Talk:The Babylon Bee

	This Media related article has not received a brainstar for quality. Please consider expanding the article appropriately. See RationalWiki:Article rating for more information.

Archives for this talk page:

<1>

, (new)

Not loving this article

BB isn't top quality humor, but they are no worse than amateur-night at a comedy club. This article makes it sound like they have all the humor of a puppy being run over by Elon Musk's Cybertruck, all because we don't like their topics. If we want to criticize their views, sure, go ahead, but I wouldn't say that, e.g., Jim Carrey is completely humorless because Ace Ventura would now be considered a transphobic movie. CorruptUser 05:49, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

@CorruptUser I'd honestly say this isn't a very good article for the opposite reason: it just goes into long, verbose, and incredibly boring breakdowns of why these rather unoriginal jokes that you can tell are bad by reading are bad. The looks into why the ideas it has are bad are also pretty self evident by looking at the things they write. Not quite sure what this article is trying to achieve armed_roomba (she/her)^{What am I doing wrong this time?} 06:29, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

But not all of the jokes are bad, because of something that might as well be called the "shotgun approach". You fire off a shotgun with 100 pellets, a couple of them are going to hit. I just went to the website now, and I see one headline that made me chuckle (Border Patrol agents to patrol border with Segway and pool noodle) even though the other dozen don't cut it. Some of their animated stuff is OK, e.g., the Klan being bewildered by the modern definitions of Racism. Other animated stuff and videos are less so, especially the lame anti-abortion stuff. There's a lot of comedy material available either pro or anti-abortion, but they don't approach it even remotely close to a funny manner. CorruptUser 15:13, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

That makes some sense. Adding a section of times they were actually funny could be good, since there really isn't any evidence that they were ever funny currently on the page. The encyclopedic list of things they said that are not funny is not something that needs to be there imo. armed_roomba (she/her)^{What am I doing wrong this time?} 15:28, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

For instance, this animated skit had a lot of potential. The Social-Media rage-mob being depicted as the monsters from A Quiet Place? Yep, it's the perfect depiction. Talking about minimum wage and unemployment, not as much. Shoe-horning abortion in there, dumb. CorruptUser 15:46, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

One of the Bee's biggest faults is just that: they just have to shoe-horn things into the conservative populist list of bullet points. And it often makes for serious awkwardness. I mean, singer and creep R. Kelly was found guilty recently of various sexual abuse crimes (as most news readers know I'm sure). And the grievance joke they chose to make is... Hunter Biden? Really? That's what you come up with? That's not even wrong levels of humor. Hell, you can easily keep it conservative political and used someone like, say, Bill Clinton and probably come up with a bit of a funny. But no, Bill Clinton isn't Fox News talking bullet point enough these days, I suppose... PanGalacticGargleBlaster (talk) 16:05, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

(EC) I've never heard of this site before and I've never browsed them, probably never will. IMO the problem with this kind of article overall is that it will often boils down to "what I don't think it's funny". To be quite honest, I don't think trying to convince the reader that their page is not funny instead of letting them decide for themselves is the way to go. Covering their bigotry is one thing, sayinf that they aren't funny is more of a personal opinion. GeeJayK (talk) 15:49, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree with GJK. We should get rid of the "oh they aren't funny" schlock and focus more on their stances on various topics. CorruptUser 15:53, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

A lot of people tend to counter bad humor with "you don't think this is funny because you don't agree with the humor" hence why I wrote an explanation about why the Bee isn't funny and did a breakdown of the tropes they engage in, as well as miscellaneous humor that also don't really deliver. Saying "it's self-evident it's bad", I can't agree with either because of the aforementioned "you just don't agree with it" trap. One of the examples of criticism being listed, the social media mob being compared to monsters from A Quiet Place, that comes off as falling into the "persecuted liberals" category. Sure, humor is subjective but like most things there's good or bad technique involved and Babylon Bee relies on the most obvious and laziest ones, if not relying on misinformation as well as awkwardly lumping in conservatives talling points.

I beg to differ, their humor is THAT bad. Transphobic jokes are way too common for starters, but they make gulag references (that's absolutely tasteless, and not everyone realizes this), compare Biden vaccine mandates to star of David labeling, have Democrats dress up as KKK. I didn't go out of my way to find the worst; I just searched up topics they cover and found recurring patterns, documented the patterns and supported patterns with examples. --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 15:16, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

Your reasoning makes sense, and you've partially convinced me. I still think some of the sections are a bit overbearing and could use some cuts, but I think it makes sense to keep at least a good portion of what's there right now. armed_roomba (she/her)^{What am I doing wrong this time?} 17:32, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

My complaint is similar. They are too blunt and obvious with their satire, as if the person hearing it is an idiot. As for the topics, should Trans be a topic of comedy? Of course, NOTHING should be too sacred to mock. The problem is when they rehash the same joke so many times that it ceases to be funny, if it ever was in the first place, at that point Babylon Bee is yet another clickbait content-mill.CorruptUser 18:28, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

Sure thing! I'll cut down on some verbiage, maybe I shouldn't be explaining every single thing I found wrong with the comedy here, but we just need to stick to the idea of critiquing comedy for how they pull it off rather than ideology. A good way to figure this out, I think, is to always think about bad jokes from liberals and anyone to the left of it, and always keep track of any inaccuracies and misinformation being promoted (such as Babylon Bee not getting the party switch shift. I know several bad ones such as "Drumpf", making fun of Trump's weight, making fun of Trump's hands, calling Mitch a "turtle", mocking physical appearance of conservative women, the many many jabs at the fake tan, the Monica Lewinsky jokes from liberal comedy, and some misc SNL material. Hell as I said, The Onion has some stinkers too and they rely sometimes too much on a joke template (basically repeating statements and then a sort of ending sentence that sometimes goes into another territory) so you often know how the content goes before you click on the page. I tried to apply a consistent standard between analyzing this and bad SNL comedy but it's hard because I'm biased. Anyhow I tried really hard to be fair and I found Babylon Bee sometimes sympathizing with millenials so in terms of better articles, I did try to list them if I found them.

Yeah I think Babylon Bee is too blunt, such as one article where they made Kamala Harris downright evilly laughing which... I mean that wouldn't be my approach to satirize her. Also I didn't say trans people are too sacred and fragile for comedy but you got to apply tact to it, just as with comedy involving any minority. I think trans people are the best people at self-depractory comedy but it's way too easy to be offensive, and Babylon Bee has disregard for tact, as I mention earlier about their casual gulag joke. --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 19:25, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ I actually really enjoy the Bee, but I see what the article is saying: Some of their jokes are just so old. ^{— Unsigned, by: 69.54.140.150 / talk / contribs}

@CorruptUser So humor directed at trans people is ok, but humor directed at any one else isn't?2601:47:4600:3AE0:51DA:1F34:7A1A:6DE7 (talk) 18:12, 15 July 2022 (UTC)JProle

CorruptUser doesn't make arguments I really agree with but that's not the argument. Basically saying that the article makes a hyperbole of the awful comedy of the Bee, though I disagree. It's lazy, it's puerile, and most importantly its intent is to harm people like trans people. --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 19:48, 17 July 2022 (UTC)

Apparently, some of the humor is supposed to be "meta"

I got this from a Some More News video, but it was shared in an Atlantic interview that some of the humor, like the "Haha AOC stoopid" was intentionally obtuse to mock "boomer" memes of AOC. Quoted as "Well, what if we just kind of went all in with this weird Andy Kaufman bit where we’re making fun of ourselves, but we don’t tell anybody we’re making fun of ourselves?" It's weird because it calls question to the other content, which are similarly juvenile and obtuse. Some More News raises a good question: are those other bad jokes listed in the article also "weird Andy Kaufman" bits? --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 04:51, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

It's beyond anybody's grasp to effectively determine what satire is actually a satirical parody of satire. The article doesn't necessarily need the list (although I do like it), but removing it for this reason is a bad idea IMO. armed_roomba (she/her)^{What am I doing wrong this time?} 05:31, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Oh, I'm not planning on removing the list for it. I just want to include that "weird Andy Kaufman" bit to cover ground on Babylon Bee's attempt to explain those lame "aoc has head stuck in a bucket" articles. My questions were rhetorical, like, if Babylon Bee claims some of their humor is intentionally bad, which one is the intentionally bad one and which one is just poorly written? --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 06:12, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Way late on this, but it would be good to add, if we at least portray it ass the possible "cover my ass" technique that it likely is. armed_roomba (she/her)^{What am I doing wrong this time?} 08:14, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Two articles I'm keeping in mind for future additions

CDC Now Recommends Wearing A Seat Belt Even When You’re Outside The Car - Wow that's not totally irresponsible regarding mask-wearing.

Frustrated Women Demand Trans Women In Public Restrooms Stop Leaving The Toilet Seat Up - I thought this article's headline was fine and was this 👌 close to adding for "something Babylon Bee did that wasn't puerile and offensive" (however there's the eyebrow-raising separation of "women" and "trans women" like trans women aren't "normal"), but the content was Goomba dung. "With more and more public bathroom facilities now allowing biological men in women's restrooms". "Some facilities had previously addressed this problem by gluing down the toilet seats but were later told that this was transphobic since some trans women need to lift the toilet seat for unknown reasons completely unrelated to physiology." Seriously screw you Babylon Bee, way to ruin an all right set up; take your persecution-complex material and shove it. --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 07:00, 5 January 2022 (UTC)

Suspended from Twitter dot com

‘We’re Not Deleting Anything’: Babylon Bee Defiant After Twitter Locks Their Account for Tweet Calling Rachel Levine ‘Man of the Year’

They got suspended for vile tweet/article (link to this disgusting article, overt transphobia beware: [1]) where they deadnamed and misgendered Rachel Levine. The Twitter dot com bots suspended their Twitter account shortly after, and the poor, poor Seth Dillon cried about censoring truth, but also "it's just a satirical joke, gaiz, Levine is a man". --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 05:08, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

One Joke meme here. ☭Comrade GC☭^{Ministry of Praise} 01:12, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, there are 49,247 genders and everytime the Babylon Bee writes an article about this, we add 5 more. --It's-a me, 🎄LeftyGreenMario!🎄 01:25, 22 March 2022 (UTC)

Actually rare W?

https://bsky.app/profile/kilgoretrout.bsky.social/post/3kokbutywlk2g