In the early 1990s, Siegfried and Roy were staples of the Las Vegas entertainment scene. The German duo put on a show that was one part magical spectacle and one part animal act, involving beautiful white lions and white tigers.
The Simpsons characters of Gunter and Ernst are obvious parodies of the real world entertainers. In the 1993 episode "$pringfield (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," they come to Springfield to perform in Mr. Burns' casino, along with their white tiger, Anastasia. In their stage show "The Flamboyant Magic of Gunter and Ernst," viewers see Anastasia humiliated as she wears a dumb hat and rides a unicycle. The tiger then dreams about her old life in the jungle, which ended when Gunter and Ernst shot her with a tranquilizer dart. She then snaps back to reality and, full of rage, attacks Gunter and Ernst, ripping them to shreds.
Horrifically, the actual Roy Horn suffered a very similar traumatic event. During an October 2003 show at the Mirage in Las Vegas, a male white tiger named Mantacore bit and mauled Horn, sending the performer to a hospital's trauma unit. Horn was able to walk again, albeit with assistance, five months later.
