Former private zoo owner and big cat enthusiast Joseph Maldonado-Passage, popularly known as Joe Exotic, has been a social media star since the debut of the Tiger King documentary on Netflix. 

Despite his criminal convictions and colorful past, Maldonado-Passage has gained new allies as the documentary has grown in popularity. But concerned celebrities and enamored fans might want to reserve their endorsements of the former self-proclaimed Tiger King until they have a chance to watch his stance on who gets to say what in America. 

In a resurfaced 2015 video, Maldonado-Passage is heard openly questioning why Black men are the only people who get to say the N-word and saying that he feels that he is being discriminated against as a white man.  

"What's going on in this country?” he said. "It's absolutely pathetic. I can't say the N-word but you can get on YouTube and watch any Black man's video and they're calling each other the N-word. What the hell, is this discrimination? I’m white, I can’t say the N-word?”

According to TMZ, the footage comes from his old online reality series Joe Exotic TV. In the Tiger King documentary, it’s revealed that most of the tape from this online show was destroyed in a fire, so one can only imagine what else the former big cat owner had to say about similar topics. 

Since the documentary’s wildly popular release, more insight regarding Maldonado-Passage’s other ventures has been exposed.  

Jeff Lowe, a former business partner of Maldonado-Passage and current owner of the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, said that “the crowds have been huge since the Netflix show and we have difficulty in controlling that much traffic at one time” in a Facebook post Sunday.

However, according to The New York Times, Sheriff Jim Mullett of Garvin County, Oklahoma, shut the zoo down in compliance with the governor’s order to shutter nonessential businesses on March 31.

Fans of the documentary were enthralled by clips of music videos featuring Maldonado-Passage, but he didn’t record or make the music in them. The songs were recorded by Washington musicians Vince Johnson and Danny Clinton, per The Times.

Johnson told Vanity Fair that their band started working with Maldonado-Passage through an ad where he requested a theme song and offered exposure on the previously mentioned reality TV show.

Johnson said that his band agreed to write songs based on the subjects and themes given by Maldonado-Passage.

“I had no idea he was going to Milli Vanilli the songs,” Johnson said in the interview.

Maldonado-Passage recently filed a lawsuit claiming there's a conspiracy behind him getting locked up, which includes many of his former business partners and some stars of the Netflix documentary. 

Rapper Cardi B vowed to start a GoFundMe to help free Maldonado-Passage but walked back her statement after the crowdsourcing fundraising platform denied the endeavor. According to a GoFundMe representative, money cannot be raised on the platform to fund the defense of inmates convicted of violent crimes.

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