Why do we love 'Tiger King' so much?

     If you had told me at the beginning of the year that the entire world will end up in quarantine, I would have recommended a nice padded room. If you further recommended that the only savior of a worldwide pandemic was a meth-loving, gay, redneck, tiger owner, I would've given you the shot of Thorazine myself. Tiger King has done more to bring us together than any media in recent history. It feels insane to even say that statement as any form of media critic. The show goes back to the American tradition of everyone turning on the TV at once nd viewing a program in unity. One of the first shows to do this was I Love Lucy, which gathered more than two-thirds of the American population watching at one time. What is it about media that brings us together in a time of crisis? Let's discuss...

     Never in modern history has the entire world population been subjected to such a global scale crisis. The fact that nowhere in the world is relatively safe from COVID-19 or its effects is without precedence in the previous century. Much of the population is struggling to adjust their work, social routines, and overall life to the hectic state of society. Stocks have plummeted, besides that of guns and firearms. Toilet paper and hand sanitizer are less accessible than the dark web.

     Being that the world is in complete disarray, it only makes sense that we psychologically seek comfort in escapism. While not everyone can access or desires to use substances to do such, we can seek normalcy or rather a forgetting of our dismal reality through media. I have often said that through my worst bouts of depression, the slight feeling of escape that my love of movies and television provided me saved my life. What better way to mentally move from chaos to enjoy controlled chaos?

     I Love Lucy is a perfect example of this. Lucy constantly got herself in hair-brained schemes to an often hilarious end. In comparison to an American controlled by the paranoia of McCarthyism, Lucille Ball's antics gave the world a large, sigh of relief. Even though it is comedic, if we really analyze Ball's character, she is selfish, manipulative, and shifty. However, this greatly appeals to our psychology.

     Joe Exotic, Carole Baskins, and Doc Antle are our Jungian heroes. They do terrible, horrible things in their own demented ways, yet it appeals to the shadow side of us. Admittedly, the murder, mind control, and general depravity of our tiger-owning trio is absolutely hilarious and unpredictable. It pushes our minds to the edge of what could be, which is oddly comforting in an eternal world of uncertainty. The human mind is always trying to compare and judge ourselves in a comparative sense to others. For example, mental health at this current time in the world is collectively poor. Yet, it is easier to compare ourselves to the mental health of these real-life characters and come to the evident conclusion: "I'm not that bad." It is within our brains that we seek the justification of our own sense relative normalcy through the prejudiced lens we view others.

     Tiger King brought together a nation through the wild antics of its characters. Oddly enough, it is the absolute perfect reflection of its insane time period, even if it was unintentional by the job of the filmmakers. Be prepared for a world where Tiger King is essential to understanding our time.