I'm so old (over 30) that I can remember when Saturday Night Live was more than occasionally funny.  And sharp.  And insightful.  But the program, a Saturday-night staple for over 45 years, has not been amusing or really newsworthy for years.  And it is just not old fogies such as me who long ago tuned it out.  Although it is often the top-rated program for its time slot, even the younger generation no longer faithfully watches. 

And why should they?  With all types of amusements and distractions available anytime, anywhere at your fingertips, why bother with stale sketches and unfunny jokes?  Alec Baldwin's predictable pale, hostile impression of Donald J. Trump (R) was not only boring; it also automatically alienated much of Middle America. 

But last Saturday night, they wandered off into bigotry.  Doing his regular gig as a news anchor for the show's "Weekend Update" supposedly jokey news segment, Michael Che announced

... that half the folks in Israel have already gotten the COVID vaccine, adding, "I'm going to guess it's the Jewish half."

YouTube screen grab via Times of Israel.

Uh, Michael, you guessed very wrong.  And you used very wrong statistics:

The Jewish population is 6,870,000 (73.9%) and 1,956,000 (21.1%) are Arabs. Those identified as "others" (non-Arab Christians, Baha'i, Samaritans, Karaite Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, Messianic Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses,

So yeah, more than half of the Wuhan virus vaccines were injected into Israeli Jewish arms because of the raw numbers.  And other reasons.

Uh, Michael, you guessed very wrong.  And you used very wrong statistics:

The Jewish population is 6,870,000 (73.9%) and 1,956,000 (21.1%) are Arabs. Those identified as "others" (non-Arab Christians, Baha'i, Samaritans, Karaite Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, Messianic Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses ...

So yeah, more than half of the Wuhan virus vaccines were injected into Israeli Jewish arms because of the raw numbers.  And other reasons.

Now, OK, as the Barbie doll moaned, "Math is tough."  But Barbie is a teenaged, white, blonde female doll, all of which Michael Che is not.  So perhaps Che believes that math is racist.

Or something

So despite criticism of the segment as bigoted from a number of Jewish organizations — and even a few non Jewish civil rights groups — Che and the show's producers have not explained their false propaganda.  Perhaps they're enjoying the increased publicity the program needs.  And, undoubtedly writing and rehearsing a Weekend Update skitlet based on the minor controversy they have caused for next week's program. 

But, since like the other parts of the program, it won't be even amusing.  Many just won't care. 

And that's not hard.  And it isn't even racist.