Jun 16
Watch: 'Drag Race' Fans Take Note of Gottmilk Using Nikki Glaser's Jokes on 'All Stars' Roast
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Gottmilk sourced a number of jokes for a "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" Season 9 comedy challenge from comedian Nikki Glaser, and fans immediately took note, Pop Crush reports.
The episode, which aired June 14, and fans expected Gottmik to be a frontrunner in the challenge as she won the same one when she competed on "Drag Race" Season 13
The problem with Gottmilk's material for the roast wasn't that it was underdone, but rather that it had been done before.
One Twitter/X user contrasted footage of Gottmilk from the "All Stars" episode with Glaser's previous delivery of similar material.
One edit showed Glaser telling the subject of a roast, "I want to thank you so much for fighting the war on terrorism and subtlety," after which Gottmilk was seen saying, "You are consistently fighting the war on homophobia and subtlety."
The next comparison showed Glaser saying of a roastee, "if you look at it, she is like, model, actor, singer... you name it, she's fucked it!" The edit then cut to Gottmilk: "Influencer, dancer, actor - you name it, she's fucked it!"
Fans flocked to offer their opinions.
"we've all heard repurposed jokes on drag race but this is...lol," one reply stated.
"and every delivery was worse omg," another posted, to which another agreed, "what makes it worse is that Nikki's delivery was better across the board".
One comment posited that "a LOT of queens borrow jokes from these celebrity roasts, they open the YouTube compilations and go for it, something like Pinterest being a moodboard for runway looks 😭😭," while another, following a similar train of thought, offered: "Alot jokes especially in roast are recycled stuff someone has done before but since this is so exact and from one person it's obvious Mik directly copied someone.
"Since Mik is also a creative I'm suprised she'd steal like this without putting her own spin on things at least," the post added.
Seemingly in response to criticism around allegedly repurposing Glaser's material, Gottmilk took to X herself to offer a defense of her comedy set.
"Wait do you guys think everyone wrote their jokes!? loll🫠😂," Gottmilk posted.
"Nikki is my queen," the drag performer continued, "so reworking a few of her jokes was a DUH for me 💅🏼".
Gottmilk added: "love her".
Some fans remained skeptical.
"Next time I copy and paste someone else's essay for an assignment I'm gonna say I 'reworked' it," one person commented.
" It was not even n reworked, slightly tweaked at best," another said.
Whether Gottmilk's use of similar material fell within the bounds of fair use or plagiarism, her set didn't seal the deal. "Angeria Paris VanMichaels and Plastique Tiara won the Roast challenge," Pop Crush noted.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.