Tiger King was the most-watched title on Netflix (and therefore, probably the most-watched title of any series in the country) for a record 25 days. The story of Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin, and a bunch of very large cats was not only an intriguing one, it also came out at the right time, which is to say, a very bad time for going outdoors. But Ricky Gervais, who has his own Netflix show, thinks there’s another reason you can’t go two conversations without someone asking, “Oh my gosh, have you watched Tiger King?”
While discussing the “surreal” world we live in, where “being odd is what’s normal” and not every doctor looks like George Clooney, Gervais told Deadline that “everyone in that is madder than the last. You may not meet those people, but they’re out there. There are millions of them.” The After Life creator used Tiger King as an example.
“The thing about that is, when the first person says, ‘Can I keep a tiger?’ The answer should have been, ‘No, of course you can’t, that’s mental. It’s 500 pounds and it eats people, of course you can’t keep a f*cking tiger.’ So how on Earth did they get to there being more captive tigers in America than in the wild? That’s how many people there are that are like that…”
In other words, the world is full of oddballs, and we (so says Gervais) are fascinated by them, especially though the distance of a Netflix docuseries. He’s right. The only zookeeper I want to meet in real life is Kevin James, thank you very much.
(Via Deadline)
