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Mum Dresses Kids Up As Tiger King Stars Joe Exotic And Carole Baskin

Mum Dresses Kids Up As Tiger King Stars Joe Exotic And Carole Baskin

She dressed her young children up as stars from the hit Netflix show - but some people didn't see the funny side

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A mum has dressed her young children up as Tiger King star Joe Exotic and his arch-nemesis and fellow wildlife park owner Carole Baskin - but some people didn't see the funny side.

Jennifer Holmes got the idea from watching the incredibly popular - and equally bizarre - Netflix series, then decided to dress her children up as the main protagonists, complete with mullets, moustaches, and (false) firearms.

However, after dressing her one-year-old son Cavin up as flamboyant zoo-owner and - now - jailbird Exotic, she was told that her son could 'turn out gay'.

One-year-old Cavin dressed as Joe Exotic.
Kennedy News and Media

Holmes and her family were enjoying watching the show when she had the moment of inspiration. The next day, she dressed Cavin up as Joe - who famously married two men at once - and turned her five-year-old daughter Copelyn into Joe's enemy Baskin.

It's pretty funny, to be fair. They even managed to get the young lad to pose with his finger in his mouth in a style that is more than slightly reminiscent of the extroverted Oklahoma animal park owner.

However, despite the photoshoot receiving more than 100,000 likes, shares, and comments, she's had a few comments slamming her for posing her kid with a toy gun, among other things.

Copelyn dressed as Carole Baskin.
Kennedy News and Media

Jennifer, who lives with her large family in Payson, Utah, said: "I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

"Cavin had me laughing so much while I was taking the photos, I couldn't hold the camera steady.

"He loved having his hair like that. Funnily enough, even when we were trying to take the clothes off him, he kept grabbing the hair and putting it back on his head."

Kennedy News and Media

Jennifer had really enjoyed watching the show with her three older kids, and decided it would be a real laugh to dress the younger ones up for a 'cake smash' photoshoot (pictures taken to put on children's birthday party invites).

She explained: "Earlier that day, my daughter had clipped her hair extensions into Cavin's hair and he was running around with a little mullet. Everyone was just laughing and laughing.

"He's one and it's customary here to do a cake smash when they turn one, so I thought 'this would be perfect'."

Kennedy News and Media

"So the hair was Dataya's clip-in, and I'm a photographer so that also makes me a hoarder, meaning I have a million things in my studio.

"Then my sons and I painted the shirt with metallic markers and my other son sprayed it.

"I photoshopped the moustache on there afterwards."

Most people got the joke, but - like everything online - it did divide opinion.

Kennedy News and Media

She continued: "We've had mostly positive reactions but some negatives. We've had people yelling at us about the gun - even though it's a plastic toy.

"Some people think it's a real gun, but if they think a one-year-old could hold a pistol with one hand they're not very smart.

"I've had some people telling me I shouldn't have kids or my son will turn out gay.

"But we've had mostly positive reactions though, apart from the odd snowflake.

"I've had messages from people saying 'I haven't smiled since this pandemic - I've been laughing all day'."

Kennedy News and Media

"We tried to take the mullet off him and he was telling my husband to put it back on. He was running around with the gun and tiger all day.

"Then we did pictures of Carole Baskin [with Copelyn] too.

"Right when I set the camera down she said, 'am I on the news now?'

"She was completely up for it and wanting to be famous. In the morning she asked, 'how many likes do I have?'"

Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media

Topics: TV and Film, Funny, US News, US Entertainment, Weird