Carole Baskin of ‘Tiger King’ Deserved Better
I ate up Tiger King, Netflix’s smash hit docu-series, as if it were a family-size bag of Hot Cheetos—my mouth watering, my stomach slightly nauseous.
The seven-part series, which dropped a new bonus episode this week, has everything: Baby animals! Giant tigers! Guns! Botched hit jobs! Hot, troubled ladies! Bloody body parts! Murder mysteries! Three-way weddings! The FBI! Meth! The sudden appearance of Shaquille O’Neal!
Because of this, the characters on Tiger King feel more fabulous, more real (and more on meth) than what you’d find in almost any nondocumentary movie or show. It’s as if the creators elevated the greatest parts of reality TV and mashed them up with the most binge-able murder podcast and a kitten-themed Tumblr.
If there is a psychological urge that makes humans want to slow down when we see a car wreck on the side of the road, Tiger King is like a 32-car pileup with a Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper’s worth of tiger cubs tumbling out of blood-spattered windows. Of course we stop and gawk.
And of course we pick faves. A poll by the company Morning Consult and the Hollywood Reporter asked just under 500 Tiger King viewers whether they had favorable or unfavorable opinions about each of the main people who appeared on the show.
The poll found that the character viewed most favorably is Joe Exotic (47%). Coming in dead last is Carole Baskin at 27%. In between them is Doc Antle, with 35% of people polled saying they view him favorably. These numbers match the way the media have generally responded to Tiger King. Early coverage of the series focused on the disappearance of Carole Baskin’s husband. Stories about Doc Antle, meanwhile, noted that he attended the 2001 VMAs. When Saturday Night Live spoofed Tiger King last Saturday, Baskin was the brunt of the joke. This series covers animal abuse, domestic violence, suicide, sexual coercion, and hit jobs—but somehow there seems to only be enough space in the narrative to talk about Carole Baskin.
Look at Twitter: 960 people tweeted about her in the last hour, saying things like, “Carole Baskin is a fuckin bitch” and “fuck that bitch Carole Baskin.” #FreeJoeExotic trended for so long on Twitter that the president actually said he would look into it. As for Doc Antle, not enough people have tweeted about him in the last hour for Twitter to provide statistics.
The general attitude of fans towards the folks on Tiger King seems to be: Everyone in this show is a weirdo, so pick your fighter. And of course nobody wants the lady with the condescending smirk and the leopard-print leggings, who’s always tattling to Congress. We want the dude with the gun and the mullet who mass-produces tiger-themed lube with his face on it. This is America, and we know good entertainment when we see it.