Parody is essential to a free society and the First Amendment is pointless if Americans can’t mock government officials, according to satirical website The Babylon Bee.
"That’s a scary society if you can’t make fun of the government," Babylon Bee editor-in-chief Kyle Mann told Fox News Digital.
The Babylon Bee recently filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court to support Anthony Novak, a man who created a parody Facebook page in 2016 to mock his local police department in Parma, Ohio. Novak mocked local law enforcement with six parody posts, but he was jailed and prosecuted for a felony under Ohio law prohibiting the use of a computer to "disrupt" or "interrupt" police functions.
Novak was acquitted and he eventually sued for the violation of his First and Fourth Amendment rights, but the Sixth Circuit found that there was probable cause to believe Novak’s protected speech was criminal and the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.
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The Bee, a wildly popular satirical website, joined the liberal parody site, The Onion, and urged the Supreme Court to hear the case.
"What we're trying to do is get this heard by the Supreme Court so that a private citizen who is doing a parody of, you know, whoever it is, especially government entities and police and those in authority aren't in danger… those people wouldn't be in danger of being arrested for that," Mann said.
Police officers allegedly claimed the spoof website was causing confusion within the community, and it was an emergency situation that needed to be shut down immediately, but Mann thinks they simply didn’t get the joke.
"I think it was probably fairly obvious that it was a parody page from some of the stuff that he posted. But at the same time… whether a parody is distinguishable from reality or not should not be a factor in whether or not it's protected by the First Amendment," Mann said. "In fact, parody requires some kind of buy in from the audience in order to work as parody and satire."
The amicus brief, filed on Oct. 28, defends satire at all costs and declares The Onion may be "staffed by socialist wackos" but effectively defended parody to this Court in its own brief.
"Like Mr. Novak, The Bee is frequently the target of censorship and attacks from powerful people who don’t get—or at least don’t appreciate—its jokes. The Bee has faced the ire of a diverse group of establishment-media types—including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN—and the wrath of the massive tech companies who functionally control the lion’s share of public debate in our society," Babylon Bee legal counsel Emmett E. Robinson wrote.
"Truth is stranger than fiction. And fiction is illegal. At least in the Sixth Circuit. That court’s decision—depriving Petitioner Anthony Novak of any opportunity to hold accountable those who searched his home, arrested him, and jailed him because the parody he wrote was too effective—should be reviewed by this Court on the merits. First, parody plays an invaluable role in a free society. When parody is imperiled, citizens are deprived of one of their most effective means of criticizing the government," the brief continued. "Second, the Sixth Circuit’s ruling will allow the state to punish vast swaths of speech erstwhile protected by the First Amendment. The Bee and its writers could be held criminally liable for many, if not most, of the articles The Bee publishes."
The Bee’s amicus brief also stated that "the prospect that an individual or entity charged with a speech crime might ultimately be vindicated at a criminal trial does little, if anything, to temper the speech-chilling effects of the decision below," and called the Sixth Circuit’s decision a "qualified-immunity-on-steroids approach" that will allow state actors to prosecute satirists at will.
"Knowledge that they may be searched, arrested, jailed, and prosecuted without recourse is enough to dissuade most would-be speakers, regardless of the potential for ultimate acquittal," the Bee’s brief stated.
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Mann feels the case is part of the "parcel of the attack on comedy that's going on in our nation," but it’s not quite the same as the political correctness discussion that has caused backlash to comics like Dave Chappelle. The Babylon Bee has its own set of critics and is regularly attacked by the left for violating their ever-changing rules of comedy. The case surrounding Novak doesn’t concern someone who’s being too sensitive or had their feelings hurt with a joke. It doesn’t even have to do with cancel culture, according to Mann, who thinks this could be even worse.
"It's actually the government coming after speech, so it's almost more chilling in some way," Mann said.
"It's the government cracking down and saying, ‘You can't do this. You can't make fun of this police department,’" Mann said. "So it is certainly an attack on comedy, and I do think it's kind of downstream from culture where we've arrived at a place in a society where people can't understand humor a lot anymore. They don't recognize humor. And for us, that's concerning as people whose entire careers and livelihoods depend on humor thriving in our culture."
The Bee also published a satirical brief on its website that claimed the Constitution was written before the internet, and jokes, weren’t even invented yet.
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"So, you know, the First Amendment was not intended to cover jokes," Mann said. "Obviously, we're satirically making the point that if you look at the purpose of the First Amendment, if it doesn't defend mocking government officials, then what's the purpose of it?"
Mann feels it’s critical that the Supreme Court rules the First Amendment protects humor.
"Especially humor that that makes fun of government officials. I mean, that's one of our great national pastimes is mocking the government," he said. "Humor is one of the most powerful tools for communicating truth, it’s one of the most powerful tools for making a point."
A response brief is due November 28.
