Scum Like It Hot

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That's MintMobile.com/loveit. Cut your wireless bill to $15 a month at MintMobile.com/loveit. That's it. There is no catch. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes fees and restrictions apply. See MintMobile for details. Everything else. We have got a great show for you tonight. It's part one of our big gay pride show. But first, let's get into it. What a week. Soccer fans from around the world have been pouring into American cities for the world cup. And they've made a big discovery. America rules. And if you don't feel that way right now, it's only because you haven't watched a European's eyes widen into light after tentatively dipping a french fry into a Wendy's Frosty. Welcome to America. It's not walkable and the bread is chemicals, but just wait until your Norwegian ass tries to talk about. Here is a British man discovering biscuits and gravy. You have a chunk of this. Is it bomb? Uh, this is so good. Sadly, this man did not survive the ambulance ride. I'll say it again. You have to work your way up to American portion sizes. Here's an Italian discovering free refills. Oh, damn, why? That was good. That was a sprint. Yes, please. And what do you call these a little shards of a golden glass that make it the soda so good? That's called ice, sir. Here's a Swedish guy at a waffle house. No one in Sweden will believe him when he returns with tales of food even more delicious than salted fish buried in the snow for six months. It's the perfect way to mark America's 250th birthday, the world celebrating America and America celebrating the world. And that is in stark contrast to President Trump trying to steal the excitement and patriotism around America's 250th birthday for himself. On Sunday, we had fight night held on the south lawn of the White House to mark Trump's 80th birthday, but I get why he wanted to have a big party. Birthdays have been a bit lonely for him ever since his best friend Jeffrey Epstein died. The event kicked off in the morning with motorcycle stunts in front of a printed White House backdrop to cover the actual White House. I actually thought that was pretty cool until I found out that they were flying over a hog tide and terrified James Comey. The event was also a brazen money gram for the Trump family paramount plus aired commercials, hawking commemorative Trump coins. The fighters were paid bonuses in the Trump family cryptocurrency and what was meant to be for everyone turned into assorted ugly mess for Trump diehards. It sounds terrible out of context like this, but he was just making sure everyone had the White House Wi-Fi password. The comment was so ugly in fact that Lindsey Graham briefly lost his fight night erection. And if that spectacle weren't enough, Trump announced on Monday that the plan July 4th 250th celebration on the national mall would actually be a Trump rally. I haven't seen a birthday party ruin like this since that kid at my second grade birthday party shat his pants in the ball pit and blame me for it because I did it. The Fourth of July, Trump rally. We'll call attention to the newly renovated reflecting pool which is, whoopsie daisy, already filled with algae again. An interior department spokesperson called this quote residual algae and I just want to say to that spokesperson, all algae is residual algae. That's how algae works. When you think about it, what do you think the algae's coming from? A little bit of algae. It's not spontaneously new algae. Right? What are we talking about here? It's residual. Yeah, man. That's why it's such a big problem. You know, if you have mold in your house and the person who comes to mediate the mold is, oh no, don't worry. This is just residual mold. I was like, I don't care about the story of the mold. The making of the mold behind the music of the mold. Get rid of the fucking mold. This spokesperson added, President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good, unlike the failed and extremely costly attempts by Obama and Biden. The rest of the statement was a little hard to read as it was immediately covered in algae. By Tuesday, national park service workers were trying to combat the algae by dumping bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the pool. That is so stupid. That is not how you clean algae. That's how you cure COVID. Now based on the photos I've seen, the crew seems like they're using 12% hydrogen peroxide solution, which is what you might use to shock a hot tub or a small pool. But the reflecting pool spans eight acres and is filled with almost seven million gallons of water. For this to work, you'd need several thousand jugs of peroxide. But then the water won't have the same delicious tang said RFK junior. We're in the water, days running out in the algae. All right. And of course, the algae came back. Trump would have us believe that what's stopping America from being great is that every previous leader was stupid or weak or scared to break the rules. But maybe, just maybe, the problem is that it's a big shallow pool and a human fucking swamp. In other words, life finds a way. Blaming people for problems is easy. Painting over problems is easy. Actually, solving problems is hard. Also hard. Lindsey Graham watching those pool boys. Scrupping the reflecting pool in that hot June sun. Look at what happened with Iran. The US spent tens of billions of dollars bombing Iran. We lost 14 service members, thousands have died in the region. And what's the end result? A deal to hopefully maybe reopen the state of Hormuz. Open to close to open again. What is this? A Middle Eastern straight or a gay couple that can't accept that they should just break up already. Here's Trump spinning the deal. So we had two big moments when they terminated the JCPOA that was the Obama deal, the Brokus and Obama deal. And when I terminated that it was very important because it was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a horrible deal for the United States. It was a deal where billions of dollars was given to Iran. But the Trump deal promises Iran as much as 300 billion dollars in reconstruction funds to repair the shit. We just spent billions of dollars blowing up. Oh great use of money said a defunded medical researcher throwing out a bunch of boxes labeled possible cancer vaccines. Too much. Here is Pete Hegs at the Defense Secretary taking a shot at Selonist Us. The document says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, won't seek one, won't buy one, won't have one. JCPOA said that too. They'll be negotiations to make that final. But they didn't have the threat of military force the way that we do that Iran respects in a very way that their regime is more devastated, more devastating, excuse me, more devastated than it's ever been. The huge differences we did this from a position of strength. So Obama got the same deal without having to start a war because of how weak he is, which I guess makes sense if you're drunk. So at best we will end up with a deal that Trump calls the greatest deal of all time, which will look basically like a worse version of the Obama deal, which Trump calls the worst deal of all time. But maybe the Iran war was about the friends we made along the way. Here's Vice President JD Vance talking about the coolest thing. The coolest thing about the progress we've made over the last few weeks is that you see people within the Iranian system, senior leadership, even IRGC officials say, you know what? We may have some animosity, we may have some. this trust, but we recognize the way that we've done business with the United States for 47 years as a mistake, let's try something else. They even gave us a gift, this big, beautiful wooden horse, and we're so excited about it. We're going to roll it right into the White House lawn. Hey, man, I know it seems like they're your friends because you spent so much time together, but they're at work. Trust me, it's easy to make that mistake, and then your text producer bill to see if he wants to go to the aquarium on Christmas, and then you see the three little dots pop up, and they disappear, and then you get the email from HR. Could you imagine what Republicans would say? If a Democrat were so naive and foolish as to believe that the Iranian regime, the survivors, we did not manage to blow up over several weeks of bombing, including the new Ayatollah who we maimed after killing his father and family are cool now. You think the Ayatollahs are going to let bygones be bygones? You think Iran doesn't hold a grudge? Iran? This is the Middle East. They owe grudges of the number one export, and the straight is still not open. Because the straight opens, it's open now, but it opens completely, we have all the mines knocked out for the most, but we have a lot of lanes right now already. I think sometime, I think sometime in the very near future. We got those mines taken for the most part. Feel safe to get in a boat riding through a seaway that says they've got most of the mines out of there. Exactly inspiring confidence, oil tankers are going to treat the straight of Hormuz, the way Donald Trump treated his son's wedding, not worth the trip. But here's the good news. Trump may try to turn a celebration of America into a celebration of himself. He may weaken us, he may leave us worth off, but this is still America. This past weekend, per judge's ruling, Trump's name was pried off the front of the Kennedy Center building. The bad news is that the letters were moved over to the new Trump Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. Look, Trump can tear down buildings, he can rip up agreements, he can turn the White House into a monument to his corruption and his greed. But as World Cup visitors are discovering, America's greatness is bigger than Trump. The American spirit is a lot like algae, persistent, resourceful, and up close, it has a weird smell. You can try to paint over it or wash it away, but bitch, it is in the pipes. If you leave even a shred of it behind, it'll come roaring back. Said RFK Jr. Yum. All right. And we've got a great show for you tonight. We'll be right back with the great Bruce McClelland. Hey, don't go anywhere, there's more of Love It Or Leave It coming up. Love It Or Leave It is brought to you by Quo. 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Here's what you get when you subscribe. You get a discount ticket to all day crooked con. You get ad free episodes of all your favorite podcasts. To unlock more pod save American, including only friends, our subscription only show. And open tabs newsletter plus Dan Fuyper's polar coaster, ad free breaking news episodes, and more plus. Your subscription helps support a growing pro-democracy media ecosystem working to challenge the right and keep people informed. So please go to crooked.com/friends to sign up. It is the best way to support what we're building here at crooked media. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. He needs no introduction. The Living Legend himself. It's Bruce Volanshin. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Now, wow, thank you. You have a Bowie B. Arthur. I know. She was sure. He starred us before Golden Girls. That's right, Ziggy. Yeah, I know. It's B Bowie. It's key to conflate icons. Well, I have a relationship with her because I'm sure we'll get into. Well, right before we started, the audience was excited in part because you famously wrote the Star Wars holiday special in which B. Arthur has a role, played the woman who ran the cantina on Tatooine, you know? That was her gig, yeah. And now you have this book. It seems like a bad idea at the time where you talk about some of these stories. When the Star Wars special airs, and it airs once and then is banished from the air forever, did you know how soon after air did you feel like, wait a second, this is not getting the response I would promise. Oh. Well, when the agent called and said the Star Wars holiday special, I said, oh, this is going to be the turn of the punch bowl of all time. But I have to be a part of it because Star Wars, you have to understand this, but first of all, it was the 70s. And if people tell you they remember the 70s, they weren't there. Because we were half baked the whole time that we were doing this stuff. So when they asked me to do it, I thought this is probably a death sentence. But Star Wars had been one movie, and it was a year and a half later. And George was about to start shooting the Empire Strikes Back. He wanted something that would stir the pot while he was waiting for that movie to come out. He had a bunch of stories and he sold CBS a musical special with the last one of his stories. And I don't think he actually ever watched TV, George, because he would know that this wouldn't work because he sold them a musical special starring the rookies. Now the rookies cannot speak, sing, dance, or cross the room without tripping over themselves. And they speak no known language. They sound like five people having orgasms. Trust me, I know. Exactly. I understood every word, but we had to do this thing, and of course we had to have guest stars, because also we had to have people translate, and CBS would not let us use subtitles, because they said nobody would read, and this was 1978. So everything was translated by Art Carney, people like that would come on, the rookies would go, and he would say, "Oh, I'm sorry, you're feeling better today. That's good." It was a nightmare. But, you know, fortunately, we had drugs to cover it all. Yeah, simpler time. So you also wrote the Paul and Halloween. Yes, sure. Similar. Right around the same time. I'm, you know, Paul End is now kind of like a tragic figure as someone who was so flamboyant, but not able to be publicly gay, never ever-- Well, nobody was. Nobody was. But I wonder if you think about what it would have been like to have Paul End as a performer without having to kind of, I don't know, pretend to have a wife in half the episodes, you know? Yeah. Well, that would not be that era of the world. That would be this era of the world. Back then, it's hard to explain to people who weren't there, but to be gay was evil. You were a bad person. You were the guy who committed suicide at the end of the movie or was killed or was a predator. You were not a good person. So when they would see somebody who they liked, like Paul End, who made them laugh, or Richard Simmons, or there were a whole bunch of ripped-tailer-- yeah, ripped-tailer. They didn't want to think badly of them. So they just pretended. And it wasn't just on television that was in your life. Everybody had a confirmed bachelor in their family, which was code for gay uncle. who had never found the right woman, or it was a girl who was just a little too man-ish to find the right man. Those were all in everybody's family, but we all overlooked them and spoke in code about them. And so that was why it would be impossible for those people to have characters that had complete authentic lives because we weren't living them in real life. And everything changed after Stonewall and AIDS brought the gay community together just for self-preservation and made us a real part of the American tapestry which we hadn't been before. And I don't think it was that Paul was flamboyant. I think it was more with him because Paul was like this negative character, you know, he was like the evil principal of a high school. He was always in his first show, you know, kids. He sang kids and he had his son. He said, he said, "No body respects me." And the kids said, "I respect you, dad." And he said, "No wants respect from a 10-year-old." That was him. I mean, that was his whole character. And you can't, it's hard to build a show around a guy like that. That's an ancillary character. I mean, your main character has to be somebody you like and then, you know, your main character has to be Mary Tarlamore who you love and you can then bring in Chlorous Leechman, you know, as a cunt. That's, you know, that's how it's done. Now, long before you get to the era of Paul Lind, the studios were cracking down on what they deemed a sexual perversion through the Hayes Code, which was censorship guidelines in the '30s and yet gay people existed at the time, the whole time, the whole way through. And so, we would love to just take you through a few of these moments in a segment we're calling, "Hey, girl Hayes" code, "Hey, girl Hayes." I think he was the Lindsey Graham of his era, Will Hayes. I mean, you look at footage of him and you think, "Oh, girl, what are you hiding?" Really? You know, she's got a doll collection locked up somewhere. No one's ever going to get their mitts on. So, I'm going to have you blind rank, the greatest scenes from early Hollywood cinema. Most of them are from around the time of the Hayes Code, some a little bit before, some, some, but, but all of them are gay as hell. You won't know what scene is coming next, so you have to ask yourself, is something gay or mincing down the road after this? You'll have five scenes, you'll rank them from five, which is basically straight to one, the gayest. Oh, okay. In other words, we're going down. We're going down. That's exactly right Bruce Flanch. We're going down. And having a great time doing it. Alright, let's see the first clip. That was the cigar scene from 1933's Blood Money. Have a cigar. You're a big sissy. Pretty gay. What do you think? Do you think we have four others that you'll have to rank and wherever you put this? Wow. That's four. You think that's four? You think that's the second to least gay? Okay. Alright, so I'm going to put that as math. I'm no good. I'm going to say blood money. Next up, we have The Boys Will Be Boys, the dance scene from 1934's Wonderbar. May I click in? By certainly. Boys will be boys. Boys will be boys. Boys will be boys. Wow. Wow. Wow. The power was conducted in the orchestra behind him. Wow. This is pretty number one, maybe. I mean, it's pretty damn gay. It's pretty damn gay. Pretty damn gay. What do you think? What do you, what's spot? We could go gay one, two. I'll go and I'll give it one. One. Alright, it's the gayest. We're calling boys. It's Will Be Boys. I mean, it's all in Al Josson's expression. Yeah, that is, well, I don't have that noise he makes. That little, well, that little noise. Yeah. That beautiful, little, beautiful. Next up, we have The Made Dance from 1932's Call Her Savage. I love that. Yeah, it's absolutely amazing. It looks just like a number from the RuPaul movie, which I saw all that. Yes. It looks like it looks like ginger minge and the, and the, her, her card. Did you be dancing down the cardor of the, of the train? Do you see in the, stop that train? It's pretty funny. It's, I mean, it's so gay. I mean, it's so gay. It's my, it's negative when 2000. It's that gay. What do you think? How gay, how? Oh, well, that would be number two, I guess. Yeah, that's, that's The Made Dance from the feather duster, you know, nothing says gay like a feather duster. And they're really, they're really missing around when it's doing anything but dusting, you know, it's called Call Her Savage. And I'm sure there's some other parts of the film that are deeply problematic, which we're not going to show. All right. You're savage. Savage. Next up, we have Marlene Dietrich in a top hat and tails kissing a woman in 1930s, Morocco. Oh, man, I have a, of course. All right. Well, that's Dikey. Well, you know, we, they have a letter, too, L-G-B-T-Q. Yeah, they do have a, hey, they do have a letter L. They do the from the first one. How do they get that bit? Well, because they were, they were running, they were running the world when they came up with it. Right. You can't fight them when they tell you they're going to do something. Yeah. Yeah. I was on the board of the LGBT center for 22 years. And it was basically run by the women. So I was, no, not telling any tales out of school there. That I, I guess, it, well, it's three. I mean, it's, it's undeniable. They're undeniable gay. I mean, they're, you know, that says what this one, I mean, I thought you'd show me something like leave it to beaver. Well, the title is gay, but other than that, you know, the type, leave it to beaver is a gay title. It's kind of less material. Leave it to beaver. That, that, there is a clip of her saying you were tough on the beaver last night ward. There really is. That was a line, actual line from the show. There's a collection. That friend has a collection of those clips and things like that. They knew that was a joke. Of course, I mean, they, they, they laid it in there. I mean, they, they were all, they were probably go falling behind the camera. Yeah, it is mincing around, laughing at the little joke they put in there. And finally, we have Peter Laurie's entrance in 1941's The Maltees Falcon. So, Mr. Spade, I'm trying to recover ornament that Shelby C has been misled. I thought in hope you could assist me. God, he's about to suck that candy. Yeah, he, he eats the end of that cane. He really is. He really does. I know. I know. I think Bogey's thinking I'll go home and Betty will do something like this to me. That was, of course, real name, Betty, Marvel Call. I'm so inside. You're, you just know her. You know her as Betty. You were, she was a killer. She literally, I mean, I think she actually had bodies buried somewhere. She was very tough, Lauren, Nicole. Was she ever tough to you? Do you ever give me, no, she was always great with me. I, you know, I, because I thought she was a funny. I mean, she couldn't pull anything. And she finally said, yeah, you know what you're doing. And which I thought was the highest compliment that, you know, she could, everybody else was an idiot, you know, she would. And I think that when Bogey died, she was very young when Bogey died and she had two kids. And I think she never really recovered from it. And she created this hard shell around her after that. But this is, this is just me doing my, you know, my, my dime store psychology, but it works. No, no, no hard shell for Bruce Valange. No. No, no, are you kidding? I'm just, I'm liking a crab in the early days. Eat me while I'm tender. And on that note, here are our final rankings. We have five Lili's gay, the straightest of them all. We have Peter Laurie sucking on the end of a, yeah, of a cane and multi sp out. And we have a cigar, another phallic symbol, a lesbian cigar and blood money. We have a lesbian kitsch by Marlene DeTrich. And then we have the, the maid dance by those flouncing Nancy's in color savage. And finally wonder bar boys will be boys with Al Jolson. Bruce Valange, everybody. I wonder right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love it or leave it coming up. 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Visit drinkag1.com/loveit to get a free morning person hat and free AG1 flavor sampler in your welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription 82 dollar value that's drinkag1.com/loveit. And we're back. Please welcome to the stage Drag Race world to the winner of season 18 of RuPaul's Drag Race. She's gorgeously stupid and stupidly gorgeous. It's Mikey Meeks. Wow. Hi. Hi. Thank you for being here. Hi. Bruce. Thank you for right here. Park it. Right here. John, I got all dressed up for you. You look fabulous. Thank you. And Bruce, when I found out you were here, I painted my toes. Yeah. You're the reigning queen of Drag Race. Yes. What would you say is your philosophy as a leader? Oh. Bold, bold question. Live boldly, love fiercely, and being apologetically yourself, yeah. Be gay. It's probably season. Oh. I try to be apologetically myself. Yes, you should. That's really been my philosophy. Please be sorry for what you do. Now you came out of the Orlando Drag Scene. How does that compare to LA's? How many true Disney freaks are you dealing with on a daily basis? You know what's funny? A lot. My sister from my season, Briar Blush, started a rumor that I started drag by Disney bounding. Disney bounding is when you go to the theme parks, you can't come and costume, but you can dress like the characters. So she's saying that's how I started drag, was dressing like the characters. And so Disney fans have followed me because of that reason. And I want to say that's not true, but I do respect your lifestyle. That's so beautiful. Yeah. Wait, so there's a difference between you can dress like a character, but you can't be in costume. What is the distinction? Well, say like you want to be Winnie the Pooh. You can't come in a full bear costume, but you can wear a red t-shirt. I know Bob. I was going to say maybe. Just nude waist down. Maybe wear the pants. I don't know. And then maybe a pot of honey. But I've seen plenty of bears with no pants in my life, so. But rarely a Disney world. Well, you'd be. It's a surprise. They have pride night. They do. Yeah. So was it crazy shooting the multiple endings? And how does that actually feel? In RuPaul's Drag Race, where Bruce was a judge, in one of the early seasons there, the winner got out. And so ever since they have filmed everyone winning, and you go through the whole thing, and then you don't actually find out till it airs. Is that what happened with you? I love my NDA. OK. No. I mean, it's pretty well known that yeah, they film multiple endings of the show so that no spoilers come out. And you have to wait the whole process, the whole year of knowing that you made it far without knowing if you take the crown. So you have to kind of mine your pees and cues as the season goes along. And if you search on YouTube, you can see the genuine reaction of us fighting out who wins. And it was a gag. It was. It was. Yeah. It was amazing. It was amazing. Boy, to win is so cool. Because you're afraid you're going to go home first. And then that happened to me on the thing I did. Then for you. And that was-- Because you really only think about two scenarios, right? You think about going out first and winning, but you got the good one. I did get the good one. I'm very happy about that. You know what, it's funny. I had a little different experience because I was like, I don't want to go home first. I mean, it is kind of iconic to go home first though, right? Yeah. That's a good point. I'm trying to win brownie points here. But then it's, we have 14 contestants. It's kind of when we got to top eight is when I went, OK, I could feel a little bit more relaxed here. And then once we got to the final three, I said, bitch, you can't tell me anything. OK. Now, you had paid homage to Olivia Newton-John in the '80s ladies challenge. And let's-- so-- And this look was not received as you had hoped. So what did you-- did you see some merit in what they were saying to do? To completely disagree, what do you think about it now? Yeah, I have all the looks you wanted to show. So that's-- I think you look awesome. Well, I appreciate that. The category was '80s ladies. And we had a poll images from Getty Images. I found this of Olivia Newton-John. I said, this is hilarious. A pink cat suit with purple character shoes. Love it. I'm doing a one-for-one. They read me down. They read me down. They hated this. They said, how could you wear character shoes on the runway? And in my mind, I'm like, do we not see the image? Like, I thought I was doing a good job here. But I said from the show, like, Olivia Newton-John, when she put this outfit on, she said, 40 years from now, a drag queen named Mikey Meeks is going to put this exact outfit together, and we're on the main stage of RuPaul's Drag Race. And that's exactly what I did, so. Well, maybe she's from the future. Yes. Now, Bruce, you were on Drag Race. And you were there, as it was evolving. Like, I remember watching early seasons of Drag Race. And it was really a-- like, it was more cutthroat. And it was really about winning the show, because the show wasn't-- that probably was on logo. It hadn't yet really made a name for itself. And over the years, it's become a bigger deal. Oh, sure. What was it like being there in the early seasons of it? Well, it was-- they brought me in as a comedy mentor. And I would, like, coach the drag queens of the comedy. And at the time, there-- oh, and then Santa Claus one year, one unforgettable year. There I was. Oh, I'm much heavier there. I'm so happy now. The ozempic is working. Hello. Nice. The problem was that the drag queens of that era were either gorgeous girls who lip-sinked and could not talk and never did any kind of comedy. And-- or you had people like Bianca Del Rio who worked a club every night in Fire Island and was hilarious and could do all of that. And they were pitted against each other. And I said, it's apples and oranges. You can't ask these girls who've never done anything like that to be funny, all of a sudden, that takes-- you have to learn. But what happened was all the young queens to be were watching it at home. And they realized to win the thing, you have to do everything. You have to be funny. You have to be able to speak. You have to make your own clothes. You have to live in a motel with the other queens for it, too. That's true, Santa Claus, which is really the test of all. And so now winners like this are the complete performer. And that's why if you just go on drag queen, it's like if you just go on shark tank, you're one. Because you can then get booked all over the place. And there's now a circuit of places that will play drag things. And there used to be a club here, maybe a club there. And now it's everywhere. And that's all RuPaul. That's all Ru's fault. [LAUGHTER] What was the-- I feel like I can't imagine something more intimidating than doing snatch game, knowing that it's snatch game. What was it like? I had a great time. I had a great time. That was the one challenge I was looking forward to. I performed snatch game as Drew Barrymore. My Drew Barrymore. And it went over very well. Actually, it's funny to say that. Because that outfit I wore was the same challenge as snatch game. And I think that's what cost me the win. But I went over pretty well that I got invited to the Drew Barrymore show to do the impression for her. And she loved it. She was amazing. She taught you? She taught this close. She was like, I'm not wearing enough makeup for you to be that close to my face. But she was amazing. But the snatch game, I am used to that improv style. So it was pretty ready. Do are the winners on some kind of a text chain? Is there like a text chain where there's a group of like just, we're all the winners and like, it's just us here. So we can like let our hair down and be honest. I wish. If anything, they're hazing me. Are you getting haze? No, I'm just kidding. That's plain Jane and all that. No, there's no group. But there is a camaraderie. I did see Nymphia Win who was the winner of season 16. We ran into each other in San Francisco this weekend. And you know, it's-- there's relatability there. We could talk about certain aspects of expectations and the online fan base and all that. How is that? Oh, I love-- This is the most sane and reasonable fanbase of any reality TV show. - Such a smart point, I agree. I just wanna say that I agree, I agree. We love it, and yes, your opinion is right. Whatever you think is correct. Even if you've never done drag, you are right my love. - Well, I was talking about the online fandoms with a friend of mine that works for a streamer and it's when you're, and it's true of critics too, that like a lot of online criticism, it never starts with, I know you didn't want me to hate this, but you know, it never, or like I know you were, or it never starts with, I know this probably wasn't as good as you wanted it to be either, so I'll be generous. It always starts from a place of the assumption that what you did or how you performed was exactly what you wanted it to be, 100%. And like maybe your, you know, nothing is perfect, you can still be proud of it, but when someone is critical, they're like, oh, I can't believe you didn't get this exactly, right? Well, yeah, I'm a person. - Right, that's exactly it. And the circumstances around, Dragory specifically, the circumstances around the amount of time you have, what's against you, with every design challenge, you have such, you have a specific amount of time, and maybe it's an unconventional design challenge, you don't have everything you need to pull off a sickening outfit. Now, that is what makes it so special when someone can. Look at Nymphia, for example. She's able to make a treasure out of trash. Me, baby, that's the garbage. That's the garbage receptacle, okay? - Yeah, I always feel like if someone is gonna talk about someone else's body on the internet, they should first have to film themselves doing a military style push-up. This was part of art. We talked about this last week with CalCripe, but also if someone, basically I think as a rule, you can be anonymous on the internet. I believe in anonymity. People's freedom of speech should be protected. However, you must legally post a picture of the room from which you post. That if you're gonna sit in judgment of all of planet earth, you're free to do that and I want you to have that experience. But first, we get to see the room you're in. Because I do think people would be a bit more humble and a little less judgmental if we saw the posting location. And I think that's a simple compromise we can all agree on. - I agree. I also think at this point, if you're hating online, you're a bot, like you're not real. 'Cause who does that? - Bots. - Bots. - You're civilly. That's the way I think about it. - It's actually Bruce. - It's actually Bruce sitting on a nickname bot. - I just think that's a good, like it's, oh wow, you think, oh boy, boy what a strong opinion you have. No. - What's your desk look like? (laughing) What's the chair look like? - Well, it's everybody gets to publish their first draft. You know, I mean, the only person I know in the world who gets to film their first draft is Woody Allen. I mean, and you see some of the movies in your go, you really should have had an editor. You really should have had somebody come in and say, "No, don't do that. "Don't make this picture about another, "an old, you loving old young girl, don't do that." - Yeah, right. - It's not right. - Yeah, I just have gotten the sense that he's not getting great feedback over the years. (laughing) You've heard that, yeah, I know. - All right, thank you to Mikey Meek. See you on season 18 of RuPaul's Drag Race. And you're at MikeyMeeks.com for tickets. See you on tour and we'll be right back. - Hey, don't go anywhere. Love Or Leave It is brought to you by Cook Unity eating out at restaurants is great, but it's also expensive. The good news is you can actually get that level of culinary satisfaction at home for way less than a night out. Cook Unity is the first chef-led meal delivery service that makes your meals in small batches inside local kitchens across the US, not factories. So every dish arrives with the kind of freshness to get it at the restaurant itself. We're talking meals from Michelin star chefs, James Beardwinners and Food Network Stars. Go to cookunity.com/lowly or use code Lowly before checkout for 50% off your first week. I love Cook Unity. I use it all the time. I have it all the time. This is what I got this week. I got the Night Market Chicken, which is great. I got a carne asada breakfast breito, which was great. Chicken and broccoli, pasta, soy roasted shrimp chow mein. I got the Mediterranean braised chicken. I like to get ones that have a protein, a carb and a vegetable, you know? Get my cover on my bases. And I get six meals a week, which means just a couple times a week. I know I don't have to cook dinner or I don't have to get take out or I don't have to eat something bad. I have a healthy, delicious thing waiting for me. So I highly recommend it. Taste what happens when real award-winning chefs make fresh, small batch meals just for you. Go to cookunity.com/lowly or enter code "lowly" before check out to get 50% off your first order. That's 50% off your first order by using code L-O-L-I or going to cookunity.com/lowly. If you missed some of your favorite crooked pods this week, don't worry, you can now catch up on the week's best moments on MSNow on Saturday nights. MSNow is streaming an episode of highlights from your favorite crooked pods, packing as much analysis, funny moments, and 100% correct opinions into 40 minutes as humanly possible. Crooked on MSNow airs every Saturday at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. [MUSIC PLAYING] And we're back! The time has come for a segment we're calling when it rainbows at pours. Every year we take a look at the best worst in the Begeas pride merch and decide, gay or nay. OK. Is it Mikey and Bruce approved? Or are we leaving it on the rack next to the rainbow mesh tank tops? Let's decide. First up, we have old navies. And I, by the way, haven't seen these till now. Old navies proudly me stand up for love ringer tea. Proudly me stand up for love ringer tea. Mikey, what do you think about this one? I don't think it's-- I think it's great. I think it's good to-- Yeah, I think it's cute. I think it's simple. And it says what it needs to, which I love. It's not like, fuck me, I'm gay. Can I say that? No, yeah, you could definitely say that. I don't think the target collection can say it, which is a shame. I'm offended by horizontal stripes. I think when I wear them, they could land airplanes on me. So I mean, you want something that slims you down, not that makes you-- you can be proud, but thin. It's OK. Right, I see, I sort of-- yeah, I guess I do think that runs counter to the message of the shirts. Yeah, exactly right, yeah. Also, stand up. Wow, Ableist, isn't it? I think we're turning on the shirt. And by the way, I also don't like the shirt. Because it's two shirts, guys. I know we're having a meeting and we're brainstorming Pride merch. And someone says, what about proudly meme? What about stand up for love? And then someone's like, could we put them both on the shirt? Sure, what about a horizontal rainbow stripe? Well, it's not that slimming. That's the wrong thing to say in this meeting. And then they're like, well, what about a heart, too? So it's a rainbow-streaked cart comment where you're proudly yourself, but also standing up for love, which are completely independent things to do. I agree. And the red piping looks like you're just hiding hikis. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. It's a no. It's a nay. [BUZZER] It's gone. It's gone. That's right. What was that serious? Sorry. Sorry, old Navy. More like-- yeah. I love old Navy, and I'm happy for any sponsorship. [LAUGHTER] Such an important point. Yes. And I just want to be clear, we all love old Navy. We all love old Navy. And they're doing great work over there. I don't know if the dog is still involved. Unfortunately, love young Navy, but you know. Seaman, yes. Next up, we have the target rainbow fringed a denim vest and circuit pants. Circus pants. I hear we have vertical stripes. Yeah, there we go. So now we're in the market, Bruce's market. The print also comes in a caftan. Wow. So can we go back to the-- I'm a little bit-- I'll just-- Yeah, no, this is a no. What's happening? I'm a little-- It's very mardi-gras. It's mardi-gras. It's mardi-gras. I mean, I just feel like-- These are two statement pieces put together. That's right. We need a little subtlety, or not. I'm not here to judge, but I'm going to judge this outfit. It's to me, it's a boot. It's a boot. I just feel like-- I feel like the pants and the fringe. They're in two separate-- you know, they're having two different-- they're in two different movies, you know what I mean? I don't like the color gradient, though, of the fringe. I like both. I like both. I like both. I just don't think they go together. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying he looks like he's having fun. He's having the pride of his life right now. It's like an angel with shredded wings. He has a sad story, really. He has a sad-- yeah. So, Nay? I'm a-- what do you think? Yay, Nay, Bruce, gay, or nay? Is this-- we haven't commented on the bathroom, but whatever that is, she's-- Well, that's the Calf-Tan version. Let's go to the Calf-Tan version. Let's go to the Calf-Tan, that's where-- I think that's good. No, you're no. No, I love it. I say yes to any Calf-Tan. I think we're a yes on the Calf-Tan. Yay! Yay! Because imagine me wearing that, imagine Bruce wearing that, imagine John were that we would all look fabulous. And having a great time. I would stone mine, I would stone mine. I would look like I walked away with the tent. Stop it, Bruce. It's pride saying these things about yourself. I can't love yourself, who the fuck are you talking about? That's right. If you can't love yourself, who the fuck are you going to love? That's as the famous saying goes. Now, next up-- all right. Love it. Next up, we have Abercrombie and Fitch Resort shirt. If you zoom in real close, can we zoom in on the little tiny pride stripe? Is this part of their pride collection? That's the thing on the pocket. That is right there. That right there is pride themed. There's a little rainbow there. And the logo is rainbow. So this is for pride, in case you have a lot of conservative [BLANK_AUDIO] short-sided relatives. You know, this is for Thanksgiving with people with very thick glasses. This is a shirt that you can say, "It's just a smudge." It's just a smudge. It's just a smudge. Honestly, this is a shirt I probably wear now the little line of stitching of rainbow. I mean, it's cute. I mean, if you're DL, this might be the shirt for you. And I am DL, so, wow, that's so sad. It's like, "It's day and age." I live a very hard life. Like, you know, it's funny. It's sort of the era of, like, maybe the era of Paul Land isn't over, but it's lunch. Hey, it could be. It's very subtle, I think, it's exactly right for people who don't want to announce themselves, but want to show that there's somehow aligned. Now, they also have a broke back mountain tank top. So, you know, so now that, that's like a 10 out of 10 for me. That's a 10 out of 10. That's a much. It's sold out. It's sold out. It's sold out, of course. Sorry, Abercrombie and Fitch. I would say, yeah, I also, like, Abercrombie and Fitch holds a special place in my mind from my childhood, because it was like, you couldn't get in. This segment is over. Because they would, that was like, they had the hottest guys in the world. And they, like, have them, like, they was, like, such a thing that it was, like, but it was never gay. No. They were just hot guys playing football shirtless, but it's not gay. This is not a gay thing. So, I think we're a yes on this. I'd say yes. Yeah, gay. I love it. Um, and then we have the American Eagle Pride two-piece set. Hmm. What? What? No. That's a no for me. That just looks like stains. Like, she's been working with her. Where's the lesbian merch? I want to know that. Great question. Here it comes. We have, uh, how am I supposed to live laugh lesbian in these conditions? Yeah, that's, yeah, that's a win, that's a winning was sure for me. Yeah. That's gay, so. Yeah. Let's do one more. The "Sum Like" at Hot Bird from Target. That's just, we, that's gay. That's the day of the "Sum Like" at Hot Birds. I, well, I know the scene, like, it's the end of the movie. It's the end of the movie. Spoiler alert for "Sum Like" at Hot. "Sum Like" at Hot. Like, they turn into birds? Jack Levin's a guy. Marilyn Monroe, though, that's the problem. Oh, good. I mean, it's cute. It's gay. It's also, like, movie icon stuff, which is basically gay anyway. [laughter] Gay. I love it. I love it. What, that salt and pepper, or where they just, we don't know. No, I think a little, a little, a little, a little, a little. Trinket. Trinket, yeah. Trinket, yeah. For your breakfront, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. For your, maybe to put above the, put above your, your kitchen cabinets, you know, next to a little horse and buggy kind of a thing, you know? A little, a big plant, or sort of something, tusk it. For your credenza. Yeah. For your credenza, perhaps a console, if you will. Or if you don't hear about it. Yeah. A daven port. That's right. Put it in the daven port, perhaps. All right. This segment's over. We'll be right back. [music] And we're back. Yeah. [applause] Pride is a time where we share our love for all things queer, septum piercings, jock scraps, shorts that are either way too big or way too small. Both are gay now. But before I let you to go into that queer good night, we're going to share a few things. We know we shouldn't love, but absolutely do. In a segment we call, I don't care. I love it. Gay edition. I don't care. [music] I love it. [music] [laughter] Green mix. All right. I'll kick it off. Sure. I think it's good when the corporations have a gay little pride love, though. Was that really yours? I was going to say that. I agree with you. I, you know, it's like, I know we make fun of it and it's like, oh, capitalism is American Airlines with a rainbow flag. But you know what? Capitalism is going to be capitalism. Either June is going to have a rainbow flag for American Airlines, or it's not. I want to live in the world where they're like, fuck it. Let's do it. I know it's like, it's a little bit cringe, obviously. It's a cringe thing. But I feel like, haven't we learned that like, you know, in the same way that like hypocrisy is a kind of like half, like hypocrisy at least admits to the fact that you know what the right thing is. Like a world where corporations are performatively pro gay, even if they're policies ultimately aren't as gay as they should be, and they're repatious, monstrous kind of world grabbers. Like at least they know the right thing to say, or there was some value in showing people what the right thing to do is. I don't know. I feel like companies being afraid to be pro gay is much worse than companies being afraid not to be pro gay. That's my feeling. I just like to point out, I think a lot of that comes from the fact that they recognize that they have a whole lot of gay employees. Yes. And the gay employees, if they are out and proud, bring it to the attention of the company. You know, this is, this is, we're a segment of American society just like every other denial of the nation, we're there. And the corporation responds to it because they think, well, you know, we have to, we want to keep the employees happy. I mean, Disney's been doing it. They were one of the early ones to do it, and they were the least likely because they are a family business. Their brand is so family oriented. And this is when the idea of gay people and families were just, and that's why you couldn't compare them. Yeah. And then they made all their villains gay for fun. Well, I know that was it. And I love them. But that was the, the gay people did that at Disney. It was the gays. Yes. Or the gays. It was the gays. All right. Mikey, what's something that you love that others hate? I, well, I don't know if she's, she's hated, I don't care, I love, I love Madonna. I love Madonna. And I think we used to know it's from Madonna, yeah, yeah, yeah, Madonna, especially right now, she's launching a whole new era at 67 years old, and she's unstoppable. I love it. I did too. It was so exciting seeing her at, it was a Coachella where she came out with Sabrina, with Sabrina and like, man, like a prayer, you hear like a prayer and you're like that, there's never been a song like it, not before and not since. Yeah. So cool. And I just enjoy the fact that she is still at this point trailblazing for, for pop artists to say, she's not done. She is still going and going strong. Um, I remember when there were the reports that Madonna was using these vibrating plates to work out on, and she would like stand on this kind of vibrating platform to work out on. And then in LA, there was one of those places with a vibrating plate that opened up and I said, I'm going to go to the Madonna place and stand on the vibrating plate thing and like get the experience that Madonna gets, I'm going to work out on the vibrating plate. I don't know how that woman is standing on one of those plates because I stood on that vibrating plate for three seconds and it's like, this poop is just going to fall right out of me. It was unbelievable. You might as well put me in a fucking center of huge. Bruce, is there something you. What's. I like. Yeah, she's sex positive, which I've always liked about Madonna. That's the thing. And, you know, I'm old enough to know that she was among the very first famous people to come out and support AIDS fundraising and charities. She started the gay men's health crisis by donating proceeds from one night at Madison Square Garden, a million dollar donation. This is back then, which would have meant a lot more than it does now. And so, she was right there at the beginning because of course, she had so many gay friends who got sick and died and she's never wavered in that. So, I like her for that reason and that she's sex positive because there's something that I like, which is terrible, I mean, it's below deck. Yes. You know, it really is crap and you know, it's all, I mean, they're doing everything in front of cameraman who happened to be on the boat with them and the boats running because there's crew that actually runs the boat and the people who actually cook those meals and all that. So, it's all totally the first real reality television is nothing is real. But I get a kick out of it because I love their beautiful people and I love watching them carry on and screw up and all that. And if I like it, and they have them, I can find them and only fans. Hello. And that's our show. Thank you so much to Bruce Valange and Mikey Needs. There are 139 days until the midterms will be back on Friday with Oscar, Brendan Scanal and Ashie Ray. Thank you all for coming out and have a good night. Loving and leaving it is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Kendra James, film a graph, Kelsey Gantay and me, John Loving. Our production team includes Halle Keeper, Sarah Lazarus, David Tolls, Claudia Shang, Jay Banks, Gavin Purcell and Matt DeGroat and our staff is proudly unionized with a writer's Guild of America East. Thank you.