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Friday, March 1, 2013

TV / Celeb / LGBTQITSLFA "Jinkx Monsoon is the only gal qualified to call herself a queen."

Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 9:42 AM

J. Bryan Lowder at Slate unpacks the problem with this season's Drag Race—and showers praise on Seattle's own Jinkx Monsoon:

But in Season 5, it appears we’re back to glamour-land, with a slate of queens who, with a few execptions, seem to value being “fishy”—i.e., as convincing in their imitation of women as possible—above all else. I challenge you to find a five-minute block of any episode that doesn’t contain that word flopping around on deck. But fishy has its limits, and they were never more apparent than in this week’s episode, which featured the Snatch Game, a fan-favorite over the past few seasons. Styled on the 1960s hit Match Game, the contest begins with Ru asking an innuendo-laden question of a duo of guest “celebrities.” The queens, who are all meant to be impersonating specific celebrities (Cher, Madonna, and so on) record their answers on cards. Ru then compares the celebrity answers with the queens’ to see if there is a match. This rarely happens; the point of the exercise is comedy, not points.

As you might expect, much of that comedy comes from the impersonation skills of the queens themselves. They not only need to look like their star, but also must channel that figure’s idiosyncrasies, clichés, and neuroses to humorous effect—they need to be, in a word, campy. Unfortunately, Monday’s edition of the Snatch Game revealed almost all of this season’s contestants as fish out of water. Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews were passably funny as Lady Bunny and Tamar Braxton, respectively, but the clear winner of the night—partially because she had no competition—was Jinkx Monsoon as Little Edie, the troubled and transcendent cousin of Jackie Kennedy featured in the canonical camp documentary, Grey Gardens.

Jinkx’s interpretation of Little Edie was excellent, and she deserved to win. But, based on the admittedly edited version of events that we saw, none, not one, of Jinkx’s peers seemed to know what Grey Gardens even was. And worse than that cringe-worthy ignorance was the embarrassing gall some of the queens displayed in making fun of Jinkx for her camp knowledge. When Coco Montrese, until now a favorite of mine, tried to “read” (that is, artfully insult) Jinkx during the Snatch Game by asking Ru who Little Edie was, I almost felt pity for how stupid she looked. Almost.

Go read the whole thing.

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Comments (23) RSS

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ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz- {snort}

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Posted by GeneStoner on March 1, 2013 at 9:45 AM

Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Posted by originalcinner on March 1, 2013 at 10:09 AM

You couldn't drag me to see that.

Posted by kwodell on March 1, 2013 at 10:10 AM

Did I get this right? There's a drag queen impersonating Lady Bunny, who is already a drag queen? Like a drag queen squared?

To each his own.

Posted by Global Traveler on March 1, 2013 at 10:12 AM

Worst season ever.

Posted by James6 on March 1, 2013 at 10:15 AM

@2.. shooting SCHNAPPER in a barrel

Posted by Rowlf on March 1, 2013 at 10:18 AM

On top of everything, the queens were so smugly proud of their ignorance. "Well, if ~I~ haven't heard of the bitch, she must be a loser."

Posted by undead ayn rand on March 1, 2013 at 10:20 AM

I, along with hundreds (thousands) of others re-watched Grey Gardens on line this week. The Jinx-driven comment thread there is wonderful.

Even better than those of us re-watching it are the newbies to Little Edie. Jinx contributed to the cultural Zeitgeist Monday. That's true drag....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0QVkzIBq…

Posted by ny Paul on March 1, 2013 at 10:29 AM

oops...."JinKx"

Posted by ny Paul on March 1, 2013 at 10:33 AM

I'm a 44 y/o gay man, and I'd never heard of Little Edie. But now I have.

Posted by DJSauvage on March 1, 2013 at 10:34 AM

has stephen sondheim seen this video?

Posted by scary tyler moore

on March 1, 2013 at 10:38 AM

"The Marble Faun is moving in." Heee, I hadn't thought about "Jherrhy" for twenty years, thanks for the memory of this movie that led to near daily quote quips within a small, queer group in a small KS town for a few years. Only "Trash"y Joe Dalessandro had more "Heat" cache, although Divine's hairdresser husband was close.

Posted by gttrgst on March 1, 2013 at 10:52 AM

I fell head over heels in love with Jinkx Monsoon in last week's episode the moment she calmly responded to that vapid judge's criticisms with "I do think we have a slightly different aesthetic."

None of the other queens have anything approaching her depth and relatively understated yet overwhelming beauty. And Jynkx is the best celebrity representative of our fair city since Kurt Cobain.

Posted by seandr on March 1, 2013 at 11:12 AM

@12 That article was delightful. Thanks for the link.

Posted by blip on March 1, 2013 at 11:39 AM

@10 - I can accept (very sadly) that many gay men have never heard of Little Edie. But when you are a drag queen -- especially one competing on national television to be the next drag superstar -- you should be steeped in Gay Camp Lore.

But more appalling was not that they didn't know Little Edie but that they didn't seem to know the Snatch Game, either. This was now the fourth time they've done it. Don't they know by now that the Snatch Game isn't a runway competition? It's not enough to look the part, you have to act the part. Almost everyone was shockingly unprepared.

I wish Honey Mahogany had last long enough for next week's singing competition to show them how it's done.

Posted by Kevin_BGFH

on March 1, 2013 at 12:03 PM

I've become a total Jinkx fan. She's a breath of fresh air for the show and for this season in particular - it's a batch of unusually mean queens.

Posted by Mattini on March 1, 2013 at 12:25 PM

Between her Little Edie and Very Mary-Kate impressions... I clearly have found my spirit drag mother.

Posted by nixor on March 1, 2013 at 12:32 PM

She should win for that flawless Little Edie impression alone.

Posted by brideoffrankenstein on March 1, 2013 at 12:43 PM

"It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present - you know what I mean?"

Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for the next week.
And, I don't care at all.

Posted by issa on March 1, 2013 at 3:31 PM

@13: Yeah, what is she known for, being a Real Housewife? If you're going to be nasty, at least be interesting. Or funny. Or fashionable yourself?

Posted by undead ayn rand on March 1, 2013 at 4:17 PM

If Jinkx would turn out a runway look as good as the one she's wearing in this video, she'd have it in the damn bag.

Posted by alguna_rubia on March 2, 2013 at 9:45 AM

@21: I'm really hoping she improves in that area over the season like some previous top 3 people have been able to. If there's another Pandora Boxx situation I might cry (but at least Santino doesn't seem to be hating on Jinkx nearly as much as he did with Pandora).

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Posted by Christian87 on March 28, 2013 at 5:37 AM