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When satire becomes reality — nearly 100 Babylon Bee joke stories come true
JUPITER, Fla. – The Babylon Bee has had nearly 100 joke headlines turn into prophecies after the stories eventually came true, the CEO of America’s largest right-leaning satire website told Fox News.
"The problem isn't that our satire is too close to reality," Seth Dillon told Fox News. "It’s that reality is too close to satire, so our jokes keep coming true."
The Bee maintains a running list of its satirical headlines that became real — or at least partially real — stories after publication. The fulfilled prophecies include a wide range of topics and include jokes about Democrats and Republicans alike.
"So we have a spreadsheet of nearly 100 jokes now that we've tracked," he said. "They were fulfilled like prophecies instead of punch lines."
The Bee published one article, "To Improve Public Perception, Kamala Harris Taking Likability Lessons From Hillary Clinton," in July 2021. A month later, Axios reported that a former Clinton advisor hosted a dinner with prominent Democratic women — including Clinton's former spokeswoman — to discuss how to defend Vice President Kamala Harris from bad press.
"Who would take likability lessons from Hillary Clinton?" Dillon asked. "But then a month later, there's a real story that [Harris'] staff reached out to Hillary’s staff to make her more likable."
"We even did one about how Trump had claimed to have done more for Christianity than Jesus himself and that one went crazy viral," Dillon said.
In 2021, then-President Trump said during an interview that "nobody has done more for Christianity or for evangelicals or for religion itself than I have."
