Iago, quite frankly, could never. On the most recent episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Cohen brought back the latest breakout Bravo-lebrity, Shady T’Challa, the sassy puppet, and he’s only barely more artificial than the other Housewives. Shady T’Challa, of course, is a Muppified version of Monique Samuels’ scene-stealing African Grey parrot, T’Challa. While the real T’Challa impresses fans by pooping on napkins and scaring his Real Housewives of Potomac co-star Karen Huger, Shady T’Challa earns his wings by interrogating guests à la Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, if Triumph the Insult Comic Dog had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Housewives universe. Shady T’Challa made his first WWHL appearance three months ago to squawk at Karen, and he returned on November 29 to meet real T’Challa in a very cute wildlife moment that was downright Lacanian.
Shady T’Challa also chatted with guest Isaac Mizrahi, who said that the puppet “sounds like Patti LuPone doing Ethel Merman.” Mizrahi weighed in on Gizelle Bryant’s fashion sensibilities (“doing that couture sensibility on a budget is a real feat”) and the Countess’s cabaret skills (“Luann is the mistress of cabaret. I only walk in the very long shadow of Luann. Because, you know, she’s so tall. So she casts a very long shadow.”) Only a correspondent as skilled as Shady T’Challa could pull these nuggets of truth out of a guest. With the introduction of this puppet reporter, the WWHL clubhouse is one step closer to going full-blown Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.
