Airing Out ‘Untucked’: It Is No Longer Derrick, Bitch

By Joe Reid @joereid
Published April 26, 2016, 3:16 p.m. ET

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One of the most underrated pleasures of watching RuPaul’s Drag Race is following along with the queens on Untucked, the Drag Race after-show. Up until two seasons ago, Untucked aired on LOGO directly after Drag Race, but last season, it got bumped to streaming-only. THE SHADE OF IT ALL. But oops! It turns out, streaming-only Untucked actually got a lot better. What once felt glossy and over-produced (every episode featured some kind of parlor game to keep the queens snapping at one another) was now stripped-down. And instead of contrived fights, the queens were allowed to get honestly real with one another. Now more than ever, Untucked is appointment viewing. So every week, we’re going to highlight the best, funniest, and most notable moments.

Untucked, Season 8, Episode 8

Everybody walking into the final four purse-first take two steps forward.

…Not so fast Derrick.
We have reached such a crucial point in the season. The winnowing of the Drag Race field from 5 to 4 is often the cruelest cut of all. Will we lose the whip-smart comedy instincts of Bob the Drag Queen? The genius-level makeup illusions of Kim Chi? The legs-for-days allure of most-improved Naomi Smalls? The country-queen perfection of Chi-Chi Devayne? Or … oh wait, we can just lose Derrick. Cool.
MVP:  Rather than make a choice between our top four queens, this week’s MVP is the producer who walks into the frame purse-first in order to deliver the five-minute warning. Accept these laurels as but a fraction of what you deserve, sir.
Most Improved: This is for an entire season’s worth of Untucked improvement for Naomi Smalls, who’s come a long way from not knowing who Greta Garbo was. Sure, just this week on the main show she didn’t know who Jerri Blank was, but she’s hung around, and now she’s top 4 and getting sweet, emotional video moments from her mom. Her mom who seems like such a sweet lady, I should add.

The More You Know: It’s always nice to get a peek under the wigs of these queens. Sometimes that happens literally, as we saw when Bob went to re-affix her wig and had to apply another ring of double-sided duct tape around her bald head.And of course, Bob looks as fierce, perhaps even more fierce with her wig off.
Done No Favors: No surprise here, but Derrick Barry. Ugh. Even when Derrick goes out of her way to effusively compliment someone like Chi-Chi, it has the overly-projected cadence of a political speech. And then minutes later it’s back to holding a Congressional filibuster on the subject of why her shitty papier-mâché bathing suit belongs in the “RuPaul museum.” First of all, there is no such thing as a RuPaul museum, and if there were, it would be too full of promotional singles and leftover tic-tacs to house that “middle school scrapbook” (thank you, Kim Chi) of an ensemble.
Queens Helping Queens: Naomi and Bob had a great week in general in terms of their friendship. Sometimes, Untucked is at its best when it’s just letting these queens be real with each other, and I was into their “EMBRACE THE MATERIAL” shorthand this week. Naomi even managed to call Bob out for taking the judges’ critiques a little too personally. But the signature moment was when Bob choked up a bit while talking to Naomi about how lucky she is to have what she has, particularly her family. It wasn’t hard to connect this to Bob’s story on Drag Race about her mother being very sick what a lovely, human moment.
Know Your References: After watching the runway presentations on this week’s Drag Race, I had one comment on Chi-Chi Devayne’s eleganza look:

Mariah was of course the season 3 queen who was eliminated too soon after an admittedly weak turn as Joan Crawford on Snatch Game. She’s a personal favorite. And then, not four minutes into Untucked, Kim Chi praises Chi-Chi’s look for its “Mariah Balenciaga realness.” Excuse me while I walk into the club purse-first after this tremendous ego boost. Kim Chi and me: on the same level.
Sashay Away: Bye, Derrick. I’d have felt worse about your leaving if you weren’t STILL taking shots at Bob’s “ratchet drag” on your way out. At least you got to participate in that group purse-first kick on your way out.