Before I get into the trailer for RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17, I need to remind every single fan of the show — including myself — of one very basic fact: Rhis show is a parody of reality competition shows. It debuted at the height of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model's dual reign, and the self-seriousness with which RuPaul carried out her hosting duties was itself a drag version of Heidi and Tyra. I mean, Santino Rice and Mike Ruiz were right there by her side. They weren't hiding it! Yes, the show has grown into a cultural phenomenon and has pushed the larger cultural understanding of queerness forward (not far enough, but considering the damn uphill battle that's only getting steeper? Forward). Yes, Drag Race has won a record-breaking number of Emmys (I think, I'm not going to fact check, but it's won enough that I feel comfortable claiming that). And yes, the winner now wins $200,000! But still, this is a show that looks like it started out filming in a garage with one camcorder, nine queens, and a dream.
So, when you think about it like that, the fact that Season 17's big twist is a dunk tank makes perfect sense.
Yeah, a dunk tank. Not just a dunk tank, because Drag Race has never met anything that it cannot brand. It is the Badonka Dunk Tank. Do you get it? You get it.
Here's what I love about the Badonka Dunk Tank — because clearly we have to unpack what the hell is happening here. I love that the Badonka Dunk Tank is such a clear homage to the absolutely stupid shenanigans that were televised in the '70s during RuPaul's formative years. A Badonka Dunk Tank is some Donny & Marie, Sonny & Cher, Paul Lynde Halloween Special insanity — and that's the kind of camp that I am personally here for. It's campy and humiliating — but the humiliation is aimed at Michelle rather than at the queens ("... It's chocolate" [sad horns]), which I think is actually delightful.
I also love that the Badonka Dunk Tank (I am getting dangerously used to saying that!!!) is going to make all the right people apoplectic. I do think there's a tier of the "fandom" who take the show way too seriously, get way too bent out of shape about every teeny thing, and frequently take out that rage on the queens themselves. The Badonka Dunk Tank is a much-needed reminder that while this show is very important, it's also very stupid. And that's beautiful.
What I don't like about the Badonka Dunk Tank — it's not the name! The name is perfect. The name absolutely justifies its existence. I'm sorry, but you cannot say "Badonka Dunk Tank" and not laugh just a little. It's genius. What I don't like is that, like the golden chocolate bar in Season 14, it is going to take a lot for me to not view the Badonka Dunk Tank as a way for producers to save a particular queen when they see fit to save her. I want twists that actually twist away from production's masterplan, not into it.
Also the trailer shows the cast performing in what I can assume is the opening two-part talent show and participating in Rate-a-Queen, a returning twist from last season that actually does twist away rather than into. We're getting more Law Roach which, correct. And hopefully he's even feistier this season. There's also the new mainstage, which we saw in the Season 16 finale. I don't... like it, not yet. A dunk tank? Yes. Having an all-black runway and mainstage? Intense side-eye.
How will these twists play out? Will we get used to seeing the queens stomp down a black void? We'll find out when RuPaul's Drag Race Season 17 premieres on Jan. 3 on MTV.
