“Shame on You, The Good Doctor and SNL!”

   Television programs consistently disparage Jewish customs and laugh about it. On Monday night on The Good Doctor a resident who was brought up Orthodox was saying to a colleague that while he didn’t follow a lot of the rules his mother would want him to follow, he just couldn’t eat a cheeseburger, mixing meat and milk. Did his colleague encourage him to follow his tradition? No, with a smile and a laugh she coaxed him into biting into a cheeseburger.

   Now I’m not kosher; I like Big Macs; I like Whoppers with cheese even more, but I would never – nor would you, I bet – have such a contemptuous attitude about the tradition of ANY other religion’s laws and customs. This, however, is nothing new with television shows that basically have a negative view of religion in general.

   With the rise of antisemitism, it would seem to me that the networks would be particularly respectful of our traditions; better yet, keep them the heck out of the shows altogether! Some of you may have seen a Saturday Night Live! sketch a few weeks ago when in their “Weekend Update” they were talking about the vaccination programs in this country and others. Michael Che said, “In Israel more than 50% of the population has already been vaccinated,” and then he added something like, “I bet it was the Jewish half.” 

   Was that necessary? It was downright racist, and coming from an African-American (yes, I know he was just reading what the writers had given him, but I’m sure he saw it beforehand), it was unconscionable. Would it have been overlooked if a white “newscaster” had said, “In the fashionable upper East Side of Manhattan a woman was sexually attacked. Hmmm, I bet a Black guy came over from Harlem!”? You know the answer as well as I.

    There was a huge backlash over that SNL sketch. While I’m glad there was, I don’t know if he or anyone from the show or network (hey, Lorne Michaels, creator and still very involved with it, is one of us. How I want to say, “Figures,” but I won’t) apologized. And truth be told, I’m tired of apologies when what should be done is a public announcement that this was wrong and that it will not happen again. And I’m talking about denigrating ANY people, race, religion, etc.