RuPaul lived in Ealing. He took the Elizabeth line.
He ordered the firecracker chicken at Wagamama. He bought lemon drizzle cake from M&S.
Britain is not coping well with any of this.
The 65-year-old drag queen and host of RuPaul’s Drag Race revealed his surprisingly suburban London life in a video posted online, as reported by CreatorZine.
The San Diego native listed his favourite things about the city, and every single one sounded like it came from someone who works in accounts in Zone 3.
The Elizabeth line gets a royal endorsement
RuPaul was genuinely enthusiastic about his commute. He lived in Ealing, West London, and used the Elizabeth line to get into central London.
“I was living in Ealing and I could get into central London in 25 minutes,” he said. “It’s brilliant, of course you can get on with your phone.”
TfL could not buy this kind of advertising.
Firecracker chicken and lemon drizzle
His third favourite London activity is eating at Wagamama. Not a Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair. Wagamama.
“It’s a chain restaurant but their food is so good,” he said. “I order the firecracker chicken, they change the menu a lot.”
Fourth on the list was M&S, which he described to his presumably baffled American audience as “a grocery store.”
The item that earned the mention was specific.
“They have the most delicious lemon drizzle cake, oh my gosh, my mouth is watering.”
Selfridges and the ABBA Voyage show also made his London favourites, rounding out a list that ranges from a grocery store cake to a £100-a-ticket concert performed by holograms.
Brits absolutely lost it
The comment section reacted as though someone had told them the Queen used to get a meal deal from Boots.
“Ealing? Wagas? M&S? Where am I?” one person wrote.
Others fixated on the mental image of bumping into RuPaul at the Ealing M&S or watching him order firecracker chicken.
One commenter asked whether he had been to Woolwich. He almost certainly has not been to Woolwich.
“The concept of mama living in Ealing,” said another.
Why it matters
Celebrity content that works hardest on social media is almost never the glamorous stuff. It is the ordinary stuff.
RuPaul listing chain restaurants and a commuter rail line generated more engagement than most carefully produced promotional content because it collapsed the gap between a global celebrity and a Tuesday evening in West London.
For creators, the reminder is useful: relatability does not have to be manufactured.
Sometimes it is just a man and his lemon drizzle cake.
British audiences in particular respond to international celebrities embracing the mundane specifics of life in the UK. It is a content category that never gets old.
No word yet on whether RuPaul has a Tesco Clubcard, but at this point nothing would be surprising.
