Satire, Barbie, and Bruce

I'm sure you'll love at least two out of three

My first (professional, paid, published) work, the first thing that ever saw print and made me more than five dollars, was a piece of satire.

It was called ESTROGEN DAMPENS HOLY SPIRIT and it was all about a research institute that was studying the effects of estrogen and testosterone on church people and their subsequent connection to God.

It was published in THE WITTENBURG¹ DOOR, by far the greatest Christian satire magazine of the past or present and probably the future.

The idea for the article came to me from a real-life situation (sort of). I was in Christian ministry at the time, and I had been in a meeting with a few men and one woman, who technically worked for me but had vastly more experience, wisdom and insight than I. One of the men said he had a hard time seeing her as anyone other than a mother (he had known her for a number of years and knew her kids).

And it REALLY MADE ME MAD.

Anyway, I went home, wrote the article, sent a flaming email to The Door and promptly got a check in the mail for $75.

The history of satire, what it is, and how to define it is super twisty and weird².

But the definition I love best is the one that Robert Darden, longtime editor-in-chief of the Door used. He said it was basically two parts: It has to be funny. And it has to be true.

Not meaning, of course, that there can’t be exaggeration, or that it must be factual reporting, but true in the sense that it can’t be propaganda, but movement toward, you know. Truth.

I was thinking about satire a lot this week, because my family and I all piled into a movie theater to see the cultural juggernaut that is BARBIE.

Now, listen to me closely: I am perfectly fine with someone disliking or even hating this movie. I am frankly shocked that so many people like it. I’ve heard compelling critiques from people I deeply agree with, and terrible critiques from people who disagree with me³.

Some of the critiques, however, appear to be because the person who saw the movie didn’t understand they were watching satire. Not just a comedy. Not just a toy commercial. But satire. It’s meant to be funny. It’s meant to be True.

And, as with all good satire, it’s meant to be social critique. Good satire ridicules power systems, leaders, governments (etc.), and spotlights the harmful things about them and makes them look ridiculous and silly.

This is a great example. Some people (rightly) felt that the men in Barbie were poorly portrayed. But this is the point in the satire. We’re meant to feel uncomfortable with that. And then make the real-world turn to realize this is how women are treated and presented in media. (Doesn’t mean you have to like or be comfortable with how the movie does this)

So OF COURSE all the men are stereotypes, because part of the satire is about the stereotypical roles that women are pressed toward by our culture (including, ahem, dolls and other toys). BARBIE takes advantage of this mental discord multiple times to make jokes or make the audience uncomfortable⁴.

The thing that has been most entertaining to me as a satirist is the people who just don’t get the joke because they are completely inoculated by their own worldview. (This is commonly true of people who are the object of satire. It’s hard to laugh at the throwing knives when you’re standing in front of the target.)

On the other hand, satire is increasingly more difficult to parse these days, because there are so many weird and over-the-top things happening.

If I said “Texas politicians try to dissuade migration by releasing alligators into the Rio Grande” it would be understandable if you weren’t sure if that was true or a joke⁵.

There’s a reason that there’s always that One Guy who thinks THE ONION articles are true and passes them around.

This one’s… fake? Right, The Onion?

Anyway.

I went on to write a number of satirical pieces for The Wittenburg Door, which led eventually to my first ever published novel, Imaginary Jesus.

I originally pushed really hard for the subtitle to either say “a true story” or “based on a true story” but my editorial team wisely denied me.

Yes, it was satire, and yes some people were confused by it.

It was banned from at least one Christian bookstore that I know of, and I got a number of emails from atheists who said, “Hey, I thought this was an atheist book until I was halfway through! How dare you!” Some of them are still my friends today.

In fact, my publisher ended up changing the cover, as if to say, “Hey maybe you misunderstood. We’re not saying Jesus is imaginary, we’re saying that sometimes each of has a Jesus who is imaginary, or at least I do. And lest you think we’re making fun of Jesus (I swear we are not) let’s go ahead and get rid of that really delightful cover of a clip-art man turned into Jesus.”

One cannot be unhappy about a new cover, especially one that compares your work to both Monty Python and C.S. Lewis.

My next book, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD CHRISTIAN, was still more satire, a book about a werewolf trying to find a church he could attend.

I had hoped to do a third satirical novel, rounding out the trilogy, that was about a motorcycle-riding priest/luchadore who lived in a border town in southern Arizona, but alas, SEÑOR MUERTE was doomed to remain forever in my heart and never in a book⁶.

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I’m watching BARBIE

Did I play with Barbies as a kid?

First of all, they were my god-sister’s Barbies, not mine. Let’s just make that clear.

Second of all, I was playing Spider-Man. Ken was Peter Parker. And yes, Spider-Man had to come back to the Dreamhouse at dinner time and help with the dishes and whatever, but it was still Spider-Man, and that was only because I was playing with Joy, okay?

I had an 8” Mego Spider-Man and he was NOT a Barbie thank you very much.

When I played with dolls by myself it was all Star Wars and G.I.Joe and they never did the dishes.

My kids never really got into Barbie (they did play with them briefly). They did like watching some of the animated movies though, which were largely fairy tales retold by Barbie, but those were definitely “babysitting” movies. I don’t think I ever sat all the way through them, though I bet my parents did more than once!

All of which to say, if you had told me, “Matt there’s a Barbie movie coming out and it might very well be your favorite movie of 2023” I would have laughed at you and your silly opinions.

BUT YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN RIGHT!

The goofball over-the-top humor of this movie, the satire, the subject matter, and the way it was all pulled off really hit all the right notes for me. I just loved the whole thing. Watching it for the first time reminded me of the first time I saw SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD. I just had a huge grin plastered on my face in between all the laughing.

And then: it also had heart! And Something to Say. I shouldn’t have been surprised, because I’ve loved all of Greta Gerwig’s movies. But this one really pleased me.

I cannot exaggerate how much I enjoyed it. And the irony is not lost on me that I didn’t even go to the Transformers or G.I. Joe movies.

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I’m reading these great BARBIE articles

Smart, intelligent, spiritual insights from genius writers:

1. The Question of Sin at the Heart of Barbie and Oppenheimer by JR. Forasteros. Take a look at Barbenheimer through a theological lens. Lots of great and interesting insights here.

2. In the Beginning, There Was Barbie by Alissa Wilkinson. Alissa’s reviews are unfailingly interesting, insightful, and smart. She touches on some of the spiritual and Biblical themes that JR. points out in his article as well.

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Let there be Bruce

Bruce, like everyone, enjoys standing on chairs and sometimes even sitting in them.

Keep hopping!

— Matt

1. Yes, misspelled. I suspect on purpose so they could laugh at letters from irate pastors.

2. The word “satire” in English, for instance, comes from Latin. But every non-noun version of the word (satirical, satirize, satiric) comes from the Greek. Romans original saw satire as a specific poetic literary form, and things with a different meter didn’t count. It’s a whole thing.

3. This is a joke, but also true.

4. I don’t want to give any specific examples because SPOILERS.

5. Don’t be silly! It’s just floating barriers and razor wire! We don’t know who keeps dumping those alligators in there.

6. He actually was slated to appear in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD CHRISTIAN but he just didn’t fit what with all the werewolves, zombies, androids, etc.