Today we cover a docuseries that has captivated the nation and the world at large for its sheer audacity and bizarre twists and turns. And while there are so many reasons to love, or love-to-hate, Tiger King, we here love it mostly because it is so damn queer. Along with a gay protagonist, who weds two bisexual lovers – at the same time – and hires several LGBTQ staff members. We also see a series of other queer characters and polysexual people. In fact, it seems one can’t be a ‘big cat owner’ unless they’re willing to be in an open or polyamorous relationship. We want to throw out a spoiler alert, and if you haven’t seen the docuseries then you might be tempted to believe we’re making all of this up. We think you’d probably enjoy our episode better if you have seen the series, but it is doubtful that we could ruin the experience that is Tiger King.  Before we dive in we want to make our listeners aware of a few things. First, we have a guest with us today which is Evan’s wife and Tiger King fan, Samantha Taylor. Second, this will be a little bit of a different kind of format than our traditional episodes so hold you cool cats and kittens as you follow along. And finally, we also want to acknowledge our two main sources; of course there is the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. And a lesser-known source, Robert Moor who for the last four years has hosted the Joe Exotic: Tiger King Podcast . Rob Moor is an award-winning journalist and author who has probably done the deepest dive into the man who calls himself Joe Exotic. We’re going to take the docuseries episode by episode and break down the characters, share some of our favorite parts, and reveal some information our listeners may not be aware of. We want to put a disclaimer out that we will be covering some serious issues such as cults, sexual assault, sexual grooming, and of course violence and murder. But overall the goal of this episode (or possibly episodes) is to have a good time and laugh at the improbability and ridiculousness of this all. Ultimately, every main character is a horrible person who deserves any whatever ridicule comes their way, regardless of whether their past made them who they are. As for the outlying characters who were caught up in the drama and made victims by the protagonists, we have the utmost respect and wish them the best. We also want to credit David Spade’s series on YouTube Lights Out: Live From the Bunker where he interviews several cast members. Most of whom are the good people who were hurt deeply by the whole sordid ordeal. But now, lets begin the exotically queer tale of the Tiger Kingdom.  EPISODE 1 – “NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE” In episode one of the seven part series, we meet the main protagonist Joe Maldonado, known universally as Joe Exotic. Joe was born in Garden City, Kansas on March 5, 1963 and his family bounced around for a while before settling in Pilot Point, Texas. He grew up in the Bible Belt of the deep south and had a very traditional, christian upbringing. He was trained as a paramedic and hired onto the Eastvale Police Department at age 18.  Joe says in the documentary that he knew he was gay as a young child but tried to supress the feelings and become the son his parents wanted. The local police department was small and by age 19 Joe had worked his way up the ladder and was promoted to Chief of police in the small town. But even this symbol wasn’t enough to protect him from his family’s rejection. When a sibling outed Joe to his parents, he tried to run his police cruiser off the road. Reporting to the newspapers and the station that he was run off by drug lords. But even with the lie Joe knew he had to get out of town so he went to West palm beach,