Babylon Bee Editor Explains Why Satire is a Powerful Tool to Examine Culture
By Movieguide® Contributor
Kyle Mann explained the heart behind The Babylon Bee and why he believes satire is one of the most powerful tools to expose the ridiculous parts of culture.
“The founder of the Babylon Bee, Adam Ford, came up with [the name] on day one when we launched the site,” Mann, the editor-in-chief of the Babylon Bee, told actor Kirk Cameron. “It was kind of this idea that as Christians a lot of times it feels like we live in Babylon, you know, and that’s only become increasingly true over the past several years.”
“It does feel like we’re in exile, you know, and so we kind of thought of this idea of, you know, writing news for Christians, writing news for believers from this perspective that they’re dispatches from exile, you know, dispatches from Babylon,” he continued. “It’s this idea that, you know, the world is not our home and we just kind of comment on the crazy stuff that happens here.”
“I would say the mission statement of the Babylon Bee that we’ve kind of crystalized through the years has been that we’re trying to use humor to communicate truth to a post-truth culture,” Mann added. “So that’s going to touch a lot of areas because we’re going to end up doing some political jokes, some current events, but it also means that we’re going to be doing some jokes that are more light-hearted…that are just going to point to the everyday wonder and everyday humor that God has kind of infused throughout our lives.”
While the point of the satire is to expose the ridiculous parts of life, not everything is game to be mocked. Especially when it comes to religion, the Babylon Bee is careful to make sure they don’t belittle or make fun of God.
“We don’t want to make people think that the target of a joke is God or the Bible or anything like that. We want to make fun of the misperceptions that we modern American Christians have about those things and the ways that fail and sometimes are hypocrites with our faith and with those things, so we make fun of those but we try not to kind of cross that other line where your actual punchline of the joke is God or the Bible,” Mann explained.
While no topic is necessarily taboo, Mann explained that “The main question as a comedian and a satirist is whether you’re able to treat a serious topic with the gravitas or brutality that it deserves.”
Even more dangerous is the impact that doing satire full-time can have on Mann’s personal faith. He has to be careful not to let himself become cynical but rather be able to continue enjoying the blessings of life.
“That’s a real danger, right, I mean C.S. Lewis even said that he didn’t like writing ‘The Screwtape Letters’ because it made him think like a demon, you know,” Mann said. “He would respond to fan mail and said something like, ‘I don’t want to write another word in the voice of Screwtape because it makes me think like a demon as I’m mocking things,’ you know.”
“And obviously, ‘The Screwtape Letters’ is this book that is very powerful in satirizing the ways that we fall victim to sin and temptation but at the same time, you’ve got be careful as a satirist, you know, you want to deconstruct things, but you want to deconstruct targets that are worthy of destruction,” Mann continued. “You don’t want to get so cynical about everything that faith itself becomes the punchline.”
Nonetheless, Mann believes that satire is a powerful tool that can cut through the confines of culture to mock the ridiculous parts of life and help people see where things have gone awry.
“Satire is prophetic,” Mann told The Collegian. “It simply takes people’s beliefs to their next logical conclusion.”
“I think satire is super important because it does help us kind of question the assumptions that we have about society, our government, what’s important to God, the way we do church. Satire is a cutting tool, you know, it helps us cut away the traditions and the manmade things that kind of build up over and around our beliefs,” he said.
“Whether that’s, you know, our political beliefs or our religious beliefs, you know, it’s so easy for us to take the way that we do church and kind of add that onto the Gospel and say that this is part and parcel of the good news,” he continued. “And so, for us to be able to kind of cut away these things and make people laugh about our specific religious traditions and then that helps us to be able to point people towards the Gospel and things that are important.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
The satire and comedy site known as The Babylon Bee is popular among Christian conservatives and is no stranger to attacks from political opponents, censorship and cancellation from disgruntled social media sites.
According to the managing editor of The Babylon Bee, Joel Berry, satire is a tool they can use to teach truth.
“In today’s world, humor has kind of become one of the most effective ways of communicating truth,” Berry told CBN’s Faithwire. “We’re oversaturated with information. It’s coming at us from all sides. There’s so many distractions. Our attention spans are short.
“I think it serves to give people courage. I think social media is designed to keep us in silos and cut off from each other … feeling alone,” he added. “And, in the way, we think like we’re the only sane person left on planet Earth, and The Babylon Bee … serves to help people remember they’re not alone in thinking and their worldview.”
