„I still hope Legally Blonde 3 goes the right way,” she said of the sequel to the film series that made her a superstar as a rose-obsessed Harvard law student. „It`s like Top Gun: they waited a long time to do another version of this movie, and I loved the nostalgia they put into it. It certainly gave us a lot of inspiration on what we wanted to do with Elle Woods and make sure we all had the same touchstones that people were interested in (at the time). I feel like these characters are my friends, so I protect them. I would never do the mediocre and mediocre version of their story. In addition to queer actors, the hosts celebrate well-known allies and icons from queer communities. Most often, this happens when hosts praise the appearance of a famous character in what they see. At the end of each episode, the hosts list everything that should encourage people to see what they`ve just finished. Each time, the list includes special thanks to artists celebrated by queer communities. For example, after seeing Dolly Parton`s Christmas on the Square, Trixie says, „Jenifer Lewis, Christine Baranski […] and on top of that, this movie has Dolly Parton. These end-of-episode listings therefore use queer icons as selling points for streaming. At other times, the celebration of distinguished personalities finds its form through the humorous comments of the queens. While Trixie sees a slow-motion shot of Carole Baskin in Tiger King, she says, „Meryl Streep is already vaginal in studying the character.” With a strong focus on queer friends, Trixie and Katya engage in conversations that mirror those of queer audiences on television. During their performances, Trixie and Katya also attend performances by LGBTQ+ artists.
Watching the first season of Spinning Out, presenters react enthusiastically to the appearances of queer celebrities Johnny Weir and Jonathan Van Ness. Katya enthusiastically explains, „It became really gay, very quickly.” The presenters take the opportunity to identify with the characterizations of the actors, Trixie saying, „But that`s how gay all our friends are.” Interactions like this accomplish two things. First, while non-queer commentators pay more attention to the different actors, Trixie and Katya are careful to pay attention to the performers under the queer umbrella. It is an act of celebration that offers special recognition to actors who are less likely to be recognized in the mainstream. Second, Trixie`s commentary shows how authentic queer representation leads to identification, with Trixie immediately finding commonalities between queer characters on screen and their friends. Netflix`s web series I Like to Watch, currently in its fourth season, is attracting icons Trixie Mattel and Katya to Netflix`s programming library. In each episode, presenters sit together in a living room setting and comment on a selected movie or TV series. Given that the hosts are primarily sensitive to Netflix`s original programming and both are particularly hysterical, it would be easy to dismiss the series as just a comic marketing tool for the streaming service.
The real value of the series, however, lies in the celebration of queer audiences. By giving space to queer reception practices and inviting queer audiences to participate, I Like to Watch celebrates the customs of queer viewers. Notably, Trixie and Katja`s sardonic comments aren`t just reserved for the programs they watch, as they also read regularly. Reading is the queer practice of satirizing someone else`s appearance or personality in a spiritual way. Just like queer viewer groups at home, Trixie and Katya use what they consider comic fuel for their reading. When the characters in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina flee Satan in desperation, Trixie turns to Katya and says, „This is business leaving your house. Watching Stranger Things, Trixie says she can identify with Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) because she`s a „little bald bitch,” to which Katya replies, „Oh, you said, little bald bitch?” However, readings are not reserved for each other, as hosts regularly auto-read. While Marla (Rosamund Pike) in I Care a Lot insistently explains how much she cares about her customers, Trixie says, „This is me after picking up my friend`s mail once.
All I do is take care of myself! At the beginning of a Halloween episode, while dressed as a Power Ranger, Katya asks, „Do you like something scary or do you like something sexy for a Halloween costume? What is it? Trixie and Katja`s readings of each other and themselves add an extra and specifically queer type of humor to the series. In addition, Trixie and Katya mock misguided queer portrayal. While watching an inexplicable dance routine in Single All the Way, the animators are visibly frustrated by the film`s portrayal as gay. Trixie then kicks the coffee table in front of them, spills all the snack bowls and yells, „What do we see?! What are we looking at?! What does this mean?! While watching the final season of Grace and Frankie, the hosts satirize the queer performances of heterosexual actors. In one scene, Sol (Sam Waterston) delivers each of his lines with exaggerated intonations and hysteria. Trixie comments: „These actors are not gay, but I love the fact that they play them gay in terms of cartoons. She later added: „If you`re gay on TV, I want you to be Dorothy Gale, bitch. Queer audiences allow like-minded viewers to engage with each other on an empathetic level. Presenters, like queer viewers of I Like to Watch, share the joy of poking fun at flawed homosexuality on screen. One of the most common queer viewing practices used by Trixie and Katya is to beat the queer elements of the movie or series they have chosen. Scoring refers to the recognition or identification of characters who are either members of the LGBTQ+ community or who could be interpreted as such by queer viewers.
Watching Enid (Meredith Scott Lynn) discuss masculinist language in Legally Blonde, Trixie simply says the character as „lesbian”. Looking at Dolly Parton`s Christmas in the square, Katya comments, „Gay. Gay. It`s fucking gay. ” like two characters during a Vogue musical number. While these examples may seem trivial, the practice of queer character clock is both common in queer communities and meaningful in the context of queer audiences. The nature of I Like to Watch`s commentary isn`t exclusively recognition, as queens also celebrate queer viewers by poking fun at heterosexuality on screen and the tropes associated with it. At the end of the reality series Too Hot to Handle, Katya explains, „Well, the straight lines are back.” As Trixie gently kisses the stars of The Princess Switch: Switched Again in her bedroom, she asks, „Is this heterosexuality?” While watching He`s All That, Trixie and Katya poke fun at the oft-repeated trope of cinematic transformations where attractive people are overwhelmed by taking off their glasses or styling their hair. Trixie said, „Now remember what I said, if he is beautiful, I will turn the table over. I want an exorbitant eye, I want a humpback whale, I want something, I want missing front teeth. Moments later, the hosts taunt the two characters, who are obviously designed to fall in love. Trixie said, „What else do you know? They`re going to fall in love, and I`m going to flip that table again.
Katya replies, „Yes, and if you turn it over the second time, I`ll be lying on the ground below. Their comic jokes mimic queer viewers` negative reactions to such conventions. Still, she praised drag queens for being „funnier than me,” adding that „they make me better than I can do myself, and I love them for that,” though she admitted that „their shtick is limited when they do it. We should give them something big, something new that no one has thought of. » Everett Collection; World of Wonder Jennifer Coolidge wants „Legally Blonde 3” so that drag queens have new material as a reference, rather than their hot dog moment on the fourth of July, so happy they chose this one, even though they skipped some of the main parts I wanted them to discuss.