G'day possums!
"I'm searching for Down Under's first Drag Race superstar. You've gotta have the right koalafications and a whole lot of Perthonaliy. Piece of piss, am I right? "
— RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under (season 1, episode 1)
RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under is a Reality Show in which Drag Queens from Australia and New Zealand compete in challenges to impress host RuPaul, with the winner of each series crowned as the Down Under's latest drag superstar and awarded other prizes. The show is part of the international Drag Race franchise.
The challenges cover things such as modelling, makeup and fashion design - as well as comedy, acting and dance performances. Each episode also includes at least one themed runway fashion show, which may or may not be related to the episode's other challenges.
As well as the challenges themselves, a large part of each show is devoted to conversation and events backstage, in the shared "Werk Room". This is where contestants prepare their costumes, do their makeup and rehearse for some of the challenges. Contestants aren't usually in drag during these segments, but still use their stage names - Drag Race largely avoids mentioning contestants' legal names unless contestants specifically share them.
At the end of each episode, contestants in the middle of the field are immediately marked as 'safe' until the next episode and leave the stage, whereas contestants at the top and bottom of the results remain onstage to hear the judges' critiques. As the series progresses, the number of safe places available steadily reduces.
After the critiques the remaining contestants leave the stage, the judges deliberate, and all of the contestants return to hear their verdict - at which point one queen is normally declared the week's winner, two are warned that they are potentially facing elimination, and any remaining queens who received critiques are also declared 'safe'.
As with other Drag Race shows, elimination is tied to a "lip sync battle" - the two contestants lip sync to a song chosen by the judges, with both queens performing onstage at the same time. The judges then decide who'll be saved and who'll be sent home.
The series is hosted by RuPaul (seasons 1-3) and judged by a panel including RuPaul and Michelle Visage (who replaces RuPaul as host for the upcoming season 4) and Rhys Nicholson as the three regular judges. The fourth judge is a special guest, with a different celebrity for each episode.
RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under contains examples of the following tropes:
- Adam Westing: The first episode of season one features a video appearance by Taika Waititi, supposedly on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder. He portrays himself as a complete jerkass at the start of the sequence, snapping at someone offscreen, then angrily knocking a coffee cup out of an assistant's hand.
- Celebrity Impersonator: The "Snatch Game" Game Show challenge is a comedy spoof of Match Game with the contestants impersonating celebrities such as Dolly Parton, Dr. Seuss and Queen Elizabeth II.
- Chroma Key: For the first season's audition mini-challenge, the contestants and a couple of the Pit Crew are filmed in front of a green screen for Ru's hypothetical film Thar. Despite some of the stage directions, it's only ever seen as green screen - no background or special effects are added later.
- Confession Cam: Contestants provide commentary via confessional interviews, which are recorded after the scenes they refer to, then spliced into the episode. Confessionals typically start on video, sometimes continuing as voiceover once the episode cuts back to the original scene. More rarely, there are also some short voiceover-only commentaries taken from confessional sessions. Confessionals are recorded out of drag.
- Drag Queen: As with other Drag Race shows, not only is it a contest for drag queens to demonstrate their skills, host RuPaul is a very well-established drag queen as well. In practice, much of each episode covers the Werk Room preparations and rehearsals, with contestants mostly out of drag. Confession Cam segments, commenting on the show's events, are also filmed out of drag.
- Duality Motif:
- For the first season's first episode Born Naked runway, non-binary contestant Etcetera Etcetera wears an asymmetrical nude-effect catsuit with a Hermaphrodite theme. One side is male, the other female.
- Art Simone's look for the first season's first episode Born Naked runway has one side of her clothed and the other seemingly naked. The judges make plenty of "two-faced" puns while she's onstage.
- Eating the Eye Candy: The Pit Crew are muscular, attractive men who are usually only wearing underwear. If they're helping with a challenge, the contestants are usually very appreciative — and sometimes a little distracted.Jojo Zaho: Never fuck a sister. Pit Crew on the other hand, like, I'd colonise their colons.
- Elimination Catchphrase: RuPaul dismisses eliminated contestants with the same "Sashay away" used on previous English-language Drag Race shows.
- Elimination Statement: As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, eliminated contestants usually make two different statements when they leave. The first is a final comment to the judges and cameras, before the contestant leaves the stage. The second is a message for the remaining contestants, written in lipstick on the werk room mirror.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first episode of every season deliberately gives each contestant a showcase to establish their drag style and persona when they make their grand entrance. Each queen walks into the Werk Room in full drag, pauses, poses and delivers a carefully chosen entrance line.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode of the season begins with the contestants entering the werk room in drag, one at a time. Some of them may already know each other (in season one, two of them actually co-host a New Zealand drag show), but they get some time to talk and introduce themselves before Ru arrives.
- Foreign Remake: RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under is an antipodean version of RuPaul's Drag Race, the US show that originally launched the Drag Race franchise.
- Funetik Aksent: One first season mini-challenge gets contestants to complete a mock-audition for a spoof film. The character has a strong lisp and the Cue Cards shown onscreen reveal that all the dialogue is written to reflect that, with spellings such as "theriouthly" instead of "seriously".
- Fun with Acronyms: As with other Drag Race shows, RuPaul makes repeated references to the competitors' Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent.RuPaul: Now, I hand-picked each of you to compete because your charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent is bigger than the hole in the ozone.
- Garden of Eden: Anita Wig'lit's costume for the "Born Naked" runway in season one's first episode is based around Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
- In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: As with other shows in the Drag Race franchise, Ru is the host so it's RuPaul's Drag Race in the title. This doesn't happen with other Foreign Remakes that have different hosts (such as Canada's Drag Race).
- Letting the Air out of the Band: In the first episode of season one, RuPaul walks onstage in full drag to introduce the contestants' first runway, with the usual "Cover Girl" theme playing. Then she introduces the judges... and the music lurches to a halt with the reveal that Ru is also sitting at the judges' desk, in shirt and jacket, out of drag. A Holding Both Sides of the Conversation sequence between the two versions of RuPaul follows.
- Mr. Fanservice: The Pit Crew team who assist with some challenges are muscular, attractive men who are usually only wearing underwear. The contestants can often be found Eating the Eye Candy, and the camera usually makes sure the viewers get a good look as well.
- On the Next: Every episode (aside from the season finales) cuts from the onstage ending to a set of "Next time on..." clips. The clip montage introduces the week's main challenge and normally includes some judge's comments, but doesn't reveal who's being judged. Closing credits follow the clips.
- Panel Game: The Snatch Game challenge, carried over from the original RuPaul's Drag Race series, is based on the panel game format, spoofing American show Match Game, with contestants impersonating celebrities and then appearing in-character as the panel.
- Previously on…: Each episode opens with a summary of the previous week's events, explaining who won and who was eliminated. This usually leads straight into a scene of the remaining contestants returning to the Werk Room after the elimination and reading the farewell message written on the mirror.
- Punny Name: As with other Drag Race shows, many of the antipodean Drag Queens choose punny Stage Names, some of which rely on Australian or New Zealand accents for full effect. Examples include Hannah Conda (Anaconda), Anita Wigl'it (I need to wiggle it) and Aubrey Haive (Oh behave).
- The Rival: Invoked at the start of season one. When Scarlet Adams mentions that she's a dancer from a burlesque background, Elektra Shock says she's exactly the same and adds "come on, rivalry!". The scene cuts to Confession Cam, where Scarlet immediately says there's no rivalry, implying that Elektra's not in her league.
- R-Rated Opening: The first line said onscreen in the show's first episode is the very Australian "Well, I'm not here to fuck spiders" when Art Simone enters an empty Werk Room and addresses the audience.
- Serendipity Writes the Plot: The first season's first episode has RuPaul judging the runway fashion show while out of drag, wearing a shirt and jacket. A Holding Both Sides of the Conversation sequence follows, with a second RuPaul onstage, alone in full drag, talking to RuPaul in the jacket, who's sitting with the other judges. He explains that his drag makeup was lost in transit, so he's filming this week's episode entirely out of drag.
- Shout-Out:
- Drag Race's Panel Game challenge, Snatch Game, is a direct spoof of American show Match Game.
- Season one's first mini-challenge is a mock-audition for a film called Thar, introduced by Ru with a comparison to the Thor films. There's even a guest appearance by Taika Waititi, and Chris Hemsworth's Adam's apple gets a mention.
- Speech Impediment: In season one, Ru's first mini-challenge is a mock audition for a film called Thar, in which the contestants' character is from the Planet Thickening and has a "Thickening accent" with a serious lisp. The Cue Cards have the dialogue written with a Funetik Aksent, including the lisp.Cue card text: HELP UTH, THIR LADY LANTH-A-LOT YOU'RE OUR ONLY HOPE, THERIOUTHLY
- Split Screen: Runway walks often use split screen to show a full-length view of the contestant on on side, while showing a close-up of hair and makeup, or costume detail, on the other side.
- Splitting Pants: The first runway theme of the first season is "Born Naked", for which some contestants wear naked-effect prosthetic catsuits. As the contestants prepare in the work room, there's a Big "NO!" shout from Scarlet Adams as her outfit rips across the hip and buttocks, suffering what she describes as a "full back door blowout".
- This Is a Competition: There's often a little adjustment needed as the drag queens start to see themselves as competitors rather than colleagues, especially when the show's pecking order doesn't reflect their relative achievements in the outside world. Some are quite vocal in stating that it's a competition and if they win, others are going to have to lose.Art Simone: I think I have the best looks. I know I have the best looks. But I'm coming to terms that this is a competition, it's now every woman for herself. Welcome to Drag Race.
- Torpedo Tits: For the first season's audition mini-challenge, contestants are filmed in front of a green screen while auditioning for science-fiction film Thar. As part of this, Scarlet Adams is asked to use her "laser boobs", and acts accordingly. No special effects are added, though.
- The Unintelligible: For the first season's audition mini-challenge, contestants have to play a character with a strong Speech Impediment. Elektra Shock exaggerates it as she goes on, ending up completely unintelligible. She wins the challenge.
- Voted Off the Island: Ru normally chooses the winner of each episode, chooses the two queens who'll lip sync to avoid elimination, and then chooses which queen will go home. Given the nature of the challenges and the lip sync, there's always a subjective element to these decisions.
