Oh, hey, Rudy Giuliani's awful Masked Singer episode finally aired

Update, 4/20/22 at 8:08 p.m.: Congratulations, humanity: You have now survived long enough to get to the “Rudy Giuliani is revealed on The Masked Singer” portion of the human race’s grand journey into the future.

Giuliani’s spotlight episode of the Fox singing show finally aired tonight, and, really: If you haven’t watched Rudy Giuliani pop out of a big Jack In The Box and then butcher “Bad To The Bone,” have you even lived?

As previously reported, series judge Ken Jeong was decidedly unhappy at the reveal; we’re a bit surprised Fox broadcast his quiet “I’m done,” followed by walking off the show’s stage. (No sign of Robin Thicke’s reported departure right after him; in clips from the moment, Thicke is at least playing at the show’s “We’re all having a good time!” vibe, while Jeong is clearly mortified.) But it’s also clear that the show itself was at least a little uncomfortable with its decision to bring on the Trump administration lawyer/ghoul, with Nick Cannon remarking, “With all of the controversy that’s surrounding you right now I think it surprises us all that you’re here on The Masked Singer.”

(There’s also a moment when the show reveals that a “clue” meant to lead people to Giuliani’s identity was “a nod to Four Seasons Total Landscaping, which Giuliani mistakenly booked for a press conference in 2020,” and Jesus Christ this is some fucking weird TV.)

Original story, 2/2/2022: Fox’s The Masked Singer is not—despite its occasional taste for mutilated mecha-owls, googly-eyed hell babies, and a taco costume that yet haunts our dreams—a horror show. The appeal of the reality series is meant to be one of simple delight, i.e., watching a person in an elaborate costume dance and sing on national TV, then take off their mask to reveal [insert most famous person the show’s producers could get to dress up like a giant lizard here].

Certainly, you’re not supposed to be more horrified by the face under the mask, right?

Which is to say: Deadline reports tonight that former New York mayor, former Trump administration lawyer, and former Four Seasons Total Landscaping spokesmodel Rudy Giuliani was apparently unmasked on a yet-to-be-aired installment of The Masked Singer tonight, prompting hosts Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke to reportedly walk away from the show’s set in protest.

And while we’d never willingly turn to, say, Robin Thicke as an arbiter of moral good, Giuliani’s appearance on the series does follow a certain trend for its “celebrity” picks—coming as it does a few years after the bizarre spectacle of watching Sarah Palin (as “The Bear”) serenade the nation she once hoped to lead with a rendition of “Baby Got Back.”

Now, we would never, in a million years, accuse The Masked Singer of having a political bent, an allegation that would ride on the back of the assumption that the show has a moral philosophy, period. It’s more that the series doesn’t seem to recognize “political figure” as a distinct class of celebrity in the first place, or distinguish it from, say, “former member of The Backstreet Boys.” From the show’s point of view, it’s all just one big bucket of recognizable figures, labeled “Famous!”, and then poured into a jellyfish costume.

But Giuliani is notable because of the active efforts he’s taken to alter the American political system, most recently as a high-profile (if also determinedly inept) participant in the Trump campaign’s efforts to skew the results of the 2020 election in their favor. And, thus, in the eyes of many right-thinking people (and also Robin Thicke, apparently), an active element in an attempt to subvert the democratic process. At which point, it really doesn’t matter how good his rendition of “My Way” is, or how silly he looks in a blinged-out gorilla suit—his presence on the show can’t read as anything other than an endorsement of the practice of treating his celebrity as the most important factor about him, rather than his actions or beliefs.

Deadline didn’t reveal what costume Giuliani was wearing, or when his episode is likely to air; Fox reportedly didn’t respond to a request for comment on the pick.