There was a time when all it took to reach the highest levels of celebrity notoriety was sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, and not necessarily all three. All a musician or actor needed was a DUI, some petty crime, or a sex tape to keep their names ringing in the public’s ear. However, trading on the misery of the infamous takes more effort and spectacle these days, as evidence by the smash docu-series Tiger King.

In the dark and early days of the 2020 pandemic, many of us sought solace through tethered escapism, and, collectively, we turned to Joe Exotic’s tale of infamy that included (spoiler alert) polyamory, a sex cult, drugs, guns, loss of limbs, charismatic megafauna, trademark infringement, bad photoshops, self-produced music videos, petty Facebook feuds, tax fraud, politics, fire, murder, and expired meat from Walmart dumpsters.