Netflix’s Tiger King is the latest hit docuseries to hit the small screen. But what does our reception of it say about society?
I went to work every day prepared to die in a tiger cage. Dying doesn’t scare me. At all.
– Joe Exotic
With all the psychosis 2020 has seemed to put us through, has it surprised anyone that a documentary about polygamous, gun-toting, gay meth-heads who raise tigers and hire hitmen has become wildly popular?
Of course not: watching Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is like watching the Kardashians but in Oklahoma with ex-cons. Which is to say, it’s to be watched obsessively and in unhealthy volumes.
The docuseries revolves around Joe Exotic, the almost cartoonish owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park (G.W. Zoo), and his steady downfall. Exotic, who’s real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for assorted crimes, including multiple counts of murder-for-hire, falsifying records, and violating the Endangered Species Act.
Equally involved in the story of Exotic are his arch-rival and owner of Big Cat Rescue, Carol Baskin, and his mentor Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who runs Myrtle Beach Safari. Baskin, Mantle, and Exotic are all deep into the world of big cats, as well as shameless self-promotion on social media. Despite their antics, however, their popularity may have been dumb luck.
Youtube channel Screen Junkies put it best when it describes Tiger King as “the ultimate example of timing is everything”. Truly, the docuseries was one of the earliest productions to actually benefit from a national quarantine.
However, Tiger King’s notoriety points to a larger issue at hand. At the end of the day, these are real people making destructive life choices. And we the viewers are watching lives unravel from our couches.
In the wake of Tiger King’s release the internet was flooded with memes. Of course, it wasn’t exactly hard to make fun of something as ridiculous as this. But the instantaneousness with which the internet decided to laugh at Tiger King instead of looking at the actual issues it presented is more than a bit concerning.
Some of the memes reflect strangely macabre tones, like the Tik Tok trends that state with certainty that Carole Baskin killed her husband while smiling people dance along. And some have led to greater action, like the free Joe Exotic memes that have prompted his legal team to actually try and seek a presidential pardon for Exotic.
Most concerning of all is that there is little care for the animals being abused in the series. Especially as the G.W. Zoo begins to decline throughout the 7 episode arc, the animals face more and more abuse from frustrated caretakers and a lack of proper food, space, or general care. Exotic’s niece even claimed that Exotic sold frozen cubs to be taxidermied and that he or others were rumored to have performed sexual acts on the animals at the zoo.
Aside from that, as Sukriti Wahi describes in a piece for ELLE Australia, characters like Joe and Doc are dangerously romanticized by the series. Doc literally runs a sex cult as described by former employee Barbara Fisher. Joe meanwhile continuously supplied one of his former husbands, Travis Maldonado, with marijuana and meth, preying on Maldonado’s addiction to keep him in the relationship even though Maldonado didn’t identify as gay. Another of Joe’s husbands, John Finley (who also didn’t identify as gay), claims that Exotic constantly manipulated him while also keeping Finley around by providing him with guns and trucks.
At the end of the day, Tiger King may be entertaining, but it’s also a very concerning look into how damaged people can gain insane amounts of popularity on the internet. This notoriety only encourages more of this behavior, and in the end we see more problems and fewer solutions. And that’s a royal pain.
Midbrow 