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Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that’s taken over our lives.
Apple’s new emojis linked to Harvey Weinstein.
SNL/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
As film producer Harvey Weinstein became society’s latest scourge, Apple reportedly canceled two series produced by the company that used to employ him.
Yet on “Saturday Night Live,” Cupertino couldn’t quite get away from Weinstein, disgraced and kicked out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Saturday after a series of sexual harassment allegations.
On the Weekend Update segment of the show, Colin Jost began: “Apple has announced that it is adding hundreds of new emojis to its iOS system, including a person at a spa, a vomiting face and a shushing finger — finally giving emoji fans the ability to describe what it was like to work with Harvey Weinstein.”
The show was hosted by Kumail Nanjiani, sometimes known as diffident coder Dinesh from the HBO series “Silicon Valley.”
His monologue offered an immigrant’s perspective of living and succeeding in the US, something that many residents of the non-fictional Silicon Valley have experienced.
Nanjiani made a successful — and really quite funny — movie called “The Big Sick” about his courtship of his eventual wife, Emily, a white woman.
He admitted that he’s read every single comment made online about the film.
“I just don’t like race-mixing,” one commenter said.
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“Nobody good uses the phrase ‘race-mixing,” replied Najiani.
He added: “Why did you watch the whole movie? Did you think there’d be a twist at the end? Did you think I’d rip off my mask and aha, it’s me, Chris Pine. I’m a white person.”
The whole issue of immigration has vexed Silicon Valley companies, ever since President Donald Trump issued a ban on immigrants from several majority-Muslim nations.
Here, Nanjiani offered his own Pakistani-immigrant view of, for example, his Twitter mentions.
“Go back to India!” one Twitterer suggested. Nanjiani has never been there. He continued to offer his own cheerily caustic view of Islamophobia and racism. (Sample: “An informed racist is a better racist.”)
Some might feel, though, that the most cutting laugh of the night came from another technology-based joke.
“Military officials have announced that they will increase missions to train, advise and assist troops in the African nation of Niger,” said Jost. “The focus on Niger is viewed as a direct challenge to President Trump’s autocorrect.”
