Warning! The following contains spoilers for The Masked Singers Final 9 elimination. Read at your own risk!
The White Tiger survived on The Masked Singer far longer than he ever should've, and some believed his advancement to the Final 9 was unjust considering he outlasted some big musical icons. It seemed unfair at the time, although now, it's clear that fate intended for his elimination to go down like this all along. Had Rob Gronkowski been eliminated before the release of Netflix's Tiger King, there wouldn't be so many glorious Joe Exotic memes making fun of it right now.
The reveal that White Tiger was Rob Gronkowski was rather dull in and of itself. Many in America pegged him from the start, especially after a video emerged of him performing a parody of Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice, Baby." It's a lucky thing then that Netflix's Tiger King became massively popular ahead of his reveal, because it made this elimination 100 times more interesting.
At the start of The Masked Singer Season 3, the White Tiger was just another costume on the show. Now he's a symbol of big cat majesty, and inadvertently part of a social issue that has blown up in a big way thanks to Netflix's Tiger King.
The Masked Singer fandom is typically on point with its guessing, but obviously wanted to have some fun ahead of the White Tiger's elimination. Some playfully suggested the guesses for Rob Gronkowski were bogus, and that someone sprung Joe from prison so he could flex his vocal muscles on The Masked Singer.
Joe Exotic managed to run in the 2016 presidential election, so an appearance on The Masked Singer would be far from the craziest stunt he's pulled. Of course, he's currently locked up and probably unaware of what The Masked Singer is, let alone able to appear incognito on the program.
The thought of what could've been is a bit disappointing, though it is nice to see Rob Gronkowski finally revealed. Unfortunately, The Masked Singer likely won't be able to capitalize on the meme potential of comparisons to Tiger King in future episodes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I desperately wish it could've after seeing this suggestion that could be used if Gronk returned in the Season 3 finale.
Somehow, despite all America is going through, The Masked Singer continues to find ways to stay relevant and win over the hearts and minds of Americans nationwide. Plus, let's be honest, the number of television shows with new episodes is drastically falling each and every week, which may be why so many are connecting the Fox series and Tiger King to begin with.
Rob Gronkowski's White Tiger wasn't the only person getting blasted with Tiger King references either. There is now a healthy numbers of people claiming that another contestant could actually be Joe Exotic, but that's mainly because of a key clue revealed about The Banana rocking a mullet.
It seems even when a television show has nothing to do with Tiger King, fans are finding ways to make it about Tiger King. Hey, we all need a laugh during this tough time, and goodness knows those lame April Fools jokes The Masked Singer kept pulling were not enough to get the job done. As long as folks keep laughing, let's work Joe Exotic jokes into every remaining primetime series!
The Masked Singer airs on Fox Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Continue to stick with CinemaBlend for more on the series, and for the latest news happening in the world of television and movies.
