By now you’ve heard the whole story. In SNL’s “Weekend Update” skit, the newsman played by Michael Che announced that “Israel has vaccinated half of its population..[Pause] The Jewish half.”
There was nothing funny about this remark. It was a lie, and it did harm to Israel and to Jews. For it made a charge that fits right in with the medieval accusations, leading to pogroms, that Jews deliberately spread plagues and other diseases. The report on SNL’s skit is here: “Israeli Health Minister Rebukes NBC Over ‘Dangerous and False’ Vaccine Segment on ‘SNL,’” Algemeiner, February 22, 2021:
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein joined those condemning NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” for cast member Michael Che’s comments suggesting that Israel had only vaccinated the “Jewish half” of its population against COVID-19, as the network has remained silent.
“I inform you that anti-Semitism is not funny. It is dangerous and false,” wrote Edelstein on Twitter Monday, in Hebrew.
“In Israel, we have vaccinated more Arabs than most countries in the world. Satire is meant to be entertaining, not shocking. Your ‘joke’ is an antisemitic lie that can have dangerous consequences in a country where two and a half years ago 11 Jewish worshipers were murdered, just because they were Jews,” he continued.
Israel has indeed been vaccinating Arabs and Jews, with the same vaccines, given to the same sub-populations in the same order (health workers, the elderly, those with underlying health problems, and so on). Yuli Edelstein is right: Israel has vaccinated more Arabs than any Arab country has yet done. And it has been conducting a massive campaign to persuade Arabs, who have shown some reluctance, to get the shot. That doesn’t sound like a country that is indifferent to its Arab citizens, and interested only in vaccinating its “Jewish half.”
The problem is that most people, while they have by now heard that Israel leads the world in the percentage of its population that has been vaccinated, have not heard — because it is almost never mentioned — that Israel is vaccinating it Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze citizens without distinction.
And while SNL may be dismissed by some as simply a comedy show, and its impact not to be taken too seriously, all of the polling data suggests that young people get much of their news not from traditional outlets, like newspapers, but from comedy shows including SNL, Late Night With Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and others of that ilk, and are unable to distinguish fact from fiction, as presented on shows whose purpose is not to enlighten but to amuse.
The power of SNL to influence is very great. Consider how Tina Fey’s imitation of Sarah Palin (“I can see Russia from my house”) ended the Alaskan’s chances of being taken seriously. SNL’s audience of 9 million is larger than that for any newspaper; the New York Times, by comparison, has 7 million subscribers. SNL’s predominantly young viewers are not always capable of distinguishing fact from fiction, and that is especially true of the Weekend Update segment.
NBC declined to comment when reached by The Algemeiner Monday….
His remarks joined those from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and other Jewish groups criticizing the Saturday segment, who said that it recalls age-old antisemitic conspiracies blaming Jews for plague and disease….
It is good that every major Jewish organization has expressed its anger, and they have demanded that NBC apologize and – even more important – set the record straight on Israel’s vaccination of Arabs. But so far there has been silence from both NBC and SNL. What could possibly be keeping them from addressing this matter? I don’t think there would have been the slightest delay in apologizing, if there had been a joke that offended Muslims or Arabs.
Imagine, say, a joke about the upcoming Palestinian elections. The facts are absurd enough:
“Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, now in the sixteenth year of his four-year term, has just announced he will be running again for President in the new elections called for this July. Of his three rivals, the first is in exile in Abu Dhabi and will be promptly imprisoned on corruption charges if he returns to campaign; the second is in an Israeli prison serving five life sentences; the third, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, has just announced he won’t be running after all since he’ll be moving into a new seaside villa this summer. Abbas says he thinks he has a good chance, but he’s taking nothing for granted.”
There would have been a furious response, followed immediately by swift apologies from both NBC and SNL. The writer of the joke, and even the SNL staff member who delivered it, would likely have been fired to assuage the fury of CAIR, Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, the PA, and the Arab League.
The “joke” about Israel’s vaccination campaign is unsurprising; Jews, or Israelis, are often the butt of jokes at SNL. Lorne Michaels should ask himself why this is, and whether he plans to do anything about it. And if there is going to be an apology, it should not be a quick expression of chagrin. It should be detailed, explaining why it was so particularly disturbing.
Such a mea-culpa statement from Lorne Michaels might go something like this:
“Recently one of the SNL skits included the claim that Israel led the world in vaccinations and that it had vaccinated half its population – ‘the Jewish half.’ In fact, Israel vaccinates without distinction its Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze citizens. The joke was based on a lie. And correcting that lie matters so much because, historically, Jews have suffered from the antisemitic charge that they have been responsible for deliberately spreading plagues in the past. So I am here to apologize and to assure you that nothing like it will ever happen again on SNL.”
That would fit the bill.
revereridesagain says
Disgusting.
And don’t hold your breath waiting for Michaels to make such a statement. He’s in no hurry to get “cancelled” himself.
mortimer says
It’s the ‘blood libel’ accusation in another form. The SNL team has a
Such a joke reminds one of Der Stuermer, the slanderous, anti-Semitic rag published by the Nazis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel
Jewish ethics run counter to such behavior that is shamelessly suggested by Michael Che. He should take a look in the mirror and ask how he would like to be slandered.
SNL owner Lorne Michaels is Jewish and I wonder what he thinks.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/saturday-night-live-history-jews-punchline-adl-lorne-michaels-take-action-michael-che
gravenimage says
Spot on, Mortimer.
Walter Sieruk says
This guy trying to be “funny” by telling bad “jokes” was really attempting to hide his anti-Jewish feelings under the guise of “humor”
Therefore , it’s very good to this remember the wisdom spoken by the former US President , William Howard Taft. who in a speech declared “Antisemitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.”
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
SNL hasn’t been funny in years. They tread so carefully along the razor thin line of what is considered politically correct that their humor, is at best, tepid and torturous to witness. For those who can remember when SNL was funny, they now sell a box set of DVD’S that features the original and hilarious cast and skits, BPC (before political correctness), took hold. Oh, how I miss those days.
James Lincoln says
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness,
True, Saturday Night Live was actually funny during its early years.
No longer…
Infidel says
Can’t they fish out something from the SNL archives that would send that show into the same dump as ‘The Bachelor’ and Dr Seuss?
Istanbul_Chick says
“Jane, you ignorant slut!” Someone show that to a blue haired feminist and the cancelling should commence. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c91XUyg9iWM
Infidel says
That’s amazing! I have no idea where Dan Aykroyd stands politically, but if his misogyny could bring down SNL, it would have been well worth it!
Istanbul_Chick says
I never saw that skit as misogynist. I just saw it as a truthful but brutal commentary on the attitudes and (im)morality of some women.
Infidel says
Istanbul_chick, I agree that I don’t see it as misogynist either, but don’t bet that the woketopia won’t see it that way. It could well be the trigger that sets off the cancellation of this show
Like Rob Schmitt noted the other night, the NBC of Friends and Seinfeld is dead
Istanbul_Chick says
Too true that. Comedy is just not funny anymore. Especially on MS channels.
Funny that you should mention Friends and Seinfeld because I was just thinking about them the other day.
I stumbled on this “lost” (fan made) episode of Friends: The One Where Chandler Dies…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR4jZ8KKs-k&feature=emb_title
Infidel says
That would have been a helluva Halloween special, had they run it
Michael Z says
Chevy Chase used the n-word in skit with Richard Pryor. It was shocking then, but because it was made to illustrate an important point, it was acceptable. That point could not be illustrated in that way in these days. Cancellation nowadays would be for-certain, and an apology will not get you out of jail.
Infidel says
Today, I read somewhere about some black cop getting fired for using the n-word. I always viewed dimly the reality that black guys could freely use the n-word w/o consequences, while others, who even used the relatively innocuous 5-letter n-word would get into trouble. One of my Indian-American friends once told me how they were threatened and had to leave a basketball game after one of them used that 5-letter n-word to describe Blacks
James Lincoln says
Interestingly, Infidel…
The UNCF is still called the UNCF.
Go figure…
Charlie in NY says
Compare SNL’s 2019 unceremonious and quick firing of Shane Gillis before he even got on the air when it was reported that he made anti-Asian jokes and SNL’s refusal even to discuss Michael Che’s anti-Jewish slur.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.tmz.com/2019/09/16/shane-gillis-not-joining-fired-snl-asian-racist-joke-controversy/
Florette Small says
Why AREN’T SNL &Che being sued for Anti-Semitic slander? Where are the lawyers?
gravenimage says
SNL’s Anti-Semitic Skit: ‘Taint Funny, McGee’
…the newsman played by Michael Che announced that “Israel has vaccinated half of its population..[Pause] The Jewish half.”
………………..
Grotesque calumny. Not only is this a lie, but Israel has even offered the vaccine to those who want to see Israel destroyed:
“PA’s Abbas vetoes Israeli offer of coronavirus vaccination unit on Temple Mount: ‘They’re trying to get a foothold’”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/03/pas-abbas-vetoes-israeli-offer-of-coronavirus-vaccination-unit-on-temple-mount-theyre-trying-to-get-a-foothold