RuPaul Pays Homage to 'Dynasty' on 'SNL' in Coal Mining Catfight Skit

RuPaul hosting Saturday Night Live was a historic moment.

Unfortunately, most of the skits didn’t quite hit home, through no fault of Ru’s. Many of the sketches featured him either playing himself, or playing himself in drag, and all centered around making sure there was a “straight” lens through which non-queer people could view his characters from a safe distance while avoiding entering a queer world.

But it was the cut for time skit, starring Ru and Bowen Yang, that actually came the closest to SNL success.

“Coal Miners Face-Off” featured RuPaul and Bowen as long time enemies, suddenly forced to work together in the same coal mine. It’s an overly dramatic shade-throwing fest, a pointed callback to an iconic episode of the ‘80s version of Dynasty in which Joan Collins and Diahann Carroll’s characters absolutely eviscerate one another with words.

From slapping to drink throwing to a foot-focused catfight, this skit blows far past the restrained verbal sparring of Dynasty into something equal parts reverent and ridiculous, but in a fun way. Even the coal miners’ names are the same as the characters from the soap — it’s Big Dom vs Big Al, soon revealed to be Dominique vs Alexis.

This one skit couldn’t save the whole of the episode, alas, but we would definitely watch a whole show of Ru and Bowen as coal mining nemeses, constantly at one another’s throats. SNL made the wrong call cutting this one.