Can We Stop Pretending That Delusion Alone Is Worth Its Weight In "TV Gold"

Convince yourself.

After appearing in four episodes, competing in three, and lip-syncing for her life in two, RuPaul finally told Joella she is not the one and asked her to sashay away from season 17 of Drag Race. Second-out queens historically don’t make for the most memorable of the franchise, but in her relatively short run it’s fair to say Joella has more than left her mark – perhaps for all the wrong reasons.

First impressions were mixed but promising. She walked in with a truly beautiful entrance look (in a reversal of fortune, turning out to be the best thing she wore all season), bags of confidence, and a screentime-guzzling storyline about her obsession with extra extra special premiere episode guest judge, Katy Perry. After professing that viewers could expect the “Joella Experience” to be a ‘high energy’ and ‘electrifying’ one, her first opportunity to prove that fell flat, with a disappointingly lacklustre talent show performance.

The thing about doing an original song for the talent show is that you already know it’s not going to be the only one, so you have to make sure it’s the best one (or, aiming for the middle, at least not the worst). Nothing about Joella’s number stood out; the song was ok, the look was ok, the stage presence was 6/10 – all in all, serviceable but forgettable. Speaking of serviceable but forgettable, let’s talk about her runway looks. Actually, that about sums it up.

Compared to the likes of Jewels Sparkles and Lucky Starzzz, whose respective performances of their own original songs were clearly in a different league, it was just made all the more clear that Joella was out of her depth. In spite of that, the democratic politics of Rate-A-Queen secured her spot in the third episode, narrowly avoiding a bottom placement.

So she’s not the best performer, maybe she can create a runway-ready look? All hopes of that were quickly put to bed in the Monopulence challenge, where her inability to sew or even glue a look together landed her in the bottom two.

So she’s not the best designer (being kind), maybe she can be funny? Cut to Bitch, I’m a Drag Queen! – though ostensibly a musical performance challenge, it was really about finding the humour and hamming it up – where she once again floundered. In her defense it wasn’t a complete trainwreck, but she was clearly out of her element and failed to demonstrate a flair for comedy, landing her once again in the bottom two.

So she’s not the best comedienne (quickly running out of talents here), surely she can lip sync? Though you could argue this has already been proven with one LSFYL win under her belt, I’d say that was less of an outright triumph and more that she only slightly bettered her shoeless opponent. The second time around she wasn’t so fortunate, where amongst a number of questionable creative choices in her performance, she committed THE cardinal sin of not knowing the words. Having already forgiven so much, it’s impossible to make allowances for the failure of meeting what is arguably the easiest and rudimentary task faced on Drag Race, no matter how liked the queen is (RIP Mirage).

Harsh as it feels to say, Joella’s stint on Drag Race has ultimately proven to be a showcase of what she’s not good at, at least as far as the competition is concerned. Where she’s managed to outshine every other queen, all probably too preoccupied with doing well to realise they were being trounced in a different competition altogether, is in Untucked. Though not exclusive to the main show’s secondary spin-off, Joella’s backstage monologues of delusion and fallacies have made her a fan-favourite amongst viewers and Drag Race alums.

The fact that she has endeared herself to thousands of new adoring fans is a truly wonderful thing, and something I would wish for all the show’s contestants regardless of how much time they got to spend on our screens. But this collective enthusiasm has evolved into a mob mentality demanding queens who make good TV at the expense of those who actually have a chance of doing well in the competition, a trend I don’t agree with.

Of course, being “good” at reality TV is a key facet of the genre, and nothing can command the spotlight quite like an abundance of misplaced confidence, but in this type of competition it can’t be the only thing you have to offer. The schadenfreude of witnessing someone have no idea how bad they are can be entertaining to a point, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that it’s actually not fun to watch someone competing on Drag Race who isn’t good at it.

That’s not to say every queen cast on Drag Race needs to be a potential winner: it’s usually quite obvious early on that there’s a mix of frontrunners, moderates, fillers, and early-outs by design, and to varying degrees some have made the cut on the strength of their personalities. In Joella’s case, it now seems like the stars aligned and her Katycat status is what sealed the deal. Did that make for a cute and unique story arc? Absolutely. Do I want to watch her struggle through 10 more episodes just to see what unintentionally funny she-nanigans she gets up to in Untucked? For me, that novelty has served its purpose and run its course, I think the real delusion is people calling for more of it.

---

🗨️ Join the discussion

Do you think there should be more queens like Joella on Drag Race?