*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

As Rupaul’s Drag Race continues to slay, catapulting many drag queens’ careers into the drag elite, there has been side shows, spin-offs and tie-ins, yet none of them compare to Rapal Dark Res. Hold on to your tucks, as this is one hell of a bumpy ride! Shantay you gay!

If you haven’t heard of it, Rapal Dark Res is a quirky YouTube series that parodies the original show, with a very unusual style combining text to speech voices, animated queens, and lots and lots of laughs. Originally airing over 2 years ago, Rapal Dark Res has over 23,000 subscribers, over 270,000 views of an episode and countless comments from fans praising the show.

Luckily, I caught up with the show’s creator just in time for the new episode to be dropped with none other than Alaska Thunderfuck lending her talents as a voice over…

How did Rapal: Dark Res come about? Where did you get the ideas for the tone / style of the series?

“A lot of people don’t seem to know this, but RaPal Dark Res originated from ‘The Nekci Menij Show’ created by David Alexander. It follows pop divas such as Ladey Gags (Lady Gaga), Kety Perr (Katy perry) and Medoner (Madonna) in all kinds of fucked up adventures. My friend suggested me watching it and we were obsessed. He hated the fact that I was in love with RuPaul’s Drag race at the time because he thought that Drag Queens were awful. As a joke for him I secretly created this short video of the two shows combined. Within a few days he linked me the video with a text: ‘’HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?’’ It was the funniest thing ever. He knows every second of every Drag Race lip-sync now, so I think it turned out well.

The names all came very naturally. I had made a few drawings and just put them in a folder on my desktop which I temporarily named ‘Rapal dark res’ not knowing that it would become this full YouTube show a year later.”

What goes into creating a full episode?

“I am on Reddit all the time because I think they are one of the funniest people on the internet. A lot of my inspiration for the episodes comes from them. Now combine that with a fucked up mind and a new episode is born.

I usually start with creating the audio of the episode. Which mostly comes from online text to speech voices. Creating the audio can take me weeks, but I alternate that with drawing the characters, scenes and more. Then I throw it all together in an editing software and I have a fun stressful week of animating till midnight.”

Is it just yourself that works on the series or do you have others that contribute?

“Creating the actual videos is all done by myself, but I have had help on 1 or 2 episodes in the past. There is also this wonderful guy, Ruslan Nugman, that does all the amazing instrumentals for my parodies of RuGirl songs. Whenever I need something I contact him and within a day he has an entire song finished.

My supporters on Patreon also really help me out. Not only financially, but I give them the opportunity to send in ideas and sketches if they want.”



You recently dropped the trailer for season 9 of Rapal Dark Res and feature one of the most loved queens Alaska. How will she be contributing to this series overall? What is Alaska like to work with?

“I still can’t believe it but yes, we actually have Alaska on the show! She has been a fan for a long time and I thought it would be really cool if she would guest voice on an episode. I contacted her a few months back and she was more than willing to do it. Once I send her the script she added so many things herself. She was the best to work with! Can you imagine how hard it was for me to keep my mouth shut? I hope she will be back for something I have in mind for a future project.”

What can we expect from Season 9 of the web series? Any more surprises?

“I don’t have all the episodes planned out yet, but I already have crazy ideas for the next videos. It’s RaPal Dark Res, it’s one big surprise!”

What is your opinion of the queens on Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 9? Do you have a favourite?

“Creating RaPal Dark Res and analysing every second of every episode makes me love every queen to be honest. But I do really love Nina Bonina Brown’s drag. I relate to her, because I also try to think out of the box and make stuff out of nothing all the time in my drag.”

How have drag queens reacted after you have portrayed them in Rapal Dark Res?

“Some queens do not get RaPal Dark Res at all, which is very understandable. But there are also RuGirls that are in love with what I do. Alaska, Laila Mcqueen, Farrah Moan, Nina Bo’nina, Thorgy Thor, Sasha Velour and many more. Producer Entertainment Group once reached to me and told me that almost all their girls know of RaPal Dark Res and love it. It was crazy to hear that Violet rewatched her ‘Buttie’ parody a lot of times. But the fact that Alaska, someone I really look up to, is a fan of my work is very surreal.”

What’s in store for the future of Rapal’s Dark Res?



“I just keep on doing my thing for as long as I enjoy it. I always try to step my pussy up every season. One of my ideas is to have a RaPal Dark Res movie with a bunch of queens guest-starring in it. That would be really cool.”

“I want to thank everyone for their support. I can’t believe that my channel has thousands of views, because it was never my intention to create something this big. I try to take it not that serious because at the end of the day it’s just talking text to speech ducks. But hearing that I cheer people up and make their day, or that I am the reason that they watch drag race is unbelievable. If you want to support me you can subscribe to me on http://www.youtube.com/rapaldarkres. You can support me by buying a T-Shirt on dragqueenmerch or on my patreon: Patreon.com/rapaldarkres ”

There you have it! Roem Service is the creator of Rapal Dark Res! Can we have the Futuristic Cyborg from the Netherlands for season 10 of Rupaul’s Drag Race, please?

With thanks to Roem Service, you can follow her on twitter:

@RoemService @RapalDarkRes