01x05 - Make America Exotic Again

[bunniefuu]

[Antle] Holy mackerel. Yes, ma'am.

I'm ready.

I don't want to cut y'all short.

You guys are ready for the party.

Get the chimp, and I'll walk right in.

[man] I don't even know

what a chimp birthday party is.

[Antle] Yes you do. It's exactly

a five-year-old's birthday party.

It's got crappy little decorations

we bought at a store,

and it has chimps who are going to be

hilaritly happy about it,

and if you got too close,

they're gonna tear your fingers off.

Oh, look at them!

They look f*cking fabulous.

They look f*cking fabulous.

Scoot closer to Gina.

Our social media these days is just

in the millions a week.

Millions of people a week

are following it.

- [man] How do you do that?

- [Antle] Our content is so unique.

No one's got the content

unless it came from us these days.

Make noise.

[woman hollering]

[Antle] Where's the other one?

Don't let them bite it.

Easy. Don't bite. Don't bite.

Hit it. Hit it.

[Joe] It wasn't the zoo anymore.

It was nothing but a big scam.

[woman laughs]

Paws will come out of that.

[Joe] Jeff conned everyone.

Because he's jealous.

He's a little man with a little d*ck

and a limp, and he's bald,

and he's got to pay everybody

to have sex with him.

This man has got more criminal sh*t

going on than you can imagine.

Well, sooner or later he's going to jail.

[theme music instrumentals]

[Saffery]

From the time Jeff came into the picture,

the whole dynamic of the park changed.

Joe only cared about one man's opinion,

and that man didn't do anything on park.

He didn't clean cages.

He didn't do book work.

He didn't check in customers.

He didn't feed cats.

Nothing.

[Antle] Jeff somehow seduced Joe

by hook and crook.

Joe fell in love with the premise.

Joe handed over the keys to the kingdom

to prevent Carole

from taking the keys to the kingdom,

and then through that,

Jeff proceeded to try and circumvent

Joe's opportunity authority

and separate him from his wealth.

In my opinion.

[Lowe] Everybody was loyal to Joe

when we got here

and I think they kinda were skeptical

that these two people were gonna

come in here and make things better.

Jeff Lowe fired half the staff

when he walked through the door,

called a couple of them "f*cking f*ggots"

and stirred up a bunch of sh*t.

[Lowe] I had a guy

who worked for me for years,

a great guy.

I called him when we moved here,

and we couldn't find anybody good

around locally.

I said, "Allen, what would you think

about moving out here?"

I said, "I'll give you a place to stay

and you just take care of the park.

Be a handyman for me."

[man] When I first got to the zoo,

I didn't know anything about the zoo.

I don't think I've ever

really been to one, so

[chuckles]

Jeff said, "I'll give you money

and a place to live and whatnot,"

so I was like,

"I'll take him up on his offer."

[Lowe] Allen was kind of a transient

all of his life.

Great worker and very, very loyal.

[man] Let it down.

[Glover] I went to prison

when I just turned 18.

Did my time for that.

I've had many other encounters

with the police,

but moving on with life.

- [Glover] Let's go.

- [man] I've got the primate kennel.

[Lowe] We were doing okay the first year,

and we made some improvements

that Joe didn't have the resources

to make.

I wanted to operate a family zoo,

a nice zoo

but they required a lot of money.

So, we met this guy named James Garretson

through Joe, who I trusted.

He had some pretty lucrative strip clubs

and restaurants and bars.

[man] Done a little of everything.

I've been in the bar business.

I ran strip clubs. Worked in the circus.

You name it, I've done it.

I got into cats when I was about 17.

Bought a lion cub

out of the Dallas morning newspaper.

Been around them ever since.

[tiger yowling]

[Garretson]

I've known Joe a span of about 20 years.

Not great friends with him, but friendly.

He introduced me

to a gentleman named Jeff Lowe,

and then that's when

me and Jeff became friendly,

and then Jeff talked me into giving him

$14,000 to open a pizza restaurant.

[Joe] You can sit down on the patio

right next to real-life tigers,

and you can have some of the best pizza

that I make from scratch.

And that's a Joe Exotic promise.

[Garretson]

He used the Walmart donation program

to lower the food cost.

[Reinke] They have the best pizza here.

[man] Do you think most of the meat

was from Walmart?

Yeah.

[Reinke] Mmm. Mmm, mmm, mmm.

[Garretson] Joe was always trying to be

bigger than what he was, you know,

and that's just how Joe does business.

Joe told me several times.

He says [as Joe] "People don't come

to see the tigers. They come to see me."

Joe was the entertainment director

by title.

Even though

Jeff was the owner of the park,

Joe was the star of the show.

Jeff was the star of his show,

so which one was gonna rule this world?

Joe Exotic is how many people know him.

He mailed off this form to the federal

election commission last Friday,

announcing his intent to run for president

as an independent.

Mic check. Check, check, check.

[man] Whenever you're ready.

Brr!

Hello, America. Let's see, f*ck this.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen of America.

Let's try that again.

Hey, can you shut that off for a minute!

When he said he was gonna run,

for president, it about floored me.

I said, "Holy crap, man."

"I got a chance. I got a chance."

He actually thought he had a chance.

He didn't have a chance.

He ain't got a chance in hell.

Joe Exotic for the people of America.

How was that?

[man] Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

are among the most disliked

presidential candidates in history.

And and luckily, there are a great many

third-party options out there.

There's independent write-in candidate

Joe Exotic,

who claims to run the world's largest

private zoo for tigers

and produces incredible campaign videos.

I'm not changing the way I dress.

I refuse to wear a suit.

I am g*y.

I am broke as sh*t.

I have a judgment against me

from some b*tch down there in Florida.

And this is all paid for by the committee

of Joe Exotic Speaks for America.

- [applause]

- Wow.

Just wow.

[applause]

Joe Exotic is truly the candidate

you'd want to sit down

and have a beer with,

then another beer,

and then several more beers

until you're drunk enough

to try meth for the first time.

[Garretson]

Whenever that clip went to John Oliver,

Joe got a big head.

Even though they were making fun of him,

Joe was the star.

Everybody was adding him on Facebook

and stuff,

so he thought he was a celebrity

from that point on.

Is America ready for the first redneck,

g*n-toting, mullet-sporting,

tiger-tackling, g*y polygamist president?

You know, I think they are.

I'm outspoken, good-looking.

Mm-hmm.

- I love to party and have fun. [laughs]

- Hello.

- Let's go blow some sh*t up.

- Blow some sh*t up?

Anybody that wants to threaten

an American citizen

- by cutting their head off

- Yeah?

deserves this kind of treatment.

[man] We're getting a good look

at your national defense program.

[Joe] When he's ready, Travis.

- [loud expl*si*n]

- [Joe] Ahh!

[Travis] Whoo!

That's how we take care of !sis

right there, buddy.

- [man] Dude, that went right through me.

- [Joe laughing]

I was Joe's campaign manager

for about a year and half.

Uh, it was

the worst experience of my life.

It was horrible. Horrible, horrible.

[shudders, coughs]

I'd like to introduce my friend today.

[Dial] Joe Exotic for president was 100%

a complete and total publicity stunt.

It was all about outrage.

Get as much views as possible.

I'm as g*y as a three-dollar bill,

and I'm standing in a cage with five

full grown tigers and lions, and I

When that fell apart

he decides to run for governor.

Next best thing.

I think his exact words were,

"I couldn't wait another four years,

so I decided to run for governor."

When I got the job offer to work for Joe,

I was like, "You know, what's the job?"

He said campaign manager,

and I was like, "Holy sh*t,

that's my dream job. I'm going to take it.

I don't care what he is."

And I already knew he was bat sh*t crazy

from our conversations at Walmart.

I was a manager at Walmart at the time,

and I worked at the a*mo section,

and he'd come in and buy b*ll*ts,

you know, like, every day damn near.

Tannerite, which is something

you can sh**t and it explodes.

[Joe] I'm using nothing more

than what I can buy legally

over the counter at any g*n shop.

[loud expl*si*n]

[loud expl*si*n]

I know a lot more than he knew

about politics,

and that was my main value to him.

[reporter]

Primary elections are next month

[man] Joe Exotic for governor,

he thought he was going to win.

[reporter]

could become our state's next governor.

[interviewer] What did people think

of Joe running for governor?

- Locally?

- Yeah.

It was a source of entertainment.

[woman] You are a political anomaly,

and on Twitter, you know,

you're not afraid to respond to viewers

with expletives.

Guess what, m*therf*cker,

even the day is

[Corkill] When people are running

for any election,

there's a lot of glad-handing,

there's a lot of baby kissing.

Joe passed out condoms

with his face on them.

[Joe] Political condoms.

Vote for me, or you need this

'cause you're screwed.

[Corkill] And of course, if you put it

to social media, the comments are endless.

Probably got more hits talking about him

than really than content

of everyone else who was running.

It's more entertainment.

[Joe] What are you doing?

- [man] Watch it.

- [Joe] We had nothing to

[Joe laughs]

Watch your back.

[Joe murmurs, laughs]

What a wild interview!

This is one of my stranger interviews.

[Dial] Joe was running

for governor of Oklahoma as a Libertarian.

Joe Maldonado aka Joe Exotic.

He had no idea what a Libertarian is.

He still has no idea

what a Libertarian is.

I'd like to introduce my wife,

but my husband's at home

feeding my brand-new baby kangaroo.

Always wanted to say that.

[laughs]

Our eventual platform was my platform,

and that was less government,

less spending, less bills.

There's two laws that they're introducing

into Congress this year to try and pass.

One of them's the Big Cat Safety Act.

The only problem is it's all a fraud.

Just spending millions trying to decide

whether or not I should own

a f*cking tiger or not?

This is my way of living

and nobody's gonna tell me any other way.

[Carole] The only people who opposed

the Big Cat Public Safety Act

are those who are breeding these cubs

and using them as pay-to-play props.

This is a sweeping federal bill.

It will cover all of those states,

and nobody will be allowed to be keeping

these big cats as pets any longer,

or breeding them,

or using them as pay-to-play props.

[Joe] You want to know how come

these people can get everything

that they want introduced into law?

Carole Baskin and Howard Baskin

spend most of their time and money

sucking a*s to the politicians.

[Antle] They wanna take it all

away from us.

This seems entirely un-American,

entirely unconstitutional to me.

[Antle] Doc Antle brought exotic cats

into the halls of Congress,

because if you can get somebody

to sit down and pet a cheetah

and have their picture made,

then when I come in there

and say, "This is really cruel,

and that's why it's cruel,"

they've already done it,

so they're like,

"Well, if I say this is cruel,

people are gonna say I'm a hypocrite."

And so, our opponents are really smart

in the way that they get out there

ahead of us

in a way that we just can't.

I mean, we're not gonna take wild animals

into public buildings to make our point.

[announcer] Watch this ride, Johnny!

Here's your bumper sticker.

I'm running for governor.

Put a bumper sticker on the horse

and let's keep the animal rights people

out of Oklahoma.

[man laughing]

Want a free shirt?

We're gonna change this state.

It's time that somebody

as broke as me and you get in there.

Joe, he had a lot of charisma.

Uh, anyone that I could get him

in front of, we had their vote.

[overlapping chatter]

Do you still have the exotic farm?

Yep, yep. Up to 227 tigers.

I got 22 coming in on Sunday.

- It's huge.

- I have to see it.

It is huge. Do!

- Pleasure seeing you.

- Good seeing you.

I'll give it to her. I'll give it to her.

[Lowe] Joe thought

that his political aspirations

would lead to more business at the park,

which it didn't, you know, of course.

It actually I think it hurt us

more than anything else.

And he had signs up on the gift shop,

he was gonna run for president in 2020.

And I made him take those down.

I said, "You know what?

The park isn't gonna fund

your political campaign,

and I think it's time to focus

back on the animals."

[Joe] Just get the front on them,

is all we need first.

[woman] You guys lift.

[grunting]

- Don't jam it.

- Drop back.

[Lowe] Joe turned into a little b*tch

and started griping and complaining

about Allen every f*cking day.

When I first met Joe

things were all right, I guess,

and then it turned like to sh*t quick.

[Lowe] Joe would ask him to do something,

and if Allen thought it was stupid,

he'd say, "f*ck you, Joe.

I don't work for you. I work for Jeff."

So Joe calls me up.

"Allen was telling me"

Well I said, "Well, technically

he does work for me.

He doesn't work for you."

I think Joe thought that I put Allen here

as a plant

to report back to me what was going on.

Tell them if I have to come in there

one more time

and tell 'em to answer that radio,

they're going home.

Goldilocks b*tch.

[Lowe] Allen calls me and says,

"I'm cutting some trees down today

and Joe's behind me."

He says, "Is it okay if

I dropped a chainsaw on him?"

Allen wanted to take Joe out.

He hated him that much.

f*cking

Unimaginable, man, he was hateful.

Communication! Stay alive!

[Glover] Call you names over the radio.

It did Not just me. Anybody.

God damn, girl. Feed the g*dd*mn animals!

Never in my life ever

put up with anything like that.

And I've worked for quite a few people.

He tops it off.

Ready?

[Saffery] There was just a lot of

burned bridges, man.

You got sound?

The f*cking staff

tried to get me k*lled in a cage.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen,

and welcome to video message number 113.

They put cologne on my shoes.

[Lowe] We heard that Joe was

out in the arena while he was filming

one of his stupid campaign videos.

And this cat was sniffing his shoes

and sniffing his shoes.

Okay, well first of all,

you haven't recognized

the rest of us 40 people

that are running.

She was just fascinated

by his shoes that day.

And the list goes on. Ow, son of a b*tch!

God damn you!

[g*nsh*t]

[Carole] Here's all these people filming

Joe being dragged around,

and nobody's going in there to rescue him.

Get down! Go!

- [g*nsh*t]

- Get!

Ain't nobody help me. Nobody.

Get out of here, you b*tch!

[Lowe] He came out with a story.

"Somebody put something on my shoes

to get that cat to attack me."

I'm gonna sh**t you right between

the f*cking eyes, b*tch.

What scent makes a liger attack your shoe?

I were gonna you know,

if somebody wanted to k*ll you,

then they would put, like

sardine oil all over you.

Something the cat wants to eat,

not something the cat wants to drool on.

'Cause the perfume, that's all they want

to do, is just drool all over it.

They're just like [moans, laughs]

[Lowe] All of the confusion

that the Carole Baskin lawsuits

were causing him, and all the money

it was costing him

Somebody like Joe just goes crazy.

His mood swings were significant.

I don't give a sh*t.

Next time you're in jail

and you're homeless,

be sure you don't call me.

- You wanna see how crazy

- [Finlay] He didn't care who he hurt.

He didn't care who he stepped on.

Okay, don't This is my f*cking

[Reinke] Yeah, Joe was very controlling.

If John Finlay went to visit his brother

in Texas, or anything like that,

he didn't want him to go.

If he went, he wanted him back

the same day.

I don't know how much love was involved,

but I'm sure it was the cars

that he bought John Finlay,

the g*ns he bought John Finlay,

the four-wheelers he bought John Finlay.

This g*n right here, Joe bought for me.

I mean, I like pink camo.

Lot of people make fun of me for it,

but you know what

it's just something I like.

He was

showering me with gifts and stuff.

He bought me a truck.

Actually bought me, like,

four or five different trucks.

If they wanted it, they got it.

I mean, all they had to do was ask,

and I think that's how

he kept them close to him.

John and Travis were both 19

when they met Joe

and at 19 years old, man,

the one thing that a 19-year-old guy

wants to do is party,

have fun, live it up.

You know, no tomorrows.

[Joe]

Travis, he didn't really work at the zoo,

he just rode his four-wheelers

and shot his g*ns

at the lake and the river.

Travis was a pothead from hell, and

Which Who cares, you know,

that's all Travis had in his life.

He was trapped here in Wynnewood,

a boy from Cali,

and Joe kept him pumped full of weed

to keep him from waking up and realizing

this isn't a life to live.

[laughs]

[man humming]

I knew there was drug use going on

because of statements made

by John and Joe.

Oh, girls!

I've always been worried

about you being a spy. Run!

- [women] No, don't Ahh!

- [g*nsh*t]

[Joe] I've had my days of coke.

I had my days of drinking.

I had my days of meth.

And this is my mother-in-law. Run!

[laughter]

[Rhodes] One thing that meth does:

somehow or another

it concentrates in your teeth.

We call it meth mouth.

Meth was the main one that we did.

It was starting to really f*ck me up

in the head.

I mean, I'm still kinda f*cked up

in the head from it now.

When Travis came around,

Travis would smoke his meth.

I guess Joe was smart enough

when he walked up and seen a young boy.

"Hey, he's on meth.

Come here. I'll provide your meth.

I'll give you everything

if you come over here and marry me."

You know.

So I guess that's how Joe did it.

[Garretson] Travis, he would always say

that he wanted to go

to the strip bar with us,

but he said Joe would freak out

if he left the property.

I mean, he told me with his own mouth

that he wasn't g*y.

I told Joe at least three times

Travis was not g*y, okay?

Travis was banging every girl in the park,

and I find out later,

John Finlay came out and said,

"Look, I gotta tell you,

I'm really not g*y.

I've been sleeping with the girl

at the front desk,

and we're going off to get married."

All through school, I was dating girls.

From the time of kindergarten

till I graduated,

I had a girlfriend every time.

He actually slept with the secretary,

Amber, there at the zoo.

And Joe was pretty close to Amber

because she'd been around for a long time.

[indistinct speech]

[Joe] He left me for a girl,

and the hardest part I had

in dealing with that was

I can't compete with that, you know?

Leave me for a man

and we're game on, okay?

But leave me for a woman,

I can't compete with that.

Come to find out

John Finlay got her pregnant, so

I've seen a few fights.

I think the saving grace

in that situation was Travis.

You know, Joe wasn't alone.

Joe still had Travis.

[Dial]

Neither Travis nor John Finlay were g*y,

and Joe admitted that to me.

Fell in love with straight guys,

because there's not too many g*y guys

in Wynnewood, Oklahoma.

You guys edit this sh*t.

I want you to show it to him.

He maybe asks me what's wrong,

but he only spends five seconds listening,

and then he'll walk out on me.

[loud banging]

Pretty f*cking sad.

He doesn't give a f*ck about

any of my problems, like

Is he trying to make me blow my top?

I don't know.

I don't know what he wants.

[tapping]

[Dial] There are people out there.

They will look at a person who is

in desperate, dire need of something.

In Travis's case, he was addicted to meth.

And they take that need

and they fulfill it

until they become the only person

that can fulfill that need.

And in exchange,

that person gives them whatever sexual

or any other favors they want.

That's the relationship Joe had

with Travis.

- What?

- [chuckles]

- You know what? You know what?

- What?

What? [laughs]

Bad dream, baby.

That ain't even funny.

That's not even funny.

[Dial] Travis came into the office

and started complaining to me.

Travis was sitting underneath the camera,

but it was pointing directly at me.

He complained that there was

That he was a prisoner,

that he was never allowed

to leave the park.

He wasn't allowed to get a job.

All this was true, and frankly,

he was upset

that he didn't have enough pot.

My last cigarette before I die.

[man] He's smoking his last cigarette

before he dies.

[Dial] He'd always pointed g*ns at people

all the time out there at the park.

Sometimes he'd wake you up

pointing the g*n at you.

He'd done that to me

on multiple occasions.

So, he'd done that to me again

in that office that morning

and said, you know,

"Freeze, m*therf*cker,"

which is just what he did, and I told him,

"Dude, you know not to point g*ns,"

'cause I've told him before,

don't point a g*n at me,

and he said, "Aww, man, this is a Ruger.

There's no clip in it. You know

a Ruger won't fire without a clip."

I was sitting in the chair,

you know, looking at him

when he put the g*n to his head.

[Dial] It's not like

on the movies.

I knew he was dead the second

that he pulled the trigger, but

at the same time I didn't, you know?

I thought it was a joke,

because, you know, Travis was a jokester.

He was a prankster.

He liked to play pranks on people.

But when I showed up at the zoo that day

to get some order going on,

Joe's passed out

on the front porch, shaking.

Uh, the ambulance is there

taking care of Joe.

Sheriff's department's got everything

shut down.

I mean, you had to climb

I almost had to climb a fence

to get in the place

to find out what was going on.

[reporter] Garvin County officials

are investigating the incident

[Cowie] This f*cking clown?

I g*dd*mn, one of the best people.

I've know him four years, man.

Joy, a joy.

Absolute joy of life.

[reporter] Joe is now thanking the world

for the support

[Dial] I just kinda felt like I was

attached by pain to Joe.

Like we had a bond of pain

and I couldn't leave him,

because of course I wanted to leave.

You know, why do I want to come back

to the office every day that,

you know, a horrific accident happened?

Um, but, you know, he really loved him.

[Joe] We're gonna try and make this

not a day of mourning,

but a day of celebration

to celebrate the life

of Travis Michael Maldonado.

We spent the last four years

of our lives together.

I asked him every day,

I said, "Why me?"

And he said, "Because God put me here

to make you smile, and that's my job."

And it didn't matter how stupid

he had to get

or if I was sittin' there concentrating

as hard as I could on the computer

to write a letter

to a senator or a congressman

or something else, he'd come

and rub them ba*ls in my face.

[mourners laugh]

[clears throat]

Everybody that works here

knows exactly what I'm talking about,

'cause you've seen his ba*ls.

They were like golden nuggets to that boy.

This old town is where I want to be ♪

Is where I'm gonna be ♪

I moved up here

And I took a chance here ♪

Started my brother's dream ♪

Ain't much left here ♪

Aside from some beat up cars

And the one satellite ♪

[woman]

He has to do dramatics, you know, drama.

He has to do a show wherever he goes,

whatever he does.

He was even acting there.

It's the worst thing ever

in my whole life.

My son being gone.

I miss him greatly.

[Joe] You know, we got married

when he was 19 years old,

and there was 32 years difference

between us.

Joe is a year older than me.

And yeah, I thought it was very odd.

I don't know,

I just didn't think that was right.

But if Travis was happy, I was gonna

accept it, no matte, you know

[clears throat]

This was right before he came to Oklahoma.

He came to see me, and

see how young he is? [sniffs]

I don't know

I don't know what happened.

I don't know how he ended up with Joe.

Joe changed when Travis shot himself.

Joe's whole demeanor changed.

Come on in.

[Joe] I do this every year,

Christmas and Thanksgiving.

I've been cooking all night.

- Yes, sir.

- Jesus.

Please, Lord, look out for those

who are spending this holiday alone

without their loved one

and are going through the same rough time.

Jesus' name, Amen.

[crowd] Amen.

Guys, start at this end

and enjoy your meal.

- This is the only family I ever have.

- Man, this is great. I appreciate it.

[Joe] I am third in the polls right now

out of 12.

- [man] Oh, wow, that's good.

- Yes.

I have tried all day

to hold this together.

The local biker clubs all came

and helped me build this memorial.

They actually built this

and it's got his four-wheeler

and his go-cart, and

I had a little different vision.

I was gonna tier step it,

and then they decided

to do it with the rocks and concrete,

and I actually like

the way it turned out they did it.

Built the signs and everything else.

Every morning before I open the park,

I sit out here with him by myself,

and smoke a cigarette. And

people think I'm crazy,

but I take pictures of the sky

while I'm doing it.

The word "hi" in clouds has floated by

that I've got pictures of.

I've got pictures of perfect angels.

[Lowe] It was after Travis's death

that Joe really completely lost it.

James and I would go off

into the dark spots of the park

and talk about Joe

and just how bat-sh*t crazy he had gotten.

And he was so devastated, and

cried about it for forever,

and he was playing this part,

which I think he was playing a part.

I think he probably had some onions

in his pocket,

rubbed his eyes or something.

It's all bullshit.

He wanted so much to support me

in my political career running

for governor of the state of Oklahoma

because he always said, "Hon, if anybody

could get the people in this state

to love and respect each other,

it would be you.

I told Lauren, I said, "You know,

if he wants to run this zoo,

we have to get away from here

because I'm gonna k*ll this guy."

So, I said, "Let's go lease this spot

right on Las Vegas Boulevard,

and we'll do this there."

[Lowe] Vegas was crazy.

We had the big Vegas mansion,

and we had the Vegas parties

and we had tigers in our house.

He decided he wants to stay in Vegas

and try and make money out there.

He talked a sponsor into buying a bus,

and they called it the jungle bus.

[Saffery] Like a party bus with animals.

[Reinke] He could actually haul people

from casino to casino

and let them play with cubs

while they're doing it.

[Lowe] We thought it would be a good idea,

but we were wrong.

That was a big f*cking mistake.

All right, I got 15 minutes,

so we gotta get them cats loaded,

and I got to change clothes.

[man on radio] He's right up the gate.

The white one I named Travis,

was born two days after Travis died.

Come on in.

I got his lamp that they made me

that stays on 24 hours a day,

and then his ash box.

Gotta get the Prince Albert in there

[man] How long have you had

a Prince Albert?

Oh, hell.

Eighteen years?

And believe it or not,

them padlocks there on the side,

I wear those on the end

of my Prince Albert.

[man] You wear the padlocks on the

Oh, my god.

Because they don't make a ring that big.

[Joe] First date since Travis died.

I'm gonna get the curls out,

'cause that's my sex appeal.

[chuckles]

A jacket for the date.

[car door closes]

- Excited?

- What?

Excited?

- Yeah.

- Cool.

- [man] You ready Joe?

- I'm ready.

Now we gotta go find where the parade is

'cause that's where I gotta

that's where I gotta do the news thing

real quick.

I met Dillon in a chat room.

Took me a couple days to talk him into

going to dinner,

and, you know, you can believe

what you want to believe

about whether or not

things are sent to you

or people are sent to you or whatever,

but we went to dinner

and he never went home.

Are you gonna ride

Where do you wanna ride in the parade?

In with the tigers?

- Yes.

- Do you really?

- Yeah, that'd be cool.

- Okay. Deal.

- I'll ride with the tigers.

- All right.

If you're gonna ride here,

I need you to stand here

and let them get used to you.

They're not gonna bite you.

They're just babies, so.

When Travis died,

he didn't give a f*ck about the campaign,

about his family, about anything.

All he cared about was that

he find a companion,

and he was not satisfied until then.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

When he found Dillon,

he started to bounce back.

[laughing]

[Passage] His energy

was just so strong, you know,

and like, when he proposed to me,

it was one of those things

I couldn't think about.

I just had to, you know

just gonna go with the flow.

It was like, my whole life

I've just overthank everything, you know?

When he proposed, I just I said yes.

[Cheryl] Two months after my son died,

he married Dillon.

Invited me to the wedding.

Okay, I thought

it was going to be a wedding.

No, it was the cameraman,

me, and the flower girl.

So on the social media

"Well, Travis's mom is fine with it,

so everybody else should be."

Then I didn't hear anything

from him again.

He was done with me.

My name is Joseph Maldonado

A.K.A Joe Exotic,

and yes, I'm running for governor

of the state of Oklahoma as well.

I mean, not everybody gets the opportunity

to see a tiger, you know,

especially in a parade.

They're not mine.

I don't have to, like, raise them, do I?

[Joe] Take these bags of snow

and kinda just fluff it up

to where the lights glow.

- No, the lights glow under it. Okay?

- Oh, all right.

[children chattering, laughing]

[horn honks]

[marching band playing]

Merry Christmas.

Let's free Oklahoma for a change.

[Dial] Towards the end of the campaign,

when I felt like we were probably surging

because he started listening to advice,

he asked,

"Josh, what are we going to do if we win?"

Joe Exotic will make just as good

a governor as we ever had.

He's not afraid to say

what he wants to say,

and do what he wants to do,

and sorry if he steps on some toes,

but he does it anyway, so

Well, who knows, you know?

I mean, I would say

stranger things have happened.

[overlapping chatter]

[Joe] Better mental health.

Let all the potheads out of jail

and put them crooked b*stards

where they belong.

[reporter] Close to 2,000

across Oklahoma

We don't have this yet.

Among those

that they are casting votes for,

the next governor of Oklahoma.

[man] Breaking down the numbers,

Karen, let's start with you.

What do you see numbers-wise?

- [man] Joe, what happened tonight?

- What happened tonight?

We f*cking lost.

[laughs]

[man] You do everything against the odds!

I do, I do. I'm gonna jump off

this f*cking roof here in a minute.

[Joe, crowd laughing]

[man] Don't say that.

We're worried about that.

f*ck.

[applause]

It's been great running against you.

You've done a tremendous job,

- and I'm glad we're friends.

- We had fun.

- How many death threats did you get?

- A couple.

Okay, that's the sign

of a successful campaign. Trust me.

- A couple. Yeah.

- It's fear.

[Saffery] His governor campaign,

I think that's where he kinda lost

his path,

as far as what was the priority.

It wasn't about the animals anymore.

Everything was falling apart,

from finances to animal care to employees.

[Cowie]

The passion was there, but he lost it.

I don't know where and how he lost it,

but he lost it.

[Dial] You could always read Joe.

He didn't have a poker face.

We knew something was going on.

You know,

he was already a paranoid person

throwing people out, accusing them

of being spies and stuff.

But the paranoia was not unfounded.

We found a microphone and an antenna

on top of the gift shop roof.

It was about that tall, you know,

little metallic base with a short antenna.

I don't pretend to be a technical wizard,

but I could tell

it was a listening device.

[Joe muttering]

[Dial] That's when I knew that there was

something serious going on.

She told me, she says,

"I hear Joe is under some kind

of federal investigation."

And I said, "What did you hear?"

And she says, "I don't know." She says,

"They were talking about it here

one morning."

- And that was Okay.

- [man] I got it

Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Bye.

- Sorry.

- [phone ringing]

[man] So we just interviewed Jeff Lowe

and the entire time,

he had incoming calls from a federal agent

over and over.

Like, who the hell still talks to Joe

that would even

He told me that Joe's going down,

Joe's it's over for Joe.

[woman on phone]

Oh, my god. I can't believe

I mean, it was sort of funny

when they started,

but it's gotten really dark.

[cub yowls]

[closing music theme]