In a piece typical of the "corporate media seeks to understand conservatives" genre, The Atlantic's Emma Green interviews Babylon Bee Editor-in-chief Kyle Mann to learn how the conservative Christian satire site reconciles religiosity with its mocking of Wokeness. Cringeworthy exchanges ensue:
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.
