Seth Dillon, CEO of Babylon Bee, said comedy is getting harder in today’s world because reality often feels like a joke.
The Bee, the largest right-wing American satire site that thrives on parodying the news of the day, is struggling to come up with joke titles as more and more news stories read like fiction. But Dillon also stressed the importance of using comedy to mitigate the seriousness of contemporary issues.
“We satire and try to exaggerate reality to make a point with our jokes,” Dillon told Fox News. “We find it very difficult to satirize the world now because it’s so crazy.”
BABYLON BEE CEO: “The world is so hard to please with life right now because it’s so crazy”
See more FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS here
He added, “We’re basically living upside down, as I might describe it.”
Dillon said his show also contains a political mission to make fun of bad politics and ideas.
“It’s important not just to refute these things, but to actually ridicule and mock them,” he said. “We don’t help taking them seriously.”
According to Dillon, satire resonates most when it comes to beliefs that people may feel pressured to agree with even if they disagree with them.
“It’s made even more important because of the crazy ideas out there where people are pressured into saying that two and two make five,” he said. “This really gave a lot of opportunity for comedians and satirists to play fend off the madness with truth and reason.”
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon spoke to Fox News Digital from CPAC Texas 2022 in Dallas. (Fox News Digital/Joseph Wolfson)
Greg Gutfeld: The Babylon Bee is very good at her job
Dillon said policies about gender confirmation, Wake Up and others often generate real headlines that read like parodies.
He referred to CNN Connection It was a mostly peaceful riot while a reporter stood in front of burning buildings and colleges to promote segregation as a way to combat racism.
“These are things you would expect to see on a satirical site, but they make headlines every single day,” Dillon said.
The Bee saw the potential in funny and true headlines, which in 2020 led the company to launch “Not the Bee” – a website covering real news that reads like satire.
Dillon also said that satire can be a useful tool for digesting absurd but true stories that can stress Americans.
“I think rather than just focus on it [the stories] In a negative way and feeling anxious, you know, being able to laugh at things that are really worth laughing at,” Dillon told Fox News. He added that a common feedback his readers make is “they really appreciate that we’re keeping them sane, but also making them laugh, because we bring them luxury.” “.
Examples of recent Babylon Bee headlines include: “Putin Immediately Surrender as Nashville Cops Airdrop From US to Battlefield,” “Leadership: Biden Calls Banks to Stop Collapsing,” and “Doctors Report Staggering Rise in Testicular Injury.” among women athletes.
Dillon told Fox News that Bee has tens of thousands of paid subscribers, gets about 25 million page views a month and has more than 1 million subscribers on Twitter. Youtube.
Dillon bought the platform in 2018 when it was a small blog focused on creating niche jokes for Protestantism Community. But as their audience grew, Dillon said they turned to more political and cultural jokes.
In response to critics who argue that Bees spread misinformation because their headlines are often so believable, Dillon said he’s just doing his job.
“There’s supposed to be a grain of truth in these jokes,” he said. “If it wasn’t believable at all, it wouldn’t be a good joke. It wouldn’t be funny.”
Adding that Social media The platforms have accused The Bee of violating their misinformation policies.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon spoke to Fox News about the many jokes made by the site that later became reality. (Fox News Digital)
“She conveys a lot of insecurities, but that’s one of the reasons I think they chase after us,” he said. “I don’t think comedy is necessarily the target of their attacks.”
“I think it’s the truth that bothers them,” Dillon said, referring to the fact that Bee uses humor to identify real problems in politics and other situations.
According to Dillon, nearly 100 of his outlet’s joke stories later became fulfilled prophecies.
When a Satyr Comes True: Nearly 100 Babylon Bee Stories Become True
“The problem is not that our satire is too close to reality,” Dillon previously told Fox News. “It’s that the truth is so close to satire, that’s why our jokes keep coming.”
Babylon Bee has been banned from its Twitter account for over a month. (Fox News)
Dillon also believes that trying to censor offensive jokes is not a solution.
Click here for the FOX NEWS app
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being offended by a joke,” Dillon said. “I think the real problem is when someone you’ve offended by a joke says, you know, ‘You shouldn’t be allowed to make jokes anymore.'” You shouldn’t be allowed to joke about me.”
He added, “We all deserve to be a joke – a much healthier state of mind.” “But the answer can’t be to stop telling jokes. The answer has to be thinking, ‘Well, why am I offended?'” Maybe there is something to this joke. “
click here Learn more about the difficulty of creating satire in today’s world.