About

Carole Baskin is an American animal rights activist and owner of the Florida-based big cat sanctuary Big Cats Rescue. Baskin has been an active YouTuber since 2010 but became the subject of many memes and online commentary in 2020 after the release the Netflix docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness due to her ongoing feud with Joe Exotic and the conspiracy that Baskin killed her husband Don Lewis.

Online History

On November 20th, 2010, Carole Baskin uploaded her first YouTube video of a Black Leopard at Big Cat Rescue using the YouTube channel DailyBigCat (shown below, left). On December 23rd, 2011 she uploaded her first video to her personal YouTube channel which was about cub petting (shown below, right). In August 2013, she started the Cat Chat^[5] podcast.

Carole Baskin often updated her followers with diary posts on Facebook and YouTube. On February 25th, Baskin uploaded a diary post which gained over 21,600 views in a month (shown below).

On March 10th, 2020, Netflix released the trailer to Tiger King, gaining over 250,000 views in ten days (shown below). The show which featured details about Carole Baskin's personal and professional life debuted on March 20th.

On May 3rd, 2020, YouTubers Josh Pieters & Archie Manners published the video "We Tricked Carole Baskin into Giving Us Her First Interview Since Tiger King" in which they interview Baskin with a series of audio clips of Jimmy Fallon speaking to guests on the The Tonight Show. The video received more than 1.8 million views in less than 24 hours (shown below).

The following day, Baskin told CNN:^[12]

I was suspicious as we were doing it because the questions appeared taped. 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.

Reputation

As of April 3rd, 2020, Carole Baskin's Big Cat Rescue Facebook^[1] pages has over 2.4 million followers while the Instagram^[2] account has over 154,000 followers. Baskin has over 1,300 subscribers on her personal YouTube^[3] account and over 33,900 subscribers on the Daily Big Cat YouTube^[4] account.

Don Lewis Death Conspiracy

In August 1997, Carole Baskin's second husband went missing. Following Tiger King's release interest was renewed in the case following Joe Exotic's claims that Baskin killed her husband by feeding him to the tigers. The New York Times^[8] published an article on the matter and many celebrities and internet commentators and members weighed in on the conspiracy. On March 30th, 2020, YouTuber Young Merkules uploaded "Merkules – ''Carole Killed Her Husband'' (Joe Exotic Remix)" (shown below). The video garnered over 927,500 views in four days.

Over the next two days, Redditors began posting memes regarding the conspiracy to r/TigerKing.^[9][10] For example, Redditors GothFieri84 and fishy-breath uploaded "Carole Killed her Husband" memes which received over 800 and 2,300 points (98% upvoted) within a week (shown below). On March 31st, Carole Baskin uploaded a blog post to Big Cat Rescue^[7] which refuted Netflix claims.

On April 1st, O. J. Simpson tweeted a video of himself insinuating that Baskin killed her husband (shown below). The tweet garnered over 24,500 likes and 6,400 retweets in two days.

Related Memes

Hey All You Cool Cats and Kittens

"Hey, all you cool cats and kittens" is an opening phrase used by Carole Baskin in many of her vlog posts. On March 24th, 2020, SNL cast member Chloe Fineman posted an impression of Carole Baskin to Instagram and used the phrase (shown below). The post garnered over 52,000 likes in a week.

On March 27th, Redditor posted a screenshot of Carole Baskin with the text "Hey all you cool cats and kittens" to r/TigerKing^[11] and accumulated over 370 points (99% upvoted) in a week.

On TikTok, many people used the phrase to impersonate Baskin. On March 28th @thomaswoods3 uploaded a video in which he puts a wreath on his head and says the phrase (shown below, left). The video garnered over 173,700 likes in six days. The next day, TikToker @lauraleewatts uploaded a video impersonating Basking using Chloe Fineman's audio (shown below, right). The video garnered over 105,800 likes in five days.

Personal Life

Carole Baskin lives in Florida with her third husband Howard Baskin and has one child.^[6] In the Tiger King docuseries, Baskin outlines her troubled past claiming to have been abused by her first husband.

Search Interest

External References