Drag queen goes viral after finding ‘homophobic’ pasta in Aldi

Zurich-based drag queen Oh! Beverly went viral on TikTok recently after posting a short clip about finding a packet of pasta with an eyebrow-raising name in their local branch of Aldi.

In the lighthearted video, the drag queen asks someone pretending to be an employee: “Excuse me, do you happen to have gourmet pasta that is also a homophobic slur?”

The other person in the video replies: “Oh yes,” and then hands Oh! Beverly a packet of “fagottini”.

Although its name does sound a lot like the “f-slur” used as a derogatory term for gay men, fagottini is the official name of this particular type of a filled pasta, so no, Aldi is not actually being in any way homophobic.

Fagottini is usually filled with vegetables such as steamed carrots and green beans as well as ricotta, onion and olive oil, which sounds delicious, frankly.

However, the fact that the post was obviously just a joke hasn’t stopped it going seriously viral; the clip has had nearly 160,000 likes and 1.5 million views since it was first uploaded, and nearly 900 comments.

One of the top comments reads: “I thought you were saying that the term gourmet pasta is a homophobic term.” Another person commented: “May I have a double helping?”

Several other people decided to share examples of foods from their local area with “problematic” names, with one person uploading a photo of “six Welsh recipe f******”, which are a type of meatball in the UK.

Someone else sped to the comments to offer up an entire language lesson, writing: “Fagottini meaning little bundles. Fagotto a bundle. It’s also the word for the instrument we call bassoon in English. It’s derived from the Latin fasces which means a bundle of rods or sticks. We also get the word fascism from this.”

You really do learn something new every day.

You can find out more about Oh! Beverly here and follow them on TikTok here.

• Dec 31 2024

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