Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix is the weirdly addictive new documentary sequence that has managed to do the unachievable: briefly distract a nation stressed out by dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. The 7-episode collection, directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, focuses on Joseph Maldonado-Passage — aka Joe Exotic — and his Oklahoma unique-animal park. As of Monday, it was the No. 1 demonstrate on the streaming network.

When the demonstrate begins, Joe has an extraordinary blonde mullet, a flamboyant wardrobe, a number of husbands at the same time, and a raging feud with Carole Baskin, the operator of a major cat sanctuary. All of that is as tame as a bowl of warm milk compared to what will come upcoming. Each aspect in Tiger King receives weirder, and every single character who arrives on digicam has a magic formula, a compellingly bizarre event in their background, or dozens of just about every. Joe runs for president and governor, tries for a nation-new music career, makes weird videos suggesting his rival fed her missing spouse to her tigers and so, so much extra.

There is a weird comfort to be experienced in taking refuge in this precise model of American craziness. For viewers self-isolating in their residences, it can be a reminder that the planet was odd in so quite a few varied strategies right before coronavirus. God prepared and the creek don’t rise — it will one particular working day get a opportunity to be that strange again.

Because the collection was launched on March 20, dozens of news tales and interviews have dug into the true people today and events guiding the show. Some spoilers forward, but if you’ve presently viewed the series, examine on for nine juicy tidbits that the clearly show by itself didn’t reveal.

1. That (largely) just isn’t Joe singing

In various episodes, Joe brags about his singing profession and music this kind of as “I Observed a Tiger” are read. But everyone with ears can inform that the polished, region-audio-veteran voice crooning the tunes would not seem anything like Joe Exotic’s drawling speaking voice. Serious musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton have been the authentic musical energy at the rear of Joe’s Milli Vanilli act. Johnson informed Self-importance Fair that they worked for absolutely free, thinking they’d make fame from a truth display about Joe’s lifetime. (Clinton died in Oct, TMZ stories.) The show’s directors, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, instructed the L.A. Situations that a simple fact-checker identified that Joe did sing fairly on certain tunes, so they chose not to phone him out on it in the show.

2. Never blame the tiger for that lacking hand

In the initial episode, Kelci Saffery, one of Joe’s workforce, is noticed straight away following getting bitten by a tiger. Saffery chooses to have his hand amputated relatively than endure various functions. He returns to get the job done just five days afterwards and exhibits up in the course of the present displaying a stump. Saffery has reported from the beginning that he won’t blame the tiger and, while it’s not stated in the episode, the tiger was not put down. In a 2013 statement, Saffery claimed, “I broke protocol and stuck my hand in a cat cage as a substitute of employing the adhere presented.” Actor David Spade interviewed Saffery in a video clip revealed March 27. “I just acquired complacent,” Saffery said about the injury. And the tiger didn’t spend the top price for the bite. “(The tiger) wasn’t place down, we just moved it off of the park, off of display,” Saffery explained.

3. John Finlay acquired his teeth preset

David Spade, who’s admitted he’s obsessed with the display, failed to just interview Saffery, but also a range of other Tiger King solid customers, such as John Finlay, a person of Joe Exotic’s intimate associates. Finlay was noteworthy on the present for only acquiring a handful of noticeable tooth, but now he has whole dentures and is pretty much unrecognizable. “It took a though,” he instructed Spade of his dental procedures. “But just after I obtained ’em mounted the right way, they had been perfect.” Finlay did tell Spade that he thought finding his enamel fixed was far more painful than obtaining his 51 tattoos and that the pink-shirt three-groom wedding ceremony seen on the display was all Joe’s idea.

4. These alligators have been popular

Tiger King is mostly about the major cats, while the reptile citizens of the park have a sad storyline in one particular of the episodes when their enclosure catches fire. John Finlay explained to David Spade in his video clip job interview that some of the alligators at the unique-animal park arrived from Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. He also mentioned that operating with the crocodiles and alligators was more harmful than doing work with the major cats, in aspect since of the reptiles’ big and threatening tails. Finlay also reported that he is not in get hold of with Joe Exotic at all, plans to get all the tattoos of Joe’s name protected up and is engaged to a woman now.

5. That bungee-bounce accident was even worse

John Reinke, previous supervisor at Joe Exotic’s animal park, is shown quite a few situations placing on and taking off his artificial legs, outlining that he requirements them because he was injured in a bungee-jumping incident. Like almost everything in Tiger King, that’s only 50 percent of the spectacular tale. Again in 2010, Reinke explained his accident to The Oklahoman newspaper. Not only did a pulley malfunction, sending Reinke tumbling 55 toes to the floor and crushing his legs, but he did not just land on the earth. He fell onto a 6-inch metallic stake, piercing his colon and belly, the paper reviews. He later experienced additional than 20 operations on his ft and legs.

6. Shaq is not Joe Exotic’s pal

Tiger King will get so odd that viewers may possibly ignore that NBA star Shaquille O’Neal briefly shows up in an episode. But on March 25, O’Neal said on The Huge Podcast with Shaq that the two are not buddies. He said he enjoys tigers and visited the park a couple of moments but “experienced no notion all that stuff was going on.” He claimed he continue to loves the animals and has created donations to assist them, but is not shut to Joe Exotic. “I was just a visitor,” O’Neal reported on the podcast. “I fulfilled this male, not my pal, will not know him, hardly ever experienced any organization dealings with him.” And will not go to the athlete’s property expecting to see major cats, even though he could certainly afford them. “Do I personal tigers personally at my property?” O’Neal said. “No.”

7. Petting the cubs has a darkish side

Joe Unique earns revenue by charging website visitors to come to his exotic-animal park and just take photos cuddling with the major-cat cubs. But directors and writers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin instructed the L.A. Moments that they in no way gave in and cuddled the the newborn cats, in particular just after what they saw. “Most of the tigers we were being around were subjected to abject cruelty,” Chaiklin reported. “We noticed toddlers currently being torn from their moms and screaming. They’d get sick from remaining dealt with so a lot and get ringworm and mange. It was disturbing.”

8. Carole’s lacking spouse is however lacking

A huge section of the series focuses on Joe Exotic’s nemesis, activist Carole Baskin, whose spouse Don James disappeared in 1997. Joe Unique, who is now serving 22 decades in prison for expenses linked to Baskin, claims above and around in the collection that Baskin killed James and fed the remains to her big cats. On the web page for Significant Cat Rescue, her animal corporation, Baskin refutes how she was portrayed in the documentary. “(The administrators) did not treatment about truth of the matter,” she suggests. “The unsavory lies are greater for getting viewers.” As for Don James himself, his disappearance remains a thriller. On Monday, Hillsborough, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister even tweeted out a request for everyone with any sales opportunities in the case to call him.

9. Joe enjoys the publicity. Duh.

You could not observe additional than a moment of Tiger King and not understand Joe Exotic adores fame and publicity. Even nevertheless he is now in prison, the directors advised the L.A. Instances that Joe understands the clearly show has made him famed and he’s overjoyed. “He is unquestionably ecstatic about the series and the concept of being popular,” Goode told the paper. “He’s unquestionably thrilled.” And the directors aren’t obtaining Joe’s unexpected adjust-of-heart. “He is in a cage and of study course he’s gonna say that he now acknowledges what he did to these animals,” Goode reported.