Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, constitutional and historical perspective. We appreciate you joining us today. Be sure to visit our websites. Going to give you two of them. Wallbuilders.com is the main site. That's where you can make your one time or monthly contribution. That's where you can get all kinds of tools and educational materials, some good swag and a lot of great stuff there. So check that out on wallbuilders.com and then head over to WallBuilders.show to catch up on any radio that you missed in the last few weeks. There's a lot of great programing there and it's all available to you for free right there at WallBuilders.show and a great thing to share with your friends and family because you're helping to spread the word, educate, equip, inspire people and get them ready to defend our constitutional republic. Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. And later in the program, Kyle Mann will be with us from the Babylon Bee. And at first, guys, that sounds like, you know, some Middle Eastern, I don't know, exterminator or something like that, but these guys just don't miss on the comedy side of things, and they do it so well. I think it actually moves the needle. I think it jars people to realize, wow, that is so absurd and so silly. I can't believe that's real life. It's their fun, fun to follow. 

Tim Barton [00:01:19] They really are. And I would say at this point, I would assume probably most people listening to us are familiar with the Babylon Bee. But I can remember when they were first starting and people didn't really know they were a kind of satire. The comedy, the humor side is what they did, and people would share their articles and be like, You're not going to believe this. And I remember multiple times, adults, friends, even some family members, I'd have to help them go, Hey guys, that the Babylon Bee it satire that that's not real because they didn't understand the nature of it. But what was so great about it is that the satire they were making was ridiculous. But it began to become more and more believable because they would joke about politicians saying something really stupid. You're like, I. I feel like I could see a politician saying something that stupid. I don't think it's that far fetched any more. And we we have seen and been in conferences with one of their leaders, Seth Dillon, many times and he's done I've seen more than once him do a breakdown of how many headlines they did. That then became very predictive because those headlines came true of things that they were making fun of that then literally woke people, Democrat politicians, maybe even some of those Republican politicians, whoever it is, they would literally do the things that the Babylon Bee had been making fun of. But, Rick, to your point, they are just so spot on. They have multiple writers. They have different contributors at times from outside their group and it. 

Rick Green [00:03:01] Back to them. I don't think to your point, I don't I don't know if any of their satire in the last four years didn't come true. Right. That was what was so weird about life was was they would make this stuff. It was just crazy. And then, you know. 

Tim Barton [00:03:14] So along those lines, just people that don't know and I don't remember the exact headline. I'm just I'm just going to reference this. But they were making fun and this was before like the big transgender push happened, but they were making fun of how woke people were being. And so they have this headline years ago about man chosen as woman of the year as one of their headlines. Right. Good luck and going, that's so dumb. That would never happen. And then literally you're watching people whether be right like there's Rachel Levine kind of whoever a transgender person, a biological male identifying as a female that is chosen to be the woman of the year, things that they were making fun of at times years before it happened, sometimes three, 4 or 5, six months before it happened. But literally the things they made fun of became predictive. And that's actually what people were doing and culture, as crazy as it was. And so they have they have become now much more well known for their satire. However, it is crazy. The things that were so ridiculous and outrageous and extreme have unfortunately become a reality in many regards. 

David Barton [00:04:28] Yeah. These guys. I love the way they describe themselves. They say that they are the trusted fake news site and all of that. They admit that they're fake news, but they're the trusted fake news site. And so I went through and pulled some stuff that I thought was really pretty funny. And I guess I relate to it because it's it's satire is sarcasm. It's all they kind of twist on humor. But one of the things I go back to and you probably had this in doing interviews, media interviews, there's a couple of sources I know it's always going to turn out really twisted when they get done with me. And once AP, AP may be the most liberal news site in America, more so than MSNBC, CNN, everybody put together, they they are notorious for taking a statement you make and making you say something opposite to what you say because they use ellipses and that use of that said three dot that use in the middle of a phrase where that indicates that you've dropped some words out and now you're supposed to do that word doesn't change the tone of what you were saying. Just shortened it because the word length, they will take a drop out key parts of what you say. And so Babylon Bee did a thing showing, as they called it, was the ten that their ten quotes from the AP where they took historical quotes and showed what would have what it would have been like if it had had to come through the AP. So if you if you take, for example, you remember Roosevelt's quote on fear, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Well, they put the Ellipse in there and they said, the only thing we have is fear itself. And that's. That's Franklin Roosevelt. Remember that Neil Armstrong, instead of one small step for men, great leap for mankind. They just say that's one small man. That's all they use. They even took MLK where he says, I have a dream. I have a dream that one day and he goes to the little boys, little girls, and they put ellipses in it to say that Martin Luther King's quote is Now I have a dream that one day little boys will be little girls. And so that's what the AP does. And that's why they're so unreliable and not trustworthy. But because these guys are also Christian, they have a lot of fun actually making fun of Christian stuff as well. And so you guys, if I asked you what your most inspiring Bible verse, I mean, for me it might be things like Philippians 4:13 that I could do all things. There's through Christ, your strength is me. Well, these guys went through and took specific Bible verses straight out of the Bible, and they called these their most their most inspirational Bible verses, and they make great little names of them. They put pictures together of of a family holding hands together. And so here's what they have out of Deuteronomy 28:35, the Bible verse says, The Lord will afflict your knees and legs and with painful boils that cannot be cured. That's a great inspiration. And they've got access. 23:19 where the Bible says, Do not cook the young goat in this mother's milk because they've got a picture of a young goat. They're really cured. And so they just go through and pull all these things out. They take it out of context and it is a lot of fun. And so they've got a book that's now come out and it's about the apocalypse, and that's out of Revelation. And the apocalypse is the end times. What's going to happen and the end times. And I think they've taken every possible conspiracy theory for anything that might happen in the end times, and they have turned it into satire. And it's just some great, ridiculous stuff. And all by itself, it's just for the fun, really. And that's why I go to Babylon. You don't get anything out of me except a good laugh, good humor, and sometimes a prophetic indication of what the headlines are going to be like. Tim, you said with the warmer the years of man. So they're a great group and we've enjoyed listening to them, being with them. 

Rick Green [00:08:19] Kyle Mann, our special guest when we come back. Stay with us. You're listening to The Wall Motor Show. 

Rick Green [00:09:30] Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. Thanks for staying with us, Kyle. Mann with us from the Babylon Bee. Kyle, good to have you back, man. Thanks for some time. 

Kyle Mann [00:09:36] Yeah, thanks for having me. 

Rick Green [00:09:37] Well, and thanks for saving us all from the apocalypse. So you've got a book out to prepare us for All of the scary things that could potentially happen, in fact, might happen before our interview is over. 

Kyle Mann [00:09:48] Yeah. You got to be careful. You know, if you don't buy our book soon enough, then you're not going to be able to because the world will be ending. So that's the best it's the best marketing pitch that we've ever come up with. 

Rick Green [00:10:00] You've you've definitely got people on the edge of their seats waiting to know what are you going to save them from? 

Kyle Mann [00:10:07] Yeah. You know, our our apocalypse coverage is comprehensive. Other apocalypse guides, you know. Yes. Zombies like that. Okay, fine. Great. 1 in 1000 chance that the world ends by zombies. We cover everything here to Babylon Bee so we care about you and your family. So we talk about zombies. And then more likely scenarios like communism. You know, we talk about the MAGA, the MAGA folks taking over and how scary that is. Like they're going to come in and implement traditional family values, you know, So all the different ways that the world could end, we have all the survival. Now, aliens, pandemic, the Rapture, you know, we've got it all covered in the book. 

Rick Green [00:10:54] Well, but specifically, those crazy MAGA terrorists, I mean, they they they might make you prosperous and free. And and, you know, like you said, traditional. I mean, that's a that's a pretty scary future that could potentially happen. 

Kyle Mann [00:11:08] Well, when they get into office, you're going to be able to say what you want. So you might encounter opinions you disagree with, which. I mean. 

Rick Green [00:11:19] That could be painful for. 

Kyle Mann [00:11:20] That. Yeah, it's scarier than any zombie attack, really. 

Rick Green [00:11:23] Yes. Yes. Could be painful. Okay, so. So you guys seriously have a you're marketing geniuses you don't seem to miss at all. I think my favorite call of the last few weeks, though, has been the, you know, Trump making Canada the 51st state. Kornegay North Dakota. You're you're up with that. But I couldn't stop laughing. That one was great. Anyway, you all are masters at this, but you also have a serious side because you do love the country. And and even as you use comedy to to make these points. Talk to us a little bit about that because, you know, Christians typically don't you know, we tend to have a one size fits all. It's just the gospel, the way that we were taught the gospel. You guys are saying, look, there's there's many ways to speak truth and using comedy to do that actually cuts through a lot of the fog and makes the point better very often than than our logical arguments do. 

Kyle Mann [00:12:17] Yeah, like I.I believe, you know, God. God gave us all the different types of rhetoric and speech and, you know, literary devices in order to make our points. And one of those is humor. So I think, too, for too long, we've kind of, you know, acted like we always need to be super serious in our speech and writing. And, you know, the Christian bookstore is just all like very serious, you know, which is good, like, which is good to some extent. Like it's good that our values are that we take our values seriously and that we take important things seriously. But at the same time, like we've lost something in the Christian Christian tradition where people could have fun and they could use they could use satire as a tool to to communicate the truth. And you could see that in C.S. Lewis, you know, writing the screw tape letters, which is just just super incisive and scathing commentary on the Christian life. Chesterton wrote Chesterton wrote hilarious stuff throughout. You know, he was always just savaging his political opponents, you know, in his articles, in books. And that's that's something that we've lost a little bit of. Like, we we act like Satan invented humor and that if we use it, it's like taboo, like, no, that's, you know, that's for the secular world. It's like, no, God invented it. And then God's enemies co-opted it and took it over and we're just taking it back, you know? So that's how we even heard. I've heard Christians say, we're not supposed to be sarcastic or we're not supposed to be whatever. Wait a minute. Have you read have you read the Bible? Have you read the New Testament? Jesus, John the Baptist. These guys were masters in sarcasm and and basically poking people right in the eye while smiling. So, yeah, I mean, it's been a lost art, but you guys brought it back. 

Rick Green [00:14:00] How long did it take for people to realize what you were doing when you first started doing Babylon Bee and the humor? At what point did you finally get okay, they finally got it right. Okay. These guys are actually making a point. They're not just being funny. 

Kyle Mann [00:14:13] Like I mean, it was in some senses, it was right away like we thought it was going to be a side project that we worked on once in a while. And and it was we wrote that the first article I wrote was the Holy Spirit Unable to move through congregation as Fog Machine Breaks. And that was like God was like the first big viral hit that we had. Like the second day the site was up and, you know, everybody was sharing and going like, Hey, this is so true. You know, I experienced the same thing. And, you know, and we weren't writing it thinking we were going to make some crazy important point. I was just writing something I had experienced in church life, you know, and that kind of way of doing church where it's all a big production and a big show. And I was just writing my experiences and it resonated with millions of Christians all across the country. And so we realized very quickly that, you know, it's a tool and it really can make a very important point. 

Rick Green [00:15:15] And then you then you grew out of out of just doing post. I mean, yeah, you guys have have done tours now you're doing you've got the not not the Babylon Bee news site you've got this wasn't your first book. I remember when I was out there with you I don't know, a year and a half, two years ago, you had the book on the Constitution. You have I can't remember what the other ones are, but I mean, y'all have really branched out all about influencing the culture, using these mediums to, you know, bring truth to the debate. 

Kyle Mann [00:15:45] Yeah. I mean, I think once we get out there, as you know, kind of figuring out what our humor style is and people start to like the Babylon Bee brand is a brand. It's like we can the sky's the limit. You know, we we we're doing our satirical videos that we're looking to expand more into that in the next year. It's been really cool to see the way that that type of satire can just take so many forms. Like you said. The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness. We released our first movie this year, the January 6th, the Most Deadliest Day. So being able to comment on all spheres of life, whether that's politics, religion, everyday life, you know, pop culture, whatever, like we can cover any topic using this, using this gift that God has given us and all kinds of different mediums. Yeah. So not to be Babylon, be are videos, books, movies, shows, you know, whatever. Like let's take over the world with humor. 

Rick Green [00:16:39] Okay. What's it going to take to make the I forget what you called it, Californians moving to Texas with Shaka for you guys to actually do that and move to Texas, man. So y'all are you are y'all still in California? Are you still based in California? 

Kyle Mann [00:16:52] We still have, yeah. Our studio record, all the videos stuff is in California. And then we have our corporate office in Florida. So it's like a different coasts, you know, 100% different worlds. And then again, one thing that makes me have all of you work so well is we're like, you know, we're in the middle of the insanity, so we have to stay here for the for the material that we wouldn't get any material in Texas. You know, we got. 

Rick Green [00:17:17] That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Love it, love it, Love it. Are y'all doing Are you going to do another tour in 2025? You are going to go out and do some more shows out. You did some in Texas and. 

Kyle Mann [00:17:28] Yeah, I'm not sure if we could do that. We talked about it. We were looking at possibly doing something in Nashville, you know, Central, get some get some people up there that they couldn't make it down to the Texas one we did a year and a half ago. But no solid plans yet. But we'd love to do more stuff like that. Would you? So busy. You know, it's like, yeah, one thing is to understand what the B is. It's like it's still it's still such a small team, you know, like we're definitely hiring writers and we have, you know, we have a lot of part time writers and stuff, but still, like I, I end up writing half the headlines sometimes, you know, and I end up writing the articles. I end up doing the Photoshop. I am writing the scripts for the videos, you know, So it's like we're trying to, trying to get over that hump of like, I'm, I'm the bottleneck for so much of it and wanting to like, break through that where it's like, okay, we've trained up some other people now. Now I can go off and, and do all the fun tour stuff. I can't do the fun stuff. I got it. I do the writing well. 

Rick Green [00:18:27] And then with the video production, right? I mean, you start you start making more and more of the videos. That takes time. I mean, it's a it's a lot, man. It's a lot. I'm just glad God has given you this outlet to be like Eric Liddell when I run, you know, got me for a purpose. When I run, I feel God's pleasure. You are clearly doing what God made you to do and feeling his pleasure in doing it and and having a great impact. While you do it for the book, do you do you guys you want people to go to your website or to buy it or Amazon or what your recommendation for people? 

Kyle Mann [00:18:57] Yeah, you can I mean whatever you can do Amazon it's probably on some of the other bookstore sites it's also on our website at shop.babylonbee.com  So you can either directly from us. I think we actually have a bundle right now where you can get the guide to the apocalypse and the DVD copy of January 6th, The Most Deadliest Day, our first movie on DVD. I didn't even know people still had DVD players, but they're flying off the shelves. So, you know, boomers, boomers, most must still have DVD players. I guess I. 

Rick Green [00:19:28] I've been trying to figure this out, man, to be honest with you, because same for us. Like, I still buy the Constitution class on DVD. And then I'm pretty sure, though, that no one actually uses them. They buy them because of the apocalypse. They want to know they've got the DVD. If the apocalypse occurs and the broadband is gone and they cannot watch you on streaming, then they watch the DVD. 

Kyle Mann [00:19:50] It is nice. It is nice to own something, you know, and like to have. 

Rick Green [00:19:55] A have a shelf and you'll have it on the shelf and yeah, yeah. 

Kyle Mann [00:19:57] Because I did a couple of like, I have The Lord of the Rings 4K Blu ray said I don't ever watch them. I bought them, but they're already on Amazon Prime. Like it's much easier you know. But yeah, it happens. I'll have Lord of the Rings on on Blu ray. 

Rick Green [00:20:12] All right last thing subscribing to Babylon Bee where you you've got the apps and whatnot or just looking it up or following you on Twitter or I'm sorry, X, what's the what's the best way for people to get the be on a regular basis? 

Kyle Mann [00:20:25] Yeah, X is great. You know, if you if you must, you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram and then our newsletter. Honestly, a lot of people access to Bee through the newsletter. So if you go on our site, think there's a pop up or something, you can sign up for our email and you get the email every morning. That's all a lot. A lot of people are like, I just get your emails every day. I never see you on social media. 

Rick Green [00:20:46] Yeah that's that's what I but but I felt your when you said if you must what you were really saying is if you're old like Rick then you can go to Facebook. That's correct. Yeah that was. Yeah. Is it. Hey, man, keep up the great work we're thankful for. You keep us laughing and learning at the exact same time. Wow man, The Babylon Bee. Appreciate you, brother. 

Kyle Mann [00:21:05] Thank you so much. 

Rick Green [00:21:06] Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:22:16] Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. Kyle Mann appreciate him coming on appreciate Babylon Bee and all that they do what a fun way to take back ground, guys. We're always talking about, you know the different areas the culture and how the left is has been really good at making movies or music or the arts or, you know, these different areas that that fortunately for too long Christians shied away from. I love that part of the Babylon Bee is like taking comedy back, right? It's taking even just influence in the culture, but being able to do it with a meme. I mean, just in one quick look, you know, you see it, you read it real quick and immediately it it stakes out a position or it makes a point and usually it's pointing out absurdity, but it's doing it in a way that, you know, changes hearts and minds very often, or at the very least, gives all of us a really good laugh. 

Tim Barton [00:23:02] It really does. And they have done a brilliant job of finding a balance, of making a joke in light of things that that really should be a joke and things you made light of. And even as Kyle pointed out, sometimes there's a really good teaching mechanism in there to show like, we should be joking about this. This is really ridiculous what people are doing. And then sometimes it really is just really fun. I was reminded he was talking about one of the early articles that became a big deal where I think he said the title was The Holy Spirit Unable to move in Congregation is Fog Machine breaks. They have several articles like that, right? Just great. But man identifying as six year old boy, you know, crushes a homerun at a T-ball game, a motorcyclist identifying as a bicyclist wins this, you know, bicycle race, Tour de France, whatever it is, they do a really good job joking and making light about things like how absurd would it be if everybody can identify as anything they want? Like, what is that reality? And this is what it would look like. You have an adult man who wants to play T-ball. You have somebody riding a motorcycle going in cyclists, and they're showing the absurdity of a life without boundaries, without rails. And and this is where they're able to use humor in a very effective manner, not just to entertain people, but to show the absurdity of some of these positions. And they are brilliant at it. 

Rick Green [00:24:31] You know, the example that you just gave Tim as kind of like an eyebrow raised, you know, we would say, that's ridiculous. But we see it happening so often. So I would point out that the example you pointed to of the the 36 year old man identified as a six year old t baller and stepping up knocking the ball out of the park. That was in 2017. They did that. And back in 2017, when nobody was thinking the stuff that Riley Gaines had to go through, anybody else, I mean, that was really funny back then and absurd. And now you look at it and you go, Yeah, that's kind of sad. That and the same with motorcyclists identifying as a bicyclist. And what did the world record? You know, same thing. That was in 2019. That's five years ago. Look how far we've come in those five years. And and that's what they talk about is how that what used to be just flat satire everybody laugh at just a few years later it's becoming reality and true and that's and hopefully with this current administration, we can stop some of the wackiness going on there already. Stop and really hard to to get that out of the federal government. But we'll see what happens. But it's just a lot of fun to have the guys from Babylon Bee. 

Tim Barton [00:25:36] And these are the kind of guys too, that we would want to support. We talk about voting with our dollars often. These are the kind of people we want to support that are doing something humorous. And especially we're talking with the apocalypse. There's been a lot of TV shows, a lot of movies, a lot of stuff done around the apocalypse. And the idea that, you know, if it's the MAGA movement or the Rapture communism, I'm excited to read this book just for the humor it's going to produce. 

Rick Green [00:26:01] Yeah, as you guys are talking about that, I cannot help but see that video where he goes and plays T-ball and he's so serious. Right. Like, that's what they do so well with the satires. These characters, where they do the videos, have this just serious phase, like this is real life, man. And this guy is dead serious about hitting that T-ball over the fence every single time. And then they have the series coming to Texas, which is hilarious with our friend Seka Massaquoi and just all kinds of good stuff. So folks, go check them out today. Babylon Bee check out the new book. Have some fun with it. Share it with your friends and family again, to influence, right? That's one of the main that's why I like it because it helps to show the absurdity and and hopefully change some hearts and minds and get some good laughs. All right. Thanks for listening today, folks. You've been listening to the WallBuilders.