4 ms·

> The safeword is in the title: The Babylon Bee Yep. The Babylon Bee is sort of “double satire”: that is, it is an (unintentional) parody of a satirical newspa

> The safeword is in the title: The Babylon Bee Yep. The Babylon Bee is sort of “double satire”: that is, it is an (unintentional) parody of a satirical newspaper, which at first glance looks like a joke before you read more closely and realize that the authors are barely literate and without a sense of humor. Like a written analog of Ben Garrison cartoons. We get such gems as Amazon Blows Entire $1 Billion 'Rings Of Power' Budget On Making It Look Like A Woman Can Hold A Sword; Russian Spy Awarded Presidential Medal Of Freedom For Being First Openly Transgender Traitor To Country; Biden Vows Next Hurricane To Hit US Will Be Named After A Woman Of Color; 'Did God Really Say You Shouldn't Kill Your Baby?' Hisses Slithering Newsom To Frightened Pregnant Woman; Pelosi Drafts Articles Of Impeachment Against New Prime Minister Of Italy; Stacey Abrams Claims Obesity Is Just Numbers Manufactured By Her Bathroom Scale; Disney Chooses Bald Actress To Play Rapunzel In Live-Action Remake; Where Are They Now? Catch Up With All Your Favorite Laid-Off CNN Employees! ... Even incompetent and tasteless parody is still clearly speech protected by the first amendment, as the Onion brief author explains.

_fat_santa 4y ago
> which at first glance looks like a joke before you realize that all of the authors are barely literate and entirely without a sense of humor You just don't find their humor funny and that's fine.
- bena 4y ago
  What's funny about the thing linked to? The satirical claim is that Applebee's is banning Greene from to go online ordering. Where's the joke? Is the joke simply a company is being mean to a Republican? This is one of those things in the realm of "I know it didn't happen but it's totally something they would do" except that it never happens. Is it commentary to the story that a completely unrelated restaurant continued to impose a vaccine mandate despite being called out on twitter by Greene? If so, how? That's the Bee's problem, most of their jokes aren't. They're really just mostly insults. And they really only insult one type of person. Whereas, I can go to The Onion and tell you why https://www.theonion.com/high-schoolers-given-detention-for-cutting-class-during-1849609270 https://www.theonion.com/high-schoolers-given-detention-for-... is funny and/or satirical without even getting into the actual article. American schools are ridiculously strict and also the subject of way too many shootings. Even the fact of considering the act of fleeing from a shooter as "cutting class" is just outrageous. It's taking things that have actually happened, slightly exaggerating them, and then combining them into something that is too absurd to be believed.
  - stuartjohnson12 4y ago
    The joke is that corporations do performative political acts to appear socially conscious. They are using hyperbole based on this stereotype to joke that Applebee's (a relatable family diner) has done something incredibly minor (limiting the scope to "to-go orders" while still allowing her to sit down) as a political stunt. The joke arises from the contrast between the seriousness of the allegations and the minorness of the punishment. It's not good comedy, but the basis of a joke is there.
    - bena 4y ago
      So, like in the realm of something that doesn't happen but we're going to say it totally happens because of... reasons. It's not even in the realm of hyperbole, is it. It may want to be, but it's not. And unless this is something common to "relatable family diner(s)", singling out Applebees is also a head scratcher. The "joke" here is "fucking liberals". When the "fucking liberal" in this case is just a random ass pull. It's a combination of odd reaches and odd selection of targets that makes one more say "what?" than anything else.
      - tanseydavid 4y ago
        Where I come from the name "Applebees" is mockingly used interchangably with TGIFridays, Chilis etc. because the menu and dining experience is mostly indistinguishable from brand to brand.
        bena 4y ago
        Right, but none of them are doing anything like this. It would make sense if Applebees was doing something similar so you can do the comparison. Or if these chain Americano restaurants had a history of these types of actions so you can do that comparison. But neither of those things are true. It's why I contrasted it with the Onion's headline about students fleeing school shootings getting detention. All the links to events are there to be made. The Applebees thing lacks those links. In this case Applebees is standing in for Twitter. Which is just a weird stand in. It would be funny if the headline was that MySpace was proactively banning Greene for blah blah blah. Because MySpace is also a social media company, but completely irrelevant, so it's funny because it's essentially "you can't fire me, I quit".

_fat_santa 4y ago

> which at first glance looks like a joke before you realize that all of the authors are barely literate and entirely without a sense of humor You just don't find their humor funny and that's fine.

bena 4y ago
What's funny about the thing linked to? The satirical claim is that Applebee's is banning Greene from to go online ordering. Where's the joke? Is the joke simply a company is being mean to a Republican? This is one of those things in the realm of "I know it didn't happen but it's totally something they would do" except that it never happens. Is it commentary to the story that a completely unrelated restaurant continued to impose a vaccine mandate despite being called out on twitter by Greene? If so, how? That's the Bee's problem, most of their jokes aren't. They're really just mostly insults. And they really only insult one type of person. Whereas, I can go to The Onion and tell you why https://www.theonion.com/high-schoolers-given-detention-for-cutting-class-during-1849609270 https://www.theonion.com/high-schoolers-given-detention-for-... is funny and/or satirical without even getting into the actual article. American schools are ridiculously strict and also the subject of way too many shootings. Even the fact of considering the act of fleeing from a shooter as "cutting class" is just outrageous. It's taking things that have actually happened, slightly exaggerating them, and then combining them into something that is too absurd to be believed.
- stuartjohnson12 4y ago
  The joke is that corporations do performative political acts to appear socially conscious. They are using hyperbole based on this stereotype to joke that Applebee's (a relatable family diner) has done something incredibly minor (limiting the scope to "to-go orders" while still allowing her to sit down) as a political stunt. The joke arises from the contrast between the seriousness of the allegations and the minorness of the punishment. It's not good comedy, but the basis of a joke is there.
  - bena 4y ago
    So, like in the realm of something that doesn't happen but we're going to say it totally happens because of... reasons. It's not even in the realm of hyperbole, is it. It may want to be, but it's not. And unless this is something common to "relatable family diner(s)", singling out Applebees is also a head scratcher. The "joke" here is "fucking liberals". When the "fucking liberal" in this case is just a random ass pull. It's a combination of odd reaches and odd selection of targets that makes one more say "what?" than anything else.
    - tanseydavid 4y ago
      Where I come from the name "Applebees" is mockingly used interchangably with TGIFridays, Chilis etc. because the menu and dining experience is mostly indistinguishable from brand to brand.
      - bena 4y ago
        Right, but none of them are doing anything like this. It would make sense if Applebees was doing something similar so you can do the comparison. Or if these chain Americano restaurants had a history of these types of actions so you can do that comparison. But neither of those things are true. It's why I contrasted it with the Onion's headline about students fleeing school shootings getting detention. All the links to events are there to be made. The Applebees thing lacks those links. In this case Applebees is standing in for Twitter. Which is just a weird stand in. It would be funny if the headline was that MySpace was proactively banning Greene for blah blah blah. Because MySpace is also a social media company, but completely irrelevant, so it's funny because it's essentially "you can't fire me, I quit".