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In Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Queen is discussing about Roger's car song in the upcoming album, which is about to release:

Freddie: We could all murder each other...but then who would be left to record this album?

John Deacon: Statistically speaking, most bands don't fail, they break up.

Freddie: Why the hell would you say something like that? Roger, there's only room in this band for one hysterical queen.

What does "one hysterical queen" refer to?

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Freddie!

A 'queen', if you didn't know, is an 'overtly gay man'. It's not a description really used in these days of more openness and LGBTQ 'equality' but it was a term definitely used between gay men and their friends [of any gender-bias] to describe a man who displayed 'dramatic tendencies'.

I hope I don't come off as some kind of neanderthal in the above description - my intent was not to offend anyone.

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  • I wonder if Freddie Mercury would ever say that or if he's rapidly gyrating in his grave?
    – GordonBennett
    Commented Feb 18, 2019 at 8:34
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    I have little doubt that Freddie played to his strengths right from the beginning. He was a gay man in an era when that was not really a popular thing to admit... yet it was Freddie who named the band & Freddie who designed the logo - setting his own zodiac sign as two fairies. That "no-one guessed" until much later I think had more to do with marketing & a sign of the times than anything Freddie was doing. I wouldn't think it inconceivable that he may have said something like that, at all.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Feb 18, 2019 at 8:46
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    I agree with Tetsujin's answer, and I want to add that Freddie was criticizing Roger as being hysterical at the moment. Freddie was also saying that he himself, Freddie, claimed the role of hysterical person ("queen" in this case), and that Roger should calm down.
    – BrettFromLA
    Commented Feb 18, 2019 at 14:36

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