How’s your last seven days been? Bad? Well, join the club. Set any petty concerns or disappointments or hours trapped in your home aside and enjoy the tales of awkwardness, failure, and bad press from five people who are having it even worse this week.
1. Carole Baskin
Tiger King was so wild that no one even really said anything about this pic.twitter.com/smQBy61ZE6
— Tyller Kate (@TyllerKate) April 2, 2020
The break out hit of quarantine has definitely been Tiger King, a Netflix docuseries about the wild word of big cat breeding. The show focuses on a rivalry between big cat farm owners Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin, but one of the side stories is about the disappearance of Baskin’s husband Don lewis. The show seems to imply—and many people believe—that Baskin killed Lewis and fed him to a tiger. Most folks seem pretty okay with that.
If you ask me Carole baskin’s husband got what he deserved. The man picked up a 19 year old girl on the side of the road when he was in his forties. Left his whole family and was completely greedy with money ??Plus I’m sure the tigers enjoyed the treat 😌💕
— Chloe (@chloe60316314) April 10, 2020
I’m tired of seeing “Carole Baskin fed her husband to tigers!!!” Instead, let’s talk about how her former husband was still married to someone else at the time and he was a 40 something preying on a 19 year old girl in the middle of the night
— sarahclearmtns⛰ (@sarahclearmtns) April 9, 2020
Ok everyone is going off about Carole baskin allegedly murdering her abusive husband but why is no one giving joe exotic shit for manipulating a 19 year old straight boy into marrying him by drugging him and never letting him leave?
— Poornima (@poornimahiyer) April 7, 2020
But TV ratings will not let sleeping tigers lie. A new special from Investigative Discovery called Investigating the Strange World of Joe Exotic has been announced and it will reportedly “address the lingering questions that viewers demand be answered.”
At the moment, there’s no proof at all that Baskin killed Lewis, but the show has kicked up a bunch of dust in her direction. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister even tweeted that he was looking for new information in the case:
Since @netflix and #Covid19 #Quarantine has made #TigerKing all the rage, I figured it was a good time to ask for new leads. #CaroleBaskin #DonLewis #Netflix #Tiger #BigCatRescue #JoeExotic #TigerKingNetflix #HCSO pic.twitter.com/LHoJcBZVOI
— Chad Chronister (@ChadChronister) March 30, 2020
Baskin has refuted all the new accusations, blaming the show for making her look culpable in a crime she didn’t commit.
“[Tiger King] has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband,” she wrote in a blog post. “The series presents this without any regard for the truth or in most cases even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth.”
It doesn’t seem like anyone cares about the truth unless it’s broken up into a series of hour long dramatic episodes.
2. Bhad Bhabie AKA The “Cash Me Outside” Girl
Bhad Bhabie rose to fame after a bizarre interview with Dr. Phil went viral because she was turned into a meme. before adopting her stage name she was an out of control girl named Danielle Bregoli, who had been getting into fights and causing her mom all kinds of worry. Her catchphrase became “Cash Me Outside How ‘Bout Dat” and it has stuck, despite a somewhat successful music career. Who knew six words could carry you so far?
She must be running out of attention points, because her Instagram has suddenly become a source of controversy. It looks like Bhabie has been through some changes:
View this post on Instagram
She’s now being accused of “blackfishing,” meaning she’s changing her appearance to make herself look black, when in fact she is most definitely white. She’s been accused of appropriating black culture basically since she became known outside of her school’s detention hall, even appearing with cornrows on Insta:
View this post on Instagram
But this is the first time she has straight-up darkened her skin. People are not pleased:
How TF Bhad Bhabie go from a white teenager to a grown black woman? pic.twitter.com/n4TEOkxVQU
— micah ❤️ (@MiKah_Gee) April 6, 2020
What in the blackfish is Bhad Bhabie doing??? pic.twitter.com/LBedvE9JD0
— Cookie Kawaii Stan Account (@ebonymystique) April 6, 2020
Does Bhabie care? She should, but being shameless is kind of her thing.
3. James Charles
TikTok is a weird place full of fun dances, fashion trends, baking tips, and teens running absolutely wild with no supervision because their parents can’t operate an app. One of the trends that has recently popped up is people doing their make up and taking “glamorous” mug shots, usually involving blood, bruises and scrapes that make it look like they were brawling before the fuzz showed up.
arrested for what ? pic.twitter.com/Q7hFrlm2A4
— avani dicaprio (1990s edition) (@lilpapivoni) April 5, 2020
That’s distasteful enough for me, but as some folks pointed out, seeing these images of good looking people pretending to have been beaten seems to make light of violence. Survivors of domestic abuse have been critical of the trend, especially towards mega influencer James Charles.
That breaks my heart. I find that there are more abused women than not. Once I started sharing my story it was like so many others came out as well. I just hope he realizes that this is a sensitive topic that shouldn’t have been touched. I would like an apology tbh.
— Carrie Day (@TWiNKS_KS) April 6, 2020
He eventually deleted his mugshot and apologized, though that apology wasn’t exactly humble:
despite the fact that hundreds of other influencers and artists have done something similar, I deleted the mugshot trend because it was never my intention to trigger anyone & it’s a waste of time trying to have an open discussion with people who hate me regardless ✌🏼
— James Charles (@jamescharles) April 6, 2020
It’s hard to know that people hate you, I’m sure, but not as hard as being arrested.
4. Drake
Drake has built mansion of ridiculous proportions in his hometown of Toronto, spending six years and an unknown amount of money to create something he told Architectural Digest was “timeless.” Unfortunately, it looked like his got 10-12 rooms that could double as hotel lobbies and airport lounges.
“Because I was building it in my hometown, I wanted the structure to stand firm for 100 years. It will be one of the things I leave behind, so it had to be timeless and strong.”
Take the full tour of @Drake’s luxurious Toronto home here: https://t.co/AOz3VmVlFS pic.twitter.com/Z0bPIJ14JW
— Architectural Digest (@ArchDigest) April 8, 2020
This might all be to Drake’s taste, in which case, good for him. Glad he gets to live in his weird Las Vegas discomfort factory. But it’s pretty hilarious that he revealed his crown jewel home only to get dragged online for his horrid style:
Why does he have a covid19 chandelier https://t.co/qvyR9MHBs1
— vote for bernie (@49skrapskcin) April 9, 2020
Drake’s entire aesthetic is “bathroom of an expensive restaurant that won’t be around in four years” https://t.co/xUL9K1qa7J
— Evan Rytlewski (@Evanryt) April 8, 2020
Every room in Drake’s house looks like he lives in the third best hotel in Qatar https://t.co/MEV9ay6yrO pic.twitter.com/Wr52ALYteA
— Tom Gara (@tomgara) April 8, 2020
Look, money can’t buy respect, especially on Twitter.
5. Karens
A woman named Julie Bindel was already notorious for being a big TERF (a trans-exclusionary radical feminist), who tried to get the word TERF recognized as a slur. When that didn’t happen, she moved on to claiming that “Karen,” a name use as a stand-in for demanding white ladies, was a slur. Sounds like something a Karen would do.
Does anyone else think the ‘Karen’ slur is woman hating and based on class prejudice?
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 5, 2020
It is certainly used by enough white men for it to be morphed into a misogynistic slur. Also, those names are classically working-class, and I do object to the classism within this narrative. The ageism too is a massive problem. I think countering racism with ageism is not great.
— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) April 5, 2020
The idea got some traction amongst other Karens, but for the most part people widely mocked the idea that being called Karen was in any way equated to being called the N-word or another term with long historical and offensive connotations:
what’s the “we shall overcome” of karens? shake it off???
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) April 6, 2020
The fact is, “Karen” is still a humanizing term, unlike ALL the dehumanizing terms y’all have for PoC and that’s the difference. https://t.co/zBwCTp5DEi
— Frijol (free-hole) (@queerguayabin) April 7, 2020
As a Karen can I officially set the record straight
Karen is not a slur
And if you don’t agree I need to speak to your manager— Karen Pollock MBACP (@CounsellingKaz) April 6, 2020
There are some real, good Karens out there and they don’t deserve this sh*t. But at least they can laugh at themselves.
More of the best of the week:
- Ryan Reynolds Is So Bored In Quarantine, He’s Responding To A Bunch Of Fan Tweets
- Karens Have Had Enough Of The “Misogynistic” Karen Meme, Which Is Such A Karen Thing To Do
- A Student Started Drinking From A Hydro Flask In A Zoom Class But The Teacher Thought It Was A Vape And Got Pissed
- Ryan Reynolds And Jake Gyllenhaal Respond To Tom Holland’s Shirtless Handstand Challenge
- People Are Having A Tough Time Figuring Out This Picture Of A Dog