Let's Talk About the Average "The Tiger King and I"

For those of us that wanted more "Tiger King", we got it yesterday. They had a reunion show, of sorts, and it was interesting. Joel McHale hosted the show from his home, as we are on quarantine right now, and he had, I believe, seven guests. They included Exotic's former workers, Saff, the drunk dude and the guy with two fake legs. There was also Jeff Lowe and his wife, one of Joe's ex husbands, John, Exotic's campaign manager and Rick Kirkham, the "Inside Edition" guy.

The "reunion" was kind of a let down, at least for me. I was expecting something as wild as the show, and maybe that is on me. The show was so wild and bizarre and intriguing and insane, I just naturally assumed the reunion would have some of that flair. It did not. It was really more of a, "lets all shit on Joe Exotic for 40 minutes", and skirt around some of the problems that some of the other guests may have had, or still have. Now, that could be on Netflix. Maybe they wouldn't have been able to get the guests unless they were portrayed as fine people. As for the dumping all over Exotic, well, I should have expected that as well. In fact, the only people that didn't take this time to dunk on him were Saff and his former campaign manager. Now, they didn't really side with him either, but they didn't crush him either. They agreed that what he did was wrong, because it was super wrong, but they also acknowledged that almost everyone was doing something wrong. They knew the bad things that Exotic did to some of the animals, but they also knew that Lowe is a bad dude, and people will feed into anything as long as it is put out the way Netflix did with "Tiger King".

I also want to point out how disappointed I was that McHale didn't really bring up any of Lowe's legal troubles while interviewing him and his wife. He decided to mock his clothing, which was funny, but he really let Lowe destroy Exotic and blame every little thing on everyone else. I felt that McHale could have went in hard on him, but he, or Netflix maybe, kind of handcuffed any real questions that could have, or should have, been asked. I was stunned at how much the former alcoholic guy went in on Exotic. He seems to really hate him, and while he was pretty quiet on the show, until the trial, he let loose in this special. He said good riddance and said he is sure Exotic will die in jail. He also went on some wild rant about how he has never done meth, how he loves Jesus and that his teeth are haggard because he is old and a former alcoholic. It was the weirdest thing in this. The guy with two fake legs seems to just want to live as regular a life as he can. He has a girlfriend, got his teeth fixed and is doing stuff with cars. He wants to move on. The former husband feels the same for me. He has stopped with the drugs, he has a kid, he has dentures and he looks to be on the path of clean living. As for Kirkham, that dude is just full of shit all over the place. I don't get what he is after and what he expects. He lives in Norway now, and man did he dunk all over Exotic whenever he got the chance. It felt like he was saying a whole bunch of stuff so the attention would be off him and on anyone else.

Which brings me to a few final points. One, I don't know who to believe in any of this. I don't know if Exotic is telling the truth, or parts of the truth, or if the people interviewed, minus Lowe, are telling whole truths. They all seem like they are skirting around the main issue. As for Exotic, he is in jail, where he belongs right now, and he will never really know his "fame" at this moment. But, I don't think people should be wishing death on him or anything. He is a dude that dug himself a pretty big hole, and unfortunately for him, it kept getting deeper with no way out. And I also get why he couldn't be on to defend himself. As for Carol Baskin, I knew she wouldn't show up because she is a coward who knows she did something very wrong. She could have tried to defend herself, but her silence spoke volumes to me.

This special was fine, but it could have been much, much better in my opinion. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.