gooped & gagged

Who’s the new Pit Crew hunk on ‘Drag Race’? Gay Twitter™ solves the mystery in record time

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Image Credit: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ Viacom/World of Wonder

Say what you will about social media, but whenever a new hot guy pops up on our radar, you better believe Gay Twitter™ is on the case, sleuthing for the identity of the mystery man like they’re *ahem* Dick Tracy.

And the latest man-hunt—classified under “Beguiling Bearded Beauties”—was a case opened and closed in record time. The scene of the crime? The Werk Room of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The latest episode of the drag competition’s 16th season opened with a brilliantly absurd Mini Challenge where the queens had to “paint” a shirt using only their face, inspired by the iconic Tammy Fay Bakker tee.

Once their mugs were caked in makeup, each queen was assigned to a member of the Pit Crew in a white T-shirt and tasked with smushing the faces against these blank canvases, leaving their mark.

Drag Race has made a habit of these silly makeup-heavy mini challenges (featuring Anastasia Beverly Hills makeup mogul Norvina clocking in for her once-a-season cameo) and they’re always a delight to watch, though this one especially piqued our interest by putting the emphasis on the ripped bods of the Pit Crew.

Among the familiar torsos faces were perennial favorites like Bruno Alcantara and Jesse Pattison, but there was at least one newbie among their ranks, and Gay Twitter™ would not rest until they found out who he was.

Less than an hour after the episode preview dropped online, X user @tylerhmead logged on to make one simple request: “Hey not to be dramatic, but if one of you doesn’t find me this pit crew member’s [Instagram] I’ll drown myself.”

Desperate for answers, Mead tried everything—even going so far as to tag Willam… which was a smart move because she usually does end up having all the Drag Race tea (especially when it comes to hunks on the show).

Noting the mystery man had been paired with Q in the challenge, Mead also lamented that the queen had recently sworn off social media, otherwise he would’ve been sliding into her DMs looking for answers, too.

But as any good gumshoe knows, sometimes you just have to be patient and the answers will come to you. Mead’s plea made a big enough splash (it’s currently got over 23k likes and 3.3M views!) that it eventually made its way to the mystery man—and he decided to “turn himself in.”

Better still, he didn’t just stop by to say hey—he followed through and dropped a link to his Instagram. Like a true gentleman!

His name is Michael Joseph Massetti, a self-professed “Italian American fitness coach based in NYC” who also identifies as a 6’1″ “hairy macho man.” You might also know him as “Joseph Bigz” on X and…. other social platforms… though hey let’s not get ahead of ourselves here!

Clearly Massetti has some fans of his previous work out there who clocked him the minute he showed up on Drag Race, but there’s no doubt this cameo appearance will earn him plenty of new followers.

Related:

This self-proclaimed “Big Boy” wants to join ‘Drag Race’s’ Pit Crew, and these queens have his back

“I mostly only see six-packs for the Pit Crew, and I think you guys are missing a little belly.”

And, by all accounts, he doesn’t mind the attention at all. He’s re-shared a few of the appreciation posts about him already, and Mead even followed up calling Massetti “a very nice man who I can now confirm is okay with this tweet (thank god).”

So, hey, case closed! We know why you’re here anyway, so we’ll stop yammering on and on and just let you appreciate what the newest member of the Pit Crew has to offer. The petition to get Michael Joseph Massetti back in the Werk Room STAT starts here.

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