Joe Exotic may be in prison, but his former zoo does not believe he is guilty, and they are making no secret about it. The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park is now selling shirts that say things like “of course Carole did it,” referencing the crimes laid out in the Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness.
Tiger King is one of the most popular shows on TV right now, and fans have strong opinions about it. The series follows the life of “Joe Exotic,” back when he was the operator of a private zoo in Oklahoma. As the documentary depicts, Exotic was convicted on two counts of murder-for-hire in a plot to kill Carole Baskin, an activist bent on shutting down his zoo. Even as Exotic serves his decades in federal prison, his zoo is perpetuating his crusade against Baskin, albeit in a way that doesn’t involve federal crimes. See the T-shirts here.
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The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park unveiled new shirts on Wednesday, marketed to fans of Tiger King. The Netflix original series has people looking up the zoo, and now they can order merch directly from the subject of the show.
One shirt reads: “of course Carole did it” in simple white letters on a black backdrop. “It” refers to the death of her husband Don Lewis, whom many of the documentary’s subjects believe was murdered by Baskins. They suggest that Baskins fed Lewis to tigers at her animal conservation center. This was undoubtedly the most controversial pick, with some commenters on Facebook sharing laughing emojis and other sharing nauseated emojis.
“If there was a better ordering process [than] calling, I’d order a few of those Carole Did It Shirts lol,” one fan wrote.
The zoo is asking fans to call by phone to place an order for the shirts. Other designs include a graphic of a wide-brimmed hat with the catchphrase “here kitty kitty” printed underneath, as well as an anatomical breakdown of a Bengal tiger. The labels were all accurate, except the stomach, where the name “Don Lewis” was printed.
Perhaps the most ironic design was a shirt with Kim Kardashian’s tweet printed on it, saying: “Has anyone seen Tiger King on Netflix?!?! It is crazy!!!!!”
At the time of this writing, Tiger King is currentyl the most-watched TV show according to Rotten Tomatoes. The series consists of just 7 episodes, depicting Joe Exotic’s larger-than-life persona and his feud with Baskins. The entire series is available to stream now.
