Lovett or Leave It - Scum Like It Hot

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

It’s Part 1 of our Lovett or Leave It Pride Show Extravaganza! This week, World Cup fans taste America and demand unlimited refills, Trump wants us to chug his Iran Kool-Aid, and D.C. bellies up to the bar for this summer’s trendiest algae cocktail. Hollywood legend Bruce Vilanch gives a gay side eye to early LGBTQ moments in film, while Myki Meeks decides which 2026 Pride Merch items should sashay away. And we taste the rainbow with a very gay round of I Don’t Care, I Lovett.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.

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Additional taxes fees and restrictions apply. See MIMP mobile for details. Live it or leave it. What's up, Los Angeles? Yeah. Welcome to Love It or Leave It live from Hollywood. I'm John Lovett. Proud to be gay and ashamed of everything else.

We have got a great show for you tonight. It's part one of our big gay pride show. But first, let's get into it. What a week. Soccer fans from around the world have been pouring into American cities for the World Cup, and they've made a big discovery. America rules. And if you don't feel that way right now,

it's only because you haven't watched a European's eyes widened in delight after tentatively dipping a french fry into a Wendy's Frosty. Welcome to America. It's not walkable, and the bread is chemicals. But just wait until your Norwegian ass tries Taco Bell. Here is a British man. discovering biscuits and gravy. You have a big chunk of this.

Is it wrong? This is so good. Sadly, this man did not survive the ambulance ride. I'll say it again. You have to work your way up to American portion sizes. Here's an Italian discovering free refills. I can refill these a thousand times. Yeah, but you won't drink a thousand cups of COVID.

You don't know me. And it's free. You paid it. You paid it. Once. Slow down. Slow down. Why?

That was good. Because it's free. Who? Yes, please. And what do you call? These are little shards of a gold of glass that make the soda so good. That's called ice, sir. Here's a Swedish guy at a waffle house.

He's about to eat all of this shit. You said, I'll be it. Who made his waffle? Right up. The one that bought it says. It's the best one. No one in Sweden will believe him when he returns with tales of food even more delicious than salted fish buried in the snow for six months. It's the perfect way to mark America's 250th birthday, the world celebrating America and America celebrating the world.

And that is in stark contrast to President Trump trying to steal the excitement and patriotism around America's 250th birthday for himself. On Sunday, we had fight night held on the south lawn of the White House to Mark Trump's 80th birthday. But I get why he wanted to have a big party. Birthdays have been a bit lonely for him ever since his best friend Jeffrey Epstein died. The event kicked off in the morning with motorcycle stunts in front of a printed White House backdrop to cover the actual White House. I actually thought that was pretty cool until I found out that they were flying over a hog-tied and tail. terrified James Comey. The event was also a brazen money gram for the Trump family Paramount Plus aired commercials

hawking commemorative Trump coins. The fighters were paid bonuses in the Trump family cryptocurrency. And what was meant to be for everyone turned into a sordid, ugly mess for Trump diehards. And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right? It sounds terrible out of context like this, but he was just making sure. everyone had the White House Wi-Fi password. The comment was so ugly, in fact,

that Lindsay Graham briefly lost his fight-night erection. And if that spectacle weren't enough, Trump announced on Monday that the planned July 4th, 250th celebration on the National Mall would actually be a Trump rally. I haven't seen a birthday party ruined like this since that kid at my second-grade birthday party

shot his pants in the ball pit and blame me for it because I did it. The 4th of July, Trump Rally, will call attention to the newly renovated reflecting pool, which is, whoopsie daisy, already filled with algae again. An interior department spokesperson called this, quote, residual algae. And I just want to say to that spokesperson, all algae is residual algae. That's how algae works. When you think about it, where do you think the algae is coming from?

A little bit of algae. It's not spontaneously new algae. Right? What are we talking about here? It's residual. Yeah, man. That's why it's such a big problem. You know, if you have mold in your house and the person who comes to mediate the mold, oh, no, no, don't worry. This is just

residual mold. I was like, I don't care about the story of the mold. The making of the mold behind the music of the mold. Get rid of the fucking mold. The spokesperson added, President Donald J. Trump is an expert builder who has fixed the reflecting pool for good. Unlike the

failed in extremely costly attempts by Obama and Biden. The rest of the statement was a little hard to read, as it was immediately covered in algae. By Tuesday, national park service workers were trying to combat the algae by dumping bottles of hydrogen peroxide into the pool. That is so stupid. That is not how you clean algae. That's how you cure COVID. Now, based on the photos I've seen, the crew seems like they're using 12% hydrogen peroxide solution, which is what you might use to shock a hot tub or a small pool. But the reflecting pool spans eight acres and is filled with almost 7 million gallons of water.

For this to work, you'd need several thousand jugs of peroxide. But then the water won't have the same delicious tang, said RFK Jr. I like the way the water tastes when it had the algae. All right. And of course, the algae came back. Trump would have us believe that what stopping America from being great is that every previous leader was stupid or weak or scared to break the rules,

but maybe, just maybe, the problem is that it's a big shallow pool in a humid fucking swamp. In other words, life finds a way. Blaming people for problems is easy. Painting over problems is easy. Actually solving problems is hard.

Also hard? Lindsay Graham watching those pool boys scrubbing the reflecting pool in that hot June sun. Look at what happened with Iran. The U.S. spent tens of buildings, billions of dollars bombing Iran, we lost 14 service members, thousands have died in the region. And what's the end result? A deal to hopefully maybe reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

Open to close, to open again? What is this? A Middle Eastern straight or a gay couple that can't accept that they should just break up already? Here's Trump spinning the deal. So we had two big moments when they terminated the JCPOA, that was the Obama deal, the Barack Hussein Obama deal. and when I terminated that, it was very important because it was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a horrible deal for the United States. It was a deal where billions of dollars was given to Iran. But the Trump deal promises Iran as much as $300 billion in reconstruction funds to repair the shit.

We just spent billions of dollars blowing up. Oh, great use of money, said a defunded medical researcher, throwing out a bunch of boxes labeled possible cancer vaccines. Too much. Here is Pete Hegesat, the defense secretary, taking a shot at selling this to us. The document says Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, won't seek one, won't buy one, won't have one. And 60 days, there'll be negotiations to make that final. But they didn't have the threat of military force the way that we do that Iran respects in a very

way that their regime is more devastating, more devastating, excuse me, more devastated than it's ever been. The huge difference is we did this from a position of strength. So Obama got the same deal without having to start a war because of how weak he is, which I guess makes sense if you're drunk. So at best, we will end up with a deal that Trump calls the greatest deal of all time, which will look basically like a worse version of the Obama deal, which Trump calls the worst deal of all time. But maybe the Iran war was about the friends we made along the way. Here's vice-state. President J.D. Vance talking about the coolest thing. The coolest thing about the progress we've made over the last few weeks is that you see people

within the Iranian system, senior leadership, even IRGC officials say, you know what, we may have some animosity, we may have some mistrust, but we recognize the way that we've done business with the United States for 47 years is a mistake. Let's try something else. They even gave us a gift, this big, beautiful wooden horse. And we're so excited about it. We're going to roll it right into the White House lawn. Hey man, I know it seems like they're your friends because you spent so much time together, but they're at work. Trust me, it's easy to make that mistake. And then your text producer bill to see if he wants to go to the aquarium on Christmas, and then you see the three little dots pop up, then they disappear, and then you get the email from HR. Could you imagine

what Republicans would say if a Democrat were so naive and foolish as to believe that the Iranian regime, the survivors, we did not manage to blow up over several weeks of bombing, including the new Ayatollah, who we maimed after killing his father and family, are cool now? You think the Ayatollahs are going to let bygones be bygones? You think Iran doesn't hold a grudge? Iran? This is the Middle East, after oil, grudges are the number one export. And the strait is still not open.

Because the straight opens completely, it's open now, but it opens completely. We have all the minds knock out for the most, but we have a lot of lanes right now already. I think sometimes, I think sometime in the very near future. We've got those mines taken, for the most part. Feel safe to get in a boat riding through a seaway

that says they've got most of the mines out of there? It's not exactly inspiring confidence. Oil tankers are going to treat the straight-of-hor moves the way Donald Trump treated his son's wedding. Not worth a trip. But here's the good news. Trump may try to turn a celebration of America into a celebration of himself.

He may weaken us. He may leave us worth us off. But this is still America. This past weekend, per a judge's ruling, Trump's name was pried off the front of the Kennedy Center building. The bad news is that the letters were moved over to the new Trump Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Look, Trump can tear down buildings. He can rip up agreements. He can turn the White House into a monument to his corruption and his greed. But as World Cup visitors are discovering, America's greatness is bigger than Trump. The American spirit is a lot like algae. Persistent, resourceful, and up close, it has a weird smell.

You can try to paint over it or wash it away, but bitch, it is in the pipes. And if you leave even a shred of it behind, it'll come roaring back. Said RFK Jr., yum. All right. And we've got a great show for you tonight. We'll be right back with the great Bruce Valanche. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

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Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome. He needs no introduction. The Living Legend himself. It's Bruce Valanche. Thank you. Now, wow, thank you. You have a Bowie B. Arthur. I know.

She was Ziggy Stardust before a golden girl. That's right, Ziggy, yeah. Yeah, I know. It's B. Bowie. It's you conflate icons. And I have a relationship with her, which I'm sure we'll get into. Well, right before we started, I was, the audience was excited in part because you famously wrote the Star Wars holiday special in which B. Arthur has a role.

Yeah, played the woman who ran the canteen on Tatooine, you know. that that that that that that that but that was her gig yeah and now you have this book it seems like a bad idea at the time where you talk about some of these stories uh when the star wars special airs and it airs once and then is banished from the air forever yeah uh did you know how soon after it aired did you feel like wait a second this is not getting the response i will promise well i when the agent called and said the star wars holiday special i said oh this is going to be the turd in the punchbowl of all time. But I have to be a part of it because Star Wars,

you have to understand this, first of all, it was the 70s, and if people tell you they remember the 70s, they weren't there. Because we were half baked the whole time that we were doing this stuff. So when they asked me to do it, I thought, this is probably a death sentence. But Star Wars had been one movie,

and it was a year and a half later, and George was about to start shooting the Empire Strikes Back, and he wanted something that would stir the pot while he was waiting for that movie to come out. And he had a bunch of stories, and he sold CBS a musical special with the last one of his stories. And I don't think he actually ever watched TV, George, because he would know that this wouldn't work, because he sold them a musical special starring the Wookiees. Now, the Wookieies cannot speak, sing. dance or cross the room without

tripping over themselves and they sound they speak no known language they sound like fat people having orgasms trust me I know exactly I understood every word but

yeah but we had to do we had to do this thing and of course we had to have guest stars because also we had to have people translate and CBS would not let us use subtitles because they said nobody would read and this was 1978. So everything was translated by, you know, Art Carney. People like that would come on.

The wookie would go, and he would say, oh, I'm sorry, you're feeling better today. That's good. It was a nightmare. But, you know, fortunately, we had drugs that covered all. Yeah, simpler time. So you also wrote the Paul and Halloween special. Yes, similar. Right around the same time. Right. And, I'm you know Paul Lind is now kind of a tragic figure as someone who was so flamboyant Yeah, and but not able to be publicly gay never Well nobody was nobody was but I wonder if you think about what it would have been like to have Paul Lind as a performer without having to kind of I don't know pretend to have a wife in half the episodes

You know yeah well that would not be that era of the world that would be that would be this year of the world back then it's hard to explain to people who weren't there, but to be gay was evil. You were a bad person. You were the guy who committed suicide at the end of the movie or was killed or was a predator. You were not a good person. So when they would see somebody who they liked, like Paul Lind, who made them laugh or Richard Simmons or there were a whole bunch of Rip Taylor. Rip Taylor. They didn't want to think badly of them, so they just pretended. And it wasn't just on television, it was in your life.

Everybody had a confirmed bachelor in their family, which was code for gay uncle, who had never found the right woman. Or it was a girl who was just a little too manish to find the right man. Those were all in everybody's family, but we all overlooked them and spoke in code about them. them. And so that was why it would be impossible for those people to have characters that

had complete authentic lives because we weren't living them in real life. And everything changed after Stonewall and AIDS brought the gay community together just for self-preservation and made us a real part of the American tapestry which we hadn't been before. And I don't think it was that Paul was flamboyant. I think it was more with him because Paul was like this negative character. You know, he was like the evil principal of the high school. He was always, and his first show, you know, kids, he sang kids. And he had a, his son, he said, he said, nobody respects me. And the kids said, I respect you, daddy. He said, who wants respect from a 10 year old? That was him. I mean, that was, that was his whole character.

and you can't, it's hard to build a show around a guy like that. That's an ancillary character. I mean, your main character has to be somebody you like, and then, you know, your main character has to be Mary Tyler Moore, who you love, and you can then bring in Chloris Leachman, you know, as a cunt. That's, you know. Yeah. That's how it's done.

Now, long before you get to the era of Paul Lind, the studios were cracking down on what they deemed sexual perversion through the Hayscoat, which was censorship guidelines in the 30s, and yet gay people existed at the time, the whole time, the whole way through. And so we would love to just take you through a few of these moments in a segment we're calling, Hey Girl Hayes Code. Hey Girl Hey. Girl Hey.

I think he was the Lindsay Graham of his era, Will Hayes. I mean, you look at footage of him and you think, oh, girl, What are you hiding? Really. You know, she's got a doll collection locked up somewhere, but no one's ever going to get their mitts on. So I'm going to have you blind rank, the gayest scenes from early Hollywood cinema.

Most of them are from around the time of the Hades Code, some a little bit before, some, but all of them are gay as hell. You won't know what scene is coming next, so you'll have to ask yourself, is something gayer mincing down the road after this? You'll have five scenes. you'll rank them from five, which is basically straight to one,

the gayest. Oh, okay. In other words, we're going down. We're going down. That's exactly right, Bruce Flanch. We're going down. And having a great time doing it. All right.

Let's see the first clip. Have a cigar. You big, sissy. That was the cigar scene from 1933's blood money. Have a cigar, you big sister. see. Pretty gay. What do you think? Do you think we have four others that you'll have to

rank and wherever you put this? That's four. You think that's four? You think that's the second to least gay? Okay. All right, so I'm going to put that as math. I'm no good. I'm going to say, blood money. Next up, we have the boys will be boys, the dance scene from 1934's Wonder Bar.

May I click in? By certainly. Boys will be boys. Boys, boy, boys. Woo! Dick Powell was conducting the orchestra behind him. Wow, this is pretty number one, maybe. I mean, it's pretty damn gay.

It's pretty damn gay. Pretty damn gay. What do you think? What spot? We could go gay or one? I'll go, I'll give it one. One, all right. It's the gayest.

We're calling boys. It's right out there. I mean, it's all in Al Jocent's expression. Yeah, that is, well, that noise he makes, that little woo. Well, that little noise, yeah. That beautiful little. Next up, we have the maid dance from 1932's Call Her Savage. I love that.

It's absolutely amazing. It looks just like a number from the Rupol movie, which I saw last night. It looks like Ginger Minge and her part. Ju-Jubi. Dancing down the corridor of the train. Have you seen Stop that train? It's pretty funny. It's so gay.

I mean, it's so gay. It's negative 2000. It's that gay. What do you think? Oh, well, that would be number two, I guess. Yeah, that's the maid dance. The feather duster, you know, nothing says gay like a feather duster.

And they're really, they're really missing around. But it's doing anything but dusting, you know. It's called Call Her Savage. And I'm sure there's some other parts of the film that are deeply problematic, going to show. All right. You're savage.

Savage. Next up we have Marlene Dietrich in a top hat and tails kissing a woman in 1930s Morocco. Oh. May I have this? Of course. All right. Well, that's dyke.

Well, you know, they have a letter too. LGBT. Yeah, they do have a letter. F-O-M-R-B. They do. They do have a letter. L. They do.

the first one. How did they get that bad? Well, because they were running the world when they came up with it. Right. You can't fight them when they tell you they're going to do something. Yeah. Yeah. I was on the board of the LGBT Center for 22 years and it was basically run by the women. So, no, not telling any tales out of school there. That, I guess,

well, it's three. I mean, it's undeniable. It's undeniable. I mean, they're, you know. I mean, I thought she'd show me something like, Leave It to Beaver. Well, the title is gay, but other than that, yeah. The title, leave it to beaver is a gay title. It's kind of lesbian.

Leave it to beaver. There is a clip of her saying, you were tough on the beaver last night, Ward. There really is. That was an actual line from the show. That friend has a collection of those, of clips and things like that. They knew that was a joke.

Of course. They laid it in there. They were all, they were probably guffawing behind the camera. Yeah, just mincing around, laughing at the little joke they put in there. And finally, we have Peter Lorry's entrance. In 1941's The Maltese Falcon.

See, Mr. Spade, I'm trying to recover ornament that, shall we say, has been mislaid. Uh-huh. I thought and hoped you could assist me. God, he's about to suck that king. Yeah, he, he, he, He eats the end of that cane. He really is.

He really does. I know. I think Bogie's thinking I'll go home and Betty will do something like this to me. That was Bacall's real name, Betty, Lauren Bacall. I'm so inside. You just know her as Betty. You know her as Betty. I knew her.

She was a killer. She literally, I mean, I think she actually had bodies buried somewhere. She was very tough, Lauren Bacall. Was she ever tough to you? No, she was always great with me. I you know because I thought she was funny I mean she couldn't pull anything and she finally said yeah you know what you're doing and which I thought was the highest compliment that you know she could

everybody else was an idiot you know she was and I think that when Bogart died she was very young when Bogart died and she had two kids and I think she never really recovered from it and she created this hard shell around her after that but this is this is just me doing my you know my my dime store psychology but it works. No hard shell for Bruce Valanche. No. No, no, are you kidding? I'm just I'm like, you know, a crab

in the early days. Eat me while I'm tender. And on that note, here are our final rankings. We have at five, the least gay, the straightest of them all, we have Peter Lorry sucking on the end of a of a cane in Maltese falcon. We have a cigar,

another phallic symbol, a lesbian cigar in blood money. We have a A lesbian kitch by Marlina Dietrich. And then we have the maid dance by those flouncing nancy's in Collar Savage. And finally, Wonderbar, Boys Will Be Boys with Al Jolson. Bruce Valanche, everybody. And we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere.

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sampler in your welcome kit with your first AG1 subscription and $82 value. That's drinkag1.com slash love it. And we're back. Please welcome to the stage, Drag Race Royalty, the winner of season 18 of Rupal's Drag Race. She's gorgeously stupid and stupidly gorgeous. It's Mikey Meeks. Wow. Hi, hi.

Thank you for being here. Hi. Bruce. You're right here. Park it. Right here. John, I got all dressed up for you. You look fabulous.

Thank you. And Bruce, when I found out you were here, I painted my toes. Yeah. You're the reigning queen of drag race. Yes. What would you say is your philosophy as a leader? Oh. Bold question.

Live boldly, love fiercely, and being apologetically yourself? Yeah. And be gay, it's pride season. Oh, I try to be apologetically myself. Yes, you should. That's really been my focus. Please be sorry for what you do. Now, you came out of the Orlando drag scene.

Yes. How does that compare to L.A.'s? How many true Disney freaks are you dealing with on a daily basis? You know what's funny? A lot, my sister from my season, Breyer Blush, started a rumor that I started drag by Disney Bounding. Disney Bounding is when you go to the theme parks. You can't come in costume, but you can't,

dress like the characters. So she's saying that's how I started drag, was dressing like the characters. And so Disney fans have followed me because of that reason. And I want to say that's not true, but I do respect your lifestyle. That's so beautiful.

Wait, so there's a difference between you can dress like a character, but you can't be in costume. What is the distinction? Well, say like you want to be Winnie the Pooh. You can't come in a full bare costume, but you can wear a red t-shirt. And no box.

I was going to say maybe just nude waist down. Maybe wear the pants. I don't know. And then maybe a pot of honey. But I've seen plenty of bears with no pants in my life. But rarely at Disney World.

Well, you'd be surprised. Pride night. They have Pride night. Yeah. So was it crazy shooting the multiple endings? And like how does that actually feel? Because you have to, because now in RuPaul's Drag Race,

where Bruce was a judge in one of the early seasons there. Guilty, yes. The winner got out, and so ever since they have filmed everyone winning, and you go through the whole thing, and then you don't actually find out till it airs. Is that what happened with you? I love my NDA. Okay.

No, I mean, it's pretty well known that, yeah, they film multiple endings of the show, so no spoilers come out, and you do have to wait the whole process, the whole year of knowing that you made it far without knowing if you take the crown. so you have to kind of mind your P's and Q's as the season goes along. And if you search on YouTube, you can see the genuine reaction of us

finding out who wins. And it was a gag. It was, it was, yeah, it was amazing. It was amazing. Boy, to win is so cool. Because you're afraid you're going to go home first. And then that happened to me on the thing I did, but then for you. And that was, because you really only think about two scenarios, right?

You think about going out first and winning. But you got the good one. I did get the good one. I'm very happy about that. You know what, it's funny. I had a little different experience because I was like, I don't want to go home first. I mean, it is kind of iconic to go home first, though, right?

Yeah, that's good point. I'm trying to win brownie points here. But then we have 14 contestants. It's kind of when we got to top eight is when I went, okay, I could feel a little bit more relaxed here. And then once we got to the final three, I said, bitch, you can't tell me anything. Okay.

Now, you had picked up. paid homage to Olivia Newton John in the 80s Ladies Challenge. And this look was not received as you had hoped. So what, did you see some merit in what they were saying? Did you completely disagree? What do you think about it now?

Yeah, I have all the looks you wanted to show. I think you look awesome. Well, I appreciate that. The category was 80s ladies, and I, we had to pull images from Getty images. I found this of Olivia Newton John. And I said, this is hilarious, a pink hat suit with purple character shoes. Love it. I'm doing a one for one.

They read me down. They read me down. They hated this. They said, how could you wear character shoes on the runway? And in my mind, I'm like, did we not see the image? Like, I thought I was doing a good job here. But, you know, I said from the show, like, Olivia Newton John, when she put this outfit on, she said, 40 years from now, a drag queen named Mikey Meeks, is going to put this exact outfit together, and we're on the main stage of Rupal's drag race. And that's exactly what I did. Wow, maybe she's from the future.

Yes. Now, Bruce, you were on drag race, and you were there, like, as it was evolving. Like, I remember watching early seasons of drag race, and it was really a, like, it was more cutthroat, and it was really about winning the show because the show wasn't that popular. It was on logo.

It hadn't yet really made a name for itself. And over the years, it's become a bigger deal. Huge. What was it like being there in the early seasons of it? Well, it was, they brought me in as a comedy mentor. And I would, like, coach the drag queens of the comedy. And at the time, there I, oh, and then Santa Claus one year, one unforgettable year. There I was.

Oh, I'm much heavier there. I'm so happy now. The Ozympic is working. Hello. Nice. The problem was that the drag queens of that era were either gorgeous girls who lip-sinked, and could not talk and never did any kind of comedy. Or you had people like Bianca Del Rio

who worked a club every night in Fire Island and was hilarious and could do all of that. And they were pitted against each other, and I said, it's apples and oranges. You can't ask these girls who've never done anything like that to be funny all of a sudden that takes, you have to learn. But what happened was all the young queens to be were watching it at home,

and they realized to win the thing, you have to do everything. You have to be funny, you have to be able to speak, you have to make your own clothes, you have to live in a motel with the other queens for two weeks. That's true, too. Which is really the test of all. And so now, winners like this are the complete performer. And that's why if you just go on Drag Queen, it's like if you just go on Shark Tank, you won,

because you can then get booked all over the place. And there's now a circuit of places that will play drag things. And there used to be a club here, maybe a club there, and now it's everywhere. And that's all RuPaul. That's all Rue's fault. Mikey, what was the, like, I feel like I can't imagine something more intimidating than doing Snatch game, knowing that it's Snatch game. What was it like?

I had a great time. I had a great time. That was the one challenge I was looking forward to. I performed Snatch Game as Drew Barrymore. Drew Berrymore. And it went over very well. Actually, it's funny to say that because that outfit I wore was the same challenge

as Snatch Game, and I think that's what cost me the win. But it went over pretty well that I got invited to the Drew Barrymore show to do the impression for her. And she loved it. She was amazing. Did she touch you? This close. I was like, I'm not wearing enough makeup for you.

to be that close to my face. But she was amazing. But the Snash game, I was, I'm used to that improv style, so I was pretty ready. Do, are the winners on some kind of a text chain? Is there like a text chain where there's like a group of like just, we're all the winners and like, it's just us here so we can like let

our hair down and be honest? I wish. If anything, they're hazing me. Are you getting hazed? I know, just kidding. That's plain Jane and all that. No, there's no group. But I, there is a camaraderie. I did see Nimfia Wend, who was the winner of season 16. We ran into each other in San Francisco this weekend,

and there's relatability there. We could talk about certain aspects of expectations and the online fan base and all that. How is that? Oh, I love... This is the most sane and reasonable fan base of any reality TV show. Such a smart point.

I agree. I just want to say that I agree. I agree. We love it. And yes, your opinion is... right, whatever you think is correct. Even if you've never done drag, you are right, my love. Well, I was talking about the online fandoms

with a friend of mine that works for a streamer. And it's when you're, and it's true of critics too, that like a lot of online criticism, it never starts with, I know you didn't want me to hate this, but I, you know, it never, or like, I know you were, or it never starts with, I know this probably wasn't as good as you wanted it to be either. so I'll be generous.

It always starts from a place of the assumption that what you did or how you performed was exactly what you wanted it to be 100%. And like maybe you're, you know, nothing is perfect. You can still be proud of it. But when someone is critical, they're like, oh, I can't believe you didn't get this exactly right. Well, yeah, I'm a person. Right. That's exactly it.

And the circumstances around, draggery specifically, the circumstances around the amount of time you have, what's against you with what, every design challenge. You have such, you have a specific amount of time, and maybe it's an unconventional design challenge. You don't have everything you need to pull off a sickening outfit. Now, that is what makes it so special when someone can. Look at Nymphia, for example. She's able to make treasure out of trash. Me, baby, that's the garbage.

That's the garbage receptacle, okay? Yeah, I always feel like if someone is going to talk about someone else's body on the internet, they should first have to film themselves doing a military, military style push-up. This was part of our, we talked about this last week with Kel Kripe, but also if someone, basically I think as a rule, you can be anonymous on the internet, I believe in anonymity, people's freedom of speech should be protected. However, you must legally post a picture of the room from which you post. That if you're going to sit in judgment of all of planet Earth, you're free to do that,

and I want you to have that experience. But first, we get to see the room you're in. Because I do think people would be a bit more humble and a little less judgmental if we saw the posting location. And I think that's a simple compromise we can all agree on. I agree. I also think at this point, if you're hating online,

you're a bot, like you're not real. Because who does that? Bots. Bots. Exclusively. That's how I think about it. It's actually Bruce. It's actually Bruce.

Bruce sitting on a nickname. I just think that's a good, like, oh, wow, you think, oh, boy, boy, what a strong opinion you have. No. What's your desk look like? What's the chair looks like? It's everybody gets supposed,

published their first draft. You know, I mean, the only person I know in the world who gets to film their first draft is Woody Allen. I mean, and you see some of the movies and you go, you really should have had an editor. You really should have had somebody come in and say, no, don't do that. Don't make this

picture. About another, an old Jew loving old young girl, don't do that. Not right. Yeah, I just have gotten the sense that he's not getting great feedback over the years. You've heard that, yeah. All right, thank you to Mikey. See you're on season 18 of Rupal's Drag Race.

And you go to Mikeymeeks.com for tickets here on tour. And we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. Love or Leave It is brought you by Cook Unity. Eating out of restaurants is great, but it's also expensive. The good news is you can actually get that level of culinary satisfaction at home for way less than a night out. Cook Unity is the first chef-led meal delivery service that makes your meals in small batches inside local kitchens across the U.S., not factory.

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The time has come for a segment we're calling, when it rainbows, it pours. Every year we take a look at the best, worst and the Bezius Pride merch and decide, gay or nay? Okay. Is it, Mikey and Bruce approved, or are we leaving it on the rack next to the rainbow mesh tank tops? Let's decide. First up, we have Old Navy's, and I, by the way, haven't seen these till now. Old Navy's, Proudly Me, Stand Up for Love, Ringer Tea. Proudly Me, Stand Up for Love, Ringer Tea.

Mikey, what do we think about this one? I don't think it's, I think it's great. I think it's good too. Yeah, I think it's cute. I think it's simple and it says what it needs to, which I love. It's not like, fuck me, I'm gay. Can I say that? No, yeah, you can definitely say that.

I don't think the Target collection can say it, which is a shame. I'm offended by horizontal strikes. I think when I wear them, they could land airplanes on me. So I mean, you want something that slims you down, not that makes you, I, you can be proud, but thin. It's okay. Right, I see. I sort of, yeah, I guess I do think that runs counter to the message of the shirts.

Exactly right. Also, stand up. Wow, ableous, isn't it? I think we're turning on the shirt. And by the way, I also don't like this shirt. Because it's two shirts, guys. I know we're having a meeting, and we're brainstorming pride merch

and someone says, what about proudly me and what about stand up for love? And then someone's like, could we put them both on the shirt? Sure, what about her horizontal rainbow striat? Well, it's not that. slimming. That's the wrong thing to say in this meeting. And then like, well, what about a heart, too? So it's a rainbow streaked cart comet where you're proudly yourself, but also standing up for love, which are completely independent things to do. I agree. And the red piping looks like

you're just hiding hickies. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. It's a no, it's a nay. It's gone. It's gone. That's right. It's that serious. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, Old Navy. Yeah. I love Old Navy, and I'm happy for any sponsorship. such an important point. Yes. And I just want to be clear, we all love Old Navy. We all. And they're doing great work over there.

I don't know if the dog is still involved. I personally love Young Navy. Oh. Seaman, yes. Next up, we have the Target rainbow-fringed denim vest and circus pants. Here we have vertical stripes. Yeah, there we go. So now we're in the market, Bruce's market.

The print also comes in a caftan. Wow. So can we go back? to the, I'm a little bit, I'll just, yeah, no, this isn't no. What's happened? I'm a little confused. It's very Marty Grah. It's Marty Grah. It's Marty Grah.

I mean, I just feel like, these are two statement pieces put together. That's right. We need a little subtlety. Or not, I'm not here to judge, but I'm going to judge this outfit. It's, to me, it's a boot. It's a boot.

I just feel like, I feel like the pants and the fringe, they're in two separate, you know, they're having two different, We're in two different movies. I kind of like the color gradient, though, of the fringe. I like both. I like both. I like both.

I just don't think they go together. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying he looks like he's having fun. He's having the pride of his life right now. It's like an angel with shredded wings. Sad story, really. It is sad. So, Ney?

What do you think? Yay, Ney, Bruce, Gay, or Ney? Is this, but we haven't commented, on the bathrobe or whatever that is she's well that's the caftan version let's go to the calf tan that's what i think that's good no you're no no i love it i i say yes to any caftan i think we're a yes on the caftan okay because imagine imagine me wearing that imagine bruce wearing that we would all look fabulous and having a great time and i would stone mine i was wearing it would look like i walked away with the tent stop it bruce it's pride saying

these things about yourself. If you can't love yourself, who the fuck are you going to? Yeah, that's right. If you can't love yourself, who the fuck are you going to love? That's as the famous saying goes. Now, next up. Love it.

Next up, we have Abercrombie and Fitch Resort shirt. If you zoom in real close, can we zoom in on the little tiny pride stripe? Is this part of their pride collection? That's the thing on the pocket? That right there. That right there is pride themed. There's a little rainbow there.

And the logo is rainbow. So this is for pride for, in case you have a lot of conservative and short-sighted relatives. You know, this is for Thanksgiving with people with very thick glasses. This is a shirt that you can say, it's just a smudge. It's just a smudge. It's just a smudge.

Honestly, this is a shirt I'd probably wear. Now, the little line of stitching of rainbow, I mean, it's cute. I mean, if you're D.L., this might be the shirt for you. And I am DL. Wow, that's so sad, this day and age. I live a very hard life. Like, yeah, it's funny, it's sort of the era of, like, maybe the era of Poland isn't over, Brick, Blanche.

It could be. It's very subtle. I think it's exactly right for people who don't want to announce themselves, but want to show that there's somehow a lot. aligned. Now they also have a broke back mountain tank top. So, you know, so now that, that's like a 10 out of 10 for me. That's a that's a much. It's sold out. It's sold out, of course. Sorry Abercrombie and Fitch. I would say, yeah, I also like, Abercrombie and Fitch holds a special place in my mind from my

childhood because it was like, you couldn't get in? This, this segment is over. Because they would, that was like, they had the, the, these, like, the hottest guys in the world. And they, like, have them, like, it was like such a thing that it was like, but it was never gay. No. They were just hot guys playing football shirtless, but it is not gay. No. This is not a gay thing.

So I think we're a yes on this. It's a yes. Yeah, gay. Oh, yeah. Love it. And then we have the American Eagle Pride two piece scent. What? What?

No. That's a no. That just looked like stains, like she's been working in this room. Where's the lesbian merge? I want to know that. Great question. Next up, here it comes. We have, how am I supposed to live, laugh, lesbian in these conditions?

Yeah, that's, yeah, that's a winning shirt for me. Yeah. That's gay as hell. Let's do one more. The Some Like It Hot Bird from Target. That's just, wait, that's gay. That's the day of the Some Like It Hotbirds. Well, I know, I know the scene.

It's the end of the movie. It's the end of the movie. Spoiler alert for Some Like It Hot. Some Like it Hot. They turn it to birds? Jack Levin's a guy. Marilyn Monroe, though. That's the problem.

Oh, God. I mean... It's cute. It's gay. It's also like movie icon stuff, which is basically gay anyway. Gay. I love it.

What, were that salt and pepper or were they just... We don't know. No, I think a little... Tchik. It's a little... Chachki, I think. For your breakfront, I get it.

Yeah, that's right. for maybe to put above your kitchen cabinets, you know, next to a little horse and buggy kind of a thing, you know, a little big plant or sort of something Tuscan. It's for your credenza. Yeah, it's for your credenza, perhaps a console, if you will. Or a truth that you don't hear about you more. Yeah, a Davenport.

That's right. Put it in the Davenport, perhaps. All right, this segment's over. We'll be right back. And we're back. Yeah. Pride is a time where we share our love for all things queer, septum piercings,

jock, scrap, shorts that are either way too big or way too small. Both are gay now. But before I let you two go into that Queer Good Night, we're going to share a few things we know we shouldn't love, but absolutely do in a segment we call I don't care, I love it, gay edition. I love it. All right, I'll kick it off. I think it's good when the corporations have a gay little pride logo.

Was that really yours? I was going to say that. I agree with you. You know, it's like, I know we make fun of it, and it's like, oh, capitalism is American Airlines with a rainbow flag. But you know what? Capitalism is going to be capitalism. Either June is going to have a rainbow flag for American Airlines or it's not. I want to live in the world where they're like, fuck it, let's do it. You know what I mean? Like, I know it's like it's a little bit cringe,

obviously. It's a cringe thing. But I feel like haven't we learned that, like, in the same way that like hypocrisy is a kind of like half, like hypocrisy at least admits to the fact that you know what the right thing is. Like a world where corporations are performatively pro-gay, even if their policies ultimately aren't as gay as they should be and they're rapacious, monstrous, kind of world grabbers. Like at least they know the right thing to say, or there was some value in showing people what the right thing to do is. I don't know. I feel like companies being afraid to be pro-gay is much worse than companies being afraid not to be pro-gay. That's my feeling. I just like to point out. I think a lot of that comes from the fact that they

recognize that they have a whole lot of gay employees. Yes. And the gay employees, if they are out and proud, bring it to the attention of the company. But, you know, this is, This is, we're a segment of American society, just like every other denomination, we're there. And the corporation responds to it because they think, well, you know, we want to keep the employees happy. I mean, Disney's been doing it. They were one of the early ones to do it, and they were the least likely because they are a family business. Their brand is so family-oriented. And this is when the idea of gay people and families were just anathema.

You couldn't compare them. Yeah, and then they made all their villains gay for fun. Well, I know. that was it. That was, the gay people did that at Disney. It was the gays. Yes. Boy, the gays.

It was the gays. All right. Mikey, what's something that you love that others hate? Well, I don't know if she's hated. I don't care. I love Madonna. I love Madonna. And I think, makes the noise for Madonna.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Madonna, especially right now, she's launching a whole new era at 67 years old, and she's unstoppable. I love it. I do, too. It was so exciting seeing her at. Was it a Coachella where she came out? With Sabrina.

With Sabrina. And like, man, like a prayer, you hear like a prayer. You're like that. There's never been a song like it, not before nonsense. She's so cool. And I just enjoy the fact that she is still at this point trailblazing for pop artists to say she's not done. She is still going and going strong. I remember when there were the reports that Madonna was using these vibrating plates to work out on.

And she would like stand on this kind of vibrating platform to work out on. and then in LA there was one of those places with a vibrating plate that opened up and I said, I'm going to go to the Madonna place and stand on the vibrating plate thing and get the experience that Madonna gets and I'm going to work out on the vibrating plate. I don't know how that woman is standing

on one of those plates because I stood on that vibrating plate for three seconds and it's like, this poop is just going to fall right out of me. It was unbelievable. You might as well put me in a fucking centrifuge. Bruce, is there something new? I like, yeah, she's sex positive,

which I've always liked about Madonna. That's the thing. And, you know, I'm old enough to know that she was among the very first famous people to come out and support AIDS fundraising and charities. She started the gay men's health crisis by donating proceeds from one night at Madison Square Garden, a million dollar donation. This is back then, which would have meant a lot more than it does now. And so she was right there at the beginning.

Because, of course, she had so many gay friends who got sick and died. And she's never wavered in that. So I like her for that reason, and that she's sex positive, because there's something that I like, which is terrible. I mean, it's below deck. Yes. You know, it really is crap, but, and you know it's all, I mean, they're doing everything in front of cameramen

who happen to be on the boat with them. And the boat's running because there's crew that actually runs the boat. And there are people who actually cook those meals, and all that. So it's all totally, the first world reality of television is nothing is real.

But I get a kick out of it because they're beautiful people and I love watching them carry on and screw up and all that. And if I like any of them, I can find them on only fans. Hello? And that's our show.

Thank you so much to Bruce Valanche and Mikey Meeks. There are 139 days until the midterms. We'll be back on Friday with Osco, Kuska, Brendan's Canell, and Ashley Ray. Thank you all for coming out and have a good night.

Love it or Leave it is a cricket media production. Our show is produced by Kendra James, Bill McGrath, Kelsey Gante, and me, John Lovett. Our production team includes Hallie Kiefer, Sarah Lazarus, David Tolls, Claudia Shang, Jay Banks, Gavin Purcell, and Matt DeGroote, and our staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.