UNIVERSITY Challenge fans were left yelling at their TVs after a team of brainboxes failed to answer three questions about drag.
The foursome, from Imperial College London, were given the subject ‘New York drag slang’ for extra bonus points in the 21/22 grand final.
But the contestants – Max Zeng, Fatima Sheriff, Michael Mays and Gilbert Jackson – groaned their way through the short round as they crashed and burned.
University Challenge host Jeremy Paxman had told them: “These bonuses are on New York drag slang, as defined in the 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning.”
The contestants looked horrified before Michael began laughing. Fatima even put her head in her hands in dismay.
Jeremy asked: “A single word term defined by the designer and performer Dorian Corey as the ‘real art of the insult’.
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
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University Challenge viewers all have the same complaint about contestant
“It usually means an exchange that is exaggeratedly savage and explicitly performative, unlike it’s subtler form ‘throwing shade’.
The students began discussing what could be worse than ‘throwing shade’, with Fatima gasping: “Oh, boy. I’m going to get so roasted on the internet for this. We’re just too nice for this!”
When Imperial passed, Jeremy told them: “It’s ‘reading’.”
He then asked: “An eight letter word used to describe certain categories of drag ball performance where, according to Corey, the aim is to be able to blend to look as much as possible like your straight counterpart.”
Again, the quizzers were left stumped.
Fatima scoffed: “If only I’d watched one episode of Drag Race, which is not a sentence I…”
Michael butted in and announced they were passing.
Jeremy said: “It’s ‘realness’.”
He then asked the third and final question: “A dance form defined by Corey as, ‘Like taking two knives and cutting each other up but through dance’,” he said.
Michael pondered: “Is it like that thing at the end of Ru Paul’s Drag Race where they…?”
Gilbert chipped in: “That’s just called lip-synch.”
The team passed for a third time and Jeremy told them: “It’s Vogueing.”
Viewers at home were quick to take to Twitter after answering all three questions correctly.
One wrote: “At least I got all the drag slang questions right. And I’m totally nice btw #UniversityChallenge.”
A second asked: “What does it say about me that I did well on the drag slang questions….?”
Another cheered: “Full marks in a round of the #UniversityChallenge FINAL! The category was NY drag slang.”
And a fourth chimed in: “I got all the Drag /Paris is Burning questions right!”
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Imperial were up against the University of Reading in Monday night’s grand final episode University Challenge – and they went on to triumph.
Congratulating the teams, another viewer tweeted: “So stressed watching #UniversityChallenge I got a splinter from my chopsticks – well done @UniofReading and @imperialcollege! What a close match!”
