An Aussie Comedian Has Accused A ‘Drag Race’ Queen Of Plagiarism & He’s Got Receipts
When it rains, it pours. RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under has found itself in another controversy, after Aussie comedian Lehmo accused Kiwi queen Anita Wigl’it of plagiarising his comedy material.
So what is the joke in question? During the second episode when the queens were preparing for Snatch Game, Anita was practising her Queen Elizabeth impersonation with RuPaul and said, “When somebody turns 100, I write them a letter, and when somebody turns 16, Prince Andrew sends them a text.”
When the scene aired, Lehmo posted a video reaction on his Instagram, simply replying “Really?”. He captioned the post: “Hey @anitawiglit happy to help out with material anytime if you need!!”. Sassy!
View this post on Instagram
Lehmo claims he has made the joke regularly in his standup, and he attached a tweet from August last year where he, indeed, made that exact joke.
When you turn 100 you get a letter from the Queen.
And when you turn 16 you get a text from Prince Andrew.
— lehmo23 (@lehmo23) July 31, 2020
Lehmo continued to air his grievances at his SAFM breakfast show Bec, Cosi & Lehmo telling his co-hosts, “RuPaul’s Drag Race is the biggest reality TV show in the world, my joke has gone global without me!”
“What makes this even worse is that joke was banned by the BBC from the RuPaul broadcast in the UK, because it was too offensive to the Royal family. I want to be banned by the BBC, I want to offend the Royal family! I want to get the credit for it.”
In a since deleted comment on Lehmo’s post, Anita actually owned up to the fact that while she didn’t intentionally plagiarise his work, friends had suggested the joke and they had likely seen or heard his joke.
Lehmo has invited Anita on his radio show and his co-hosts teased they are ready for “a confrontation.” In Anita’s defence, it’s a pretty obvious joke to make and there are probably countless variations of it all over the internet.
Chill out, Lehmo.
