It should come as no surprise that the VH-1 and Logo show RuPaul’s Drag Race antics have carried over to audiences who have been watching the show but it’s went way further into mainstream. If you type ‘Okurrr”, Yas queen!’, ‘Shade’, or ‘Don’t Fuck It Up’ into a search engine and see what comes up you’ll likely get a GIF which originated from RuPaul’s Drag Race. First broadcast in the early 2000s as a niche talent show on a smaller audience US cable channel Logo TV, Drag Race is now big business and has moved to a far more visible new home on MTV’s VH1.

A UK version is set to debut on BBC Three this October – and with Canadian and Australian editions in the works, Drag Race has become a cultural juggernaut that is influencing our everyday language and internet behavior. Recently all seasons of Drag Race were released on Hulu’s streaming service.

Created by RuPaul Charles – the self-styled “Supermodel of the World”, Drag Race is a loud and proud LGBTQ+ show that subverts the usual trope of typically American talent shows such as Project Runway or America’s Next Top Model, by choosing drag queens as its contestants. On the show, drag queens fight for the crown of “America’s Next Drag Superstar” by competing in singing, dancing, lip syncing and acting as well as various comedy challenges … and sewing.

Winning or even just participating in Drag Race can be life-changing for queens. Aside from the crown, America’s Next Drag Superstar wins $100,000 and travels the world for a year representing the show.

But in the past few years, it has become clear that Drag Race has done way more than entertaining its ever-growing army of fans. It has helped open the door of drag, LGBTQ+ and black queer culture for a mainstream audience – introducing the conventions, habits, rituals and attitudes of these subcultures to the mainstream public.

Drag Race and Culture

Through Drag Race, the language of drag is not just gaining recognition by a wider public – it is being turned into a new art form through memes, GIFs and content that floods millions of people’s social media feeds.

Drag Race is manna from heaven for content creators and for niche fandoms – groups of die-hard fans that veer away from traditional, mainstream entertainment. In 2018, the show did a crossover episode with America’s Next Top Model. RuPaul’s appearance on Jeopardy, and season nine winner Sasha Velour’s obsession with Riverdale, have left fans begging for new crossovers. Fan blogs have called for Drag Race/American Horror Story or Disney/Drag Race mash-ups.

Shady talk

On Drag Race, language stops being just subcultural “lingo” and is a vehicle for spreading and popularising drag slang, which is heavily used, explained and commented on during the show and subsequently adopted by pop culture.

The show’s language borrows from the 1991 New York drag scene documentary Paris Is Burning, depicting the origins and meanings behind culture. Words such as “shade”, in particular, have now become mainstream, used in songs and writing by people outside the black or LGBTQIA+ community.

Mainstreaming drag

The impact of Drag Race is being felt all over entertainment, so much so that show alumnae such as Willam and Shangela sashayed their way into parts in films such as A Star Is Born.

Others, such as Milk and Violet Chachki, have become runway models for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier. Comedy queen Bianca Del Rio has sold out shows across the world (some compare her to Joan Rivers), while Shae Coulee, Miss Vanjie or Mayhem Miller have starred in pop videos for major artists including Iggy Azalea.

Drag Race is influencing the way we speak and the content we create, to the extent that it is now becoming the subject of academic papers and studies. And the success of the show demonstrates that today’s viewers don’t just want to sit and watch. They want to evaluate, critique and engage in their own content creation based on the show that creates its own new, newsworthy subcultures and then bleeds on into the mainstream.

Cardi B Tried To Trademark ‘Okurrr’

In case you didn’t already know, Cardi B is incredibly aggressive. She recently attempted to trademark the catchphrase ‘Okurrr,’ which she describes as sounding – if said correctly – like ‘a cold pigeon in New York City’. The Bronx rapper’s application confirmed that the phrase includes three ‘r’s, but, to stop copycats, she has also filed to protect ‘Okurrr’ if is spelt with two ‘r’s.

If you have no idea what it means, when Cardi was asked how she would use the word, she told Jimmy Fallon: “It depends on the situation that you’re in. Like if somebody checks somebody, it’s like ‘Okurrr’. I didn’t know she had all of that in her, okurr! It’s like okaaaaay, but okay is played out.” (Okurrr.)

Cardi’s company Washpoppin Inc. filed the trademark application with the intention being to trademark the use of ‘Okurrr’ on merchandise like t-shirts, hoodies and “paper goods – namely paper cups and posters”.

But Cardi’s latest move is probably going to annoy Khloe Kardashian who also helped bring the phrase to mainstream audiences during her time on Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Then again, just like Cardi, Khloe didn’t actually come up with the phrase. It’s believed the unique sound actually comes from drag culture, as according to Refinery29 RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Laganja Estranja first used the word on the show.

Willam, Alaska Thunderfuck, and Alyssa Edwards are also fans of the phrase. The Urban Dictionary definition of ‘okurr’ (not, with two r’s) reads that it: “Originated from drag culture and [was] popularised by RuPaul’s Drag Race, and then by Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

Cardi B is not the first, and she certainly isn’t going to be the last, musician to trademark their words. In 2015, Taylor Swift filed to protect phrases including “this sick beat” and “we never go out of style” from 1989 and Beyonce keeps on trying to trademark their daughter’s name, Blue Ivy Carter. Of course we all remember Donald Trump and “You’re Fired!” from his NBC show ‘The Apprentice’ another reality show that took on a subculture.