Amy Duggar King Slams Jim Bob Duggar in ‘Shiny Happy People’ Season 2
Jim Bob Duggar wasn’t happy to have his family’s secrets exposed in a 2023 Amazon documentary series.
Season 2 of Prime Video’s Shiny Happy People doesn’t focus on the Duggar family, instead turning its lens on the controversial youth ministry Teen Mania. But the three-episode docuseries, which premiered July 23, does briefly address the Duggar family patriarch’s reaction to the first season.
Jim Bob Duggar ‘ticks me off,’ Amy Duggar King says
Jim Bob’s niece, Amy Duggar King, appears in the first episode of season 2, where she reads Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s statement in response to Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
“The recent documentary that talks about our family is sad,” a skeptical-looking Amy recites. “In it we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love.”
“Wow,” says Amy, who is the daughter of Jim Bob’s sister and appeared occasionally on the Duggars’ TLC reality show, 19 Kids and Counting.
Amy was clearly not impressed with Jim Bob and Michelle’s plea to resolve issues raised in the documentary – including son Josh Duggar’s sexual abuse of his siblings and daughter Jill Duggar’s accusation that her father refused to pay her for her time on the family’s TLC shows –- in “a private setting.”
“Ugh. He ticks me off,” Amy says. “He just does. Oh man. I want to tell him what’s up so bad.”
‘Shiny Happy People’ Season 2 explores another cult-like religious group
Shiny Happy People’s first season exposed the dark truth about the supposedly squeaky-clean Duggars. But it was more than just an exposé of a reality TV family. It also took a close look at the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a strict fundamentalist organization with which the Duggars were strongly associated.
“What a ride it’s been,” Amy said, reflecting on the reaction to season 1. “Oh my word. Social media just exploded. All of these people that were not in the IBLP craziness could relate in some way. So many stories of just really crazy belief systems.”
“Because it’s not about church. It’s not about religion. Coming up with new rules that aren’t necessarily biblical or from God. It’s just man-made-up bullcrap,” her husband Dillon King adds.
“And even when they say, ‘In the name of Jesus,’ it’s not always that way,” Amy says.
That was exactly the case with Teen Mania, according to multiple people interviewed in Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War. They share their disturbing stories of their time with the youth organization, which had ties to powerful conservative political leaders and aimed to turn the devout teens who attended its massive events into a literal army for Christ.
“[Teen Mania] was so crazy and so weird. They were told they were going to this big concert and it’s a really great place to just, like, meet other Christians,” Amy says of the organization.
“That’s exactly what we were told,” Dillon chimes in. “Because I went to one.”
“How do you know you’re in a cult if that’s your normal?” he adds. “Until someone comes along [and goes] ‘That’s not good. This is a cult.’”
Shiny Happy People: A Teenage Holy War is streaming on Prime Video.
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