West Hollywood Drag Queens Announce Road Closures

The city of West Hollywood is taking a novel approach to inform motorists about an inconvenient road closure: enlisting drag queens to create a series of parody videos.

Traffic in “WeHo” between Fountain and Sunset on La Cienega Boulevard will be closed to motorists beginning Monday, August 17 and running through mid-September, and to help keep drivers apprised of the change, the city has created a video featuring several popular drag queens humorously discussing alternative routes.

The first episode of “The WeHoans,” a parody of the Saturday Night Live skit “The Californians” was released online last week. And so far, it seems to doing a good job of informing drivers of the road closure; the video already has more than 100,000 views on YouTube.

The video follows popular actor and drag queen Willam Belli (RuPaul’s Drag Race) giving directions to a confused resident named “Drew.” The two appear to be involved in an extra-marital affair as Belli urges Drew to hit the road before “Roy” gets home.

When Roy arrives home, the threesome animatedly discuss the best way to avoid getting snagged by the closure. The skit, like the SNL skit that inspired it, skewers Californians for being ditzy, out of touch–and obsessed with driving directions.

West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey Horvath told KNX 1070 that the video is helping to get the word out.

“I mean, the truth is people are paying attention to the videos because of how fun it is,” Horvath told the radio station. “And they’re actually listening to ways to get around the street closure – unlike a lot of times where people are like, ‘Ugh, I hit that street closure, why didn’t I know about it?'”

The city reportedly plans to add two more episodes to its website and YouTube in the near future.

Check out the first episode of “The WeHoans” above.