Guilty Pleasures and Closing Thoughts

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We have got a great show for you tonight. It's part one of our big gay pride show. But first, let's get into it. What a week Soccer fans from around the world have been pouring into American cities for the World Cup, and they've made a big discovery America rules. And if you don't feel that way right now, it's only because you haven't watched a European's eyes widen delight after tentatively dipping a French fry into a Wendy's frosty. Welcome to America. It's not walkable and the bread is chemicals, but just wait until your Norwegian ass tries taco bellt Here is a British man discovering biscuits and gravy. You a big chunk of this This is so good. Sadly, this man did not survive the ambulance ride. I'll say it again, you have to work your way up to American portion sizes Here's an Italian discovering free refills. I can refill these a thousand times Yeah but you won't drink a thousand cups of calori. And it's free. You paid for it, You paid it. Once. slow down! slow down. Why? I was good. Be it's f.. Yes please And what do you call these are little shards of a gold of glass that make of the soda so good? That's called ice sir Here's a Swedish guy at a waffle house. He this Who made waffle?. No one in Sweden will believe him when he returns with tales of food even more delicious than salted fish buried in the snow for six months It's the perfect way to mark America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday, the world celebrating America and America celebrating the world. And that is in stark contrast to President Trump trying to steal the excitement and patriotism around America's two hundred fiftieth birthday for himself On Sunday, we had Fight night. Held on the south lawn of the White House to Mark Trump's eightih birthday. But I get why he wanted to have a big party. Birthdays have been a bit lonely for him ever since his best friend, Jeffrey Epstein died The event kicked off in the morning with motorcycle stunts in front of a printed White House backdrop cover the actual White House I actually thought that was pretty cool until I found out that they were flying over a hog tied and terrified James Comey The event was also a brazen money gram for the Trump family Paramount plus aired commercials hwking commemorative Trump coins. The fighters were paid bonuses in the Trump family cryptocurrency, and what was meant to be for everyone turned into a sordid ugly mess for Trump die hardards. And lastly Michelle Obama is a man It sounds terrible out of context like this, but he was just making sure everyone had the White House WiFi password The comment was so ugly, in fact, that Lindsey Graham briefly lost his fight night erection. And if that spectacle weren't enough, Trump announced on Monday that the planned july fourth, two hundred fiftieth celebration on the National Mall would actually be a Trump rally I haven't seen a birth party ruined like this since that kid at my second grade birthday party shat his pants in the ballpit and blame me for it because I did it the fourourth of July, Trump rally will call attention to the newly renovated reflecting pool, which is, whoopsy Daisy. Already filled with algae again An interior department spokesperson called this, quote, residual algae. And I just want to say to that spokesperson All algae is residual algae. That's how algae works when you think about it, where do you think the algae is coming from? A little bit of algae It's not spontaneously new algae Right? What are we talking about here That residual. Yeahah, man, that's why it's such a big problem You know, if you have mold in your house and the person who comes to mediate the mold is, oh, no, don't worry. This is just residual mold. like I don't care about the story of the mold The making of the mold, behind the music of the mold, get rid of the fucking mold The spokesperson added, President Donald J Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good, unlike the failed and extremely costly attempts by Obama and Biden. The rest of the statement was a little hard to read, as it was immediately covered in algae. And by Tuesday, National Park Service workers were trying to combat the algae by dumping bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the pool That is so stupid. That is not how you clean algae. That's how you cure COVID Now based on the photos I've seen, the crew seems like they're using twelve percent hydrogen peroxide solution, which is what you might use to shock a hot tub or a small pool. But the reflecting pool spans eight acres and is filled with almost seven million gallons of water. For this to work, you'd need several thousand jugs of peroxide But then the water won't have the same delicious tank, said RFK Junror in the water days when and're out in the out. All right And of course, the algae came back Trump would have us believe that what's stopping America from being great is that every previous leader was stupid or weak or scared to break the rules. But maybe, just maybe, the problem is that it's a big shallow pool in a human fucking swamp. In other words findinds a way Blaming people for problems is easy. Painting over problems is easy. actually solving problems is hard. Also hard, Lindsey Graham, watching those pool boys scrubbing the reflecting pool in that hot June sun Look at what happened with Iran. The US spent tens of billions of dollars bombing Iran. We lost fourteen service members. Thousands have died in the region. And what's the end result? A deal to hopefully maybe reopen the Strait of Hormuz to close to open again. What is this? A Middle Eastern straight or a gay couple that can't accept that they should just break up already Here's Trump spinning the deal. So we had two big moments when they terminated the JCPOA that was the Obama and the Barack Hussein Obama deal And when I terminated that, it was very important because it was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a horrible deal for the United States. It was a deal where Billions of dollars was given to Iran But the Trump deal promises Iran as much as three hundred billion dollars in reconstruction funds to repair the shit we just spent billions of dollars blowing up Oh, great use of money, said a defunded medical researcher, throwing out a bunch of boxes labeled possible cancer vaccines Too much Here iss Pete Heigset, the Defense Secretary, taking a shot at selling this to us the document says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, won't seek one, won't buy one, won't have one. Jays There'll be negotiations to make that final They didn't have the threat of military force the way that we do that Iran respects in a very way that their regime is more deated, more devastating. Excuse me, more devastated than it's ever been. The huge difference is we did this from a position of strength So Obama got the same deal. without having to start a war because of how weak he is, which I guess makes sense if you're drunk So at best, we will end up with a deal that Trump calls the greatest deal of all time, which will look basically like a worse version of the Obama deal, which Trump calls the worst deal of all time But maybe the Iran War was about the friends we made along the way Here's Vice President JD Vance talking about the coolest thing The coolest thing about the progress we've made over the last few weeks is that you see people within the Iranian system, senior leadership, even IRGSC officials say, you know what We may have some animosity, We may have some mistrust, but we recognize the way that we've done business with the United States for forty seven years is a mistake Let's try something else They even gave us a gift, this big, beautiful wooden horse. and we're so excited about it. We're going to roll it right into the White House lawn Hey man. I know it seems like they're your friends because you spent so much time together, but they're at work. Trust me, it's easy to make that mistake. and then your text producer bill to see if he wants to go to the aquarium on Christmas, and then you see the three little dots pop up, thenen they disappear, and then you get the email from HR Could you imagine what Republicans would say if a Democrat were so naive and foolish as to believe that the Iranian regime, the survivors we did not manage to blow up over several weeks of bombing, including the new Ayatolla who we maimed after killing his father and family are cool now. You think the Ayatllahas are gonna let bygones be bygones? You think Iran doesn't hold a grudge? Iran? This is the Middle East after oil, grudges are the number one export and the strareet is still not open Because the straet openste it's open now, but it opens completely. We'll have all the mines knocked out of for the most part. We have a lot of lanes right now already. I think sometim I think sometime in the very near future you We got those mines, t it for the most part. Fes safe to get in a boat riding through a seaway that says they've got most of the mines out of there? It's not exactly inspiring confidence. Oil tankers are going to treat the straight of Horm moves the way Donald Trump treated his son's wedding Not worth the trip But here's the good news Trump may try to turn a celebration of America into a celebration of himself. He may weaken us. He may leave us worse off. But this is still America This past weekend, per a judge's ruling, Trump's name was pried off the front of the Kennedy Center buildilding. The bad news is that the letters were moved over to the new Trump Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Look, Trump can tear down buildings, he can rip up agreements, he can turn the White House into a monument to his corruption and his greed. But as World Cup visitors are discovering, America's greatness is bigger than Trump. The American spirit is a lot like algae. Persistent, resourceful, and up close, it has a weird smell. You can try to paint over it or wash it away, but bitch it is in the pipes. and if you leave even a shred of it behind, it'll come roaring back S RF K junior Yum. All right. And we've got a great show for you tonight. We'll be right back with the great Bruceful e Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of loveove it or Leave it coming up. Love it or Leave it is brought you by Quo If your team's communication is messy, That shows up in products and services, missed messages, drop threads, slow replies. It's one of the easiest ways to lose momentum in business. 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But first, a big thank you to our friends of the pod. If you're not yet a subscriber, consider This, your midterm reminder, here's what you get when you subscribe. You get a discount ticket to all day Crooked Con. You get ad free episodes of all your favorite podcasts. You unlock more pods Save America, including only Friends, our subscription only show. and Oen Tabs newewsletter plus Dan Pfeiffer's Pller coaster, ad free breaking news episodes and more plus. your subscription helps support a growing pro democracy, media ecosystem working to challenge the right and keep people informed. So please go to croked d. com slash friends to sign up. It is the best way to support what we're building here at Croked Media. All right. Ladies and gentleen, please welcome. He needs no introduction. The living legend himself is Bruce Valanche Vago Now, Wow, thank you. You have a Bowie B Ath. I know. She wasy Stardust before Golden Girls That's . Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's B Bowie. you conflate icons. I have a relationship with her, which I'm sure we'll get into Well, right before we started, I was the audience was excited in part because you famously wrote the Star Wars holiday specialist in which or has the ro Yeah played the woman who ran the Canttina. on tatooine, you know, d d That was her gig. Yeah and Now you have this book. It seems like a bad idea at the time, where you talk about some of these stories When the Star Wars special airs and it airs once and then's banished from the air forever, you know how soon after it aired did you feel like, wait a second, this is not getting the response I promise. Well, when the agent called and said the Star Wars holiday spepecial, I said, Ohh, this is going to be the churd and the punch bowt of all time But I have to be a part of it because St, you have to understand. this was first of all, it was the seventies. When people tell you they remember the seventies, they weren't there because we were half baked the whole time that we were doing this stuff. So when they asked me to do it, I thought, this is probably a death sentence. But Star Wars, had been one movie and it was a year and a half later, and George was about to start shooting the Empire strikes back and he wanted something that would stir the pot. while he was waiting for the next that movie to come out. And he had a bunch of stories and he sold CBS, a musical special U with the last one of his stories. and I don't think he actually ever watched TV, George because he would know that this wouldn't work because he sold them a musical special starring the Wookies Now the wookies cannot speak sing, dance or cross the room without tripping over themselves. And they sound they speak no known language. They sound like fat people having orgasms. Trust me, I know. Eactly. I understood every word But ye, but do we had to do this thing. and of course, we had to have guest stars because also we had to have people translate and CBS would not let us use subtitles because they said nobody would read them this was nineteen seventy eight. So everything It was translated by, you know, Art Carney. People like that would come on the wookie would go And he would say, Ohh, I'm sorry, you're feeling better today. That's good. It was it was a nightmare. But you know, personally, we had drugs that covever it all. Yeah, simpler time. So you also wrote the Pul and Halloween. Yeah. similar. Right around the same time. Right You know, Paul Lyind is now kind of like a tragic figure as someone who is so flamboyant. Yeah and but not able to be publicly gay. never Well, nobody was. noody But I wonder if you think about what it would have been like to have Plland as a performer without having to kind of, I don't know, pretend to have a wife in half the episodes, you know? Yeah. Well, that would not be that era of the world. would that would be this era of the world. Back then it's hard to explain to people who weren't there. To be gay was evil. You were a bad person. You were the guy who who committed suicide at the end of the movie or was killed or was a predator. You were not a good person. So when they would see somebody who they liked, like Paul Lynn, who made them laugh or Richard Simmondons or there were a whole bunch of ripp tail Yeah, Rip Taillor They didn't want to think badly of them. So they just pretended. and it wasn't just on television, it was in your life Everybody had a confirmed bachelor in their family, which was code for gay uncle who had never found the right woman, or it was a girl who was just a little too manished to find the right man. Those were all in everybody's family, but we all overlooked them and spoken code about And so that was why it would be impossible for those people to those to have characters that had complete authentic lives because we weren't living them in real life. And everything changed after Stonewall and AIDS brought the gay community together just for self preservation and made us made us a real part of the American tapestry, which we hadn't been before. And I don't think it was the Paul was flamboyant U I think it was It was more with him because Paul was like this negative character, you know, he was like the evil principal of the high school. He was always in his first show, you, kids, he sang kids. And he had his son. said said he said, Nobody respects me. And the kids said, I respect you daddy. He said, Who wants respect from a ten year old That was him. I mean, that was his whole character. and you can't it's hard to build a show around a guy like that. That's an ancillary character I mean, your main character has to be somebody you like. and then you know, your main character has to be Marary Tyl La More who you love, and you can then bring in Cloris Lechman You know, as a cunt. That's, you know Yeah, That's how it's done. Now, long before you get to the era of Paul Lynd, the studios were cracking down on what they deemed sexual perversion. M. through the HAS Code, which was censorship guidelines in the thirties and Yet gay people existed at the time the whole time, the whole way Yeah And so We would love to just take you through a few of these moments in a segment we're calling Hey girl, Hayays code Hey girl, hey I think he was the Lindsey Graham of his era N. Will Hayes. I mean, you look at footage of him and you think, o, girl, what are you hiding Really? You know she's got a doll collection locked up somewhere No one's ever gonna get their mitts on. So I'm gonna have you blind rank the gayest scenes from early Hollywood cinema. Most of them are from around the time of the Hades Code, some a little bit before, but all of them are gay as hell. You won't know what scene is coming next, so you have to ask yourself, is something gayer mincing down the road after this You'll have five scenes. you'll rank them from five, which is basically straight to one, the gayest. Oh, Okaykay In other words we're going down. We're going down. That's exactly right, Bruce Llanche. We're going down. and having a great time doing it.. All right Let's see havenventtly the first clip. How go bigiss. That was the cigar scene from nineteen thirty three's blood money Have a cigar, y big sissy A Pretty gay. What do you think? do you think we've we have four others that you'll have to rank and wherever you put this. Wow That's four. You think that's four. You think that's the second to least gay. Okay. All right, so I'm gonna put that as math, I'm no good. I'm gonna to say blood money. Next up, we have The Boys will Be Boys, the dance scene from nineteen thirty four's Wonder Bar. Boys will be boys.! Bys will be boys. Wow Powell was conducting the orchestra behind him. Wow. This is pretty number one, maybe. I mean It's pretty damn gay. It's pretty damn damn gay. prettyretty damn gay. What do you think? What do you do what spot? We could go gay or one two I'll go I'll give it one. One. All right. It's the gayest. We're call boys. It's will be boys. I mean, it's all in Al Joseon's expression. Yeah, that is well, I don't that noise he makes, that little wh that little noise,. That beautiful littleoo. Next up we have the M dance from nineteen thirty two's Call H Savage. down down and down I love that. It's absolutely amazing. It looks just like a number from the Ru Paul movie, which I saw last. Yes. Look like it looks like ginger Minch and and the Jujube dancing down the corridor of the of the train.ave you seen stop that train? P's prettyty funny. It I mean It's so gay. I mean, it's so gay. My It's negative twenty two thousand. Is's that gay What do you think Well, that'll be number two, I guess. Yeah, that's that's the maid dance The feather duster, you know, Nothing says gay like a feather duster. And they're really they're really mid aroundound it's doing anything but dusting, you know. It's called Call her Savage. And I'm sure there's some other parts of the film that are D deeply problematic, which we're not going to show. All right. Savage. Savage. Next up, we have Marlene Dietrich in a top hat and tails, kissing a woman in nineteen thirtty' Morocco. Yeah I have to of course All right, well that's Dikeke Well, you know, we they have a letter too. LGBTQ.. Yeah, they do have a letter. Hey you wrmo. They they do have a letter They do first first one. How they get that? Well because they were running they were running the world when they came up with it. Right. You can't fight them when they tell you they're going to do something. Yeah. Yeah. I was on the board of the LGBT center for twenty two years and it was basically run by the women I No Not telling any tales out of school there. That I guess Well, it's three. I mean It's you it's undeniable. They're undeniably gay. I mean, they're You know It says what this I mean I thought she'd show me something' like, Leave it to Beaver. Well, the title is gay, but other than that, yeah. Theit leeave it to Beaver is a gay title. It's kind of Lesbbertterarian. Leave it to Beaver. That there is a clip of her saying you were tough on the Beaver last night, Ward. There really is. That was a line. actual line from the show. There's a collection a friend has a collection of those of clips and things like that. They knew that was a joke. Of course. I mean, they laid it in there. I mean they were all they were probably gofaing behind the camera Yeah, just mincing around, laughing at the little joke they put in there And finally, we have Peter Lori's entrance in nineteen forty one's The Maltese Falcon. See, Mrter Speed, I'm trying to recover Ornament that shall we say has been mislaid M. I thought and hoped you could assist me y's about to suck that cane. Yeah. he eats the end of that cane. He really is. Re does. I know. I think Bogue' thinking I'll go home and Betty'll do something like this to me. That was Beacall's real name, Dety, Lauren Bacall. I'm so inside. You just know her You know her as Detty. She was a killer. She literally, I mean, I think she actually had bodies buried somewhere. She was very tough, Lauren BCaall. Was she ever tough to you? Do you ever give? No, She was always great with me. You know thought she was funny I mean she couldn't pull anything. And she finally said, Yeah, you know what you're doing, and which I thought was the highest compliment that you know could Everybody else was an idiot, you know she. And I think that when Bogart died, she was very young when Baogart died and she had two kids. and I think she never really recovered from it. and she created this hard shell around her after that But this is this is just me doing my, you know, my dime store psychology It works. No hard shell for Bruce Valanche. No. No, no, are you kidding? I'm just I'm like a crab in the early days Eat me while I'm tender And on that note, here are our final rankings. We have at five the least gay, the straightest of them all. We have Peter Laori sucking on the end of a Yeah of a cane in Maltese Palka. We have a cigar, another phallic symbol, a lesbian cigar and blood money. We have a lesbian kitch by Marlina Dietrich And then we have the Mid dance by those flouncing Nanies. Yeah in Caller Savage. And finally, Wonder Bar Boys will be Boys with Al Jolson. Bruce Valanche everybody. we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of loveove it or Leave it coming up Lover leave it brought you by Bombus. The weather is warming, the days are longer. We're saying yes to more plans and finally getting outside, running, hiking, moving again. It's the perfect time to upgrade your everyday go to footwear with bombas. Bombas are cushioned where you need it. swweat wicking. and they don't slide around, so you're not constantly adjusting your socks. And with the weather warming, it's time to add bomba sandals to your footwear collection. Their Friday slides are made with this super lightweight and waterproof EVA that's soft but still supportive. I love my Friday Sightes In fact just for fun. 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You can start every day, get a good bunch of probiotics and antioxidants and vitamins and then you know, you're on a good path no matter whether you know, yesterday, you decided, Hey, I'm going gonna have McDonald' at five o'clock becauseuse my show's at six o'clock I have an hour and it's McNugget's time, you know, Nobody can stop you. But you had a vitamin in the morning. You know, You've had your healthy thing in the morning So you're good with the Lord Visit drink ay one d. com slash love it to get a free morning person hat and free AG one flavor sampler In your welcome kit with your first AG one subscription and eighty two dollars value, that's drink AG onene dot com slash love it Yeah Please welcome to the saage Drag Race Royalty to the winner of seeason eighteen of Ruaul's Drag Ray. She's gorgeously stupid and stupid gorgeous It's Mikey Ms Oh. Hi, thank you for being here. H. Bruce Parked it right here You look fabulous. Thank you. And Bruce, when I found out you were here, I painted my toes. Yeah. You're the reigning queen of drag race. Yes. What would you say is your philosophy as a leader? Oh, bold question. Live boldly, love fiercely and being apologetically yourself? Yeahah Be gay, It's pride season. Oh, I try to be apologetically myself. Yes, you should. That's really been m be sorry for what you do. Now you came out of the Orlando drag scene.. How does that compare to LA's? How many true Disney freaks are you dealing with on a daily basis? You know, it's funny. A lot my sister from my season, Briar Blush, started a rumor that I started drag by Disney bounding Disney bounding is when you go to the theme parks, you can't come in costume, but you can dress like the characters. So she's saying that's how I started drag W was dressing like the characters And so Disney Fans have followed me. because of that reason. And I want to say that's not that's not true But I do respect your lifestyle That's so beautiful. Yeah. Wait, so there's a difference between you can dress like a character, but you can't be in costume. That's What is the distinction? Well, say like you want to be Winnie the Pooh. You can't come in a full bear costume, but you can wear a red t shirt I b I was gonna say maybe. I just nude w. wear the pants. I don't know. and then maybe a pot of honey. But I've seen plenty of bears with no pants in my life, so But rarely at Disney World. Well you surpred. Fride night. Yeah have Fride night. too. yeah. Was it crazy shooting the multiple endings? And like how does that actually feel? Because you have to because because now in RuPaul's drag race where Bruce was a judge in one of the early seasons Yes the winner got out. And so ever since they have filmed everyone winning, and you go through the whole thing and then you don't actually find out till it airs. Is that what happened with you I love my NDA No I mean, it's pretty well known that yeah, they film multiple endings of the show so that no spoilers come out and you do have to wait the whole process, the whole year of knowing that you made it far without knowing if you take the crown. So you have to kind of mind your P's and Q's as the season goes along. And there if you search on YouTube, you can see the genuine reaction of us finding out who wins. It was a gag. It was it was u Yeah, was amazing. It was amazing Boy to win is so cool. because you're afraid you're going to go home first and then that happened to me on the thing I did. But then for you. And that was that was because you really only think about two scenarios, right? You think about going out first and winning, but you got the good one I did get the good one. I'm very happy about that. You know it's funny, I had a little different experience because I was like, I don't want to go home first. I mean, it is kind of iconic to go home first though, right? Yeah, that's a good point. I'm tryrying to win brownie points here. But then it's we have fourteen contestants. It's kind of when we got to top eight is when I went Okay, I could feel a little bit more relaxed here. And then once we got to the final three, I said, bitch you can't tell me anything. Okay. now You had paid homage to Olivia Newton John in the eighties Ladies Challenge. and let's so This look was not received as you had hoped. So did you see some merit in what they were saying? Did you completely disagree? What do you think about it now Yeah, of all the looks you wanted to show. You wanted to show that. I think you look awesome. Well, I appreciate that. The category was eighties ladies and we had to pull images from Getty images. I found this of Olivia N and John. I said This is hilarious. A pink cat suit with purple character shoes. loveove it. I'm doing a one for one They read me down. They read me down. They hated this. They said, how could you wear character shoes on the runway? And in my mind, I'm like Do we not see the image? L I thought I was doing a good job here. But you know I said from the show, like Olivia Newton John, when she put this outfit on, she said forty years from now, a drag queen named Mikey Meeks is going to put this exact outfit together and wear it on the main stage of RuPaul's drag race. And that's exactly what I did Wow, maybe she's from the future. Yeah. Now Bruce, you were on Drag race and you were there like as it was evolving. L I remember watching early seasons of Drag race It was really a like it was it was more cutthroat and it was really about it was really about winning the show because the show wasn't that popular. It was on logo. It hadn't yet really made a name for itself. And over the years it's become B bigger deal.. What was it like being there in the early seasons of it? Well, was they brought me in as a comedy mentor h and I would like ach the drag Peens of the cop. And at the time, and in Santa Claus one year, one unforgettable year. there I was. Oh, Im much heavier there. I'm so happy now. The Ozemic is working. Hello. Nice The problem was that the drag queens of that era were either gorgeous girls who lip synced and could not talk. and never did any kind of comedy. O you had people like Bianca del Rio who worked a club every night in Fire Island and was hilarious and could do all of that. And they were pitted against each other. And I said it's apples and oranges. You can't ask these these girls who have never learn anything like that to be funny all of a sudden. that takes, you, you have to learn. happened was all the young Qeens toV we're watching it at home And they realize to win the thing, you have to do everything You have to be funny, you have to be able to speak, you have to make your own clothes. You have to be able to live in a motel with the other queens for two. That's true, Which is really the test of all but and so now Winners like this are the complete performer. And that's why if you just go on DragQueen, it's like if you just go on Shark Tank, you won because you can then get booked all over the place. And there's now a circuit of places that will play drag things. and there used to be a club here, maybe a club there and now it's everywhere So And that's all Ru Paul, That's all Rue's fault. Mike, what was the like I feel like I can't imagine something more intimidating than doing snatch game knowing that it's snatch game. What was it like? I had a great time. I had a great time. That was the one challenge I was kind I was looking forward to. I performed Snatch Game as Drew Berrymore. Drew Barrymore. And it went over very well. Actually it's funny you say that because that outfit I wore was the same challenge as Snatch Game, and I think that's what cost me the win But it went over pretty well that I got invited to the Drew Berrymore showhow to do the impression for her. and she loved it. She was amazing. Did she touch you? She t close She was. I was like, I'm not wearingough makeup for you to be that close to my face. But she was amazing. But the Snatch game, I was I'm used to that improv style, so I was pretty ready you Are the winners on some kind of a text chain? Is there like a text chain where there's like a group of like just, we're all the winners and like it's just us here so we can like let our hair down and be honest? I wish, if anything they're hazing me. Are you getting haze? No, I' justidding, that's plain Jane and all that. No, there's no groups, but there is a camaraderie. I did see Nymphia Wyind, who was the winner of season sixteen. We ran into each other in San Francisco this weekend and you know, it's there's relatability there, we could talk about certain aspects of expectations and the online fan base and all that How is that Oh, I love this is the most sane and reasonable fan base of any reality TV show. S such a smart point. I agree. I just want to say that I agree I agree. We love it. And yes, your opinion is right. Whatever you think is correct. Even if you've never done drag, you are right, my love. Well. I was talking about the online fandoms with a friend of mine that works for a streamer. It's when you're and it's true of critics too that like A lot of online criticism It never starts with I know you didn't want me to hate this, but you know, never or like I know you were or it never starts with I know this probably wasn't as good as you wanted it to be either, so I'll be generous. It always starts from a place of the assumption that what you did or how you performed was exactly what you wanted it to be, one hundred percent and And like maybe you're you know, nothing is perfect. You still be proud of it. but when someone is critical, they're like, Oh, I can't believe you didn't get this exactly right? Well, yeah, I'm a person. R. That's exactly it. And the circumstances around dragy specifically, the circumstances around the amount of time you have, what's against you with what every design challenge, you have such you have a specific amount of time and maybe it's an unconventional design challenge. you don't have everything you need to pull off a sickening outfit. now and that that what's that is what makes it so special when someone can Look at Nyphia, for example, she's able to make treasure out of trash. me Baby, that's the garbage. That's the garbage receptacle, okay Yeah, I always feel like if someone is gonna to talk about someone else's body on the internet they should first have to film themselves doing A military style push up. this was part of our We talked about this last week with Kell Kripe. But also if someone basically, I think, as a rule, you can be anonymous on the internet. I believe in anonymity, peopleople's freedom of speech should be protected. However, you must legally post a picture of the room from which you post. that if if you're going to sit in judgment of all of planlet Earth, you're free to do that and I want you to have that experience But first, we get to see the room you're in Because I do think people would be a bit more humble and a little less judgmental if we saw the posting location. And I think that's a simple compromise we can all agree on. I agree. I also think at this point, if you're hating online, you're a bot, like you're not real Bea who does that Spots exclusively. That's how I think about it. It's actually Bruce. It's actually Bruce Bruce sitting on a nickname. Spot. I just think that's a good like Oh wow. you think Ohh boy, boy, what a strong opinion you have No What's what's what's your desk look like? What's the chair? It's everybody gets to publish their first draft You know, I mean The the only person I know in the world who gets to film their first draft is Woody Allen I mean, and you see some of the movies and you go, you really should have had an editor. You really should have had somebody come in and say, no, don't do that. Don't make this picture about another an old Jew loving old young girl. Don't do that. Yeah right. Not right. Yeah. I just have gotten the sense that he's not getting great feedback over the years. You've heard that. Yeah, I know. All right. Thankk you to Mikey Meeks, S here on season eighteen of RuPaul's Drag race He you at Mikey Meks dot com for tickets. You're on tour and we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of loveove it or Leave it coming up Lover Leave it is brought you by Cook Unity, Eating out at restaurants is great, but it's also expensive. The good news is you can actually get that level of culinary satisfaction at home for way less than a night out. Cook Cunity is the first chef led meal delivery service to makes your meals in small batches inside local kitchens across the US, not factories. So every dish arrives with the kind of freshness you'd get at the restaurant itself We're talking meals from Michel starred chefs, James Beard winners and food network stars. go to cook Unityot com slash lowly or use code lowly before checkout for fifty percent off your first week. I love cook Unity. I use it all the time. I have it all the time. This is what I got this week. I got the Nightmarket chicken, which is great. G got a carneasada breakfast burrita, which was great. Chicken and broccoli pasta, soy roasted shrimp chowmaine. I got the Mediterranean braised chicken I like to get ones that have protein, a carb and a vegetable, you know, get my cover all my bases. And I get six meals a week, which means just a couple of times a week I know I don't have to cook dner or I don't have to take out order eat something bad. I have a healthy, delicious thing waiting for me. So I highly recommend it. Taste what happens when real award winning chefs make fresh, small batch meals just for you. goo to cookunity dot com slash lowly or enter code lowly before checkout to get fifty percent off your first order That's fifty percent off your first order by using code L o Li or going to cookunity dot com slash L o li cookunity dot com slash lily time has come for a segment we're calling when it rainbows it pours Every year we take a look at the best worst in the Beiius Pride merch and decide gay or nay. Okay. Is it Mikey and Bruce approved? or are we leaving it on the raack next to the rainbow mesh tank topops? Let's decide. First up, we have oldld Navies and I by the way, haven't seen these till now. Old Navies proudly me stand up for love Ringer te, proudly me Stand up for love, ring or te Mikey, what do you think about this one? I don't think it I think it's great. I think it's good too. Yeah, I think it's cute. I think it's simple. Um it says what it needs to which I love. It's not like L me, I'm gay. Can I say that? No, yeah, you could definitely say that. I don't think the target collection can say it. which is a shame I'm offended by horizontal strikes. I think When I wear them, they could land airplanes on me. so I mean you want something that slims you down, not that makes you you can be proud but thin. it's okay. Right, I see. sort of yeah, I guess I do think that runs counter to the message of the shirt. Exactly right. Yeah. Also stand up. Wow, ableist, isn't it I think we're turning on this shirt. And by the way, I also don't like this shirt because it's two shirts, guys. I know we're having a meeting and we're brainstorming prride merch and someone says, what about proudly me and what about stand up for love? And then someone's like couldould we put them both on the shirt? Sure, what about a horizontal rainbow stripe? Well, it's not that slimming. That's the wrong thing to say in this meeting. And they' like, well, what about a heart two? So it's a rainbow streak cart comment where you're proudly yourself, but also standing up for love, which are completely independent things to do. I agree. my red piping looks like you're just hiding hickeys Yeah. That's true. Yeah It's a no. It's a nay. Yeah It's gone. It's gone. That's right. Was that serious? Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, old baby M like yeah, I love O Navy, and I'm happy for any sponsorship. It'uch such an important point.. And I just want to be clear, we all love oldld Navy. And they're doing great work over there. I don't know if the dog is stopped. I personally love young Navy, but Oh Semen, yes. Next up, we have the target the target rainbow fringed denim vest and circuit pant circus pants. Now here we have vertical stripes. Yeah, there we go. So nowre now we're in the market Bruce's market.. The print also comes in a calf hand Wow So can we go back to the I'm a little bit, I'll just Yeah no, this is a no. What's happen? I Mardi Gras. It's Mardi Gras. It's Mardi Gras. I mean, I just feel like These are two statement pieces put together. That's right. We need a little subtlety. Or not, I'm not here to judge. But I'm gonna judge this outfit. To me, it's a boot, It's a boot. I just feel like I feel like the pants and the fringe They're in two separate, you know, they're having two different they're in two different movies. You know what I mean? I like the color gradient though of the fringe. I like both. I like both I like both. okay. I just don't think they go together That's what I'm saying. I'm saying he looks like he's having fun. Yeah. He's having the pride of his life right now. Looks like an angel with a shredded wings. Y. Sad story, really. It is sad Yeah So Nay, what do you think? Yay, Nay, Bruce Gay or Nay. Is this but we haven't commented on the bathrobe or whatever that is. Well, that's the Cfttan versionions. Let's go to the Calfan version. Let's go to the Cfan. Cfan's. I think that's good. No, you're no. No, I love it. I say yes to any Calfftan. I think we're a yes on the Calfan Gay. Beaine imagine me wearing that, imagine Bruce wearing that, imagine John wear that we would all look fabulous and having a great time. And I would stone mine. I was wearing it would look like I walked away with the tent. Stop it, Bruce. It's pride saying these things about That's right.'tt who the fuck That's right. If you can't love yourself, who the fuck are you' gonna love. That's as the famous saying goes Now Next up. Lve it. Next up, we have Abercrombian Fitch Resort shirt U If you zoom in real close Can we zoom in on the little tiny Pide stripe Is this part of their Pride collection That's the thing on the pocket little that right there. Okay is pride themed. There's a little rainbow there. And the logo is rainbow. So this is for pride for in case you have a lot of conservative and shhort sided relatives. You know? This is for Thanksgiving with people with very thick glass. This is a shirt that you can say, it's just a smudge. It's just a smudge It's just it's just a spudge. Honestly, this is a shirt I probably wear Now the little line of stitching of rainbow. I mean, it's it's cute. I mean, if you're DL, this might be the shirt for you U And I am DL. so wow, that's so sad. T to stay and age. I live a very hard life. Like like, it's funny. it's sort of the like maybe the era of Poland isn't over Br Blanche. It could be. It's very subtle. I think it's exactly right for people who don't want to announce themselves, want to show that there's somehow aligned. Now they also have a broke back mountain tank top U so, you know so that That's like a ten out of ten. That ten That's that's a must It' sold out It's sold out. It's sold out of course. Sorry, Abercrombie and Fitch. I I would say yeah, I also like Abergambian Fitch holds a special place in my mind from my childhood because it was like You couldn't get him This segment is over. Be they because they would real they that was like they had the these like the hottest guys in the world and theyd like have them like it was like such a thing that it was like, but it was never gay. No. They were just hot guys playing football shirtless, but is not gay. No This is not a gay thing. So I think we're a yes on this That's a yes, yeah, Gle. yeah. Lo it. And then we have the American Eagle Pride To piece set Mm. What? No, That's a no f. That just looks like Stain's like she's been. Where Where's the lesbian merge. I want to know that. question.. Here it comes. We have How am I supposed to live laugh lesbian in these conditions? Yeah, yeah. that's a winning wishhert for me. Yeah. That's gay as how. Let's do one more The sunlighted hotbird from Target That's just me, That's gay. That's the day of the S like it hot birds. Well I know I know the scene. that's the end of the movie. It's the end of the movie. Soiler alert for S like it hot. Some like it hot. they turn it intos. Jack Levin's a guy. Marilyn Monroe though, that's what the problem is. Oh God I mean isc you It' It's also like movie icon stuff, which is basically gay anyway. Gay. I love it. What were that salt and pepper or were they just We don't know. No, I think a little a little for your bakfront, I guess. Yeah, yeah that's right for maybe to put above put above your kitchen cabinets, you know, next to a little horse and buggy kind of thing, you know, a little big plant or sort of something tuscet For for your credenza. Y, for your credenza, perhaps console that you don't hear about it you the Davenport. That's right. Put it in the Davenport, perhaps All right, this segment's over. we'll be right back We back. Yeah Pride is a time where we share our love for all things eer, septum piercings, jock scraps, shorts that are either way too big or way too small Both are gay now But before I let you two go into that queer goodood night, we're gonna share a few things we know we shouldn't love but absolutely do. in a segment, we call I donon't careare, I love it, Gay Edition By. Love it ix. All right. I'll kick it off H I think it's good when the corporations have a gay little pride lovo. Was that really yours? I was gonna to say that. I agree with you. You know, it's like I know we make fun of it and it's like, uh, capitalism is American Airlines with a rainbow flag. But you know what? Capitalism is gonna be capitalism. Either June is gonna to have a rainbow flag for American airlines or it's not. I wantan tove in the world where they're like, fuck it, let's do it. You know what I mean? I know it's like it's a little big cringe, obviously. it's a cringe thing, but I feel like haven't we learned that Yeah, in the same way that like hypocrisy is a kind of like half like hypocrisy at least admits to the fact that you know what the right thing is. L a world where corporations are performatively pro gay, even if their policies ultimately aren't as gay as they should be and they're rapacious, monstrous kind of grab at least they know the right thing to say or there' some value in showing people what the right thing to do is. I don't know. I feel like companies being afraid to be pro gay is much worse than companies being afraid not to be pro gay. That's my feeling. I'd just like to point out I think a lot of that comes from the fact that they recognize that they have a whole lot of gay employees. Yes, and the gay employees if they are proud, brring it to the attention of the company. but you know, this is this is we're a segment of American society just like every other denomination, we're there The corporation responds to it because they think, well, you know, we have we want to keep the employees happy I mean, Disney's been doing it. they were one of the early ones to do it and they were the least likely because they are a family business. Their brand is so family oriented. And this is when the idea of gay people and families were just and that's when you couldn you couldn't compare them. Yeah, and then they made all their villains gay for fun. Well, I know that was that was because that the gay people did that at Disney It was the gays. Yes. Boy the gays. It was the gays All right. Mikey, what's something that you love that others hate? I Well, I don't know if she's hated. I don't care. I love I love Madonna. I love Madonna. and I think makes the noise for Madonna. Yeah, yeah ye. Madonna, especially right now, she's launching a whole new era at sixty seven years old and she's unstoppable. I love it. I did too. It was so exciting seeing her at Wit Coachella where she came out with Sabrina with Sabrina and like, man L a prayer, you hear like a prayer, you're like that. there's never been a song like it, not before nonsense. Yeah, so cool. And I just enjoy the fact that she is still at this point trailblazing for for pop artists to say she's not done. She is still going and going strong I remember when there were the reports that Madonna was using these vibrating plates to work out on. and she would like stand on this kind of vibrating platform to work out on. And then in LA, there was one of those places with a vibrating plate that opened up and I said, I'm gonna to go to theadonna place and stand on the vibrating plate thing and get the experience that Madonna gets and I'm gonna to work out on the vibrating plate. I don't know how that woman is standing on one of those plates 'cause I stood on that vibrating plate for three seconds and it's like, this poop is gonna fall right out of me. It's unbelievable. You might as well put me in a fucking centrifuge Bruce, is there something you What I like Yeah, she's sex positive, which I've always liked about Madonna. That's the thing. And you know, I'm old enough to know that she was she was among the very first famous people to come out and support AIDS fundraising and charities. She started the Gay Men's health crisis by donating proceeds from one night at Madison Square Garden a million dollar donation. this is back then, which would have meant a lot more than it does now. And so she was right there at the beginning, because of course she had so many gay friends who got sick and died. And she's never wavered in that. So I like her for that reason and that she's sex positive because there's something that I like which is terrible. I mean, it's below deck Yes. You know, it really is crap, and you know it's you know it's all I mean, they're doing everything in front of cameramen who happen to be on the boat with them. And the boat's running because there's crew that actually runs the boat. and there are people who actually cook those meals and all that. So it's Totally the first ru of reality is television is nothing is real. But I get a kick out of it because they're beautiful people and I love watching them carry on and screw up and all that. And if I like any of them, I can find them on only fans. Hello. And that's our show. Thank you so much to Bruce Valangee and Mikey Meeeets. There're one hundred thirty nine days intoil the midterms. We'll be back on Friday with Oskill Costa, Brends Canneell and Ashley Reay. Thank you all for coming out and have a good night