Posted on 10/23/2021 6:34:02 AM PDT by NOBO2012
There is an Atlantic article this month that chronicles author Emma Green’s interview with Kyle Mann, the managing editor of the Babylon Bee. The title, The Christians Who Mock Wokeness for a Living, explains to Ms. Green’s audience what the article is intended to do: chastise America’s new newspaper of record for being rather un-Christian. What it actually does is prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that the left has absolutely no sense of humor…
“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.” – Martin Luther King
…at least when the joke is on them. This excerpt is quite self explanatory, although the author repeatedly demands an explanation.
Green: You guys wrote an article in January 2020 that was shared roughly 3 million times, claiming that Democrats called for the American flag to be flown at half-staff when the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in an American strike. What makes this funny? I know that’s the worst question to ask somebody who writes jokes.
Mann: It’s funny because General Soleimani died and then they called for flags to be flown at half-mast. Get it?
Green: But that’s what I’m saying. Besides just saying the joke again, what makes it funny?
Mann: Do you want me to explain the joke to you? Because the joke is that General Soleimani died and Democrats were sad.
If you don’t know why that’s funny, then you’re not the audience for the joke. The funniest part is that it got fact-checked because it was so believable that Democrats would do that. That’s a real honor.
Green: …But I want to ask about the fact-checking part. I don’t think the reason Snopes fact-checked it was because it was so plausible. I think it’s because it was being shared millions of times. What if people did believe it was real? Do you worry about that, regardless of how many times you make it clear that you’re a satire publication?…Does that impose any ethical responsibility on you?
Mann’s answer is my favorite part of the entire piece:
Mann: Not any more than any other comedian whose joke gets mistaken for reality. Does SNL bear responsibility because people still think Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house?
And because it is Caturday, I add this bonus feature direct from the satanic Babylon Bee itself: Is Your Cat Actually Satan? 9 Things To Look For.
Posted from: MOTUS A.D.
Allinsky says “Ridicule is mans most potent weapon.”
The left knows this, uses it, and freaks out when it’s used against them.
The left knows this, uses it, and freaks out when it’s used against them.
Conservatives need to recognize this and not take the bait by knee-jerk reactions.
Understanding liberals are trying to provoke a fight and throw you off your game is the first step to counter the tactic of ridicule.
*robot voice* Yes, Master.
I agree with the person who said that the headlines are funnier than the actual pieces.
Mann: It’s funny because General Soleimani died and then they called for flags to be flown at half-mast. Get it?
Green: But that’s what I’m saying. Besides just saying the joke again, what makes it funny?
OMG - only a stupid white liberal 'elite' would NOT get this joke... Way to go for Bee...
You're right - and we need to use more ofit...
All liberals are fascists, and Green is just trying to “build a case” that the Babylon Bee should be censored, suppressed, and destroyed.
“If you don’t know why that’s funny, then you’re not the audience for the joke.”
Sums the entire article up right there.
Would also include the 81,000,000 people that voted for Jośe Biden.
Of course they got the point.
They’re just trying to make the person explain over and over again hoping to frustrate them or expose them as a heartless zealot.
You’re right Civ...
Cats are inherently evil. The only thing that stops them from world domination is the lack of opposable thumbs…
Heaven forbid we should have a chuckle at the idiocy which passes daily out of the American anus that is Washington, DC.
If the author had any brains, and I’m not saying she does, she would know humor takes things down a notch. A much better written article— which would have been detrimental to the Bee— would make the argument that the Bee has acted as a social blowoff valve and helped the Left.
An Englishman thrice: Once when you tell it to him, once when you explain it to him, once when he gets it.
A German, twice: Once when you tell it to him, once when you explain it him. He doesn't get it.
An American: Doesn't laugh. He's heard it.
An Atlantic Reportette: "That's not funny!"
Atlantic Reportette
The shadows quote attributed to MLK: That was stolen from “Plato’s Allegory of the Cave”.
One who gets it.
They often are.
No, they have not. In 1993, as just one example, The Atlantic published "Dan Quayle Was Right," a scholarly defense of two married biological parents as the best home environment for raising children, in response to Candace Bergen's tv show Murphy Brown having mocked Republican VP candidate Dan Quayle for saying so.
The Atlantic, founded in 1857, historically had been one of American's oldest and best magazines of cultural commentary, and had more in common with National Review than with Worker's World Daily until it was recently bought by Steve Jobs' billionaire widow.
I wonder how the bee will weigh in on the matter...................
That’s not a woman.
Not all satire is funny.
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