Well if this just adds to the insane story that is Tiger King: Murder, Mystery and Mayhem.
YouTube pranksters have convinced Tiger King star, Carole Baskin, into giving an interview over Zoom with what she thought was the “producers” of Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show.
The interview, which has been uploaded to YouTube by Josh Pieters and Archie Manners is her first since her appearance on the hit Netflix series.
Using audio clips of the Tonight Show host, the pair posed as producers telling Baskin that Fallon would only talk about her big cats.
In an interview with Insider, Pieters said that it took multiple attempts to get her on board.
“Here’s a chance where we could perhaps interview some high-level talent because we are going under the guise of being a really famous show. And we thought, why don’t we take a shot in the dark and go for the most exclusive, hard to reach person in the world, with absolutely no hope of it working?”
Previously, the 58-year-old had been very outspoken about her portrayal on the series, however, had only ever taken to a personal blog to air her grievances.
The prank is mean spirited and a form of cyberbullying, and frankly, quite surprising they were able to pull it off.
“There is often a moment where there isn’t a clip that’s suitable,” Pieters told the publication. “But that’s luckily where I have Archie on standby who can come in and act as the producer and say, ‘Oh we’ve got a quick change there, Jimmy’s just doing this,’ or ‘Jimmy’s just doing his makeup,’ and then it sort of explains why something sort of went wrong.”
The men managed to get the Big Cat Rescue Animal Sanctuary owner to open up about how she’s taking care of the animals during the global coronavirus pandemic, including how she had to “lay off” half her staff and that volunteers are helping to look after the animals.
In another interview with US Weekly, Baskin said that she wasn’t upset by the interview, but was “suspicious” of the whole thing.
“The questions appeared taped,” she added. “But had no idea it would turn out to be such a fun prank. It gave us a very welcome good laugh. I appreciate their cleverness and that they created their video in a way that I don’t feel was in any way mean-spirited.”
Hats off to Pieters and Manners. It was a pretty impressive stunt.
WATCH: “We tricked Carole Baskin into giving us her first interview”.