The Babylon Bee Vs. The Media — Do They Really Not Get The Joke?

Charlotte’s Web author E.B. White once observed, “Humor can be dissected, as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process.”

As a real-life example of White’s axiom, witness Atlantic reporter Emma Green, who approached a recent interview with the Babylon Bee’s editor-in-chief, Kyle Mann, with scalpel in hand.

Green started with one of the outlet’s most infamous fake headlines: Democrats Call For Flags To Be Flown At Half-Mast To Grieve Death Of Soleimani.

“What,” Green wanted to know, “makes this funny?”

Mann may have had little background in comedy before 2016, when, on a whim, he pitched a joke to a newly-launched Christian satire site, but his wit calls to mind the studied dryness of Bob Newhart or Steven Wright.  Speak to him once and you’ll forever read the Bee’s zingers with his deadpan voice in your head.

“It’s funny,’ he replied, “because [Iranian] General Soleimani died and then they called for flags to be flown at half-mast. Get it?”

Green didn’t. “But what makes it funny?” she pressed.

“Do you want me to explain the joke to you?” he countered. “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.”

But Green was not to be stymied, and this dynamic played out several more times throughout the interview. She brought up an illustration from Mann and his co-writer Joel Berry’s new book, “The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness.” The image featured a peach-colored stick-figure labeled, “bad;” a gray one tagged, “better;” and a black one deemed, “best.”

“Why do you think that’s funny,” she asked.

Mann’s poker-face still did not break. “It’s because being peach is not good.”

“Riiight.” This time Green hesitated for a moment before evidently deciding she was going to have to guide Mann where she wanted him to go. “But you’re not just talking about that in terms of stick figures, right?” (Lord help this woman if she ever gets ahold of the old Abbot and Costello bit, “Who’s On First.”) “You’re talking about that in terms of how progressives think about a hierarchy of race?”

Mann conceded the point flatly. “Sure.”

“So why is that funny?” Green pushed again.

At last, a frustrated Mann snapped, “I’m not going to sit here and deconstruct and explain every joke to you. We’re taking this ridiculous position in order to mock something — to make fun of this idea that your

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