The Babylon Bee’s joke about former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s future in a potential Trump White House has certainly ruffled some conservatives’ feathers.
Yesterday, the Bee ran an article with the headline “Trump Promises Vivek An Administration Position Running The White House 7-Eleven.”
The article elaborated on the joke by describing how Trump “offered an olive branch” to Ramaswamy to run the new White House 7-11. Per the Bee, “he’ll work closely with Ramaswamy every day when he takes office, stopping by the official 7-Eleven store located in the halls of the West Wing several times a day for a Diet Coke and ‘one of those delicious warmed-up cheeseburgers under the hot light thingies.’”
The article overall seems self-aware of the stereotyping that comes with the joke, with a fake quotation from Ramaswamy saying he is “really very overqualified for this” and he’s “a little suspicious as to why Trump chose me for this position over some of the other candidates,” while Trump said he was “horrified at the accusations of any racial stereotyping” before claiming he “wanted to offer the job to DeSantis, frankly, but he’s too short to see over the little hot dog display.””
Clearly, it’s all joke, and a self-aware one at that. But many of the good folks on X (formerly Twitter) did not see it the same way.
Trump Promises Vivek An Administration Position Running The White House 7-Eleven https://t.co/1cYOX4IWUx pic.twitter.com/SojL5OZDAj
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 16, 2024
Several users voiced their displeasure as this whole saga unfolded, with many users, like Nick Dumitru, saying the joke was “in poor taste.” Others, like Tim Young, accused the Bee of thinking “he’s a clerk at 7-11 because of a tired stereotype about Indian people.”
I like the Bee, but this was kind of in poor taste.
— Nick Dumitru (@nickdumitru) January 16, 2024
So is the joke that Trump values him so poorly that he only sees him as a clerk at 7-11… or that you think he’s a clerk at 7-11 because of a tired stereotype about Indian people?
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 17, 2024
One of the first prominent conservatives to offer a contrary opinion was conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who retweeted the article with the caption “I guarantee @VivekGRamaswamy is not in the slightest bit offended. You guys really dont need to be his white knight to protect him from Babylon Bee headlines. He’ll be okay. I promise.”
Check the comments to see “conservatives” actually offended by this joke. Absolutely pathetic.
I guarantee @VivekGRamaswamy is not in the slightest bit offended. You guys really dont need to be his white knight to protect him from Babylon Bee headlines. He’ll be okay. I promise https://t.co/3ENzoFxurD
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 17, 2024
Finally, the whole sage was (hopefully) concluded by Ramaswamy himself, who retweeted Walsh’s retweeted with the caption “I’m a ‘survivor.’”
I’m a “survivor” 😂 https://t.co/Dx7yGeWdcJ
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) January 17, 2024
And now, seeing that Ramaswamy himself seems to think its funny, or at least is not overly offended by the joke, that can be the end of it.
Besides, the joke wasn’t as much about Ramaswamy as it was about Trump. The joke wasn’t “he’s an Indian. Indians work at 7-11. It’s funny!” Instead, it was more that Trump is the kind of fellow who seems likely to unwittingly buy into such a stereotype.
Honestly, if anyone should be offended, it should probably be Trump more than Ramaswamy.
In the grand scheme of things, this minor controversy of an overall harmless joke is little more than a tempest in a teapot.
Did the Babylon Bee go too far?
It does, however, show that even among conservatives, we can tend to take jokes like these a little too seriously.
Whether or not you think the joke was over the line, Ramaswamy handled the minor kerfuffle beautifully. He neither approved nor condemned the joke, but simply showed he wasn’t bothered by it one way or the other.
At the end of the day, it’s a joke. With a few minor and fairly obvious exceptions, most of the time it just isn’t worth getting so worked up over a joke.
The establishment media already takes conservatives’ words and beliefs out of context and twists them into a ridiculous facsimile of our actual beliefs. Let’s not give them any ammunition to try to make us look ridiculous.
