Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/MTV
How it took 15 whole seasons to get musician, actress, and Men’s Wearhouse platinum rewards member Janelle Monáe as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race is far beyond me. (Well, unless you count Vanity Milan’s ill-fitting runway look from Season 4 that helped land her in the bottom, which I do not.) Monáe has been such a visible icon in the queer community for so long that looking back to realize she had never judged on a panel before seems like a case of the Mandela Effect.
But tonight, Monáe finally graced us with her presence, and what a light she brought to the entire affair. There have only been four weeks and five episodes of Drag Race Season 15 thus far, and it seems like each week, the queens’ performances flip a parabola. Sometimes, they soar to blissfully wacky heights in the Snatch Game; and others, they roll their ankle in a biscuit heel during a painful acting challenge.
This week, Drag Race maintained a welcome steadiness throughout, thanks in part to the calming aura of Monáe leveling out a shaky design challenge. But first, like Snatch Game, the Reading Challenge has come early this season.