37 thoughts I had watching Drag Race season 15, Daytona Wind: ‘Is it meant to be funny?’

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 is back for another episode, hot on the heels of the announcement that the show is finally returning to its pre-Real Friends of Weho 90 minute run time – but a sequel to Daytona Wind falls flat(ulence).

Following a Golden Girls-themed girl group, Mistress and Malaysia hash it out after last week’s incredibly awkward argument over which team should be assigned the genre of heavy metal, Marcia gets another comment about her makeup and Mistress snags her first (well deserved) win, and another acting challenge sashays its way into the pantheon of unfunny Drag Race acting challenges.

On the positive side, the slow reduction of number of girls means that the episode finally has (slightly) more breathing room, though whether that’s because I’m just slowly acclimatising to the shorter run time is still up for debate.

Here are 37 thoughts I had watching episode four of RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 15.

• The girlie girls are back in the Werk Room following Robin Fierce’s elimination, and I can’t help but feel bad for the Connecticut queen. She got about as much screen time as Kandy Ho.
• I’m so glad that longer episodes are returning, but this offering is 39 minutes long. The first episode of The Pit Stop is longer than that.
• Obsessed with Loosey asking if anyone thought they would be in the top rather than safe; a surefire way to stir the pot.
• Just remembered how violently Sasha Colby was robbed, stolen from and burglarised last week. How did Aura win?
• I cannot deal with Mistress calling Sasha Colby “Dumbledore” because of her tendency to try and teach the girls. DUMBLEDORE!
• Malaysia is in the right in this situation – Mistress and Luxx were being obstinate in their ‘choosing’ of metal last week – but Mistress is giving such good TV that I’m automatically on her side. If this season earns an Emmy, it’s because of her.
• Daytona Wind is back for another round and we see Kerri Colby in the recap of season 14’s offering – I miss her.
• Normally the role choosing drama is about ten minutes long. This is a quick one-two for Aura, who is in charge of assigning the characters, and I know there was more drama than what we saw. Todrick Hall look what you have taken from us.

• Do you genuinely think that Aura accidentally assigned Mistress and Malaysia two characters that have to work so closely with each other, or was it a) tactics or b) producer meddling?
• “Malistress! Werk, couple name!” – Marcia is funny.
• Luxx is also making me laugh, straight up saying she hopes Mistress and Malaysia crash and burn.
• Aura – who has taken the biggest role of Fancy – “does not connect” with the lines, two of which are iconique Drag Race references that she is just not clocking. I’d be embarrassed.
• YES MISTRESS YOU ENGAGE IN THAT SABOTAGE AND RIGGORY TO SWAP ROLES WITH AURA. Giving Phi Phi O’Hara in All Stars 2 but likeable.
• It must be so nerve-wracking to act in front of Roople. I can see it get to Spice, who is taking directions about as well as I do on the M25.
• “Great gowns, beautiful gowns.” Marcia x3 is making me LAUGH!
• I’m beginning to think that when Aura said that she wasn’t connecting to the lines earlier, the lines weren’t the problem.
• Malistress are crushing it with their rapport – you really wouldn’t know that the episode kicked off with a fight between the two.
• I promise I won’t harp on about it (a lie) but we miss so many of this season’s cast receiving any form of walkthrough during the filming process because of the squished runtime. It’s not quite as bad as previous episodes, but where are Sasha Colby/ Anetra/ Luxx/ Salina? Anyone?
• We get a hyuge tease with a mystery cast member busting through the door – who could it be!?

• Love Mistress and Malaysia and I’m so glad they’re hashing out their tensions, but I feel like Drag Race queens are so terrified of having a fight because of the backlash from feral fans. Whatever happened to Party City?
• ‘Puffa Please’ for a runway theme is very slay – I just know the writers/ producers howled when they thought of that.
• “If Estittites lived in an igloo, this is what she’d wear to school” is such a funny explanation for a runway.
• Nothing will ever be funnier than Malaysia just slamming the door in Mistress’s face during this challenge.
• The final product is ‘breathe slightly harder through your nose’ funny, but Mistress is eating it up, and so are the editors with the very Michelle-Visage-cackle heavy laugh track.
• These pauses – which presumably, the cast were directed to include – are so incredibly awkward. Hate. Is it meant to be funny?
• The ghost of Latrice Royale is here, via sound effect.

• This acting challenge will add to my thesis that no Drag Race acting challenge has ever actually been… what’s the word… funny? I also don’t understand why they went for a Daytona Wind sequal – the comedy of the first one was the retroactively inserted fart track, which is completely missing. So what was the point?
• DANNY TREJO AS THE MYSTERY CAST MEMBER? QUOTING ALYSSA EDWARDS? In terms of celebs that I assumed would be on Drag Race as a special guest, he sits on the list somewhere between Prince and Liz Truss. Living though.
• Michelle Visage reading Spice by just saying: “Bored.” Tough.
• Mistress better be winning this challenge.
• Mistress won the challenge!
• “Cue the sniper” r.e. Spice’s runway walk – I CANNOT. Ru is funny this season, I love when she goes off script. I do agree with what they’re saying concerning the ‘scriptedness’ of Spice’s runway walk, but equally, you put the girl from TikTok on Drag Race? What did you expect?

• Where is Anetra? If ‘walk that f**king duck’ Anetra does not get more airtime soon, I will start another change.org petition.
• Jax and Aura are both in the bottom and oh boy, I am seated. Lip syncing to Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion, no less! Gay rights.
• Jax did indeed turn this out. Good luck sending her home. An unexpectedly lacklustre offering from Aura though, if I may be so bold?

• Next week is a lip-sync LaLaPaRUza? But with no discernible reason, Ru just decided to? So it’s a challenge now? Confused, but I’ll take it. Sugar could be in trouble.
• This episode finally feels as though it has a bit more breathing room. I don’t know whether the announcement of the return to 90 minute run time (from 11 March) is having some sort of placebo effect, or as the girls get the chop there’s less ground to cover, but there are slightly less glaringly obvious cuts for time.

• Drag
• Dec 09 2023

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