"Uncle Sam gon' take half [of my Drag Race check?]"
Mikelle StreetHosting is RuPaul Charles's gig.
As the most awarded competition show host in Emmys history, RuPaul knows his way around a stage. Back in the 1990s, the star had his own talk show where he hosted stars like Cher while in drag for candid conversations. Most notably, he also has hosted RuPaul's Drag Race (and its multiple iterations) in drag. In 2019 he launched an ill-fated go at having a talk show once again, and in 2020 pulled a pretty stunning guest-hosting gig at Saturday Night Live. And now, he's coming for Kimmel.
On Wednesday, RuPaul took on his first of two guest hosting slots for Jimmy Kimmel Live. As a part of his night show host duties he did a few monologues, and interviewed a few stars like America's Reigning Drag Superstar, Symone. Turning up on stage in a powder blue suit with his signature glasses, Ru asked Symone how she was feeling about her win, what she hopes to do with her empire, how it feels to be on the cover of Interview magazine, and whether she got her prize money or not.
"Oh baby, the money?" Symone said when asked. "I would be hitting you up if the check didn't clear. Now, what I wanted was them to come with a big check in front of my house but the deposit is good too.."
"I always tell you girls, pay your taxes," Ru responded. "Because that ends up being half."
"Really half?" a stunned Symone answered. "Uncle Sam gon' take half? They didn't tell me that. They said about 30%, but half bitch?!"
For segments, earlier in the night Ru kicked things off, talking about a rash of "unruly" airline passengers that have forced the FAA to release a statement.
"Unruly behavior doesn't fly," read the FAA's statement.
"Now I just feel like it needed to be a little more direct," Ru said. "Something like, you know 'Be cool or we will kick you in yo' cockpit.'" He went on to give "Rules for the Unruly." Among the directives was not having more drinks than flight attendants on the plane.
Other headlines ru hit: weird things happening at a Belgium zoo and Lil Nas X becoming the "Chief Impact Officer" of Taco Bell. But after those, the drag performer decided that most news is too bland and "hetero," launching into a skit called "Gayer News." Here, he took seemingly boring headlines and spiced them up a little sass.
For the final segment, they played a game called "Can You Guess the Drag Queen?" where the audience was presented with random men and were allowed to guess whether they were drag performers or not.
RuPaul is slated to host the Thursday night episode as well.
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