Watch RuPaul turn Pete Davidson into the next drag superstar in SNL digital short

Jillian Sederholm
·2 min read

After a spotty attendance record on Saturday Night Live this season, Pete Davidson is back to werk.

First-time host RuPaul spent most of the episode out of drag save for one notable exception when the RuPaul’s Drag Race icon was joined in full hair and makeup by Davidson in a digital short.

The sketch centered on Ru at a photoshoot, lamenting, “Me, on another cover of Drag Magazine? It’s redundant.”

The cover model looks around and discovers a young protégé in the form of Chad — Davidson’s recurring character first introduced in a 2016 digital short — who gets a crash course in RuPaul’s Drag U.

RuPaul teaches Chad to tuck (“No bulge, no bump, the junk goes in the trunk.”), beat his face for the gods (apply perfect makeup), and lip-sync for his life.

Chad runs into a bit of trouble when it’s time to “sissy that walk.” Instead of strutting, the new queen crashes right into a table and ungracefully falls to the ground. His mentor notices Chad’s a little rough around the edges and asks, “Do you want to be the greatest drag queen in the world?”

Although Chad — and Davidson — makes for a fishy queen, he decides being the next drag superstar isn’t for him and sashays away. “Bye Ruple” he murmurs as he stumbles off in his heels.

Watch the full sketch in the video above and see the lengthy process of getting Davidson into drag below.

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