HEADER BY OLIVIA LAWRENCE

In the ninth episode of All Stars 7, the Drag Race franchise introduced one of the most creative shifts in the show’s ever-expanding herstory. After 13 years of contestants deploying various kicks, flips and splits in lip-sync smackdowns to iconic pop anthems to secure their place in the competition, the format was met with a complete switcheroo when the top two winners of the week, Jinkx Monsoon and Monét X Change, performed a dramatic spoken word. To a monologue from the 1980s sitcom Designing Women, delivered by Dixie Carter’s character Julia Sugarbaker, Jinkx and Monet flexed their dramatic and comedic chops in one of the freshest performances the show has ever seen.

The change to Drag Race’s iconic format was met with overwhelming praise from viewers, with a majority calling for it to become a mainstay in future episodes; one fan even said the lip-sync “single-handedly revived” the franchise. With that in mind, we’ve collected nine of the most memorable monologues in TV and film that are in desperate need of the lip-sync treatment, from Dominique Jackson’s unforgettable takedown of a transphobe in Pose to Tyra’s controversial rant in America’s Next Top Model.

“Are you ready to be strong?”

Who? Sarah Michelle Gellar
From? Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The last-ever episode of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s iconic and genre-defying fantasy drama culminated in the title character, Buffy Summers, ushering in a new era for the slayer prophecy. Before the series’ last ever battle against The First and the non-corporeal entity’s army of Turok-Han’s in the Hellmouth, Buffy reveals that Willow (Alyson Hannigan) will be using her magical abilities to bestow the powers of the slayer to every ‘potential’ around the world. “What if you could have that power, now?” says Buffy. “In every generation, one slayer is born, because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman is more powerful than all of them combined. So, I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power.” Shivers, honestly. As one of television’s most groundbreaking female characters, it’s about time Buffy’s legacy was recognised on RuPaul’s Drag Race. One mention of the slayer on All Stars 3 just doesn’t cut it.

“Pretty much I would let Gemma know that she is a fat c**t”

Who? Tiffany Pollard
From? Celebrity Big Brother

In 2016, Tiffany “New York” Pollard delivered the most iconic and effortless read in the history of reality television when she annihilated the “vernacular” and “old maiden” aesthetic of fellow CBB contestant Gemma Collins. After the Essex alum stole back a pair of shoes she bequeathed to her as a birthday present, Tiffany continued to cement her unshakeable status as the most meme-worthy reality star of all time in a diary room monologue that, we can confidently say, should be played on loop for all eternity in The Louvre. “She said that those shoes were meant to be worn on a beautiful woman, so if that’s the case, she should have put them back on the rack and she should never even purchased them, because she was unqualified to own those shoes if that’s the case,” is pure art, as well as: “Somebody lied to her several times and told her that she was fly, hot and sexy and beautiful, and she’s nothing like that, she’s nothing of the sort.” The smirk at the end? Absolute perfection.