The girls are girling — Jan. 31, 2024 edition!
While reviewing the second episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 on their Sibling Rivalry podcast, Bob the Drag Queen and Monét X Change shared a few critiques regarding Plane Jane’s “Burger Finger” Talent Show number. Bob said during the episode:
“Plane Jane’s ‘Burger finger’ was trying harder to be stupid than she actually is. I just don’t like this direction where Drag Race is going. It feels like, at one point in time, someone said, ‘You’re just so stupid and we love that you’re such a dummy.’”
Bob went on, “And now a lot of girls are trying to be stupid, random, and, like, dumb. It feels like they’re forcing themselves to be, like, stupid. ‘Oh, you’re so stupid,’ which is a compliment that’s been given to some people. But like, that’s not everyone’s ministry.”
Monét agreed, “Bob, that is such a great, poignant observation. I love that, for real. I hate that, too.”
Bob added, “[They’re like,] ’I know what to do!’ So I smelled my finger and it was a burger, so I said ‘Burger Finger, and everyone’s like, ‘This is brilliant.’ Like if I was like, ‘I was eating a taco and then I saw someone’s head… so I wrote my song, ‘Taco Head.’” Bob, always a wizard with song lyrics, then proceeded to improvise a song that included the words “taco” and “head,” as seen in the clip shared on Instagram.
“And everyone goes like, ‘Oh my god, girl, you wrote ‘Taco Head’ and It was so fierce!’ And it’s like… ‘Burger Finger’ does not have the same artistic merit as Willow Pill’s toast in the bathtub Talent Show.”
Plane Jane re-posted the Sibling Rivalry clip of Bob and Monét talking about her Talent Show number and wrote via Instagram Stories:
“Mmm no. I get that people can’t compute me being both sexy af and a clown who performed this number WELL BEFORE Drag Race, but this take is tiiiiiired.”
Plane Jane then shared another Instagram Story, writing:
“Everything I did on the show was authentic to who I am as a drag performer — if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to sell it so fiercely. But go off!”
The discourse then moved to X (formerly Twitter). Plane Jane shared the YouTube link for the “Burger Finger” music video and wrote:
“Frankly it’s rude for alum RuGirls to claim ‘Burger Finger’ has less artistic merit than other (sh*ttier) talents… especially girls that never even had to prepare talent numbers on their original seasons. Let’s see you do better, grandma.”
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Big Atlas, who collaborated with Plane Jane on the “Burger Finger” song and video, also chimed in about Bob’s comments. She wrote:
“I wanna act unbothered, but fully bothered by [Bob the Drag Queen’s] ‘Burger Finger’ rant. [You] can like it, hate it, or simply critique the Drag Race performance, sure. But saying [‘Burger Finger’] as a whole has 0 artistic merit, calling it a Jimbo knock-off (like the rabid fans who follow [your] lead) stinks down.”
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Big Atlas followed up that original statement with two more X posts. The first one read:
“The song was not written for Drag Race, & if you don’t get the joke, that’s your own misunderstanding. Very few queens have the talent or ability to write + produce their own music (Bob included). Given that, I’d say [‘Burger Finger’] has more artistic merit than any song performed by Bob.”
She added, “Knew [people] would critique [‘Burger Finger’] once presented on Drag Race, but this has really been such an eye roll experience given the [amount] of work [Plane Jane] & I put into [‘Burger Finger’]. And at the very least, mention my name if you’re gonna sh*t on my song. [heart emoji] [peace sign emoji] I’m literally billed right there next to [Plane Jane].”
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It’s unclear if Bob read Big Atlas’ X posts. However, she did quote-repost Plane Jane’s original X post, writing:
“Girl shut up. Lol.”
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Plane Jane replied to Bob’s quote-repost:
“Finally saying something that makes sense! Now this I can get behind.”
Last but not least, there was also an Instagram grid post from Plane Jane — a carousel of pictures that included Bob’s X post telling her to shut up. The season 16 star wrote in the caption:
“When the talk isn’t cheap, and it is what it is.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 airs every Friday on MTV.