Background
Drag Race UK only began in 2019, but it’s already as much of a phenomenon here as the original version was. It’s pretty much exactly the same in terms of format, with one major difference: the prizes. The BBC is publicly owned, so does not have commercial sponsors who could provide prizes for the maxi challenges or give away a £100,000 prize to the ultimate winner. Because of this, each week’s winner of the maxi challenge gets a RuPeter Badge (see our Cheat Sheet below). This a rather lovely reference to British popular culture, the kind of detail that shows a lot of work has gone into adapting Drag Race for a UK audience rather than simply transplanting a US format. It’s things like this – as well as, of course, the contestants – that make Drag Race UK such a rich source of UK popular culture.
Before we get to the glossary, there’s another significant difference between the UK and US versions of the show that should be mentioned: the tone. Although everyone ultimately does want to win, there is generally a more relaxed atmosphere on Drag Race UK than in the original. UK humour is pretty self-deprecating, so it can be difficult for us to make the ‘Why I should be the next drag superstar’-style speeches that are so common on the US show, without feeling the urge to laugh at ourselves. What might have been a very American-feeling show has therefore ended up being a great showcase for British humour.
Below, we’ve put together a Cheat Sheet explaining some cultural references, drag names, and slang terms to help you understand Drag Race UK in general. If you become a Patreon supporter, you can access a comprehensive Cheat Sheet for the first episode of Series One, covering every bit of slang and every cultural reference, minute by minute (by the way, we usually say ‘Series’ not ‘Season’ in the UK).
Cheat Sheet
Cultural References
RuPeter Badge
Because the BBC does not accept sponsorship, and generally does not give out large cash prizes on its programmes, winners of each week’s Maxi Challenge receive a RuPeter Badge. This is a reference to the iconic children’s TV show Blue Peter, which has been running since the 1960s. Children are given Blue Peter badges for appearing on the show, or in recognition of some kind of achievement (usually they’ve raised some money for charity or drawn a nice picture or something like that).
The badges are very small and feature an image of a ship (the design has changed a lot over the years). They come in a range of colours, depending on the achievement. Gold badges are awarded in exceptional circumstances, such as if you save somebody’s life. These are also sometimes also awarded to adults who have achieved something remarkable.
Blue Peter badges are pretty iconic in the UK. The regular badges aren’t rare, but it is definitely a ‘fun fact’ about somebody if they have been given one.
Rule Britannia
The tune that plays briefly when the RuPeter Badge is displayed is ‘Rule Britannia’. This is not the UK national anthem, but it is frequently played at patriotic events.
Essex Girl
Essex is a county near London, and the ‘Essex Girl’ has become a kind of symbolic character in the British imagination, especially since the reality TV show The Only Way is Essex (often referred to as TOWIE – the ‘ow’ is pronounced as in ‘how’) began in 2010. The term is generally used in a negative way: an Essex Girl is supposed to be loud and badly-behaved, wearing too much make-up, drinking too much, wearing revealing clothing, et cetera. On Drag Race, however, the queens appreciate the Essex Girl as a cultural icon, as Cheryl Hole’s affectionate tribute demonstrates.
MBE
Series One queen Baga Chipz often refers to herself as Baga Chipz MBE. An MBE (which stands for Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) is an honour given out by the Royal Family in recognition of contributions a person has made to a certain field (for example, music or charity work). Honours like this (there are lots of different kinds – don’t ask us to explain; even UK natives don’t really understand how it works!) are given out every year and they’re kind of a sign that a celebrity has been fully embraced by the British ‘establishment’ (that is, elite, ‘official’ culture). People occasionally refuse to accept these honours, because they are seen to celebrate the British Empire and therefore colonialism and inequality, but this doesn’t happen as often as you might think. Just to be totally clear, Baga Chipz does not (at the time of writing) have an MBE.
EastEnders
This is one of the most popular British soap operas, set in a working-class neighbourhood in the East End of London. It gets referenced a lot on the show, from Vinegar Strokes’s first line (‘I didn’t become a little bit of a slag, I became a total slag’, which is a quote from the famous Eastenders character Kat Slater – see the slang section below) to the acting challenge in Series Two, BeastEnders, to Scarlett Harlett shouting ‘You ain’t my mother!’ at RuPaul (to which Ru replies ‘Yes I am!’ – another classic Kat Slater line) in Series Three.
Drag Names
Scaredy Kat (Series One)
‘Scaredy cat’ is a term commonly used to mock someone for being easily frightened. ‘Fraidy cat’ is often used in the USA, but we don’t say this in the UK.
Tia Kofi (Series Two)
In most English accents, ‘Tia Kofi’ is a phonetic spelling of the question ‘Tea or coffee?’
Ella Vaday (Series Three)
This is a phonetic spelling of how the phrase ‘hell of a day’ would be pronounced in many UK accents (dropping the H at the start of a word is a common feature of casual speech in many parts of the country). A ‘hell of a day’ is a remarkable day, generally (but not necessarily) in a bad way.
Choriza May (Series Three)
This is a pun on Theresa May, who used to be Prime Minister of the UK (there have been two more since her, in case you’re keeping count) and chorizo, a type of Spanish sausage. Theresa May was extremely anti-immigration, so there’s something quite nice about a Spanish queen in the UK referencing her name like this. (Choriza’s first line when she entered the show was ‘Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful; hate me because I’m an immigrant.’ We’ve loved her ever since.)
Scarlett Harlett (Series Three)
Scarlet is a shade of red, while Harlett is a creative spelling of the word harlot, a very old-fashioned term for a sexually promiscuous woman, which people still occasionally use jokingly.
Slang
Babes
This is a term of endearment (like ‘mate’ or ‘darling’) that is mostly associated with people from Essex (it is said constantly on TOWIE). It’s generally used by or about women.
Gob
This is pretty standard British slang for a mouth (as a verb, it can also mean ‘spit’). Someone who is gobby is loud and talkative, and there is a related insult, gobshite, generally used to refer to someone annoying and gobby.
Shag
As a verb, this means to have sex, but we often use it as a countable noun as well: to have a shag means to have sex.
Slag
This is a derogatory term for a promiscuous person, generally a woman. It is used all over the UK, but it’s particularly associated with EastEnders, and people often feel the urge to say this word in a Cockney (London) accent. Slagging someone off means criticising them.
Minge
This means vagina. It’s not technically a swear word, unlike some of the other terms for this part of the female anatomy, but it’s not something you’d say in what we call ‘polite company’.