RuPaul's Drag Race: Tap That App

April 6, 2018 2:44 PM - Season 10, Episode 3

While RuPaul battles a respiratory infection, the queens make promo videos for niche dating apps, and the feathers fly on the runway. This week in shade: Aquaria never really learned to read; The Vixen bites back.
posted by sixswitch (11 comments total)

I thought this was a solid episode. A sickening runway (far and away better than the supposedly "best drag" of last week for most of them, wtf). Asia's Tweetie-Bird was i n c r e d i b l e. She's really growing on me! I thought she'd be a more pretty-pretty pageanty queen compared to someone like Monét who came across arty/conceptual to begin with but has yet to really wow me- this week's red with a blonde wig was reminiscent of her look last week and was equally boring.

I always like the challenges where the queens write their own material- it lets them shine/hang themselves by their own rope. The scripted acting/lip syncing numbers always seems unfair on how the roles get distributed- but this way they get their own chance to screw themselves over or prove their mettle.

Mayhem's lip sync was fabulous and I'm glad she stays. Bye Yuhua, won't really miss you. Can Eureka be next? I don't get what the judges are on about with their high expectations from her.. She wasn't that great last season and I haven't seen much to commend her this season yet either. Other than her I think the judges got it about right this episode.

Poor Mama Ru, she should have been tucked up in bed with a hot toddy, not dragging herself down the main stage! Being in drag with a cold must just be the worst.

Good challenge, good runway, good lip-sync! Good episode!
posted by mymbleth at 3:01 PM on April 6, 2018 [3 favorites]

Apparently last week's "Best Drag" was presented to the queens as "signature drag" and then sometime between that and the air date, it got changed to "best drag." So that's why it all seemed so strange. But if you evaluate their looks more in line with "signature drag" they do make more sense.

I also liked this week's episode but I longed for a Trixie or a Ben de la Creme to SLAY that app challenge. Mayhem killed that lip-sync and I was very happy with that result.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 3:05 PM on April 6, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh my god. Dusty Ray’s backstory had our entire bar in floods. But then her work in the commercial challenge had us roaring - the only cheers more loud were for Asia, but that’s fair, she’s our queen and she WAS right in the room with us, heh.

(the roar when Asia won the challenge - it nearly lifted the roof off the place)

I really wanted to like Yuhua at the start of the season, truly, she’s so silly and hilarious, but again, you backtalk Michelle at your own peril, and god dang it, quit saying “oh, I had better but I chose not to use it.” Why would you shoot yourself in the foot like that, and more than once?! What a painful new hobby you’ve undertaken!

Is it only me that keeps seeing Kennedy when I look at Mayhem? It’s not just the contacts either (used to great effect in her electrifying lip sync, I will say), she looks like a more petite Kennedy. It’s very distracting.

And that Untucked was HEATED. Asia kept telling us to stick around for it because it was going to be a SHOW, but even she didn’t know how hot that argument got. She came barreling onto the bar stage at the first commercial break yelling, “I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS *THAT* WILD! I was busy on stage winning!” She said she kind of saw Aquaria’s side and Vixen’s, because Vixen had some real good points, but Aquaria was still very young and still figuring things out and maybe that contributed to her inability to really express herself well.

Maybe sooooo. But I believe Blair is about as young and she seems pretty well poised and not much into causing shit, so far!

(did everyone see Blair’s video on Instagram where she spoofed the Walmart Yodeling Boy video, I died...and also the post where she talked about her awesome mom made her runway dress THE DAY BEFORE SHE WENT TO FILM?!)

I really loved Aquaria’s runway this week. Clever couture, it was witty and gorgeous. Just...please quit causing trouble and crying, honey. I don’t blame Vixen for getting upset about the optics, or about Cracker trying to tell her to chill out.

It was a wild episode. Also, Asia made over her runway look into a more showgirl-esque number that she wore last night and it was epic and she is marvelous.
posted by angeline at 3:57 PM on April 6, 2018 [7 favorites]

Vixen can't have it both ways - go around declaring how much of a bitch you are and then getting righteously pissed off when people are like "yeah actually you are one." Come on.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:16 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

And this is kind of a different note, because I feel more ambivalent about it: I'm not that familiar with drag culture, but Vixen isn't a black woman - she is the character of a black woman being played by a black man, and I'm not sure how I feel about a man claiming moral high ground based on their invented female character being stereotyped as an angry black woman. It could just as easily be argued that Anthony Taylor is deliberately playing into that stereotype and then jumping on other people for reacting to it. That self-righteousness felt unearned and slightly appropriative to me as a woman.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:19 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, the Butterface ad was pretty terrible all around. One of the biggest flops ever.

My favourites so far are Cracker and Asia, I think? Blair kind of also. No one is really grabbing me yet.

Re: Untucked, wow - Aquaria has the fragile white lady drag DOWN. That exchange was funny in light of her blood tears.

Talking heads-wise, I cannot get over how good looking Asia is. Just. Wow. Beautiful man, hello. I also love Monique's wide-eyed descriptions of everything and his super cute glasses. Love them.
posted by urbanlenny at 5:40 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I see your point for sure, s_l, and I get where you are coming from. But I would say the gender lines in drag are more blurred than before, especially with Drag Race queens. Their public personas are female-presenting, and a lot of people, fans and detractors alike, often react to the things the queens do or say as if they were women (and of course, several Ru Girls are women, as well as many identifying as non-binary or otherwise gender-non-conforming). So I get the black queens pointing out that the PERCEPTION is of an angry black woman picking on the weeping white girl. That’s what a lot of the public is going to see. It’s a fair point, I think. Could have been worded better, but I think I see where they were going with it (and for all we know it was elaborated upon and a lot hit the editing room floor, we just don’t know).
posted by angeline at 5:44 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

'Angry black woman' is a feminine-coded stereotype, yes, but it's under the umbrella of the general stereotype of black people as violent and aggressive, so I don't think it's a stretch for Vixen to claim it, especially given that she is a drag queen in drag. And Aquaria was definitely playing 'white fragile ingenue'.

But ultimately I don't think either Aquaria or the Vixen came off well in that exchange at all and taking sides seems silly to me. Aquaria needs to learn the difference between being shady and being rude and haughty. The Vixen needs to realize that a 4 provocation doesn't need a 10 response, and you can't jump on every opportunity to start a fight and then insist people are wrong for calling you out on it.

On a more positive note every time I remember Asia-as-Lucy I burst out laughing. Genuinely the best moment of the season so far for me.

I like a lot of the queens- Cracker, Asia, Blair, Monet- but I'm not really rooting for anyone just yet. I feel like there haven't been any Bianca-doing-comedy or Bob-as-Cookie or Violet-Death-Becomes-Her moments, moments where a queen just stands out as particularly exceptional.
posted by perplexion at 5:51 PM on April 6, 2018 [6 favorites]

I forgot that I had things to say about the runway looks. I really liked Vixen's peacock look and thought that Monique looked beautiful in her white outfit. Kameron also looked great. I kind of like her also, but not in an "I want her to win" way, but in the "I want good things for her in life" way.
posted by urbanlenny at 6:31 PM on April 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

Dusty's story tho. I was wrecked, it seems odd that he was sort of stating it across the room to no-one in particular - was Blair mostly indifferent or was it just weird editing? He really needed a hug! Loved the pictures of him and his handsome beau. I'm team #drb from hereonin.
posted by freya_lamb at 1:51 PM on April 7, 2018 [6 favorites]

Poor Ru! She sounded terrible.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:35 AM on April 9, 2018