Netflix’s Tiger King doco-series has been the show that just keeps on delivering bombshells, even after we learned all about Joe Exotic’s ultimate fate. But as crazy as Tiger King‘s link to Britney Spears was, that pales in comparison to the wild connection Joe Exotic had with the late Michael Jackson by way of, uh, *checks notes* alligators.
Speaking of ‘Tiger King’, the GOAT team talk all about the wild Netflix doco series on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
In a wild scene that takes place midway though Tiger King, one of Joe Exotic’s recording studios is burned to the ground by an apparent arson, resulting in the loss of a heap of scandalous reality TV show footage and the death of seven alligators and one crocodile.
Tiger King doesn’t dive into where Joe Exotic got those alligators from, which is an absolute shame and a prime example of burying the lede because those gators originally belonged to none other than Michael Jackson.
According to Joe Exotic’s ex-partner, John Finlay (via Vulture), a former manager for the self-proclaimed Tiger King’s zoo had acquired Michael Jackson’s alligators and crocodile from Neverland Ranch when it closed.
While Tiger King didn’t draw any attention to this connection when the suspected arson is depicted, it was a pretty big deal when it went down at the time as the Los Angeles Times confirmed that those deceased gators and croc belonged to the late King of Pop.
One can probably assume that Joe Exotic wasn’t as good of a reptile owner compared to Michael Jackson though. When the first reaction after watching your scaly pets burn is to spend several takes trying to say “boiling alive in a towering inferno” for a YouTube video, there’s no way this person should be allowed near anything breathing, let alone big cats or reptiles.
We ultimately never learn who caused the fire (police know it was an arson and Tiger King throws up the idea that Joe set the fire himself), but that narrative has quickly been overshadowed by the origins of those poor alligators and crocodile who caught caught up in this wild whirlwind.
At the rate these post-Tiger King reveals are dropping, we’re going to need a second season of the doco-series. Somebody get Netflix on the phone now.
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