Chappell Roan and Bowen Yang don't like your 'Drag Race' jokes about Roxxxy Andrews (original) (raw)
Pop star Chappell Roan and Saturday Night Live performer Bowen Yang are here to make it clear: You still can't read the doll.
The entertainment powerhouses joined forces to defend RuPaul's Drag Race icon Roxxxy Andrews in a new conversation for Interview magazine, in which they spoke out against Drag Race fans who still find it amusing to make jokes about Roxxxy's emotional season 5 admission that her mother once abandoned her at a bus stop.
"I always cry during [_RuPaul’s_] Drag Race. There’s always some bitch that has a Roxxxy Andrews story that everyone makes fun of, which is f---ing crazy," the "Good Luck, Babe!" performer and self-professed Drag Race superfan told Yang (a prior Drag Race guest judge) during the chat, with the SNL actor responding with pointed criticism for the franchise's toxicfans.
Chappell Roan; Roxxxy Andrews on 'Drag Race'; Bowen Yang.
Getty; Paramount+; Getty
"It’s f---ed up," Yang added. "If you joke about Roxxxy Andrews getting left at the bus stop your heart is black."
Added Roan: "But every season there’s a bitch who’s like, 'I left everything I knew because my heart found a chosen family who loved me and stood behind me.' I feel like that is such a common thing for the queer community, like, 'It’s okay if my blood family doesn’t f--- with me because I have the bitches at Pieces who will welcome me every f---ing time. And not only do they welcome me, I feel like I’m cherished, and enthusiastically accepted.'"
Roan and Yang's sentiment echoes what Roxxxy told Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive pre-season interview before she returned to compete on All Stars 9 earlier this year.
"The reason being, that was probably one of the saddest moments of my life. So, when I shared that on Drag Race, I loved it, because you always think of those moments you can be helping somebody else. Which, I have heard from those people whenever I get to meet them," Roxxxy explained at the time. "If someone jokes about it, if you're close to me and I know you're saying it from a place of not trying to harm me and make fun of my tragedy, I don't mind it. But, if you're someone I've never met or on Instagram and tag me at a bus stop and say, 'Thinking of Roxxxy.' Like, really? That's what you want to say to me?"
She continued: "They're like, 'Oh, I didn't mean offense!' And I'm like, but I don't know you, and that's not funny. If your mom died, do you want me to make fun of your mom that died? It's not funny. Make fun of something else. Make fun of me being mean to Jinkx [Monsoon on season 5]. Let's try something, go down another alley. But, if you feel the need to have to make a joke, then make it. I'm not going to see it, but make it."
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Roxxxy has, however, granted permission to her friends to make light of the matter, as she did in 2016, when her All Stars 2 sister Katya made a playful quip about the moment during the AS2 reading challenge.
"I knew Katya, and Katya had asked about the joke," Roxxxy recalled. "Make a joke. I know it's not coming from ill intent. If I don't know you, I don't know that, so, first thing for me is to want to jump on you."
In a separate interview with EW, Drag Race season 15 winner Sasha Colby explained that she appreciated Roan's support for RuGirls amid her meteoric rise to pop stardom.
"It's always been so lovely, because drag has always been a mirror of pop culture. Since Drag Race, we are pop, the tastemakers, and pop girlies look to us for inspiration — much like Chappell Roan!" Sasha said. "All I can say is, goddess sees goddess, you know? Greatness sees greatness! Your favorite artist's favorite artist, baby!"
Watch Roxxxy discuss her Drag Race legacy in the video above.