The drag icon shares the surprising depth behind his cheeky new trivia show.
You might consider a 22-minute trivia game show to be the ultimate paragon of time-wasting.
The title tickles you because youre like, I see what you just did there!
Credit: Logo TV
and thats what happened with the game shows I watched growing up.
The show is gay, and Ill tell you what that means, he says.
Its bits of every game show youve ever seen, and when you see it, youll recognize it.
RUPAUL:Logo knows how much I love games.
I have people over for game nights galore, and Im really good at it.
The thing all those games have in common is the fact that theyrepsychological.
Theres your intellectual DNA, but then theres your intuitive powers that come into play.
Its the best way.
Whether theyre shy, whether they get angry, whether they cheat.
Rather than sitting around with cocktails going, So, what do you do?
So, a game show as character study.
A lot of times the stars who are giving their answers are bluffing.
You get a sense of their relationship to pop culture and to the other panelists.
Thats where the game is, and thats very telling about life.
How did you land on the title?
I was presented with several titles and liked this one.
Because pop culture, as long as Ive been alive, has borrowed bits and pieces from gay culture.
It used to be where it was ten years behind, where straight people would finally be saying Girlfriend!
But now with social media, that turnaround time is much faster.
As long as Ive been alive, Ive noticed it.
or all this stuff that they wouldnt have been saying that shouldnt exist.
Nobody can speak French like the French.
Is that what makes the show fundamentally a RuPaul show?
Well, the questions are cheeky.
I can figure this out.
I can figure out how to fit in.
And I looked at it and studied the monster of socialization and went, Oh, I get it.
And, no thank you.
I dont want anything to do with it.
Its rotten and its a hoax.
Life, our society, our culture, its all a hoax.
Like the movieThe Matrix.
But with varying levels of vitriol.
Its a very fine line.
That reverence is what our show has.
Certain people, we say things, and it goes over certain peoples heads.
They misinterpret it, sometimes intentionally to serve their ulterior motives.
And they want to say, Burn the witch!
What was your relationship to game shows as a kid?
I lovedMatch Game, I lovedHollywood Squares.
Not because I could answer all the questions but I could but because of the naughtiness and the cheekiness.
Do women also have male hormones in them?
and Paul Lynde says, Sometimes.
[laughs] The common people at home hear that and a lot of stuff goes over their head.
They know there was something cheeky there, but they werent quite sure.
You go, Oh!
With social media and stuff, you just assume everybodys connected in that way.
What hosting muscles do you flex on this show as opposed toDrag Race?
It felt like I was in my living room.
What I do out there is the exact same thing I do in my living room.
There are certain rules and guidelines and once you break these, it fs it up for everybody else.
You see it in traffic here [in Los Angeles].
Everyone thinks, Im on the list.
I can do this, you guys cant.
Everybody thinks, I can do this.
Bitch, no you cant do that!
Because theres a system.
Anyway, thats a whole other topic.
So how do you feel when your celebrity panel opts to deceive?
The game is all about camaraderie.
Its all about them having fun.
Now, we dont break the rules.
Brett Somers onMatch Gameand Charles Nelson Reilly, you know theyre friends.
If the cameras rolling or not, theyre friends.
And each person has their role, and it says so much about who they are as a person.
This show really is about tuning in and finding your tribe.
What surprised me is that there are different angles of looking at this thing that have emerged.
Different voices that have emerged.
Even me describing games and how theyre a reflection of life.
I play charades all the time.
Or theyll say, I didnt know what that was!
and its like, Well, you speak English, dont you?
I can get you to sayPride and Prejudicewhether youve heard of it or not.
How important is pop culture literacy to you?
It shows whether youre paying attention or not.
Judge Judy will say people cant talk to each other and they cant talk over each other.
And thats what you get watching game shows, too.
Watching people play the game is everything you gotta know about life on this planet.
