Unless you’ve been living in serious isolation from the outside wo-
oh, wait. Let me rephrase that. Unless you haven’t been spending
your time in serious isolation from the outside world in browsing the
internet and binging shows on Netflix, you’ve probably heard of
Tiger King and/or seen it. The show has been slowly taking over the
world with its weird blend of rednecks, animal abuse and murder
mystery. It’s a reality show like any other, and it should be on
your watch list if it isn’t already.
To summarize the show briefly: Joe Exotic, a redneck in the deep
south of America who collects big cats, is currently in jail because
of a feud he has with an animal rights activist called Carole Baskin,
who according to the Tiger King killed her first husband and fed him
to her tigers. Oh, and the Tiger King is also a country singer. Not a
good one, but he makes music anyway. Now that we got the obvious
stuff out of the way, here’s a few things you probably didn’t
know about Tiger King yet.
Joe Doesn’t Sing His Own Songs
While he should’ve probably hired someone else to write his lyrics,
he decided to hire someone else to sing the vocals. This leads to
some horrible lyrics being sung by an average-at-best singer, instead
of the other way around. I mean, the songs are kind of hilarious
though, so I’ll allow it. And I guess the internet has, too.
Filming Had Already Started in 2014
Despite the show only being released recently, filming had started
back in 2014. The filming crew was initially following a snake dealer
when they met Joe Exotic, and figured that would probably make for a
better show. The crew was present when Joe got arrested in 2018 and
things were evolving so quickly that sometimes they were filming 18
hours a day to not miss any of the juicy stuff.
The Don Lewis Disappearance
Whether or not Joe Exotic knew what he was talking about, Carole
Baskin seemed suspicious enough to warrant a second look into the
disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis, because of what was
said and shown in the Netflix show. Especially the fact that Don was
a wealthy man, no body was ever found and Carole seemed eager to have
him declared dead as soon as possible raised a few flags.
Joe Exotic’s Zoo is Still Open
Despite having been bought by Jeff Lowe and having been quickly
renamed to get rid of the association with Joe Exotic, the zoo is
still open. It’s struggling financially though. I guess that makes
sense if you take into account that just feeding all the big cats in
that zoo would cost almost 40,000 dollars per week. I doubt many
people could pay for that. The show has renewed some interest in the
zoo however, with thousands of fans visiting it in the weeks after
the show aired.
Carole Baskin Doesn’t Like The Show
This stands to reason, as the show paints a picture of her as a
manipulative woman that killed her first husband. She was allegedly
convinced to appear on the show because the show would focus on the
animal abuse that takes place in roadside zoos, which it did, but she
didn’t know that there would be so much attention for what happened
to her first husband and how she treats her animals at her own zoo.
Joe Is Taking Everyone To Court
At least everyone who he deems responsible for his false imprisonment. Among the list are currently a federal agent, the prosecutor in his case, Jeff Lowe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and loads of other people. He’s suing for no less than $94 million in damages, which seems like a hefty fee considering the free marketing he’s gotten from his Netflix show, and is currently looking for someone to represent him in court. Joe has hinted on his Instagram account that he has information that the general public isn’t aware of yet. Can’t wait for the sequel!
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