John Oliver discusses discovering Joe Exotic before Tiger King

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"It was just the lowest-hanging, juiciest fruit"

The saga of Tiger King continues. Following a relatively revelatory one-off special episode hosted by Joel McHale, in which the series' cast of colourful characters spoke about how their lives have changed since Tiger King was released, John Oliver – who makes a quick cameo appearance in the documentary – has spoken about his time covering Joe Exotic on his late-night show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. 

Speaking to Seth Myers, Oliver described eccentric zookeeper Joe Exotic as "not the hero America needs, but the hero it deserves right now." He also explained why they decided to cover Exotic's run for President of the United States on his late show.

"We were looking for the craziest third-party candidate," he said, "found his ad, and it was just the lowest-hanging, juiciest fruit, almost you think, always, 'Could this be real? Mmm, so sweet, so juicy.'"

The researcher who discovered Exotic noted that they may not want to cozy up too close to the "politician" and apparently said: "He talks a lot about this person named Carol." Watch the clip on YouTube above.

We recently broke down all the biggest moments from the Tiger King special, including what some of the main players from the series are up to now and their thoughts on Exotic, who is serving 22 years in jail for attempted murder and crimes against big cats.

Jack Shepherd
Jack Shepherd
Freelance Journalist

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.