The Tiger King and I and Us

When I was first introduced to Joe Exotic on Last Week Tonight in 2016, I never guessed that we’d be talking about him four years later. I never guessed that he’d dominate phone calls with my mom and that he would be a household name from his jail cell where he would sit for plotting murder. He was a colorful and laughable presidential candidate that didn’t have a chance in hell of ever winning, but in a way he did win.

Last Week Tonight went on to issue a statement on Twitter on March 29, 2020 saying in part about the segment, “In light of subsequent events, we must regretfully concede that he was, in fact, the second-least-perfect presidential candidate that year.”

Later, Last Podcast on the Left would cover the murder for hire plot on their Side Stories series, which deviates from their “gold star” serial killer and paranormal deep dives to explore true crime in recent news.

I couldn’t find the first time Joe Exotic was mentioned on the podcast, but this was the episode where they mentioned that he was found guilty. LPOTL is a great podcast and is probably the second best podcast to mine of course. I’m just kidding, I’m a huge LPOTL fangirl, but I digress.

On the Last episode of the Podcast, The Tiger King and I and Us, I discussed some interesting resources that I wanted to share with the class. First of all, I talked about Real Lawyer Reacts and his episode on the Tiger King.

Since we recorded the episode, there was another episode released which details the arrest records of some of the cast members and it may surprise you. For shame, Saff!

I also mentioned Red Letter Media’s unique take on Tiger King and how Mike Stoklasa threw out some lofty accusation from some very unreliable sources about Joe and a taxidermy tiger.

I’m also a huge fan of Red Letter Media and I think they are incredibly hilarious. I love their take on the quarantine. Their Half in the Bag series always takes on ridiculous story arcs and their quarantine story arc has been particularly enjoyable. The escalation of insanity of sanitizer, beer, and toilet paper is beautifully done.

These are all of the things I can think of that I have name-dropped on the Tiger King episodes. I’m hoping the show doesn’t turn into a Tiger King series, but as the craziness escalates, I’ll continue to cover this true crime saga.