If you have been reading The Babylon Bee since Day 1, you know that its bread and butter has always been satire of evangelical Protestants of all kinds — from bearded Reformed seminarians who study theology in hipster craft-brewing establishments to megachurch musicians who yearn to play Eddie Van Halen solos during the 100th repetition of whatever praise chorus is currently all the rage.
You can see the Summa Theologica of that viewpoint in the book “How to Be a Perfect Christian: Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living,” by Bee founder Adam Ford and Kyle Mann, the website’s current editor. Hold that thought, because we will come back to it.
Lots of core early readers clicked on classic headline like “New Prayer App Delivers Electric Shock Every Time User Says 'Just' ") or "Joel Osteen Sails Luxury Yacht Through Flooded Houston To Pass Out Copies Of 'Your Best Life Now.' "
Then along came Donald Trump: Superstar. Legions of people wanted to click a headline like this one: “Trump Announces He Was Born Of A Virgin And Will Bring Balance To The Force.” Eventually, it was obvious that the Bee also needed to harvest the gazillions of clicks that would result from posts mocking blue-zip-code liberals who have been suffering from so-called “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The fact that I needed to add “so-called” in that sentence points to the complexity of the current age for satirists. As another Bee headline noted: “Reality Criticized For Not More Clearly Distinguishing Itself From Satire.”
Now, if Bee readers were going to write a New York Times headline about all of this — the evangelical subculture humor, the jabs at Trump and then the wisecracks about liberals — wouldn’t it look something like this epic double-decker?
What ‘The Babylon Bee’ Thinks Is So Funny About Liberals
The comedy site, a conservative answer to ‘The Onion,’ used to have Trump squarely in its cross hairs. But now it’s less about him and more about the people who can’t stand him.
This is actually a pretty interesting article, if one is willing to ignore the history of the Babylon Bee. Also, it helps to assume that, in order to be legitimate (whatever that means for a satire site) and funny, it needs to focus most of its attention on the sins of Citizen Trump, while ignoring all those freakouts about his existence seen in the highest ranks of the cultural establishment — especially the world of high tech billionaires and America’s entertainment, academic and journalism elites.
All of that brings us to this Times overture that simply writes itself:
