Every woman fondly remembers the moment she first realized that, like it or not, “the way Kids in the Hall cast members look in drag” was going to be a deep and integral component of her sexual identity. For me it was the summer I turned eleven, and also every day since then, with the occasional Thursday off. Let us now rank the relative attractiveness of several prominent British and Canadian sketch comedians in drag, for we are young and the world is ours.
Please note that this list is entirely complete, and also correct. There is no margin of error. Everything is as it should be.
Unranked. Graham Chapman and John Cleese, Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion
Awarded no points. They are not trying. These tired, waspish pepperpots are an insult to drag, and they are not even wearing hose.
10. Terry Jones in Finishing Sentences
She’s plain, there are no two ways around it, but there is an animation and a luminous quality to her expression that makes her quietly attractive.
9. Kevin McDonald in Secretaries
The hair and the limp ascot are very of-their-era, but the eyes are lovely.
8. Stephen Fry in Tahitian Kitchen
Alternately soothing and terrifying, compelling yet menacing. You look away, then wish you had not. The kind of face that drifts unbidden across the transom of your lightly buzzing mind in the moments before sleep.
7. Scott Thompson as Francesca Fiore
More vampy than is strictly necessary, but knows what to do with red lipstick and a few simple, stark accessories.
6. Eric Idle in Reenacting Pearl Harbor
A surprisingly seductive wryness. Very nearly enchanting.
5. Hugh Laurie as Blonde Woman
It’s the wig. Hugh Laurie rarely looks this good as a woman, but this particular wig suits him enormously. Her face is wistful and vulnerable in turn, with none of the sharp edges that plagued so many of his other female characters.
4. Bruce McCulloch as Tammy
Like a peach, this one.
3. Dave Foley, anytime
Nothing more needs to be said on this point. Consistent excellence in the field of looking like Isabella Rossellini.
2. Noel Fielding as Vince’s brain receptionist
“They call me the great confuser. Is he a man? Is he a woman? Ooh, I’m not sure I mind.” The hair a bit Far Side-ish, but that’s a minor quibble. Gleefully, unrepentantly tacky, and not a little bit suggestive, either.
1. Mark McKinney in Hotel La Rut
Undeniable.
Tags: attractiveness, drag, judging men, kids in the hall, lists
I have a filthy little lust for Noel Fielding and for the life of me I don’t know WHY.
He’s hot in the same way Andy Samberg is hot, but in a gender-blurry British way
I regularly watch hin on Buzzcocks in his ridiculous clothes and think ‘Oh, Noel. I would quite like to fuck you in that.’
I think I’d fancy him less if he were actually there, naked, divested of his fashion statements. I think I’d fancy him less if he was making jokes about me. I think I’d fancy him less if I actually met him.
But far away from me, on the TV, he’s basically the platonic ideal of every androgynous, sarcastic, wry, distant boy I ever threw myself at in my teens.
So maybe it’s just a reflexive reaction.
http://noelfieldingwardrobe.tumblr.com
Thank you for this amazing gift
I dreamed a while ago that I was in bed with my ex and as we got it on, he was gradually turning into Noel Fielding. It was bizarre.
oh my gosh, NOEL FIELDING. attractive in general, but even more attractive dressed as amy winehouse. as absurd as it is, i love The Mighty Boosh
I’m having lots of deliciously confusing feelings right now about the last picture. The pout, the hair, the sideways glance…goodness me.
“luminous quality to her expression that makes her quietly attractive”
I think that’s what makes Terry Jones quietly attractive even as a man.
The countdown to #1 made me tense! And tingly.
Dave Foley, anytime. Seriously. The Kids in the Hall made such alarmingly attractive women!
Forty Helens agree.
As do all the Daves I know.
It’s a fact!
I always think Zooey Deschanel looks like Jocelyn, the Quebecoise prostitute played by Dave Foley. Obviously this is a compliment.
I’m very sorry to have to tell you this, but any list of hot male comedians in drag that does not include Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot is constitutionally invalid.
Jack Lemmon was an actor, not a comedian! I mean, he was a comic actor, yes, but he does not fit the VERY STRICT CRITERIA of “being in an English or Canadian sketch comedy troupe sometime in the last forty years.”
Also, Tony Curtis looked way better in SLIH than Lemmon.
I reject all restrictive binaries and especially that one. ALSO, Curtis was clearly having much less fun than Lemmon, who was just SO DELIGHTED to be getting to be a woman, and I’m afraid giddy exuberance about one’s newly found gender flexibility is much hotter than grumpy Cary Grant impressions.
I celebrate and honor restrictive binaries.
I immediately and unconsciously scanned for Dave Foley, whose absence or insufficient ranking would obviously have invalidated the whole enterprise. Thank you.
I was positive the writer was teasing us and had actually posted a photo of Adele!
Is Stephen Fry trying to be Julia Child, or is that just a coincidence?
Julia Child was my first thought too.
I came down here to comment exactly this. It’s only Fry’s undeniably Fryish nose that shatters the illusion.
And people still say women didn’t ruin comedy.
(What I mean, of course, is that the growing number of women in sketch comedy troupes is reducing the number of men in drag. I can’t even REMEMBER if I’ve seen David Mitchell in a dress, for instance.)
Pretty sure Robert Webb could rock that Hugh Laurie wig tho
You can watch this whole sketch if you like, totally funny, but here’s Robert in his moment of drag.
http://youtu.be/dCxxbDfOGL4?t=1m30s
I do recommend the whole thing, its only like 2 mins! Enjoy!
Wait! Retract all previous comments! http://youtu.be/dCxxbDfOGL4
If you’ve seen the glorious Rebecca spoof on That Mitchell and Webb Look, you have. If not, click this link immediately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr59DKnFKx0
Ahhhhhh how could I forget! BRB throwing myself in the sea
OMG!
Re: Mitchell
The Mrs. Patricia Wilberforce Programme, for one good example?
I’ve always wondered: why was Mark McKinney always so much more attractive as a man than as a woman? Mysteries.
Ugh, FAIL: I totally meant more attractive as a woman than as a man. OBVIOUSLY. Need more coffee.
In male roles, this is still my favorite: http://youtu.be/cOQBXA5CPEM
I am a total sucker for both men in drag in general, and Kids In The Hall in particular, so this may be my favourite article ever!
They may be unattractive, but screeching “John Paul SAH-trah?!” in a regional British accent will never not be funny (to me)
My sexual awakening was the Halloween episode of Newsradio where Dave Foley dressed up as Maura Tierney.
OH LET’S TALK NEWSRADIO GUYS
Cigarette! Prepare to be smoked.
Please do something about Newsradio so we can spread the gospel!
“Oh! You mean my cane.”
OH MY GOD I LOVE NEWSRADIO! Current favorite quote–
Dave: Bill, I worked in Milwaukee, you know. It’s a city with a population of a million people.
Bill: So that must have been quite a hubbub when that cow got loose!
Unequivocally the best callback News Radio did to KITH. http://youtu.be/ouSb9P–_i4
And yes, let’s talk News Radio forever and for all time. Best sitcom ever. I will defend this statement with brutal facts and subjective screeching and fisticuffs, if necessary.
STINKBUTT
“Quiet! The great Bill McNeal speaks!” (Bill feeds child cookie)
Newsradio is the greatest, no question.
So was mine, and I was like, 35.
Dave Foley is only #3!?
Also, that pic of Hugh Lawrie looks an awful like one of my friends, and it’s kind of weirding me out.
THIS LIST IS FLAWLESS, like all of their faces.
Please add to the list and this list will become perfection:
-Eddie Izzard in any of his stand ups, including Dress to Kill, etc.
-Hugh Laurie as Georgina in Blackadder Goes Forth, “Major Star”
-Noel Fielding as Kate Bush
-David Walliams as Carol Beer
-Jamie Foxx as Ugly Wanda in In Living Color
Was that Noel Fielding sketch pre- or post-Amy Winehouse popularity? Because, I truly had to take 10 seconds to figure out if that was supposed to be Noel Fielding as Amy Winehouse. If it wasn’t, it could have been.
Not sure if it was pre- or post-Winehouse fame, but they were pals and used to spend time in the same Camden pub, so it’s likely to be a bit of friendly mimicry regardless!
I’m not sure I would describe all or even most of these as drag, which in my head is deliberately caricaturish and not the same as dressing up as a character that happens to be the opposite sex. Eddie Izzard is different again, because the dressing up is part of how he presents himself, rather than for a character.
Having said that, I also nominate Tina C for the men-who-look-great-dressed-as-women ranking http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019fyqw
What! That is bananas! Looking good in drag does not negate the drag component and I will fight you.
No, it’s definitely not about looking good, drag can look great. Caricature was probably the wrong word, maybe flamboyant is better. Hmm, I think maybe the distinction I’m trying to make is actually between drag and drag queen, so I guess I withdraw my objection.
While I’m sad that you didn’t include the Gorgeous Georgina, I’m relieved that one of Hugh Laurie’s ladies made it on the list.
I would like to blow this gif up and frame it. That storyline was so weirdly touching.
This comment thread appears to be turning into a magical discussion grotto of Blackadder/New Radio; I’m just going to go ahead and set my tent up here and never leave.
I was all like, “Why isn’t Francesca Fiore higher?” and then BAM there was Tammy and I knew my ignorance. Follow-up debate: the finer points of whether or not Eddie Izzard’s comedy counts as being in drag.
Definitely not. He talks at length about being a cross-dresser/transvestite and how that’s part of who he is; it’s not a character in the same way these are (but he looks GREAT).
Interesting! I guess Izzard’s case is pretty closed, then, but could a cross-dresser still do drag?
There are very fine lines between drag as performance, transvestism, and being transgender. The latter two are definitely under the trans* umbrella, but former not as such. Thanks for making the list about the quality of the presentation of drag, and not about its capacity for ridicule.
The man does sayshaying in high heels better than most women I know, it’s wonderful.
They’re not British or Canadian, and I suppose “are they comedians” are up for debate, but any discussion of movie star dudes in drag that leaves out To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, is not a list I want to have anything to do with.
They definitely could of added Darren Trumeter from ‘The whitest kids u know”, or even Trevor in his rarer drag appearances. I just this this totally needed to be longer! And I could go on about “The State” Thomas Lennon, even Joe Lo Truglio! Come on =]