Since its debut on Netflix in March, Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness has been a huge pop-culture fixation. The bizarre, often troubling, and oddly fascinating docuseries is billed as an exploration of the world of big cat keeping and the eccentric characters that populate that niche world, but it’s not the cats that have become the internet’s latest darling, it’s zookeeper Joseph Maldonado-Passage, a.k.a. “Joe Exotic,” who has prompted countless memes, cosplays, and even merchandise as he grows ever more famous. It’s that fame, that sanitization of Exotic as though he’s some sort of colorful and loveable cartoon character that is deeply problematic — and needs to stop.
There’s no argument that Exotic is a fascinating character. The mullet-sporting, flamboyantly dressed zookeeper is without a doubt a person who is, in many ways, larger than life. Even in Tiger King, Exotic is very open about his very outside-of-the-box lifestyle, and we’re not talking about his work with big cats. He is very open about his lifestyle choices, including his sexuality, his polyamorous relationships, and his use of drugs. It’s a lot, but fascination doesn’t necessarily make something positive. In a sense, one could liken Joe Exotic to a car crash. People will stop and stare to see what’s going on, but it doesn’t make the crash less bad.
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And Exotic certainly qualifies as “bad.” First and foremost, the man is convicted of murder-for-hire, having tried to enlist an undercover FBI agent posing as a hitman so that he could have another person involved in the big cat community, Big Cat Rescue CEO Carole Baskin, murdered. He’s also a convicted animal abuser, having been found guilty of eight violations of the Lacey Act and nine violations of the Endangered Species act. He’s currently serving 22 years in federal prison for these convictions.
Those are just the things he’s convicted of. The problems with Exotic do not stop there. As is seen in Tiger King, Exotic has a troubling history of maltreating pretty much everyone around him. He’s also shown to be very violent, shooting at employees, blowing up various household objects, even simulating the murder of animal rights activists. Add to that his violent and misogynistic treatment of Carole Baskin, whom he insults repeatedly and frequently threatens violence upon, and the true portrait of Exotic isn’t just some colorful and eccentric character. Instead, he’s a dark, disturbing person who, were he not the star of a Netflix series, people would be disgusted by instead of entertained by.
As if he couldn’t get any more disturbing, Exotic is also racist. Tiger King directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin admitted as much with Chaiklin confirming that Exotic had used the “n-word” and said other unsettling things during filming that were left out of the finished product.
Exotic certainly isn’t the only problematic figure in Tiger King. None of the figures in the series are particularly outstanding, but Exotic, in particular, is just a terrible human being. He’s terrible to people, terrible to animals, and is behind bars for some of those things. He’s not someone we should be elevating to beloved character status, no matter how flashy and colorful he is.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness is now streaming on Netflix.
