Hey all you cool cats and kittens! If you haven’t watched “Tiger King” on Netflix, do yourself a favor and watch it right NOW!!! This docu series has all of the elements of a great protagonist that we never knew we wanted: a polygamist, gunslinging, mullet-rocking redneck that happens to own tigers, lions, monkeys, oh my!
This series is nothing short of a fever-dream full of Joe Exotic’s music videos, leather jackets, condoms that promote his presidential campaign and the ruthlessly taunting Carole Baskin. With everyone social distancing and being mind-numbingly bored, “Tiger King” has blown up, and boy do I have some thoughts.
Can we all agree … Carole Baskin is a murderer.
First things first. Carole Baskin is crazy and fed her husband, Don, to the tigers to use his millions to buy more cat print clothes and flower crowns. According to her, he flew to Costa Rica right before he disappeared, but the police have found absolutely no proof to back any of her claims. If you need any more evidence, please refer to the smash hit music video “Here Kitty Kitty” by Joe Exotic himself.
Really though, what made me really dislike her is when she bankrupted Joe (and his parents!) during the lawsuit regarding G.W. Zoo using a similar logo to hers. As crazy and problematic as Joe is, I definitely will admit this made me feel bad for him.
Yes Joe is bad, but others are much worse.
Joe may be hilarious. but we shouldn’t forget that there are some instances of serious animal abuse at his zoo: he bred and illegally sold tigers and left his animals uncared for to focus on his presidential run. But, the bigger problem in the documentary is Doc Antle and his cult-ish Myrtle Beach Safari.
“Tiger King” states that Doc forces his (mostly female) workers to get plastic surgery, sleep with him and abandon their lives outside of the zoo. He also would euthanize baby tigers once they grew older and weren’t able to be held by visitors. Yet Joe is the only one in jail? I am very glad that Doc was included in the documentary, and hopefully Joe can spill enough tea on him to get this whole scheme shut down.
We all better not be going to G.W. Zoo this summer.
I’m just as obsessed with Joe’s music videos and Carol Baskin-roasting livestreams as the next guy, but like I said, this guy has some seriously problematic tendencies. No matter how cool it would be to go to the zoo and take pictures for Insta, we have to remember that we shouldn’t be supporting an industry that causes animal abuse. Places like the G.W. Zoo will expand if people continue to visit, and would cause a lot more (illegal!!) animal suffering.
We have to keep in mind that Joe feels some remorse for what he’s done to his animals, which even led him to tears at one point. Sure, we can support Joe as a person, but let’s make sure our money isn’t going to a questionable cause.
We all have Joe Exotic to thank for keeping our minds off of the Coronavirus for just a bit. He is absolutely insane but, hey, I’m glad we finally found a human that embodies the vibe of 2020. I can’t wait to see all of the Halloween costumes this year… I call being John Finlay!