Drag Race is now a global franchise, airing multiple episodes every week.* There are dozens of queens werking it out for not just their country's respective crown, but for our attention. Every queen is captivating — but only one of them is a true gem. Pop Heist's Greatest Drag Race Queen of All Time of the Week singles out one special queen from that week's competitors and crowns her for a one-week reign.
The Week: July 5 to July 11
The Episodes: Drag Race France 4x01 "Drag Academy"; Canada's Drag Race All Stars 1x01 "Miss Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent Pageant"; RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 11x11 "Tournament of All Stars Talent Rumble"
The Queen: Joey Jay (All Stars 11)
We lose sight of it, with all the stunts and shenanigans that the producers pile on top of the premise, but — Joey Jay is what All Stars is all about. When All Stars is at its best, its giving queens who absolutely got the shaft in their original season (either through their own doing or otherwise) a chance to actually show what they can do. Joey Jay was the second-out queen on Season 13 whose primary claim to fame was what she didn't do: she didn't wear wigs. Okay. So her coming back five years later for an All Stars season seemed pretty peculiar, but you bring back queens like Joey Jay when you now have to fill 18 slots every season.
And then we were all proven wrong. We were all shocked and shook to learn that not only does Joey Jay now wear wigs, she's also hilarious. She is the textbook definition of a dry wit, a term that's tossed around all the time yet never applied correctly. She's also, apparently, wealthy as hell, because her runway looks have been next level. It's like the "no wigs" thing was taking all the attention away from the rest of her drag. And now, of course, she can lean into her actual brand: being the first openly homosexual contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race.
That was put on display in the most recent episode of All Stars Season 11, where she used her history as a ballroom instructor (the straight kind of ballroom, not the queer kind) to spice up a dance number to her original track all about how brave she is, being a gay contestant on Drag Race. Did she fumble a flip? Yes, sure. But it's a testament to how strong she was in every other way that her competitors didn't even put her in the bottom for that. Maybe because they were still laughing when, after RuPaul asked Joey what would be the first piece of gay merchandise she'd make, Joey instantly and matter-of-factly said, "A butt-plug."
Of course, Joey Jay can't manifest her All Stars alone. She's holding up her end of the bargain: she came back to the show, did not flop once in her bracket, and consistently makes RuPaul scream with laughter. And while the show actually rewarded her by bringing her back as the wild card entrant, the show never gave her a win, instead choosing to follow what I can only presume is the season's pre-determined outcome. But still — whatever happens in the upcoming finale, at least we got a lot more Joey Jay this season. She's going to be hearing the word "robbed" at every meet and greet she does for the rest of her life.
Follow Joey Jay on Instagram at @joeyjayisgay
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
