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18 Aug 2023


NextImg:‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Queen Impersonates Jesus Christ in Snatch Game: “We Are Going to Hell”

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RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under

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For competitors in the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, the Snatch Game challenge is the real come to Jesus moment of every season. It can either put the fear of God into a queen, or it can turn RuPaul and the judges into believers. That’s definitely the case for one queen competing on the international spinoff series RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 3, which just released its Snatch Game episode. In it, the Melbourne-based queen Ashley Madison takes a big swing and chooses to play Snatch Game… as Jesus Christ.

For the unconverted, Snatch Game is a riff on the iconic ’70s game show Match Game. The challenge: the queens have to impersonate a celebrity and go through the motions of filling in the blank while bantering with the host, RuPaul. While it’s important for a queen to look and sound and act like the public figure they’re personifying, all of that comes second to just being funny.

There’s another component to a winning Snatch Game performance, and it’s one that Ashley Madison zeroed in on before entering the down under spinoff of the American competition series. “I wanted to choose a character that I could win with,” explains Madison during the episode in a confessional. “And every person that Ru has ever crowned the winner of Snatch Game has been someone she has known.” That rules out YouTubers and Bravo-lebrities, choices that tend to doom a queen before they even get in drag. But Jesus Christ? RuPaul has heard of Jesus Christ! “I love his work!” said RuPaul after learning of Madison’s character choice.

Ashley Madison as Jesus Christ
Photo: World of Wonder

Madison wanted to play Jesus as a “flaming homosexual,” partly because she liked “the idea of playing a character that has impacted the gay community quite a lot, and so I’m taking the power back kind of a little bit.” Oddly enough, this is where RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under has the first of a few insightful things to say about the legacy of one Jesus Christ. “The Christ character was never about that kind of meanness,” said RuPaul. Ashley Madison added, “He was about loving everybody.” It’s easy to forget that nowadays, considering the extreme conservative attacks on all forms of drag, especially family-friendly drag.

As for the Snatch Game itself, Ashley Madison performed the role of Jesus Christ as if she’d received a blessing from on high. Remember: Snatch Game is the hardest challenge of the season. It requires a queen to be prepared while being spontaneous, to stifle all nerves, remain in the moment, remain in character, be funny, and have fun. Madison’s intro as “J.C.” (as RuPaul referred to him throughout the challenge) assuaged any fears. “Hey girl hey,” she started. “I’ve just come back from the dead, and you may have realized that 2,000 years ago I was Black — so that’s different too.”

“Hey girl hey!” “Well, I’ve just come back from the dead and you may have realized that 2,000 years ago I was Black. So that’s different too.”

RuPaul’s response: “We are going to Hell.”

RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under, Ru hosting Snatch Game
Photo: World of Wonder

Madison kept the energy up throughout the Snatch Game, making RuPaul cackle with nearly every single remark. One remark: “I wear boxers because I prefer to have no other appendages nailed down.” When Ru said that that was sadly not a match, J.C. replied, “I forgive you.”

Of course there were bawdy jokes that will definitely rub the more conservative Christians the wrong way, like one about this being “way more than the third coming” of Christ. Still, clearly a frontrunner to win, Madison later told the judges that she “definitely didn’t want to offend anybody, but I still wanted to have fun with it.”

The judges — including RuPaul, including West End performer and TV personality Michelle Visage, and comedian Rhys Nicholson — applauded Madison’s performance. “It just worked,” said Visage. “Even though it was a gay Jesus, it was done with this weird dignity.” She later added, “This is gonna be polarizing but that’s what drag is.”

Nicholson, however, wondered if Madison’s take was actually more accurate than initially thought. “Any kind of swing that was taken wasn’t at the idea of Jesus, it was about the history around Jesus, and I find that to be a really deft and smart choice to have made,” said Nicholson. “Thinking of Jesus in the context of then, he was the person hanging out with some of the looser units of that time, and there’s a good chance that if Jesus was around now he would have been a guest judge on [Drag Race] next season.” Now that’s something to think about.

Drag Race Down Under, Ashley Madison
Photo: World of Wonder

Ultimately Ashley Madison was announced as the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under Season 3’s Snatch Game for her take on Jesus Christ. It was a risk that truly paid off, as Snatch Game winners tend to go far in the competition if not win. Blown away by her performance, RuPaul asked Madison, “When did you know you could do this?”

“When we were playing Snatch Game.” Ashley Madison’s prayers were answered.

New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under premiere on WOW Presents Plus on Fridays at 4 p.m. ET.