(Jewish) Anti-Defamation League vs SNL

Great Debates
1

Check out: http://tv.yahoo.com/yahoo/news/story.dpg?q=7&adf=lw121599

In an SNL sketch, “…comments by Celine Dion (Ana Gasteyer) about Jews owning all the movie studios and banks, and Britney Spears (host Christina Ricci) about Christians having forgiven Jews for “killing our Lord” sent complaints flying to the ADL.”

I didn’t see the sketch, but didn’t the ADL misunderstand the joke? SNL wasn’t putting forth anti-semitic views, they were implying that BRITNEY SPEARS and CELINE DION have anti-semitic views.

If anybody has a right to complain, it would be Spears and Dion.

What do you all think?

2

Well, it’s nothing new.

One of the Twilight Zone episodes (“The Encounter,” Neville Brand, George Takei) has never been part of the syndication package because of the perception that it might be “offensive” to Japanese people.

It’s their program, and if they want to withhold it, they can.

Personally, it seems a little silly to me, though.

3

Obviously, I haven’t seen the Twilight Zone episode in question, but from what I’ve read, the point of controversy is that George Takei has a monologue about how his father, a Japanese-American, signalled the incoming Japanese fighter planes when and where to drop their bombs at Pearl Harbor.

If this is true, Japanese-Americans would have every right to be outraged by this episode. To my knowledge (and according to every source I’ve checked) there was not one single incident of a Japanese-American sabotaging the AMerican military during WWII (let alone at Pearl Harbor). Considering that many Japanese-Americans were unjustly imprisoned during the war based on similarly groundless suspicions, it’s ot surprising that they’d be outraged by a TV show saying they were responsible for the attack on PEarl Harbor.

4

I saw the SNL sketch and found it pretty amusing (well, for SNL, anyway). Getting the ADL involved is just plain silly, IMO.

5

Astorian,

I don’t think TZ was meant as history. And there was at least one Japanese or Japanese-American in Pearl Harbor who was supplying inside info before the bombing, although he did not signal any planes.

And possibly his story (sorry, I don’t remember the name, but he was featured in a documentary on Discovery or A&E around the time of the 50th anniversary specials)is all made-up. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had taken undue credit for a role in some pivotal moment in history.

6

True enough, The Twilight Zone is fictional- but fiction can reflect and shape people’s attitudes.

If, for example, Rod Serling had written a Twilight Zone episode showing a sneering, big-nosed Jew killing and drinking the blood of Christian babies, he could (correctly) claim “Hey, it isn’t REAL, and I never said it was real.” But in writing that piece of fiction, Serling would be feeding a myth that’s already led to the persecution of Jews for centuries.

In the same way, Japanese-Americans suffered during WW2 precisely because they were suspected, unjustly, of forming a 5th column here in the USA. A TV show that perpetuates the notion that Japanese-Americans were disloyal, and supported the attack on Pearl Harbor, pretty much endorses that view, and suggests that Japanese-Americans DESERVED to be locked up.

7

This SNL debacle is in line when they edited out a “Wayne’s World” segment in which Chelsea Clinton got ripped about her appearance. Hey, comedy is not pretty (at least not to Steve Martin).

As for the TZ ep: the premise of the story was a WWII vet and the Japanese-American were under the spell of a WWII-era Japanese sword. To me, the episode showed how easy it is to point the finger of blame.

8

Astorian…

While its not really “sabotage”

Resaearch the “Niihau Incident”

All I can find is a book review…but it will give you the jist of the story…

An amazing tale about a little-known but fascinating incident directly resulting from the bombing of
Pearl Harbor. One of the Japanese pilots taking part in the bombing was forced to crash land on a
small Hawaiian island, survived in good condition, and was able to persuade, apparently with little
trouble, an American-born couple of Japanese ancestry, the Haradas, to help him. The Haradas
spoke both Japanese and English and quickly sympathized with him and his ideals. They helped him
to the direct detriment and endangerment of their friends and neighbors (mostly of aboriginal
Hawaiian ancestry) on the small, sparsely populated, isolated island of Niihau, an island with its own
absorbing story apart from this incident. An unexpected look at the motivations and behavior of a
secluded group of Americans when the chips were down and America was in mortal danger.
Afterwards Mrs. Harada spoke about this tragedy out of both sides of her mouth with Japanese and
Americans, apparently thinking that what she said in Japanese was safe from American ears.

Perhaps this was the birth of the anti Japanese-American sentiment.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. Truman

9

And my point is not so much that I think that the TZ ep should not be “withheld,” but that CBS (I presume) owns the rights to it, and if they don’t want to show it for whatever reason, or for no reason at all, it’s their prerogative.

Same with SNL/NBC.

10

I did not see the SNL in question, I did read the supposed offensive quote.

Interestingly, this is not new. The 70’s TV program “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” had a character (I forget the name) who played the wife of the mediocre Western singer, (or she was the singer, whatever), the husband was played by Dabney Coleman. Anyway, she said almost verbatim the line in the SNL skit, something like (imagine a hillbilly speaking :slight_smile:

“The Jews were the people what killed our lord!”

MH, MH was a somewhat popular satire, spoof, at the time, not completely unknown. Of course, there was never any controversy then, and nobody would have ever conceived of being offended – it was a spoof, a joke, the point being to EXPOSE and RIDICULE intolerance by poking fun! Who was it that said that humor was a difficult concept for some people?

(SNL should at the least acknowledge credit where it is due – MH, MH “been there, done that” already.)

This type of PC controversy is a unique product of our times, and sadly, this type of intolerance and forced censorship will only grow into the permanent future. We are doomed to live in an inoffensive, sterile, scripted, straight-jacketed future, our thoughts and words always under scrutiny. What we will be allowed to think and say will be narrowly defined, and we’ll all have a half-witted smile frozen on our faces in this brave, new world.

11

It seems that many people today cannot tell the difference between racism and making fun of racism. The two are almost opposite, ironically.

12

Lighten up! I am really sick and tired of all this political correctness…

Jim Staudt

13

Okay, I didn’t see the SNL sketch in question, but when I read the AP article this morning, I immediately wondered what people here would think. <g> I’m Jewish, and I’m not offended. I think it’s pretty funny, actually.

~Kyla

“You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.”

14

SNL has stood up and shown it’s 'nads: http://www.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/21/snl.hanukkah.reut/index.html

"Backing down on a promise to a prominent Jewish group, NBC announced Monday it would repeat its broadcast of a “Saturday Night Live” spoof in which an actress says Christians have forgiven Jews “for having killed our Lord.”

15

I wonder what they’d think of the Onion article titled **World’s Jews Celebrate Christmas With Ceremonial Re-Murdering Of Christ
**.

16

Please forgive this ignorant Jew, but how on earth did we get blamed for Jesus’ death?

17

slight tangent:

In the article at http://www.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/21/snl.hanukkah.reut/index.html
the final paragraph reads: *She said “a lot of the decision” to reverse Weinman’s previous stance “rested with her,” following discussions with Michaels as well as NBC Entertainment President Garth Ancier and NBC West Coast chief Scott Sassa. * … who is the “she” in “she said”?

–
Teeming Millions: http://fathom.org/teemingmillions
“Meat flaps, yellow!” - DrainBead, naked co-ed Twister chat
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com

18

Adam:

IIRC, Jesus was arrested for preaching heresy and condemned by the Sanhedrin (Jewish leaders)and brought before King Herod. However, since they were under Roman rule at the time, they weren’t allowed to administer their own punishment, but had to go to Pontius Pilate, the local representative of Rome. Pilate didn’t really have any reason to execute Jesus, except as a general troublemaker, but he gave in to pressure from the Sanhedrin. (Famous handwashing scene.) Pilate had Jesus beaten, but they insisted that he be crucified.

Something like that, anyway. So the story is that Jesus was condemned to death by his own people. Of course, sometimes Christians forget that they are supposed to recognize their own weaknesses in the mob that demands crucifixion for Jesus.

19

I dunno, Opal. I’ll WAG it was Ana Gasteyer from the preceding paragraph, but the use of pronouns was a little [excessively polite] weak [/excessively polite] so I can’t be sure.

Adam, in brief, the slur works like this. Jesus was essentially an apostate Jew. He wandered the countryside telling people that the current rabbinical authority has it all wrong, G-d is Love, this is His true nature, here’s a miracle in His name, yada yada yada. The big-time rabbis rat Jesus out to the Roman authorities, who crucify JC to keep the peace with the locals. QED.

But it’s mostly just a reason made up by bigots to try to justify their hatred of Jews. I believe this view has largely been repudiated by all but the most wacko fundy churches.

Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine