a034d1a81e525e0c4cebd9504eba18038c871562.pdf

Media

Part of Meme Assignment

extracted text

Anonymous
Professor Kitta
ENGL3570.002 American Folklore
8 February 2022

Meme Assignment

My meme is based on a series, “Tiger King”, that is about a small but deeply
interconnected society of big cat conservationists, including the zoologists Carole Baskin and
Joseph Madonado-Passage, whose nickname is Joe Exotic. On the show, Joe Exotic operated a
big cat zoo in Oklahoma for several years while Carole ran an operation called the “Big Cat
Rescue '' in Florida. The show is based on the competitiveness of Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin.
In the documentary, Joe Exotic stated that Carole Baskin abused and exploited wild animals
causing controversy within the big cat community. The show centered around their rivalry, which
was somewhat mellow until Joe Exotic was sentenced to prison in 2020 for a serious crime. The
simmering hatred between the two individuals created drama and lead to Joe Exotic attempting
to carry out a murder-for-hire plot against his nemesis, Carole Baskin. Joe hated Carole
immensely, and he always blamed her for almost everything that went wrong. Carole, at the
beginning of the show, explained that she had a husband who had recently passed away. Joe, as
well as, many viewers of the show noticed that there were no explanations as to why he passed
away and he also claimed that she showed no remorse about the situation. This led to the
assumption that she had something to do with her deceased husband’s death. More viewers of the
show began to agree that they believed that Carole Baskin killed her husband as a result of Joe’s
confidence that she had murdered him. Joe believed that Carole had killed him because he
claimed that she was insane and theorized that she had fed him to her big cats to get rid of the
body. This meme shows Joe Exotic, who is a rather rough looking character, standing in his big
cat rescue exhibit stating “I’ll tell ya who’s to blame for COVID-19….. Carole Baskin”. Even
though this may not have been his true statement, it is believable because he always claimed that
Carole Baskin is to blame for everything bad that happens. That is why it would seem
appropriate for Joe to state that Carole is the reason that a devastating and destructive virus has

traveled around globally. Joe believed that if anything happened negatively even if it had nothing
to do with either Carole or himself, it would always be her fault because of how much he loathed
her.
During the year 2020 when the COVID-19 virus started spreading, classes and jobs were
shifted to virtual and businesses closed for what everyone thought would be a short period. This,
however, later turned into months and even over a year that many people were isolated in their
homes. Everyone consistently stayed at home and were desperately bored since social distancing
prevented everyone from going out. This large amount of time at home led to many people
binge-watching shows in order to keep themselves occupied. This pertained to me as well, and
since the pandemic began I’ve spent more time laying on my couch while watching Netflix or
Hulu. Boredom led me to randomly search for interesting shows to watch and I heard about this
show called “Tiger King”. At first, I wasn’t intrigued, but I decided to watch a few episodes and
I became obsessed with the storyline. I began watching several episodes a day since there was
nothing better to do. The rivalry between Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin was so extreme that it
became humorous. This is the reason why I specifically chose this meme. COVID-19 was so
detrimental and the effects of it were so depressing, and this meme gave me a way to laugh about
it. This meme that made a light-hearted joke out of a serious situation made me laugh. This is the
show that used up most of my time during the pandemic and it also kept me occupied after I
tested positive with COVID-19. Being infected with the virus made me feel extremely sick and
kept me from even walking up a simple flight of stairs due to all of the pain I was in. So even
though some people may think that this is a ridiculous show, it made me laugh at a time when I
wasn’t laughing much. I spent hours on a couch watching “Tiger King” and this is how I coped
with the boredom and sickness. The show was also the only way I coped with my frustrations

while being taught remotely online. Learning online was not easy but I would simply enjoy the
little things such as watching the show after I had finished my homework or after my zoom
meetings were completed. To this day, I could still watch this show for hours and I will never
forget that it kept me sane throughout that traumatic experience. I chose this meme because it
gave me a way to laugh at something that was otherwise not funny at all.