Louis mauled by Tiger King

IS Louis Theroux fit for purpose? First Savile out-foxed him, then he missed the real Joe Exotic story.

The bloke couldn’t spot a wrong ’un in Belmarsh.

The unseen footage of Loopy Lou, inset, interviewing Netflix’s self-styled Tiger King on Louis Theroux: Shooting Joe Exotic was jaw-dropping.

It showed Exotic, real name Schreibvogel, airing his hatred of his rival Carole Baskin – the woman he was later found guilty of plotting to kill.

He talked about hiring a hitman to bump her off, warned of her impending doom and generally ran her down.

Yet all of these quotes were edited out of Louis’ 2011 doc, America’s Most Dangerous Pets. As was footage of the sick former zoo owner gleefully shooting a horse in the head – so much for his claims to be an “animal lover”.

It seems no alarm bells went off when Joe spewed toxic threats.

Instead, Louis warmed to the “endearing” craziness of this fast-talking, gun-toting crank in his fake cop uniform and was spellbound by his “hillbilly razzmatazz”.

Mercifully, Joe is now behind bars, but is Theroux’s interviewing shtick – laidback faked naivety – a cover for actual naivety? Either way, he’s amused us enough.

Theroux wouldn’t know a story if it mauled him like, well, an aggrieved tiger. Savile pulled the wool over his eyes more times than Line Of Duty’s balaclava man.

Louis helped rehabilitate the creep and he certainly helped famehungry loser Joe achieve his dream of undeserved celebrity.

Unable to interview anyone from the Netflix show, Louis finally spoke to the Baskins for an undisclosed fee. Tiger King turned Exotic into a cult hero and painted ageing flower-child Carole as the wicked witch.

Ironically, Baskin now owns what’s left of Joe’s graffiti-blitzed zoo.

She may be a little unsettling, but nine out of 10 tigers say compared to the previous boss, she’s GRRREAT!

THIS Is My House lost one in five viewers in a week. In honour of the show’s concept, three of the four who were left were only faking interest.