'Tiger King' Aftershow: Netflix Viewers Are Upset at Joe McHale's Comments During New Special

Anyone who ever watched The Soup is familiar with Joel McHale's brand of humor, but it turns out [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Anyone who ever watched The Soup is familiar with Joel McHale's brand of humor, but it turns out that many of the people watching Netflix's bonus Tiger King episode are not. Viewers turned to Twitter to share their displeasure with the Community star's hosting performance, which was laced with his usual sarcasm. McHale hosted The Tiger King and I, a special episode Netflix put together to catch viewers up with the lives of some Tiger King supporting players.

In The Tiger King and I, McHale remotely interviewed Jeff and Lauren Lowe, Saff, Erik Cowie, John Finlay, John Reinke and Rick Kirkham from his home, following social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic. McHale asked them questions that everyone who finished Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness had on their minds. They all answered McHale's questions, which included ideas on who should play them in the upcoming movie and whether or not they remain loyal to Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as "Joe Exotic." The 40-minute episode was released on Sunday morning.

Tiger King directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin focused on Maldonado-Passage's rivalry with Carole Baskin, the owner of Big Cat Rescue. Last year, Maldonado-Passage was convicted of hiring a hitman to kill Baskin, as well as other charges related to Endangered Species Act violations, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Since some viewers began to see Maldonado-Passage as a folk hero and meme star, it might have been shocking to hear everyone say he deserved to be in prison in The Tiger King and I. That could explain why some fans bashed McHale's hosting performance.

"Joel McHale was the absolute worst person to host the new Tiger King episode. Honestly would rather have waited a year for a better episode than this rush job trash," one person tweeted. Another person added, "Not even bothering with that extra episode of Tiger King. It's just Joel McHale desperately needing to insert himself into a trending conversation to stay relevant."

After McHale's name started trending on Twitter because so many people thought he was rude to the Tiger King cast, more of his fans came out to defend him. "I've been a big Joel McHale fan for a long time and I thought he was great on the Tiger King aftershow. Not entirely sure why mocking terrible people is suddenly uncool, but I'm also very accustomed to Twitter not making any kind of sense at all," one person wrote. Later, another added, "Cannot believe that people are really more offended by Joel McHale doing his job and s— on some terrible people than by the actual horrible people themselves."

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