"Social Media: The Unverified Rusical" is the eighth episode of the thirteenth season of the American

reality competition Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

television series ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder (company), World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, ...

'', which aired on

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

on February 19, 2021. The episode's main challenge is a

Rusical A Rusical (portmanteau of "RuPaul" and "musical") is a musical theatre challenge recurring across the Drag Race (franchise), ''Drag Race'' television franchise. Rusical productions began in 2014 during the RuPaul's Drag Race season 6, sixth seaso ...

(

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

production) about

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. Choreographer Jamal Sims is a guest judge, and

Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime ...

also makes a guest appearance. On the runway, the category is "Yellow, Gorgeous".

Rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the wine color, color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the Macerati ...

the winner of the main challenge.

Kandy Muse Kandy Muse is the stage name of Kevin Gabriel Candelario (born November 3, 1994), an American drag queen and performer most known for being the runner-up on both the thirteenth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' (2021) and the eighth season of ...

and Symone place in the bottom two, but neither is eliminated from the competition.

Episode

The episode has contestants perform a

about

for the main challenge. Jamal Sims is a guest judge, alongside regular panelists

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and has received List of awards ...

Michelle Visage Michelle Visage (born Michelle Lynn Shupack, September 20, 1968) is an American television personality, singer, broadcaster, producer, and actress. She gained recognition as a member of the dance-pop group Seduction (group), Seduction, who char ...

, and

Ross Mathews Ross Mathews (born September 24, 1979) is an American television host and personality. He rose to fame as an intern and a correspondent for ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno''; he was known as "Ross the Intern" on air. Mathews has appeared on '' ...

also makes a guest appearance. For the

, contestants record their own vocals, then dance and

lip-sync Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , like the word ''sink'', despite the spelling of the participial forms ''synced'' and ''syncing''), short for lip synchronization, is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements ...

on the main stage as they portray various

platforms and other aspects of the internet. Visage assists with the vocal recording process, and

choreography Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

is provided by Sims. Following are the contestants and their roles: *

Tina Burner Kristian Seeber (born November 10, 1980), known professionally as Tina Burner, is an American drag performer most known for appearing in '' Shade: Queens of NYC'', on the thirteenth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', and on the tenth season of ' ...

as Emcee and

Friendster Friendster was a social networking service originally based in Mountain View, California, founded by Jonathan Abrams and launched in March 2003.Eric Eldon, August 4, 2008.Friendster raises $20 million, nabs a Googler to be CEO" VentureBeat. ...

as Foxy, a non-social media character who sings a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of "

Don't Rain on My Parade "Don't Rain on My Parade" is a song from the 1964 musical '' Funny Girl'', further popularized by the show's 1968 film adaptation. Written by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne, the song was first performed by Barbra Streisand on both stage and screen. ...

" (1964) from '' Funny Girl'' *

Olivia Lux Olivia Lux (born March 14, 1994) is the stage name of Fred Carlton Bunton, an American drag performer most known for competing on RuPaul's Drag Race (season 13), season 13 of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season 10, seaso ...

as " Markie Tuckenberg", inventor of

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

* Symone as "Miss Instaglam" (

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

) *

as "Rev. Dr. Mrs. Linked All-the-Way In" (

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

) * Elliott with 2 Ts as "Miss Toktik" (

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

) *

Utica Queen Ethan David Mundt (born June 2, 1995), known professionally as Utica Queen, is an American drag performer and fashion designer. She rose to prominence for competing on the thirteenth season of reality competition television series ''RuPaul's Dr ...

as "Lady Tweets" (

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

) *

Denali Denali (), federally designated as Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base to peak on land, measuring . On p. 20 of Helm ...

and Gottmik as the Russian bots Natasha and Nikita On the runway, the category is "Yellow, Gorgeous". Tina Burner's outfit is taxi-themed. Olivia Lux wears a dress with yellow ostrich feathers, and Symone's outfit has suspenders. Kandy Muse recreates a dress made famous by Beyoncé. Elliott with 2 Ts also wears a taxi-themed outfit, and Rosé's look pays tribute to Jim Carrey in ''The Mask (1994 film), The Mask'' (1994). Denali wears snakes on her head, and Gottmik's outfit resembles a crash test dummy. RuPaul names Rosé the winner of the main challenge. Kandy Muse and Symone place in the bottom two and face off in a lip-sync to "Boss (Fifth Harmony song), Boss" (2014) by Fifth Harmony, Symone is declared a winner but RuPaul spares Kandy Muse from being eliminated from the competition.

Production

Sims has appeared on the show several times. He was a guest judge and choreographer on the RuPaul's Drag Race (season 8), eighth season's "Bitch Perfect" (2016), the RuPaul's Drag Race (season 12), twelfth season's "Viva Drag Vegas" (2020), and the thirteenth season's "Condragulations (RuPaul's Drag Race), Condragulations" (2021). Additionally, he was solely guest choreographer on the RuPaul's Drag Race (season 7), seventh season's "Glamazonian Airways" (2015), the twelfth season's "Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical" (2020), and the thirteenth season's "Gettin' Lucky (RuPaul's Drag Race), Gettin' Lucky" (2021). On the RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars (season 6), sixth season (2021) of ''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'', Sims was a guest judge and choreographer on "Halftime Headliners" and solely a guest choreographer on the finale "This Is Our Country".

Reception

Kate Kulzick of ''The A.V. Club'' called the

"fun, if flimsy".

References

{{Portal bar, LGBTQ, Television, United States RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 episodes Rusicals Television episodes about social media