at the end, which puts her in last place due to the Amish character stirring the butter. I thought that was fine (well, it’s not as annoying as Discord’s inability to easily obtain play-by-play rights), but I was a little annoyed by the way it was structured. Mandy’s drag hasn’t appeared on the show yet.

Athena is the host, but her job is easier than Onya or Mirage, as her monologue is periodically paused by her inner saboteur, Briar. While talking about this, I remembered Onya from last year. He wasn’t funny as the host (because the jokes weren’t funny), but he was so enthusiastically charming that I was in awe. Athena is not like that. But Briar is even worse. She’s stiff and awkward and makes me uncomfortable. I don’t know if they get cue cards like they do on SNL, but Briar was the only one on stage that really felt like they were “reading.” It’s extremely bad.

Next up is the Master Keef Theater. Host Athena instead uses a subtle introduction, parodying Hollywood films from the Hays Code era, when openly gay people weren’t allowed. That’s not the case after all, and everyone calls each other in normal lesbian terms and acts as homosexuals. This was one of the most challenging sketches for me. It was terrible. Vita came in last because the way she said her lines sounded weird, but they didn’t tell her that directly. Both Kenya and Nini are safe for playing poorly written characters competently (maybe?). The best moment of this sketch is when Nini gets slapped and spins on the spot. I was expecting Kenya to make a breakthrough in the Challenge by now.

Next up is “Weekend Update,” where Bryar appears as one of the news anchors. A judge later told her she needed to grow up. The real problem was that she stumbled over her words and read the headline like a robot that hadn’t been programmed for “punch lines.” If Ciara wants to play a news anchor, she should consider painting a news anchor. That was ridiculous. Jane will guest star on “Weekend Update” as Ciara’s mother. She whips up Midwestern treats and delivers her lines like a pro. She was definitely (easily!) the best part of RDR Live, and the only one who showed any legit propensity to do comedy.

The final sketch of the night was “Young Michelle,” featuring Mikey Meeks as Michelle (Fine) and Juicy Love Dion as her boss. Juicy ultimately won this challenge, but I think a lot of people will be confused. I’m confused! In fact, it was the criticism that confused me. I’ve seen this awful, awful sketch so many times because I care about my readers. What struck me was that as the sketch progressed, Juicy became better and more confident. By the end, she was truly one of the best performers of the night. But the judge isn’t like that. Rather, they are obsessed with her stance. Looking at her stance at the beginning, it seems like she lacks confidence and is fidgety. Then she gets better. And if the judges want to evaluate that growth, that’s fine. But they’re acting like she’s a god gift for drawing comedy, which is clearly not the case.

The category on the runway is “Animal Attraction.” Good category! Discord is a white crocodile, but I don’t really understand it, especially the skull on her arm. A human handbag is an interesting idea, but it would work better if she looked like she was a crocodile instead of just wearing it. The way I walk is still bad. Mia is a pink poodle who is super cute and an incredibly “first thought” dog. Mandy Mango has the best painted deer ever. I thought she was lovely! Darlene is a cow, but she has a gorgeous costume that is very carefully made. Lou gets upset that she’s not wearing heels. The appearance of Athena’s owl is really gorgeous and very expensive. Briar plays the swan and looks perfect, but the “white swan” also came to mind a little first. You want your chosen animal to tell you a little more about you as its queen.

Then there’s Vita, who plays Zebra. I think this is totally awesome. To be very specific, I don’t think the seams separating the patterns should go into the center where the irregularities would be very noticeable. Nini has the best look of the week as a poison dart frog. I love the wig and I love how she made the costume. It’s hard to beat her on the runway. Kenya’s appearance of “a common tiger” is a good representation of the character, but the tail is a bit disappointing. Ciara Mist’s look is not appealing to me. We often talk about prosthetic legs in the workroom, but haven’t you seen much of a three-dimensional change? Additionally, the unattached back piece looks clunky and the tongue is unreadable. Jane interprets “Macaw” through her non-literal dress. She looks gorgeous, and Lou will surely be happy to see her go all-out glamor early in the competition. She knows how to play that. Maiki’s Cheetah Mugler moment is totally fine…but dear God, have I been writing “okay” about this queen a lot lately? Juicy’s “Pangolin” fit is great. It’s completely strange, beautiful, and has tough armor. I really enjoyed learning about her obsession with animals. It was a great night.

In the end, Jane is spared the humiliation of winning another challenge that she absolutely should have won. I think the show doesn’t want to give her too much too soon. Juicy wins instead, which is ridiculous. Briar, who was legitimately the worst queen in this challenge, is currently placed at the bottom with Mandy, who is the worst queen on the show. It feels more like a mercy murder than a real critique of her performance. I don’t think there was anything she could do. The lip sync is to Lizzo’s “Love in Real Life.” Finally, Lou wondered if he would give them a ride home. Briar is more musical, but she doesn’t necessarily set the world on fire. Mandy is desperate. In the end, Briar bumps into her and Lou looks displeased. But Briar gets it done! Congratulations, Briar. I hope to have an even better challenge next week.

• It was impressive to hear the girls say, “It was so juicy!” Perhaps she would have been better off in the room? Also, something happened to Briar that wasn’t aired, but I’m curious to see if it will be made public by the queens later. Sarah is chatting with the queens, which is totally fine.

• I profiled Sarah Sherman several years ago. This is it.

• I really don’t know the answers to the early comedy challenge conundrums. Because the later ones (roasts, speeches, etc.) are especially fun because the queens have to write them themselves. But we know we need to retire RDR Live. Maybe he’ll just go back to dueling sitcom sketches like “Hot in Tuckahoe.”

• Juicy Love Dion gets creative with what she posts after the show, posting on Instagram how she performed each lip sync. Things like “this is what I would do if I was going to send these two bitches home” are pretty funny.

• Gay thoughts from gay people: Canada’s Drag Race ended this week ahead of the upcoming Britain vs. World match. Eboni LaBelle, you will forever be famous. Description of the show by a disgruntled friend who wishes to remain anonymous: “A group of mostly early-out US seasons compete in nonsensical challenges where the judging is randomized. Eboni LaBelle was great and I love Sami Landry.” Awful! But it’s fair…no one should ever win this show without competing in Snatch Game. On balance, my friend Norm loved the season, and his review is: “Another unserious but fun season from the most original Drag Race franchise – fun challenges, competitive queens, and a proper top two. It was marred by questionable judging across the board and an understandably still incorrect winner selection.”

• Top 4 predictions: Jane, Nini, Vita, Juicy.