
Remember Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness (2020), the must-see Netflix documentary series that got us through the first month of quarantine life? The series looks at the small but deeply interconnected world of big cat crazies, including the bisexual owner of Big Cat Rescue, Carole Baskin, and Joe Exotic, whom Baskin accuses of abusing and exploiting wild animals.
The series was watched by 35 million people over its first ten days of release, one of Netflix’s most successful releases.
Did you note that Tiger King‘s Joe Exotic (real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage), was among the many who failed to get a pardon from fellow reality television star Donald Trump the day before he left for exile at Mar-A-Lago, located deep in the land of Tiger King.
Exotic is serving a 22-year sentence for violating federal wildlife laws and a failed murder-for-hire plot against Baskin. Last April, simple-minded screecher Donald Trump Jr. revealed he had discussed a potential pardon for Exotic with his daddy.
Jr.:
“He was fascinated. I think Melania may have shown him one of the memes that I had posted. It was like my father’s face with a Tiger King mullet, which was pretty epic.”
Exotic’s lawyers were so sure Exotic would be on the disgraced, twice impeached former POTUS’s list that they hired a limousine to pick him up from prison in Texas. There were 143 pardons doled out, including for rappers Lil’ Wayne and Kodak Black, plus ugly white supremacist Steve Bannon, but sadly, not one for Exotic (#sad).
Exotic issued this statement just hours after he expected to be granted clemency:
“I was too innocent and too GAY to deserve a Pardon from Trump. I only mattered to Don Jr. when he needed to make a comment about me to boost his social media post. Boy were we all stupid to believe he actually stood for Equal Justice? His corrupt friends all come first.”