Wofford to offer summer online course dedicated to freeing Joe Exotic

Written by Kit T. Khat

Since Wofford students have been sent home for the year due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now stuck in their homes for the foreseeable future, many have turned to streaming to ease the pain of losing the freedom to drink whenever they want. So far, Netflix seems to be the most popular option. 

Netflix’s latest docu-series Tiger King has become its most viewed show, and has rapidly become a cult favorite among college students. Due to the show’s apparent popularity, Wofford administration has decided to offer a “Terrier King” course to the Summer 2020 schedule. The decision was made in an effort to boost student morale. “Terrier King” will be a pro-bono, project-based class in which students will spend a month gathering evidence to appeal Joe Exotic’s conviction of murder-for-hire. If all goes well, President Samhat intends to “take it all the way to the Supreme Court”—via Zoom, of course.

The show follows Joe Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, a homosexual hillbilly who raises big cats at his private zoo in Oklahoma. Other protagonists of the documentary include Jeff Lowe, a 50-year-old loan shark whose uniform consists of a black leather jacket paired with a plaid button-down (unbuttoned, of course) and jeans. He always sports a bandana wrapped around his forehead, topped off with a black flatbill, tipped upward, on which his sporty sunglasses rest. Bhagavan Antle, or “Doc Antle,” a doctor of Mystic Arts and lovable sex cult leader with a heart and hair of a lion, also graces the show. Antle also runs a private zoo with big cats in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

With idol-worthy characters like that, it’s no wonder that people all over the world are standing behind Joe Exotic’s lovable personality and rugged good looks. The clear villain of Tiger King is, as Joe would argue, Florida’s own Carole Baskin. Baskin is the founder of Big Cat Rescue, a sanctuary for wild animals bred in captivity. The bitter rivalry between her and Exotic came to a climax when Exotic was imprisoned for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Baskin. 

Many viewers, however, have placed their trust in Joe Exotic’s declarations of innocence, and many are in support of Wofford’s decision to pursue justice.

“Joe is so amazing. The way he preys on people with no other option but to risk their lives is so kind of him. He gives them shelter and community with other ex-cons, and all that gourmet expired Walmart meat to eat. He really looks out for all the young vulnerable guys that come into town too. He even gives them meth so they’ll enjoy life more. What a great guy, ” said Harper Smith, ’22.

What’s most remarkable about this docu-series is the way the world has unified behind Joe Exotic against a common enemy—Carole Baskin. After her husband went missing, Exotic produced a music video accusing her of murdering her husband for his money and feeding his corpse to her tigers.

“Did Carole Baskin kill her husband?” is the question that anyone who’s anyone is asking on Twitter for quarantine clout. Many are demanding justice for Baskin’s late husband as well Exotic.

“Even if Joe did try to kill Carole Baskin, it’s not like she didn’t deserve it!! So what if 40-year-old Don Lewis pestered her into getting in his car when she was 19 years old and had no other options? Carole is clearly worse than the other two dudes who just wanna have bigamous relationships alongside drugged-up tiger cubs in peace,” said William Jones, ’23. 

The summer school course will give students who are passionate about Exotic’s release a chance to apply the wisdom and skills they gained in their rigorous Zoom courses this semester to a real world scenario. The program, designed as a capstone, will be run by President Samhat himself, who has become infatuated with Exotic’s mullet and wants to make sure it has a chance to become caught in the breeze of freedom once again. 

“I am very excited about the prospect of Wofford students making an impact on such a high-profile role model. If I had known that a tiger cub from Joe Exotic would cost less than a purebred Boston terrier…well let’s just say we might have been borrowing a mascot uniform from Clemson University in the near future,” said President Samhat, with an ambitious gleam in his eyes.

If all goes well, some have hopes that Exotic will become a mentor for the Wofford community. Business students are excited to have a chance to learn from Exotic’s perspective as a small business owner, and art students are hoping he will agree to model his bleached mullet for them in their drawing classes.

“I just feel like our students have so much potential to do some good during these stressful times. Joe Exotic has diverse interests and a blossoming music career; we might even see him at the spring concert next year if the class is successful,” said Stella Puzzle, president of the Wofford Activities Council.