Netflix’s doco-series Tiger King is the biggest thing in the world right now mainly because it’s a story that’s too bonkers to be real and yet it is. But years before it became cool and the topic of discussion for everyone, Tiger King‘s most unsavoury character – Doc Bhagavan Antle – had worked with none other than Britney Spears, and on the singer’s iconic 2001 MTV VMAs performance no less.
Speaking of ‘Tiger King’, the GOAT team talk all about it on ‘It’s Been A Big Day For…’ below:
For those who need a quick refresher, Britney Spears’ 2001 MTV VMAs appearance was one of the event’s all-time-great moments as not only was her performance of ‘I’m A Slave 4 U’ great but whole set was instantly iconic due to its wild jungle stage design, as well as onstage appearances of a giant python and a tiger.
After Tiger King came out on Netflix, eagle-eyed viewers noticed something familiar about Doc Antle and realised that he was none other than the tiger handler during Britney Spears’ 2001 infamous VMAs moment.
This was when Doc Antle was an animal trainer for films and prior to his journey to being the leader of that cooked big cat cult we saw in Tiger King, but there’s no mistaking that tiger handler working onstage with Britney Spears for anyone but him. Arguably the worst person in Tiger King was partly responsible for one of the most iconic performances of all time. Absolutely wild.
However, Doc Antle wasn’t the only Tiger King connection that Britney Spears had prior to the release of the Netflix doco-series as the singer sat next to someone at the 2002 MTV VMAs who looks suspiciously like Carole Baskin.
Upon further digging, it turns out that the woman next to Britney in that 2002 VMAs photo isn’t Carole Baskin, but goddamn she looks similar to the equal-third worst person whom we all saw in Tiger King though.
This is of course just a case of pure coincidence and there’s no way Britney Spears would’ve known who Doc Antle and Carole Baskin are, let alone who they would become by the time Tiger King came around. Still, this does throw up a fun little conspiracy question on how deep was Britney involved with all this before all that dirty laundry got aired out in Tiger King.
One thing’s for sure, we probably shouldn’t expect more VMA collaborations between Britney Spears and Doc Antle or Carole Baskin doppelgangers from Tiger King any time soon.
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