{"id":264235,"date":"2026-06-12T08:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264235\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:50:10","slug":"drag-queens-do-something-radical-in-rupauls-new-movie-traditional-goofy-comedy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/264235\/","title":{"rendered":"Drag queens do something radical in RuPaul\u2019s new movie: traditional goofy comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/p>\n

‘Stop! That! Train!’ is a new disaster movie spoof that opens Friday.
\n The comedy features drag queens in a film relying on slapstick and puns, avoiding jokes about race and religion.
\n The film arrives amid a political climate in which states have sought to ban drag performances and Trump has barred drag from the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n

\n AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.<\/p>\n

\n When Adam Shankman signed on to direct a spoof of a disaster movie starring a bunch of drag queens, he never imagined he\u2019d end up creating something so full of giddy joy and immature silliness that he would ultimately be left wondering just who his intended audience is. \u201cI made a kids movie, sort of,\u201d Shankman said, \u201cif it weren\u2019t for the d**k jokes.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n To be clear, Shankman\u2019s new film \u2014 the RuPaul-led comedy \u201cStop! That! Train!,\u201d which opens Friday and is rated R \u2014 is decidedly not a children\u2019s movie. In addition to a couple of gags about a train conductor\u2019s genitals, there\u2019s the occasional swear word, a shot of a puppet using drugs and repeated instances of naughty passengers and crew misbehaving as they veer toward a killer storm in a runaway train.\n <\/p>\n

\n And yet, amid a political environment that has sought in recent years to portray drag queens as degenerates out to offend any and all decent sensibilities, the most remarkable part of \u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d may well be just how accessible it is to mainstream audiences. Like 1980\u2019s \u201cAirplane!\u201d and the \u201cNaked Gun\u201d movies before it, this new parody leans heavily on puns, sight gags and slapstick. There are no jokes about race or religion, and very few about gays and lesbians. There\u2019s not even a single joke about drag. (So far, the film\u2019s biggest controversy has been speculation about whether it used artificial intelligence to generate special effects\u2014accusations Shankman has denied<\/a>.) \u201cThe movie is, from a humor standpoint, as politically free as you can be, and I did that intentionally,\u201d said Shankman, who previously directed films like \u201cHairspray\u201d (2007) and \u201cA Walk to Remember\u201d (2002). \u201cI made a comedy-forward movie. The fact that it is populated by these drag artists is the most transgressive part of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Filmed in just 19 days and featuring a slew of cameos from celebrities like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicole Richie, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Raven-Symon\u00e9, \u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d is 92 minutes of unapologetic, camp ridiculousness. It follows two employees of commuter train company Stank Rail, Tess (played by drag queen Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee, also of \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d fame), who dream of traveling the country to, as Tess puts it, \u201csee the Dakotas\u2014both Fanning and Johnson.\u201d When they lose their jobs and then con their way into positions aboard the much fancier Glamazonian Express, they must contend with both needy passengers and catty colleagues. But when the brakes on their cross-country train fail right as they enter a massive tempest known as a \u201cstormaganza,\u201d it\u2019s up to Tess and DeeDee, as well as President of the United States Judy Gagwell (RuPaul), to save the day.\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s rare for a movie of this type\u2014a Hollywood comedy spoofing no existing IP and starring a bunch of drag artists\u2014to get such a wide, national release. But audiences of all stripes may find enjoyment in the film given the disaster movie genre contains so many familiar tropes that are ripe for parody. (If the train crashes at the end of the line, for example, it will not only kill those on board, but also destroy a nuclear power plant, a home for rescue dogs, the home of actor Laurie Metcalf and a group of Make-A-Wish children.) \u201cWe\u2019ve all seen these movies a million times,\u201d said Ginger Minj. \u201cBut it has this undercurrent of drag that\u2019s just sprinkled there that I think is easily accessible for a lot of people who aren\u2019t familiar with drag.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Drag on film is nothing new. As in the world of theater<\/a>, it has been featured almost since film was invented, according to Joe E. Jeffreys, a drag historian at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In a 1901 silent short<\/a> distributed by inventor Thomas Edison\u2019s company, for example, the female impersonator Gilbert Sarony dressed up as the titular role in \u201cThe Old Maid Having Her Picture Taken.\u201d<\/a> But drag in commercially successful movies has typically been used as a comedic device in which a big-name male star must crossdress in order to get out of a troublesome situation, Jeffreys explained, as was the case in 1959\u2019s \u201cSome Like It Hot,\u201d 1982\u2019s \u201cTootsie,\u201d and 1993\u2019s \u201cMrs. Doubtfire.\u201d Some films in the 1990s also found success by casting typically mostly straight, cisgender men in movies about gay or transgender drag queens, such as in 1994\u2019s \u201cThe Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,\u201d 1995\u2019s \u201cTo Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar\u201d and 1996\u2019s \u201cThe Birdcage.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Director<\/p>\n

\n What\u2019s rarer in big films, according to Jeffreys, is for drag to be used as a tool that requires audiences to suspend disbelief and accept a character\u2019s gender for narrative purposes. While there have been examples of such films succeeding (think Tyler Perry playing Madea in more than a dozen movies), this type of drag is typically reserved for more underground pictures. \u201cAudiences will buy into this type if it is funny and the character does not threaten the status quo,\u201d Jeffreys said. \u201cOnce the drag character begins to upset societal norms beyond the sartorial choice that is accepted as part of the suspension of disbelief, like Divine in John Waters\u2019 films, larger audiences may not follow.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d is among this latter category of film where drag queens as real people are intended as a fait accompli. Shankman said he imagined his movie taking place in a world in which drag didn\u2019t even exist and these characters simply were. The two lead actors also never spoke about gender while preparing to film, instead concentrating on the relationship between their characters, which they hope audiences find authentic enough to suspend any disbelief they may have about drag. \u201cI think people will be completely shocked and surprised to see that there\u2019s a human element to this,\u201d said Jujubee. \u201cEven though we\u2019re dressed up in drag, you forget that we\u2019re even Jujubee or Ginger Minj. You just fall in love with these characters that are just telling a really beautiful, relatable story.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Jujubee,<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/p>\n

\n In recent years, drag has been positioned as a cultural lightning rod as part of a right-wing political effort<\/a> to paint drag artists as depraved actors out to pervert gender norms, especially for children. States like Texas<\/a> and Tennessee<\/a> have sought to outlaw or restrict public drag performances, while President Donald Trump has banned any drag performers from appearing at the Kennedy Center<\/a>, likening their shows to \u201canti-American propaganda.\u201d This year, the American Civil Liberties Union, which has launched a \u201cDrag Defense Fund\u201d <\/a>in partnership with \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race,\u201d is tracking at least 19 bills seeking to ban drag across the country<\/a>, down from a peak of 27 such bills in 2024.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n But \u201cStop! That! Train\u201d may help to disarm some of that conservative political strategy by simply fighting fire with fun. In showcasing the comedy and entertainment skills of drag queens, rather than the lip-syncing talents most people might be familiar with, the movie in effect asks critics of drag what exactly is so scary about a bunch of glamorous clowns. \u201cI think we\u2019re just doing what we\u2019ve always done, but on such a big scale that now people are getting to see the things they\u2019re being fed aren\u2019t necessarily the truth,\u201d Ginger Minj said. \u201cThey\u2019re getting let in on our world\u2014on our actual world\u2014a little bit.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI know that those people who \u2018hate the idea of a drag queen\u2019 will have a good time if they come and see it,\u201d Jujubee said. \u201cThey\u2019ll get it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Who<\/p>\n

\n In an era when stupidity has become something of a malevolent force wreaking havoc across various institutions, \u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d is also part of a litany of recent entertainment reclaiming idiocy as something funny. Moviegoers seeking dumb fun have been treated to the new \u201cScary Movie\u201d film, as well as last year\u2019s \u201cThe Naked Gun,\u201d \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues,\u201d and \u201cFackham Hall.\u201d A sequel to the 1987 Mel Brooks sci-fi parody \u201cSpaceballs\u201d is also due out next year. On Broadway, meanwhile, the inane comedies \u201cTitanique\u201d and \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d \u2014 to say nothing of the gender-bending \u201cCats: The Jellicle Ball\u201d and \u201cRocky Horror Show\u201d revival \u2014 are among the hottest tickets in town.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shankman said that in an era that can often feel exhausting and scary, he wants \u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d to offer audiences a respite from rage for 90 minutes. \u201cBeing able to stop and sit in a room with people, let go of everything else, and let this silliness, irony, and stupidity wash over you, this feels very valuable to me right now,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summary ‘Stop! That! Train!’ is a new disaster movie spoof that opens Friday. The comedy features drag queens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-264235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}