WEBVTT - Joy to the World 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.400 Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.720 Show weekdays at two a m. Eastern eleven pm PACIFICO. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.400 If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.920 was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.599 the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.480 crackheads in the ghetto Cutter the same as the rich 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.880 pill poppers in the penthouse, the Clearinghouse of hot takes, 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.760 break free or something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:36.120 Maller starts right now in the air everywhere. We are 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.080 back at it again, another weekend of podcasting. Here. This 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:40.879 a course, a spin off, as you know by now. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.720 He spin off of the Overnight show, the Ben Maller 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:48.200 Show on Fox, and this all over the podcast world 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.040 eight days a week now because four hours are not enough. 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:56.080 And we welcome in yet again, David Gascon. This is 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:01.160 an interview podcast. It's an interview podcast. Want me to 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:08.400 play that? Uh? I was delightful about the guest selection 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.840 that you had for this week. I know this is 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.840 this is Gascon's dream come true. I assume you already 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.120 know now because you downloaded the podcast. Who was on 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.920 the podcast but for a very long amount of time. 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.000 Gascon has been badgering me with the Babylon Be and 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.000 I have come around. I'm a big fan now of 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:28.399 the Babylon Be. At first, I was like so annoyed 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.480 because you would every day with these Babylon Be stories. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.280 I'm like, leave me alone, Leave me the f alone. 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.480 But I've come around, and they've blown up here this 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:43.000 year in this election year. Babylon b which is a 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.320 satire site, and they've been in the news a lot 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:50.400 because they got shut down this week. It's by Facebook 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:55.040 because of inciting what was it? Inciting violence on a 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:59.440 satire site, which is just outstanding. So we have tracked 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:02.040 down here ask on the man that runs it. The 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.360 CEO of the Babylon Be, Seth Dylan's gonna hang out 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.880 with us here on this podcast, which I'm excited about. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.800 I was it was a long time coming. I thought 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.760 about the approach since we've had so many radio personalities on, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.240 and I figured this is a great time to have 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.080 them on, especially because we got the election going on. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:22.520 People are voting, and we got obviously the huge day 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:25.880 on November the three, and we didn't laugh a little bit. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.600 You you've had a wild week um Dodgers coming back 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.840 last week in the NLCS in the World Series. You've 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.120 got Kyler Murray, you got got Republicans and Democrats. This 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.520 is this is a good week for us, so that 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.320 I thought it was appropriate for you. Yeah, yeah, I know, 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.720 it's it's great with everything's going on. And I'm sure 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:51.080 we'll last seth about the the President Trump retweet of 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.119 the Babylon B which got a lot of attention recently 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.639 as well, within the last ten days or so. So, uh, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:01.080 we'll get to that as well. And for those that 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.040 are unfamiliar, I don't know how you would be unfamiliar, 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:05.320 because we talk about the Babylon B guest gun played 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.040 as a game here every once in a while, B 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:11.480 or not to be. But it's a satire side obviously. 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.960 It's it's been been doing very well here. And as 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.040 they say, I like the mottel they have on their 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:17.760 social media. I think it was on Twitter. I read 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.760 this that fake news you can trust, fake news that 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:24.600 you can trust, and uh, it's it's you know, it 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.880 reminds me a little bit of the the Phil Hendry 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.480 radio show from back in the day. I remember it 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.120 because like if you listen to the Phil Henry radio Show. 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.080 And you didn't know that it was a joke, you 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.720 would be upset, right, you'd be like angry. But if 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.600 you knew it was a joke, if you figured that out, 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:44.480 and you'd be like, this is the most amazing this 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:46.760 like art, like this is art? What this is? And 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.160 so the babila me like the way I consume it now, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:51.120 it's so funny when I read these stories and I 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.440 you know, you know, they're satire whatever. And then the 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.920 people that are hard ohs that don't get the joke. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:01.120 And that's my favorite part. That's I that's just outstanding. 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.360 And these are people in society that have very important 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.120 positions and politics and news and they don't get the joke. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.280 It's it's really pretty funny. It's kind of piggybacking off 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.800 of Sports Talk with Barry right because he would go 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.039 Twitter change his name multiple times and people would just 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.760 crush him or they would retweet him like he was 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.920 breaking news. And that's the ya capain with the Beat 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.919 because they have a good attention to detail with titles 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.320 and pictures and then articles and then bang, could you 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.679 imagine could you imagine if sports talk very joined forces 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:38.440 with the Babylon be. Oh my god, you it would 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.960 be like all the superheroes teaming up in satire. It 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.000 would be amazing. Uh man, all right, well let's get 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.200 to it though, guess because we don't want to waste 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.359 any time here. The man is standing by virtually, of course, 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.920 we welcome in the CEO of the Babylon Being the man, 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:57.359 one of the big shots that runs this thing. Seth 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:00.640 Dylan is his name, and Seth, why don't we start 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:03.520 with the reason we're having you on here? The Babylon Be. 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.640 You guys ran a story, a political story, and got 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.480 shut down by Facebook. Kind of walk me through how 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:15.920 this all happened, please, Yeah. I mean basically, Facebook has 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:22.320 these community standards, and they have a complicated algorithm based 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.840 artificial intelligence system that looks at various posts on their 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.360 platform and links that are um posted on their platform 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.960 to determine if they are hateful or inciting violence or 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.760 threatening in some way, and so they're signals that they're 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.839 looking for that will tell them, um, if the content 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.839 is posted violate their standards in some way. So, um fine. 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:47.520 You know, to have systems in place like that, it's 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:49.880 more efficient than having people looking at everything. You know, 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:52.200 I don't think they have so much content on their system. 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.279 It makes sense that they do that, but in this case, yeah, 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.800 we posted it absolutely ridiculous article. It was basically a 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:03.120 re hashing of an old Monty Python scene. Um, you know, 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.600 we we we took the scene from where they were 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.280 in Monty Python and the Holy Grail where they were 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.960 trying to condemn this woman as a witch and they 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:12.800 were trying to figure out if she was a witch 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.720 or not, and they decided to weigh her against the 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:16.599 duck to see if she weighed as much as a duck. 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.840 And it's just the most absurd scene ever, and they 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:20.520 determined that she is in fact a witch and she 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.280 needs to be burned at the stink right. Well, we 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.760 translated that scene into the confirmation hearing where Amy Coney 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.359 Barrett was being grilled by these senators, um, and you 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.120 know they're disparaging her and trying to make her look 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:36.160 silly and whatever. So we took this duck scene from 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.039 Monty Python and we made it. We made a spoof 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.200 on it and and had the senators you know, suggesting 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.479 that if she weighs more than a duck, and then 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.200 you know she's a then she must be a witch 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.599 and we must have burned her. Well that language like 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.720 we must have burned her? Was it triggered something? And 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:53.919 fag Facebook flagged it as being, you know, an incitement 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.839 to violence, and obviously it's not. But the incredible thing 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.000 where it went where things went sideways a little bit, 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:04.680 was when um, we appealed that that ruling and a 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.760 person looked at it and then it reached out to 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.240 us and said it is an incitement of violence. We 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:12.840 stand by this. Uh, you need to make changes to 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:17.440 the article. And we just couldn't believe that that's insane. 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:21.080 So like, you know, how's it where they assume the 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.040 email you or you just go to your Facebook the 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:25.840 babblelon bi Facebook page and you're like, you're done, that's it, 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:27.960 It's over. Are you? Like? How how does the chain 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.520 go where you find out you've been taken down, your 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:37.000 your your financial opportunity demonetized? How did that work? Yes, 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:39.440 they send you a notification tour account. They have like 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.280 a page quality section where you can analyze your page 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:45.880 and see if you're compliant with their policies and and 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.080 they give us a notification saying that one of our 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.480 popes had been deleted because of violated community standards, and 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:54.560 as a result of that, we were demonetized. So basically 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.160 what that means is we can't make use of any 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.360 of Facebook's monetization tools. We can't use their instant articles platform, 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.120 which allows you to display articles within Facebook and have 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.840 Facebook ads on them for ad revenue. Um, you can't 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:15.040 use their subscription platform to collect subscription revenue. Brand collaborations 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.120 are no longer permitted. So they have a bunch of 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.360 monetization tools that they restrict and turn off if you're 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:22.800 violating the community standards. So they let us know that 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:24.800 those tools were no longer accessible to us. We would 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.040 no longer be able to monetize our Facebook page until 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.520 we fix this issue. And when we appealed and they 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.240 denied the appeal, we had no choice. But they go 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.280 to the media and try to make us think about 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.200 this because it's just absolutely ridiculous, Like in what universe 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.480 is that article and actual incitement to violence. They say 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.760 in their community standards that they take context into account 0:08:43.840 --> 0:08:45.800 when they review these things, Well clearly they didn't in 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.800 this case. Yeah, so how does that you know? You 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:50.959 you're an Internet guy? Obviously run the Babylon be You've 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:52.280 been in the game for a long time, Like, how 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.080 does that happen with the algorithm? Like, is it you know, 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.880 somebody programming it obviously, or how does it end up 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.840 in that situation? And I saw your you posted on 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:02.679 Twitter about this, and I saw a bunch of people 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.440 underneath you said, yeah, I had something happened, you know, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.600 I'd said so and so, and I got in trouble 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.120 with that. So like, how do you think this happened? 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:17.160 You know the algorithm? Well, I mean they code there out, 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.439 they code their system to look for specific keys, phrases 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.680 and words, and so a sentence like we must burn her, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:29.120 you know, burn her is clearly a reference to, you know, 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.360 lighting someone on fire, and their systems aren't smart enough 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.800 to look at the broader context and see that we 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.840 weren't actually suggesting that Amy Coney Barrett be lit on 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.760 fire by anyone. You know, the system is not smart 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.240 enough to detect satire. And then when they came out 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:46.480 in their public statement, they didn't make a statement to 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.839 Fox News when Fox inquired about this, and they said, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.559 you know, our systems have a hard time detecting satire. 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.840 So we're sorry for this mistake. But but our response 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.120 to that is, well, okay, your system failed, but then 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.640 a person looked at and the person also failed, So 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.439 you know, why did that happen? There's no explanation for that. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:06.480 And to your point, yes, there are lots of people 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.560 commenting underneath his posts talking about how they've been flagged 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.200 and they've been disabled, they've been suspended, but they don't 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:15.600 have the platform that we have. They can't get online 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:20.240 and get the media involved and and push back on Facebook. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.560 They don't have the ability to do that. We're in 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.720 a position where we can do that, fortunately, but not 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:26.800 everybody can. So for those people, when this kind of 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.560 stuff happens, they're just done. They're dead in the water. Yeah, 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:33.360 and this has a happy ending, right, Santh. I mean 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.440 you you updated the story, right, So because of interviews 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.720 you've done like this and other obviously big platforms, they've 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:44.560 changed their stances that correct. Yeah, I mean, well, once 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:46.559 we brought media attention to it, all of a sudden 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.680 they're issuing apologies and saying they reinstated our account. And 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.800 this happens over and over and over again. You know, 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.920 Twitter hasnt spended us before Facebook has threatened us with 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.240 the platform and demonitization before. And the only time we 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.800 get a positive outcome is when we go to the media, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.000 we explain what's happening, and you know, news reports start 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:08.960 coming out about it, about how Facebook is trying to 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.960 censor us, and then and only then they changed their 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.800 tune and try to fix it. Said are you surprised, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.200 like has this happened to you? Or have you had 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:20.600 a hint of something like this happening to you in 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.240 the past, or is this the first time you've been 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.959 hit with a hammer like that? Uh, well, it did 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.800 happen one time in the past with Facebook specifically where um, 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.640 when they first started implementing fact checking, they started working 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:36.120 with third party fact checkers, and the fact checkers snokes 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:39.880 in particular, was rating our articles full. And it's just 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:41.680 the most absurd thing in the world. It's like, a 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.800 joke isn't true or false. It's a joke, right, it's 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.280 in its own category. Um, you don't when when Jerry 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:49.959 Seinfeld is up on stage tracking jokes in a nightclub, 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.080 you don't stand up and yell that's not true. Whenever 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:56.960 he tells a story that's that's fictional because it's a joke, right, so, um, 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:01.160 it's just it's silly. But Facebook was was wodenly interpreting 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.319 these fact checks to mean that we were putting out 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.559 fake news, and they had strict policies against faith news, 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:09.000 and so they would they reached out to us and 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.319 threatened us. This was a few years ago, well, two 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.280 thousand eight teens. They threatened up to with the monetization 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.920 and uh in suspension of our page for for for 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.640 pushing fake news. And again we made we got a 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.520 lot of media attention there. Eventually they apologized and said 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:25.800 we realized it's a satire now and we need that 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:27.600 we need a better way of handling this stuff so 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.520 that we're not threatening satire companies, you know. But there's 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.400 been a lot of effort on the left to in 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:40.199 to insinuate, imply, um that we are not in fact 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.199 a satire site, but we are actually a purposefully misleading 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:47.959 disinformation campaign that pretends to be a satire site to 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:51.880 certain invent Facebook rules. And I'm not as a kidding 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.320 like that sounds crazy, But there's a recent article in 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.880 um in in New York Times published like five days 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.280 ago that says that we capitalize on Fusion Um in 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.800 questions whether or not we're doing this on purpose. Well, set, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.440 I'm happy to bring that up because because Ben and 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.960 I like Ben, Ben Monday through Friday is typically compelled 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.560 to hit all that is sports talk radio. It's great. 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.520 So some of the stuff that he does on his show, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:18.600 or some of the stuff he wants to do on 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:21.479 the show, just can't because obviously that kind of a spectrum, 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.160 it doesn't cater to it. But on the podcast, which 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:27.160 we obviously invited you on, we do things a little 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.319 bit different. And so, like I said the email, when 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:32.440 I introduced myself to you, I was kind of like 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.480 one of the original fans of the Babylon b and 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.000 to kind of pull the curtain back, I would send 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.400 articles to Ben. I text him like in the middle 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.800 of the night when his show is going on, and 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:45.680 his eyes would just roll because like, what the funk 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.680 is this right? And then before you know what, some 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:51.760 of those other friends that are at sports that the 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.280 media started retweeting you guys on the regular, and then 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.040 Ben's followers and listeners to a show started retwitting stuff 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.439 and then tagging the minutes. So so yeah, and it 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.480 blew up. It I mean, I know you guys have 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.600 done great, and this is like, uh, let me ask 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:10.600 you this a little said I. I I. When you told 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.400 the story about you know, the New York Times and 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.440 and their your their article like it, it it reminds me. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.839 I used to have a Boston radio that didn't get 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:20.960 like I I don't you know, I do a sports 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.960 show obviously, but you know, occase, let's throw some satire in. 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:26.360 And I had a boss that did not get had 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.560 no sense of humor. What is it like? It feels 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.120 like there's a lot of people, said, that have no 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:31.800 sense of humor. What is it like to do a 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.880 satire site in when no one has a funny bone anymore? 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.000 It seems well, okay, so there's a couple of things 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.240 that play there, and there is there is um. You know, 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:45.200 there's a lot of hesitation to do comedy and for 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.000 certain audiences because of the PC culture, right. I mentioned 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:50.040 Jerry since all a minute ago, you know, years back, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:51.960 he announced that he would no longer do shows for 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.920 college students on college campuses. And the reason is because 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.600 they're so politically correct, you know, anything he says, they're 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.440 gonna think he's racist or sexist or something thing, you know, 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:05.400 or homophobic. So um, they they they're just ready to 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.920 be offended by anything. And that kind of culture does 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.360 make comedy a little difficult. But when it comes to 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:13.400 not having a sense of humor, Look, people on the 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.200 left love to laugh as long as it's the right 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.560 targets that are being hit. You know, these late night 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.800 comedy shows. I just saw something the other day. It 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.400 was something like their jokes when they're making political jokes 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.360 are about Trump, um, and only like three percent of 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.800 them or something, or about Biden. Well, you know, they 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:32.880 like to laugh at certain people, they like to laugh 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.800 at certain ideas. They're they're very they're very willing to 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.480 laugh as long as it's it's not it's not pointed 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:42.440 at them, right, So, um, it's a very selected thing. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.080 It's a double standard. A lot of these media companies 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.840 that that are very hard on us and and have 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.760 this uncharitable assumption that we have some kind of ill 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.400 motives where we're trying to mislead people on purpose. They 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.680 never think that about the Onion, for example, the most 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:02.080 popular web you know, satire site of the last twenty years. Um, 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.560 they never assigned ill motives the Onion. They think the 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.520 onion is funny and that they're doing genuine satire. And 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.160 the only reason that they question our motives is because 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:12.640 they disagree with us politically. And I don't know if 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:15.120 they see that or not, but it's definitely disingenuous and 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:19.400 it's double standards. Said, let me what percentage of people 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.040 I remember I read a study years ago, I said 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.960 of Americans will believe anything like what percentage of people 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:29.240 read your stuff online? And they're like, they don't get 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.840 the joke, they don't understand the sets. How do you 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:33.960 have any idea just a ballpark figure on how many 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.720 people you think just don't get it? Um, I don't 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.240 know that. I wouldn't say that's probably as high ascent. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.720 There's absolutely people who don't get it. Now, there's a 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:48.720 couple of reasons for that, right, there's um satire is successful. 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:52.000 The jokes are funny when they're when they're closer to 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:53.960 the truth rather than further away from it. You know, 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.200 it's they depend on having a proximity to the truth. 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.040 If it's too detached from reality, it's not funny. So 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.320 that you know that saying there's a grain of truth 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:03.680 in every joke is it's popular saying for a reason, 0:17:04.040 --> 0:17:06.399 there's truths to the things that we're joking about, and 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.040 that's why people believe them so readily. Um. There's also 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.480 the world has gotten much crazier. People have much more 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:16.879 extreme views. They're saying much more extreme things. There's really wild, 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.080 crazy things happening today that would have never been normal 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:24.160 or acceptable years ago. UM. And so in that environment, 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:26.960 when when when you're trying to exaggerate the truth a 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.040 little bit, which is what satire does, Um, it's hard 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.000 to stay one step ahead of it. So almost everything 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.639 is believable today. I mean, and from my experience what 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.639 I see in the headlines, I see headlines every day. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.760 I'm shaking my head in disbelief. I'm like, I can't 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.720 believe that really happened. I can't believe they really said that. 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:44.080 I can't believe they really did that. In that kind 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.440 of environment, UM, it's hard to write stories that people 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.720 aren't going to believe. So it's reality's fault, Honestly, it's not. 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.119 It's not that our satire is too close to reality, 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.199 which is what we're accused of. It's that reality is 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.959 too close to satire. That's the problem. And on that note, 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:03.560 is that what inspired you to create Not the Bee? 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:06.639 Because you guys have had some articles on the babel 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.919 on Bee that you know they've turned from satire to truth. 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.120 So is that look you to create Not the Bee? 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.160 We call them, we call them fulfilled prophecies. But yes, 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.200 we have in some cases, mere hours after we published 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.160 a story, whatever we were joking about actually happened. Um. 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.439 And that's a perfect example of how reality is, Like 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.080 it's hard to stay one step ahead of things when 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.920 they're this crazy. But yeah, that's the that's the inspiration 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.760 for Not to Be. It's that there's there's enough crazy 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.040 stuff happening, these wild headlines, they seem like they should 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:42.119 be satire but somehow aren't. Um. Not to Be is 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.400 really targeting those stories and in isolating the stories and 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.600 amplifying them. So um, it's just really there's so much 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.000 low hanging fruit today out there and what's going on 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:54.320 in the world. We thought that there was a great 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.480 opportunity to do kind of a spinoff of the Bee 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.000 where it's just this absurd like should be satire but 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.240 somehow isn't. And you guys do things on a national level, 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.320 But is there a particular state that you target the most. 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.119 I know, you guys hit California pretty hard, But is 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.000 it in California or New York or Florida and Texas, 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.640 anything that you like in particular, you mean in terms 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.199 of hit pretty hard. Like we make fun of them 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:22.680 a lot. I mean, we will pick on people, uh, 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.640 anybody that where you feel like basically, you know, satire 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.760 what we try to do with his ridicule, bad ideas. Um, 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:30.840 that's one of the that's one of the main purposes 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:35.440 of satires to criticize you know, bad thinking, bad ideology, hypocrisy, 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.600 double standards. So when we see like governors uh you 0:19:39.640 --> 0:19:43.480 know with really heavy handed, um kind of authoritarian rule 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:45.960 in their states, you know, and they're doing crazy ridiculous 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.280 things or contradictory things, we make fun of that. And 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:52.159 and you've got a lot of stuff. You've got a 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.040 lot of stuff going on right now in California. They're 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:55.679 in the headlines all the time, like they don't have 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.040 enough they don't have enough electricity of power their state, 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.720 for example. So you know, we we condom for those 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.960 kinds of things. Um. So yeah, I mean I think 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:05.600 the ones that are in the headlines, the most are 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:06.960 the ones that are gonna get picked on the most. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.840 We're really piggybacking on whatever is in the news. And 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:15.199 and Sepia, the October sixte President Trump retweet is that 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:21.280 the Mona Lisa for the bab al embie. Oh man. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.200 You know, there's a lot of debate about that that. Actually, 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.359 we don't normally get media attention outside of like conservative media, 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:29.000 you know, like we get Fox News pays a lot 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.960 of attention to us, a lot of the a lot 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:32.879 of the players on the right like the Daily Wire 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:34.760