Tiger King - Murder, Mayhem and Madness

[minkage]

Considering the internet and the world at large has been talking this show up im quite shocked theres no thread here.

I am 3 episodes in and its honestly completely fascinating.

Among the eccentrics and cult personalities in the stranger-than-fiction world of big cat owners, few stand out more than Joe Exotic, a mulleted, gun-toting polygamist and country western singer who presides over an Oklahoma roadside zoo. Charismatic but misguided, Joe and an unbelievable cast of characters including drug kingpins, conmen, and cult leaders all share a passion for big cats, and the status and attention their dangerous menageries garner. But things take a dark turn when Carole Baskin, an animal activist and owner of a big cat sanctuary, threatens to put them out of business, stoking a rivalry that eventually leads to Joe’s arrest for a murder-for-hire plot, and reveals a twisted tale where the only thing more dangerous than a big cat is its owner.

[Dug]

Probably the most entertaining documentary I've ever watched. Literally has everything you could ever ask for. I love that there are basically 0 people you can root for it's all just scumbag olympics

[Nellise]

I thought it was great. Not many shows make me go "wait, wtf?" at the end of each episode but this one did. I only wish they went into the cub petting culture a bit since that was the driving force behind almost the whole thing. I still don't get that.

[Kathandira]

This show was amazing! Definitely kept me watching and wanting more. I'd love to know what happens to Jeff Lowe after all this.

[StillMcfuu]

It's amazing how Netflix is capable of finding these stories where everyone involved is a piece of shit. There are 3 main people, all of them are Sociopaths, fairly certain the guru guy is a Psychopath, and then they just keep introducing characters and if those characters aren't yet another immoral sociopath, they are some level of culpable victim.

[Unholyground]

Joe will get out on time served once he makes a deal with the feds, all the people in that video who deal in big cats are going to jail since they were all doing illegal shit and he has dealt with all of them. Joe is crappy too but I think he has the best advantage in the situation to come out of it.

[eschatological]

I can't stand documentaries like this. I started watching the first episode, and you could tell in the first few minutes that Joe Exotic calling from the jail just wanted the fame to try and turn it to his advantage to scapegoat his wrongdoing. He's going for the "Making a Murderer" sympathy, except that Making a Murderer might have actually involved actual law enforcement malfeasance. I stopped watching it after that episode.

I feel like shows like this glorify these people and give them more influence than they deserve. These people should rot in obscurity.

[jackofwind]

I can't stand documentaries like this. I started watching the first episode, and you could tell in the first few minutes that Joe Exotic calling from the jail just wanted the fame to try and turn it to his advantage to scapegoat his wrongdoing. He's going for the "Making a Murderer" sympathy, except that Making a Murderer might have actually involved actual law enforcement malfeasance. I stopped watching it after that episode.

I feel like shows like this glorify these people and give them more influence than they deserve. These people should rot in obscurity.

These people have no influence, that's kind of the point. The entire show is about how they're basically kings in their own eyes and never realize that everyone around them thinks they're a complete joke. The whole story of Joe running for president and governor, thinking he was going to win, embezzling a lot of funds without knowing what that even meant, and ultimately failing miserably in the election and being thoroughly embarrassed is a testament to just how unintelligent and deluded he is.

Reinke is the best part of that show, hands down.

[minkage]

You know I feel bad for Joe when all was said and done.

Everyone else in the show that seemed way more vile and definately a hell of alot smarter then him whereas Joe was bat shit crazy and did some stupid stupid god dang stupid things. I feel that he started off with the best of intentions and was so sure of himself that he was doing good and he also seemed to genuinally care for his partners.

Joe got massively f'ed over and I feel his revenge will add some more interesting chapters to this story down the road.

[callipygoustp]

During the first 10-15 mins of the first episode I was becoming convinced that it was satire. Nope! Pure fucking craziness. Binged the whole dammed thing over the course of a day. Like passing a car wreck, just couldn't look away.

[Adamas102]

I can't stand documentaries like this. I started watching the first episode, and you could tell in the first few minutes that Joe Exotic calling from the jail just wanted the fame to try and turn it to his advantage to scapegoat his wrongdoing. He's going for the "Making a Murderer" sympathy, except that Making a Murderer might have actually involved actual law enforcement malfeasance. I stopped watching it after that episode.

I feel like shows like this glorify these people and give them more influence than they deserve. These people should rot in obscurity.

I don't entirely disagree with this sentiment since a lot of low intelligence folks (for lack of a better term) will indeed gravitate to and sympathize with someone as fascinating, eccentric, and charismatic as Joe Exotic. Netflix definitely plays up the sensationalism angle to sell the series, but everyone I know who has watched it finds almost the entire cast altogether insane and repulsive. There is almost no one appearing on the show with clean hands, and the real underlying cause for concern is still these exploitative exotic animal breeding facilities.

I think another part of why a lot of people are jumping on the Joe bandwagon is just because he seems to have been the only one who paid a price. The series is no Blackfish, but I think it's still doing a good job of alerting people to an issue most of us didn't think about or simply weren't aware of. If any actual good comes of this show, it will be that of a devastating blow struck to this business of exotic animal breeding/trading.

I'm certainly not a fan of Joe. He can rot in jail for the crimes he has committed, but there are a lot of other people who should be there with him. The appeal of the show to my wife and I was more along the lines of how insane a group of people this world of roadside zoos has brought together.

[eschatological]

You know I feel bad for Joe when all was said and done.

Everyone else in the show that seemed way more vile and definately a hell of alot smarter then him whereas Joe was bat shit crazy and did some stupid stupid god dang stupid things. I feel that he started off with the best of intentions and was so sure of himself that he was doing good and he also seemed to genuinally care for his partners.

Joe got massively f'ed over and I feel his revenge will add some more interesting chapters to this story down the road.

And this reinforces why I don't like these documentaries. Joe Exotic (who I knew about before this "documentary") is a scum bag. "Documentaries" like this want to make a dynamic figure at the center of their documentary, and it's never the whole picture. They should more aptly be called docu-dramas.

- - - Updated - - -

And I thought it fascinating how two ppl in a way did the same (Joe and Carol), just one of them claims to be rescuing tigers and does not stop to hunt down and destroy the other. Who here also thinks she totally killed her husband?

Except it's not the same. I know of this issue outside this documentary, but Big Cat Rescue doesn't breed tigers, they don't exploit them for petting and Instagram photos, and they only take in rescued cats to live out the rest of their days, they don't buy and sell them. It's also a registered not-for-profit.

I don't know anything about her husband though, that's news to me.

[Doctor Funkenstein]

It's cool, you're just making him and everyone else in the show ridiculously rich by encouraging shows like this with your viewership. Good job!

[Unholyground]

Once the feds get that info Joe dirt has on all of them I bet he will get out on probation/time served as part of his deal. They are all horrible people in the end (the owners) and they will all get in deep shit.

[Fahrenheit]

Beyond all the "WTF!" moments mentioned above, it just makes me angry? Sad? Dissappointed? I don't know... that these are real people living in my own country, acting like this, for like decades on end. Like, every person in this was a bigger pile of trash than the next. Really makes me wish I could Thanos snap away a good chunk of the world's population.

[Bodakane]

Say what you will about Carol Baskin.....but her take on big cat ownership is spot on.

Big cats should not be owned by the privater sector.

Her only request from the upcoming Kate McKinnon movie about all of this, was for them to use CGI cats instead of live ones. She is doing the right thing by big cats....Joe and his ilk are not.

[minkage]

Some seriously high quality meme's getting made

[IIamaKing]

I thought it was great. Not many shows make me go "wait, wtf?" at the end of each episode but this one did. I only wish they went into the cub petting culture a bit since that was the driving force behind almost the whole thing. I still don't get that.

People pay others to go pet cubs and take pics. That money drove the business.

[Nellise]

People pay others to go pet cubs and take pics. That money drove the business.

I understood that. What I meant was more insight into who are these people that want to pet cubs so badly and why is taking pictures with them such big business and why are they a pussy magnet for a conman like Jeff Lowe. There's a whole culture on that side of the equation too that wasn't explored.

[Kathandira]

If you want more. Check out David Spade's internet show where he is interviewing each person from the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HsYVPZuUfE