Todrick Hall has apologised for a comment he made in the most recent episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, after fans alerted him to the fact a word he used carries a more offensive meaning here in the UK.
The singer and dancer was back to choreograph routines for the five remaining queens and instructing Yvie Oddly, Todrick said: “Just make sure when we’re doing this, it doesn’t get spastic.”
Todrick’s use of the word led to raised eyebrows from fans and following the episode, he tweeted an apology and explanation.
“To all the UK Drag Race viewers, I profusely apologize if my using the word “spastic” offended you,” he wrote. “The word is not as taboo in the US, especially when referring to choreography, it just means clumsy. Same as how you say the word fag in your country, just a cultural difference.
“I absolutely adore @OddlyYvie and just wanted her choreography to look clean, now that I know I will refrain from using that word when referring to someone cleanliness during movement. Congrats Yvie, on an awesome performance last night!”
He later added: “I of course don’t think that people in the UK refer to each other as ‘fags’. I just mean the word means cigarette which people would be offended by when I would say that word in Kinky Boots because they didn’t understand the cultural difference. ‘Spastic’ is not as taboo here.”
Yvie responded to Todrick’s comments by adding that she “honestly never knew that word had such a negative meaning (outside the US) so I took it as a compliment”.
“But thank you!” she added. “We love a conscientious queen.”
Yvie’s performance and rap skills impressed the panel and she’s one of the four queens fighting it out for the crown and a cash prize of $100,000.
In the finale (which will arrive on Netflix next Friday 3 May) Yvie will battle it out against Brook Lynn Heights, A’Keria C. Davenport and Silky Nutmeg Ganache.