Drag

Drag Race: Gottmik responds to controversy surrounding her All Stars 9 roast

By Jordan Robledo

16th June 2024

Gottmik has opened up about her controversial roast from the latest episode of Drag Race All Stars 9.

Spoilers ahead.

For their sixth maxi-challenge, Ru tasked the queens with flexing their comedic muscles for the National Drag Convention.

“As drag queens, we need to come together to support the freedom of speech, the freedom of expression and the freedom to read a bitch to filth,” Ru explained. 

“For this week’s maxi-challenge, you’ll take turns roasting each other at the National Drag Convention.” 

In a confessional, Gottmik expressed her excitement for the challenge before highlighting her successful roast experience in season 13.  

“Even though I can’t win a badge, I wanna show everyone that I can still turn this out and win money for my charity. Point blank, period dot com,” she said.

After workshopping their material with Michelle Visage and guest judge Ruta Lee, the ladies headed to the main stage to deliver their comedic routines in front of a live studio audience.

While all the queens killed their respective roasts, some Drag Race fans noticed that Gottmik’s material was eerily similar to a handful of Nikki Glaser’s jokes from various Comedy Central roasts.

In one zinger targeting Angeria Paris VanMichaels, the Los Angeles-based queen said, “Girl, I’m not gonna stand up here and badmouth you because clearly God already has,” which is nearly identical to Glaser’s 2016 joke about Jewel.

“Jewel, I don’t want to badmouth you since God already did,” the Women Who Kill star said during Rob Lowe’s roast.

When making fun of Plastique Tiara, Gottmik seemingly took inspiration from a joke Glaser made about Cybill Shepherd during Bruce Willis’ 2018 roast.

“You guys, if you didn’t know, her resume is insane! Influencer, dancer, actor… you name it, she’s f**ked it,” the Snatch Game winner exclaimed.

In the original joke, Glaser said: “Her resume is insane. If you look at it, it’s just like: model, actor, singer… you name it, she’s f**ked it.”

Shortly after the episode aired, fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their unfiltered thoughts about Gottmik’s roast material.

One viewer tweeted: “Lots of queens take jokes from the Comedy Central roasts, but every single joke was wild. And I was a Nikki Glaser fan so I knew every single one. Gottmik, I still love you, but this was not your week.”

Another viewer echoed similar sentiments, writing: “We’ve all heard repurposed jokes on Drag Race, but this is… lol.”

A third viewer uploaded a video highlighting the similarities between Gottmik’s roast and Glaser’s past performances, alongside the caption: “Gottmik stealing every single joke from Nikki Glaser.”

In response to the backlash, the Drag Race season 13 star uploaded a statement to her X profile to share some insight into the situation.

“Wait, do you guys think everyone wrote their jokes!? lol Nikki is my queen so reworking a few of her jokes was a DUH for me. Love her,” she wrote.

While Gottmik has received her fair share of criticism for the roast, some fans have come out in defence of the 27-year-old talent.

One viewer wrote: “Gurrrl… you were fine… Drag Queens always get inspiration from powerful women!”

Another fan commented: “Yall actin like Mik toured the world with these jokes, made millions and sold merch with the jokes on them… Nikki is fine yall, Like Seriously….”

As of this writing, Glaser has not responded to Gottmik’s performance.

On next week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9, the queens will be tasked with costarring in a scene with the one and only RuPaul. Roxxxy and Angeria are also set to clash over the latter snipping her.

Check out the entire National Drag Convention maxi-challege here or below.