Satire Meet Reality

Ever since its humble beginnings in March 2016, The Babylon Bee—a Christian, conservative version of ...

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Ever since its humble beginnings in March 2016, The Babylon Bee—a Christian, conservative version of The Onion—has been a godsend for Americans who have become worn out by news outlets that take themselves too seriously. From its theological inside jokes about the prosperity gospel to its Snopeslong-standing feuds with and CNN, the Bee has made its mark in the world of satire. On today’s episode, David and Sarah are joined by the Babylon Bee’s editor-in-chief, Kyle Mann, who tells us about the challenges of satire writing in a cultural moment when it’s not always easy to determine fact from fiction. “There is an element where it’s not that our articles are too close to reality, it’s that reality is too close to satire,” Mann explains. “It’s what makes it so hard to write because you write something that you think is so goofy and over the top and then people believe it because reality is so crazy.” Listen to today’s episode for a conversation about C.S. Lewis’ best books, Kyle’s joke-writing process, and a tell-all about why Twitter’s decision to temporarily deplatform and demonetize the Babylon Bee was ironically “the best thing that could happen” to the team. Today’s episode would be incomplete without its requisite dose of legal nerdery. Tune in to hear David and Sarah discuss the never-ending saga with Michael Flynn, the McGahn case, and Sarah Palin’s defamation case against the New York Times.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Rev Snow

    The discussion here of Judge Sullivan's comments during Flynn's December 2018 court appearance whitewashes some of the judge's worst transgressions. This was not a judge merely "unloading" on a post-conviction defendant about the severity of his confessed crimes. The judge made comments about other crimes not charged, including treason. He upbraided Flynn on his work for Turkey, a matter not before the court, where no admissions and no evidence were on the record. It got so bad they had to take a recess to get the judge back onto more solid ground, making apologies for false claims made from the bench.

    Even measured against the expectations that judges sometimes rain down rhetorical judgment on convicted criminals during a sentencing phase, this went beyond normal standards.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/judge-tells-michael-flynn-you-sold-your-country-out-at-hearing.html

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    Rev Snow

    Hearty congratulations to David French on his summit.

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    Russell Board

    Great show. David, I'm with you on the Lewis space trilogy. Speaking of Lewis fiction, have you read Till We Have Faces?

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    Angie

    That was fun...I love the Babylon Bee and The Onion, I love that kind of humor

    I haven't read any CS Lewis, though I have some of the books, I probably should, I have seen the movies though

    I wish I had an Atty ...Twitter has me blocked and last night I get like 7 emails from them that make no sense, yet no resolution, like are they going to get back to me and fix this? Why didn't they do that while they were talking to me....sigh

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  5. Avatar photo
    Ryan Woods

    The Dispatch & the Bee are literally the only 2 news publications I pay for. Facts you can trust along with “Fake News You Can Trust” ☕️ are a healthy balance IMHO

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    Tyler

    Oh, no, Sarah. Starting with Magician's Nephew!? There is still time to correct this narrative tragedy before the Brisket is old enough to remember what happened.

    There are so many reasons, but I'll just pick a few. First, certain text in the books actually makes no sense when read out of order. In _Lion_, the narrator states upon Aslan's introduction that "none of the children knew who Aslan was, any more than you do." Obviously, any reader who read _Nephew_ would remember Aslan. The professor's teasing in _Lion's_ denouement about how the children may find Narnia again also falls flat if it's the second book read.

    Stylistically, though, it's even worse. _Lion_ unspools the mystery of the wardrobe throughout almost the first quarter of the book. If you go into the story knowing that the wardrobe is magical and understanding the effects of inter-world time dilation, much of the early plot becomes somewhat boring and repetitive. Whether the Professor will intervene in Lucy's defense is also deliberately ambiguous; the reader initially expects him to act like any other unimaginative adult. Unless, of course, you've read _Nephew_, in which case the whole runaround with him just seems dumb, because you go into the narrative knowing that he knows exactly what's going on and is on the side of angels. Lewis's ability to evoke wonder in so few words is one of the most compelling parts of _Lion_, and it's completely undercut by having read about Narnia first in _Nephew_.

    Also, much of the _Nephew's_ appeal is in the backstory revelations: how the lamppost came to be; the origins (and extraordinary evil) of the mysterious White Witch; and Aslan's ultimate role as the Creator. Parts of _Nephew's_ plot are almost secondary to these revelations, and the book is written for readers who already understand the world. Also, the backstory presented in _Nephew_ is just really cool, coming as late as it does in the world-building. I remember as a kid just being floored upon learning how the wardrobe came to be a magical portal at the very end of _Nephew_, which I think was my first encounter with a backstory revelation. Sure, that sounds lame, but in my defense I was like five years old, and it blew my mind.

    The miserable, neoteric ordering is the result of the publisher's trying to make the series more "accessible." It's weakly justified by a single letter Lewis wrote attempting to be kind to a kid who suggested a chronological ordering, which makes sense if you're eleven years old and don't know how storytelling works. It's pretty obvious that Lewis was gently placating the kid, but the publisher seized on it to justify creating a simpler and more commercial narrative. Ironically, Lewis rails against exactly this kind of patronizing approach to children's literature in _On Stories_.

    /rant

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    1. Avatar photo
      Aylene Wright

      Yeah, the whole idea of prequels seems to be readily understood by, say, Star Wars fans. But though I am not quite old enough to have watched the original trilogy when it first came out, I knew enough about it to cringe when the prequels came out, and some kids who didn't know about the original trilogy talked about Anakin as if he was a hero (a traditional one, anyway).

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  7. ROBERT

    Sarah, I'm telling you, if you keep using "Brisket" then someday in a future far, far away you will hear a minister say these wounds:
    "Do you, young lady, take this Brisket to be your lawfully wedded husband!"

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  8. ROBERT

    Who in the world would think to fact check "CNN invests heavily in industrial clothes washers to help spin the news"! The fact checking is better satire than the satire itself. And even better satire than that is that Facebook seems to have believed in the fact checking!
    This is a vaudeville era comedy gag, right?

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    Brian

    I feel like y’all may have missed out on the chance to talk about the juiciest legal nugget of the Michael Flynn case:

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/09/01/michael-flynn-appeals-court-decison-trump-ethics-corruption-column/3450667001/

    Does a federal judge ever have the authority to sentence a defendant, if the prosecutor makes an unopposed motion to withdraw charges?

    Absolutely loved everything about the Babylon Bee! As a former Catholic, theological humor tickles my funny bone.

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  10. Avatar photo
    Mark B.

    I sometimes feel as though we have too quickly forgotten the great Scott Ott and his magnificent Scrappleface website. The Bee is a worthy successor to his legacy.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Brian

      Great Scott!

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