Drag Race stars slam Teletubbies appearance on All Stars 9: ‘This show is not for children’
Drag icons Willam and Alaska have taken issue with All Stars 9’s latest Teletubbies mini challenge (Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images, Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images, DHX Media, Netflix)
RuPaul’s Drag Race stars Willam and Alaska have criticised All Stars 9 for including a mini-challenge featuring popular children’s characters the Teletubbies.
Episode five of All Stars 9 was the most dramatic of the season so far, featuring some hilarious real estate adverts from the eight queen cast and a strategy from Roxxxy Andrews.
Before that, though, the queens took part in a challenge within the confines of the werk room walls, where they all had to dance with one of the Teletubbies – Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Lala or Po – to win a cash tip.
The challenge did not evoke joy for everyone. It seems Willam, who was sensationally disqualified from season four of the show, and Alaska, who emerged victorious in All Stars 2, won’t be purchasing tickets for the Tubbytronic Superdome and a play session with Noo-Noo.
Speaking on their Drag Race recap podcast Race Chaser on Wednesday (12 June), the pair pointed out that in the current political climate, where right-wing activists and politicians are levelling accusations of grooming at the queer community and drag queens, encouraging children to watch the show may not be the best idea.
“For some reason, the Teletubbies come on to the show,” Alaska said before being interrupted by Willam saying: “Like this helps with any of the groomers sh*t?”
Alaska continued: “It’s not even that, it’s just like… are you aware of the phrase jump the shark? It’s the moment in a show where it goes a little too… off the rails and the show never really comes back after it. I don’t know why the Teletubbies are here.”
Willam then said the Teletubbies were incongruous with the setting of Drag Race.
“They don’t want them to do anything that could be misconstrued anywhere or be re-edited into anything else, that’s why their dancing is so tame and boring,” he went on to say. “This, for me, is bad. Because these are characters marketed towards children. So, if children see this, they’re like: ‘Oh, let me watch [All Stars]’.
“This show is not for children. I don’t think that this is a good avenue for [it] to go down.”
Alaska also pointed out that the mini-challenge could have been spent with contestants actually putting their talents to use, rather than twerking with the Teletubbies.
“It feels a little hacky, it feels a little not drag related, we could have used this precious real estate on this show, with these amazing brilliant minds and drag artists.
“Do something that utilises their f**king essence. We don’t get these people in one room that often. This seems like such a waste of f**king space.”
Drag Race, in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union Drag Defence Fund, recently announced that it had raised $2 million (£1.5 million) to fight anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the US.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9 airs on Fridays on Paramount+ in the US and WOW Presents Plus internationally.
Race Chaser is available to stream on all podcast platforms, with new episodes every Wednesday (and companion episodes of Hot Goss on Friday).
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