Drag

Drag Race: The internet reacts to “painful” elimination

By Jordan Robledo

28th January 2024

The latest exit from Drag Race season 16 has caused an uproar on social media.

Spoilers ahead 

On this week’s episode of the long-running drag competition, the queens were tasked with showcasing their sketch comedy skills on RPDR Live! 

Like past seasons, the distribution of parts resulted in several arguments among the queens – with Plane Jane and Morphine Love Dion getting into it and Dawn and Plasma having a tense exchange. 

While most of the queens ended up with their desired roles, Mirage struggled to embrace her RPDR Live! hosting duties – which stemmed from Sapphira Cristal willfully giving up the part.

“It’s making me second guess if I want it because now I think she’s playing the game,” Mirage explained in a confessional. 

After getting some pointers from RuPaul and rotating Drag Race judge Ross Matthews, the queens headed to the main stage to deliver their best sketch comedy performances and Night of 1000 Chers ensembles. 

While Plasma, Q, and Plane Jane were lauded for their work in the challenge and on the runway, Geneva Karr and Mirage failed to thoroughly impress the judges – resulting in the two queens landing in the bottom two.

To the beat of Cher’s ‘Dark Lady,’ the two beloved talents delivered a sickening lip-sync filled with drama, face, exquisite turns and splits. 

But as the performance progressed, it became apparent that Mirage didn’t know all of the song’s lyrics – which seemingly resulted in her shocking elimination. 

Shortly after the episode aired, fans flocked to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their thoughts on Mirage’s tear-filled exit – with many describing it as one of the most “heartbreaking” eliminations in Drag Race herstory. 

One user tweeted: “Watching Mirage cry broke my heart so badly. She probably felt like her dreams were crushed.”

Another viewer wrote: “Girl this is the saddest day, month and year for my homosexual ass because why did Mirage have to go so early and like this. Heartbreaking to say the least.”

A third user added: “Why am I crying with Mirage? That was heartbreaking. It should’ve been a double shantay.”

Some of Mirage’s Drag Race sisters, like Dawn and Luxx Noir London, also expressed their sadness over her elimination. 

Dawn wrote: “When I tell you this shit was even worse in person like just people in wigs SOBBING.” 

Luxx added: “That was like…heartbreaking…Like, I’m not an empath or a very emotional person, but I honestly got choked up.”

In response to the bevvy of supportive messages, the Las Vegas queen thanked her fans in a heartfelt statement. 

“I love you all so much I’m gonna try and get to all my messages ASAP thank you Chicago for showing so much love tonight!!! And babes… Geneva is my sister. Don’t be hateful!” she exclaimed.

While her time on season 16 has come to a close, Mirage’s upward trajectory in the Drag Race world has shown no signs of slowing down.

On 24 January, her talent show song ‘She’s Such a Bitch’ hit its highest US streaming week to date since its release, per Chart Data.

Check out more fan reactions to Mirage’s elimination below.