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'Tiger King' viewers trash Netflix for glorifying Joe Exotic: 'He's a monster and you should be ashamed'

Critics have buzzed social media calling out the absurd glorification of the scandalous big cat owner who is currently in jail for murder for hire and numerous animal abuse charges
PUBLISHED APR 13, 2020
Joe Exotic (Netflix)
Joe Exotic (Netflix)

Spoilers for 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness'

In these harrowing and trying times amid a full-blown pandemic, Netflix offered the only respite that's seemed to bring society together in the form of its latest docuseries 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness'.

Revolving around the flashy and outrageous rise, downfall and eventual incarceration of Oklahoma zookeeper Joe Exotic, the story explores his rivalry with fellow big cat aficionado Carole Baskin.

And even though the world is currently divided between whether Joe's business partner Jeff Lowe was hired by Baskin to frame him or not, a certain section of critics have buzzed social media calling out the absurd glorification of the scandalous big cat owner who is currently in jail for murder for hire and numerous animal abuse charges.

Ever since its release back in March, the Netflix documentary has blown up to proportions very few productions of the genre have been able to. It managed to soar the gay cowboy zoo owner to unimaginable popularity with people praising him for exposing Baskin and how she supposedly killed her ex-husband and fed him to her tigers at The Big Cat Rescue Foundation.

Joe employed plenty of tactics to assert the Baskin-killed-her-husband idea, from regular videos on his web series to openly claiming it out loud to his customers — Joe left no stone unturned to tarnish Baskin's reputation, while she did the utmost to get him behind bars.

Baskin's biggest problems with Joe were his petting and tiger show business where he would travel across malls with setups for customers to take photos with the cubs.

Along with that, he also supposedly shot his tigers and underneath his philanthropist facade was an abusive manipulator who constantly targetted young, impressionable men and lured them in with work, before marrying them.

Laced with bigamy, drug dependency and accidental suicides, Joe's sordid love life has scandalized many and outraged even more since the documentary premiered.

And while the initial buzz was about freeing Joe and how Baskin framed him using Lowe, there's an ongoing current buzz calling out the Netflix documentary for glorifying a man accused of such abhorrent crimes.

This second wave of backlash is based on witness testimonies and accounts that were present in the documentary as well, but weren't as highlighted, which has been pointed out by several faces from the documentary in the additional special episode where actor and comedian Joel McHale interviewed them.

In the episode titled 'The Tiger King and I' — the eighth in the series — Lowe tells McHale that Joe was his own biggest enemy as his videos against Baskin ended up being the primary evidence in his murder-for-hire charges.

But if the internet is to be trusted now, Joe was his own worst enemy not just because of his antagonizing videos, but simply for the man he was deep within.

Joe Exotic with one of his tigers (Netflix)

Taking it to Twitter, viewers compared the Netflix documentary with other podcasts on Joe in an attempt to highlight what they claim is Netflix's glorification of the toxic zookeeper, as compared to more neutral and factual depiction in other productions.

"Honestly f**k that whole documentary. It's garbage. all it did was glorify two petty ass grown adults using the facade of saving endangered animals to make some f**king money. f**k joe exotic and f**k Carole Baskin. All my homies hate Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin," wrote an angry viewer on Twitter.

Another cited a podcast by Wondery, touting it for its factual representation of the saga, writing: "Agreed. All these ppl watched one show and now glorify f**king Joe Exotic. @WonderyMedia has a podcast and actually provides an objective depiction, unlike @netflix."

Diving further into the comparison, a third viewer remarked: "I am listening to the #JoeExotic podcast from @WonderyMedia and I have also been watching #TigerKing on @netflix and I feel like each is telling a different story. The podcast is more of a deep dive while the Netflix show seems to glorify Joe, doesn't it?"

The documentary also draws its own share of flak for addressing Joe's employee Kelci 'Saff' Saffery as "she" even though he identifies as a man, as was revealed in McHale's interview. "So in case you were wondering what it's like to erase trans men, one was in 'Tiger King' and just got referred to as a woman the whole time," shared a viewer.

And bordering on similar lines of political correctness, a viewer noted the irony of it all saying: "The same people who cancel men because they're trash are saying Joe Exotic for President. Now, I totally agree men are trash. But Joe Exotic is about as toxic as they come. Why do people glorify this crap?"

Things got so ridiculous according to a viewer who they felt compelled to share: "If you get to glorify a predatory animal abuser like Joe Exotic, I get to glorify my obese arse," and these remarks are just a droplet amidst an ocean of flak calling out the hype for Joe.

Carole Baskin, co-founder of The Big Cat Rescue, who was behind getting Joe incarcerated (Netflix)

When not bashing Netflix for making such a Joe-positive documentary, another bunch of viewers took to the idea of glorifying Joe in general, calling out anybody who keeps harping on what a legend he is and how he deserves to be freed from his 22-year sentence in federal prison, which he has been serving since January this year.

Tweeting about the absurd hype forJoe, a viewer shared: "All of Joe Exotics wild animals are at the Wildlife Sanctuary in Colorado where they are finally thriving. Don't glorify animal abusers like Joe Exotic. He's a monster and you should be ashamed!"

Another simply asked: "why do people glorify Joe Exotic. I don’t get it. I have seen people embroider PILLOWS with his face on it, I'm so disgusted." A third viewer shared: "I woke up to a bunch of the people I follow in the Warrior Cats fandom liking and tweeting some stuff about Tiger King. I didn't actually look it up this time. I'm very relieved the people I follow do not glorify Joe Exotic."

But of course, there are people who mocked the criticism, as one viewer wrote: "These hot takes I keep seeing from 'ultra woke' people about people glorifying Joe Exotic and the abuse of animals and humans in Tiger King is so f**king weird to me. No one watched it because they love Joe, and documentary also absolutely did not glorify any of it? Crazy."

Overall, rational viewers who kept their cool pointed out: "I get that #JoeExotic seems funny and quirky, but in no way should he be idolized. He was incredibly abusive to his animals and new allegations are coming out every day. Let’s not glorify people who see animals as income."

Another viewer mentioned: "I keep seeing people change their pictures to one of Joe Exotic. I wish they wouldn’t glorify his name and that industry. It’s a tragic story full of cruelty. If your going to do it Why not change your picture to a tiger?" It sounds like a solid and fair idea, right?

'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness' premiered on March 20 and all 8 episodes are available for streaming on Netflix.

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