‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Reference Guide: 13 Films and TV Shows You Need to Know

The mother lode of all Drag Race references is this 1990 documentary from director Jennie Livingston about the house balls of 1980s New York City. Once a season, Ru shouts out Paris Is Burning especially, during the Reading Is Fundamental challenge, when the queens take turn reading each other for filth. The concepts of reading and shade go back to one of the great Paris Is Burning moments:

But the references go far beyond that. Every time Ru or another queen exclaims “10s across the board,” every time a runway look is described as a “category,” every executive-realness look and “banjee girl realness” and “extravaganza eleganza” is from this one movie. Heck, Bob the Drag queen kicked off his “Purse First” post-show single with a direct quote from Paris Is Burning (“It is a known fact that a woman do cary an evening bag at dinnertime…”).

Where to watch Paris is Burning

A few years before RuPaul turned heads across the nation as a scene-stealing dancer in the B-52’s “Love Shack” music video, the supermodel of the world tested out her camera-readiness with a trilogy of low budget and high camp blaxploitation shorts called Starbooty. The 1987 trilogy kicked off with the kidnapping of Ronald Reagan’s son in Atlanta and culminates in Star Booty’s Revenge where Ru’s secret agent character helps a villainous singing group finally land a record contract and hit number one. These no-frills VHS extravaganzas are, in a way, the spiritual predecessor to every single skit and sketch done on Drag Race.

You wanna be on top? When RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered in 2009, America’s Next Top Model had been on the air for several seasons — err, cycles — and had defined a highly recognizable vocabulary for its particular brand of talent competition. A mini-challenge tied to a “teach” of some kind; a main challenge that often involved a runway walk. Contestants eliminated with the high drama of a college production of Othello. So many people jumped onto Drag Race in mid-stream that they forget that in its outset, Drag Race was half reality competition and half vicious ANTM parody. People rag on the skimpy budget and fuzzy visual aesthetic of season 1 without even realizing that was all in service of sending up what an over-the-top hagiography of Tyra Banks ANTM was.

Where to watch America's Next Top Model

While Diana Ross in general acts as a kind of guiding spirit animal to all that Ru does, the specific influence of Mahogany — the 1975 melodrama (directed by Motown founder Berry Gordy) where Miss Ross played a suddenly successful fashion designer who experiences a harsh fall — is felt only in the all-star seasons. With queens lip syncing for their legacy instead of their lives, Ru needed a tag line that was a better fit than “shantay, you stay.” So she turned to Mahogany‘s most famous line and paraphrased it: “You’re a winner, baby!”

Please watch this entire scene, though, to experience how many ways and with how many different inflections Miss Ross can say “Mahogany.”

Where to watch Mahogany

“Hello hello hello!” Ru spent season greeting the queens in the workroom with those three little words, said in singsong succession. It wasn’t until Season 9, however, that she ruvealed that she incorporated the saying after hearing Valerie Cherish (Lisa Kudrow) say it on the HBO comedy The Comeback. Honestly, Friends can take a step to the back, because The Comeback is where Kudrow really showed out. Kudrow stars as Valerie Cherish, a forgotten sitcom star hungry for the spotlight and willing to do whatever it takes to claw her way back in to Hollywood.

Where to watch The Comeback

Somehow it took Drag Race seven seasons to finally do a John Waters challenge, a surprise considering how much the show and that filmography have in common. Gender subversion, filthy wit, wicked irreverence, a glam DIY aesthetic–it’s no wonder the queens of Season 7 sunk their teeth into the “Divine Inspiration” challenge. The episode saw two of Waters’ classic low-budget comedies (1972’s Pink Flamingos and 1974’s Female Trouble) turned into musical numbers. If you didn’t understand all those references to eggs and eating dog poo, then these are the flicks to watch.

Where to watch Pink Flamingos

Where to watch Female Trouble

Joan Crawford is a gay icon doubly so, because Faye Dunaway’s performance of her in Mommie Dearest is the stuff of camp legend. Two different drag queens have played Joan Crawford in Snatch Game (Mariah Balenciaga in season 3 and Alyssa Edwards in All-Stars 2), with both of them going for the wire-hangers and other iconography from Mommie Dearest.

Where to watch Mommie Dearest

The “Snatch Game” challenge has been a staple since Season 2, allowing the queens to trot out their best celebrity impersonations and stretch their improv comedy muscles. It’s a real make-or-break challenge–and it is totally, 100% inspired by the raucous, boozy ’70s game show Match Game. Seriously, “Snatch Game” took the rules and the chaotic attitude from this ’70s daytime mainstay. Episodes of the classic show regularly went as spectacularly off the rails as some “Snatch Games.” Plus Match Game was home to campy queers like Charles Nelson Reilly and Fannie Flagg, and witty weirdos like Brett Somers and Patti Deutsch. If one “Snatch Game” a season isn’t enough, pour a drink and stream Match Game.

Where to stream Match Game

As we were reminded in season 10, RuPaul is a massive Cher fan. It’s one of the reasons she was so head-over-heels for Chad Michaels in season 4 and All-Stars 1 (and named the combined Chad Michaels/Shannel team “Shad” just so she could do her Cher voice every week). One particular touchstone is 1987’s Moonstruck, the film which won Cher her only Oscar (so far). Every time Ru fake-slaps someone and tells them to “Snap out of it!,” that’s all Moonstruck. And, of course, no Cher-loving drag queen would be complete without the occasional shout-out to Burlesque‘s “Wagon Wheel Watusi.”

Where to watch Moonstruck

Where to watch Burlesque

“Snatch Game” doesn’t just separate the 9s from the 10s, it’s also a chance for us to find out which celebrities RuPaul herself admires. And the one celebrity Ru loves over everyone else (well, besides Diana Ross) is Judge Judy. Bianca Del Rio played with fire by choosing to impersonate the TV judge considering Ru’s deep appreciation and knowledge of Judy Sheindlin. But if anyone was not gonna f–k up the judge’s no-nonsense delivery, it was gonna be the equally direct Bianca Del Rio. What’s all the fuss about when it comes to Judge Judy? Why not watch a few episodes and keep an eye out for what Ru sees.

Where to watch Judge Judy

For most of the impressions on “Snatch Game,” you don’t need a crash course on the celeb. If you’re familiar with Bravo reality shows or pop music, you’re pretty much good to go. But every now and then, a queen chooses a real obscure target–and in the case of Season 5’s Jinkx Monsoon, they hit a bullseye. Jinkx chose to play Little Edie, the younger of the two subjects of the acclaimed 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. The film focuses on a mother and daughter, both named Edith Bouvier Beale, both related to former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Grey Gardens depicts the day-to-day life of these women, as they find glamour in the squalor of their once beautiful mansion.

Where to watch Grey Gardens

The first installment of Drag Race All-Stars is no one’s favorite season. Could that be because it’s one of just two seasons that doesn’t feature a “Snatch Game” challenge?! Instead, the show tried to recreate the zany irreverence of the far out variety show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In–and it didn’t really work. Instead of letting the contestants riff, “RuPaul’s Gaff-In” was a comedy writing challenge. The last thing you wanna see queens do is deliver pre-written one-liners! But if you wanna see what the show was riffing on, you can stream all of the super groovy Laugh-In on Prime Video. This sketch show is a hyper surreal hour of lightning fast setups and punchlines. “Gaff-In” wasn’t a success, but you can kinda see how Laugh-In’s rapid-fire pace inspired the way Drag Race is edited.

Where to watch Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In

Drag Race fans live for the drama, so you know it was only a matter of time before the show embraced its inner primetime soap. That’s exactly what happened in Season 9 during the “9021-HO” challenge, which saw the queens live out their ’90s Fox fantasies in an elaborate sketch inspired by Beverly Hills, 90210. You can trace pretty much every Sexy Teens With Problems show on TV today back to this groundbreaking series, which ran from 1990 to 2000 and followed the cast from high school through college and to (highly dramatic) young adult lives.

Where to watch Beverly Hills, 90210