I recently posted a series of polls to Hula’s Instagram story. I was interested to see how the Hula community was responding to quarantine life and working from home. I was particularly interested to see if our following was more interested in staying informed about the global crisis or staying distracted from the alarming state of the world. Most importantly, I wanted to know if our following had seen Tiger King on Netflix.
I was not surprised to find the results of my poll were close to 50/50, with 55% of respondents more interested in staying informed and the remainder more interested in staying distracted.
For at least the past month, it has been impossible to have a single conversation in which COVID-19 is not mentioned. You cannot have a single business call without talking about coronavirus. Your Instagram feed is littered with disinformation about coronavirus. Your grandmother is calling with the most recent updates she definitely heard on Fox News. Your friends are texting about coronavirus. Talking about the coronavirus is simply inescapable.
Enter Tiger King.
Suddenly everyone is talking about the bizarre and disturbing character that is Joe Exotic. Between throuples, cults, and off-putting country music videos... this docu-series guarantees to thoroughly bewilder you. As you watch, confined to your respective home, you may find yourself relating to the caged tigers. Powerless to the imbeciles that preside over them, those who claim to protect them.
While only 45% of respondents were staying distracted, 62% reported to have, of course, seen Tiger King. Tiger King is everything we didn’t know we needed--a distraction. A topic of conversation. An outlet to express our collective frustration and utter confusion with the world we live in. It unites us as we come together in agreement that Joe Exotic is a terrible human being.
I want to emphasize the importance of staying updated on the latest from the CDC, WHO, and local & national government entities. All you cool cats and kittens should seek out information and recommendations from the appropriate sources. But let’s face it, the world is a scary place right now and being constantly confronted with the reality of the coronavirus is discouraging. It is totally fair if you are feeling overwhelmed and powerless and don’t want to talk about coronavirus. Talk about Tiger King instead.
Stay as informed as necessary. Stay as distracted as necessary. Stay well. And remember, amidst all the uncertainty in the world right now, we can be certain of one thing... Carole Baskin undoubtedly fed her husband to the tigers.
There are more tigers living in captivity in the US than in the wild. Please urge your congressional representative(s) to ban the private possession of big cats. For more information surrounding the Big Cat Public Safety Act visit this website.
