[ad_1]
Infamous “Tiger King” sanctuary owner Carole Baskin was lured into an intriguing Zoom interview posted Sunday by a pair of pranksters who led her to believe she was a remote guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
The interview video by Brits Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, who claimed to be producers for Fallon, is both intriguing — and hilarious, with a breathless, over-the-top tabloid-esque narration.
“Like ‘Tiger King,’ this is a story of loopholes, lawyers and lies,” Pieters gushes in the video recorded in his London home. The pair had Baskin answering questions they recorded of Fallon asking other celebrity guests in the past.
The duo has successfully pranked other high-profile characters. Earlier this year, they tricked right-wing British media personality Katie Hopkins into flying to Prague to collect a fake C**t award.
This time, they repeatedly reached out to Baskin via emails (which they revealed in the video) from their production company Invisible Objects. But she and her current husband, attorney Howard Baskin, initially turned down the requests. They complained that Netflix’s hit show “Tiger King” had indicated that Baskin was linked to the 1997 disappearance and presumed death (possibly murder) of her first husband, Don Lewis.
Baskin finally agreed to the interview after Pieters and Manners promised that questions would only focus on her work with animals and the sanctuary she runs.
Baskin, wearing a flower crown in the “show,” talked about the struggle caring for her sanctuary’s big cats during lockdown, and pitched a campaign for the bill the Big Cat Public Safety Act. She also shared videos and photographs. Check out the entire video up top.
Baskin couldn’t immediately be reached by HuffPost for comment about the video. But a posted response to the video from Baskin’s YouTube account included a copy of what she said was an email she sent to her daughter and husband after the interview about how suspiciously “weird” it was.
“I couldn’t see Fallon during the interview, and when they had his voice on the questions, they didn’t sound like they were specific to the topic,” the comment noted. “He’d just say things they could have recorded from any other interview. They “didn’t really sound like it was live from him to me,” Baskin wrote.
The “whole thing may have been a spoof,” she added.
Calling all HuffPost superfans!
Sign up for membership to become a founding member and help shape HuffPost’s next chapter
