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Carole Baskin tricked into her first post-Tiger King interview by pranksters

YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners have done the impossible and gotten Carole Baskin to agree to a TV interview after the Big Cat Rescue CEO vowed not to do any interviews following the release of Netflix’s Tiger King.

The pranksters tricked Carole into thinking she was in fact doing an interview with Jimmy Fallon and managed to pull it off without her even realising something wasn't quite right.

Carole Baskin on Josh Pieters and Archie Manners YouTube channel
Carole Baskin was tricked by YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners into thinking she was doing an interview with Jimmy Fallon. Photo: Youtube/Josh Pieters and Archie Manners

Carole only agreed once Josh and Archie, who pretended to be producers for The Tonight Show, assured her Jimmy would only ask her about cats and wouldn't ask about Tiger King.

She had previously told them she didn't like the way the Netflix docuseries had implied she had something to do with her husband Don Lewis' death.

The duo managed to find enough clips of Jimmy asking various questions about cats to make the interview work.

The YouTubers told Carole that while she wouldn't be able to see Jimmy, he could see and hear her, but he was being filmed by different cameras for the show, hence why he wouldn't appear in the Zoom call.

Speaking with Insider, Josh said it took multiple attempts to get Carole on board with the interview, "Here's a chance where we could perhaps interview some high level talent because we are going under the guise of being a really famous show. And we thought, why don't we take a shot in the dark and go for the most exclusive, hard to reach person in the world, with absolutely no hope of it working?"

Archie Manners told Carole that she couldn't see Jimmy as he had different cameras on him, but he could see her. Photo: YouTube/Josh Pieters and Archie Manners
Archie Manners told Carole that she couldn't see Jimmy as he had different cameras on him, but he could see her. Photo: YouTube/Josh Pieters and Archie Manners

He also revealed how they handled moments where they didn't quite have the right audio clip, "There is often a moment where there isn't a clip that's suitable."

"But that's luckily where I have Archie on standby who can come in and act as the producer and say, 'Oh we've got a quick change there, Jimmy's just doing this,' or 'Jimmy's just doing his makeup,' and then it sort of explains why something sort of went wrong."

In the interview, Carole explained how she had been taking care of all her animals during the coronavirus pandemic, saying she had been forced to lay off some staff "due to the loss of tourism revenue".

She added that volunteers were continuing to help take care of the cats and asked viewers to support the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

Carole even sent the boys some never-before-seen images from Big Cat Rescue.

After it was revealed the interview was a prank, Carole told Us Weekly she wasn't upset by it.

"I was suspicious as we were doing it because the questions appeared taped. But had no idea it would turn out to be such a fun prank. It gave us a very welcome good laugh. I appreciate their cleverness and that they created their video in a way that I don’t feel was in any way mean-spirited," she said.

It's not the first time Josh and Archie have tricked people into thinking they're on a talk show. They've previously pranked pop star Craig David, TikToker Holly H, Love Island couple Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury and magician Julius Dein into thinking they were on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Watch the pranksters trick Carole here:

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