this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] hellfire103@lemmy.ca 67 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

The November 2, 2024 episode of Saturday Night Live (SNL) ran a spoof campaign advertisement in which Harvey Epstein (played by host John Mulaney) repeatedly affirms that he is not convicted sex offenders Harvey WeinsteinJeffrey Epstein or some amalgamation thereof. Harvey Epstein, who is a regular SNL viewer, was surprised at the sketch and told The New York Times that he found it "ridiculously funny" and encouraged readers to support survivors of sexual abuse by donating to RAINN.

Source: Wikipedia

Seems like a good sport.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6QF-sRdU9g

(official SNL account, not pirated)

EDIT: @Envy@quokk.au also posted it.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Why would anyone think he was related to Harvey Weinstein? That's not how first names work. My father has a friend called George but no one thinks he's related to the former president.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What about George George George of the jungle?

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

He is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Harvey is a common Asian surname.

[–] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Are Weinsteins commonly Asian?

[–] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 4 days ago

I'm pretty sure Asians are the most common in general, so... maybe.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
[–] datavoid@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

That's.... fair.

[–] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 29 points 4 days ago (1 children)

either nor

It's either either-or or neither-nor. No mixing

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I um...

frantically thinks of an excuse

Sorry this isn't my first language... 🥺👉👈

(technically English isn't my first language, but its not really an excuse tho lol 😅 since I was learning since 8, but I'm still gonna blame the other languages' impact on my English language skills xD)

[–] decended_being@midwest.social 2 points 4 days ago

That's a good excuse. We'll accept it. Move out, boys.

  • I was thinking of writing ,"We'll except it" because of humor, but there's always Poe's Law.
[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 30 points 4 days ago

In February 2024, Epstein, along with four other Jewish elected officials from New York (Liz Krueger, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Brad Lander and Lincoln Restler), signed an open letter on the Gaza war. The letter condemned Hamas and other groups in the Middle East for attacking Israel and seeking to foment antisemitism and anti-Zionism around the world, while also criticizing the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu for civilian deaths in Gaza, its settlement policy in the West Bank, and leniency towards violence by Israeli settlers. The letter's signatories called for the Israeli government to prioritize negotiations to release hostages held in Gaza and voiced support for a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[6]

Seems like a somewhat decent guy for a politician, too.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's a pretty common surname. I feel sorry for people who have it.

I recently read the book "Impure Science", by Steven Epstein (very good philosophy of science book). It always made me slightly uncomfy whenever I saw it cited as (Epstein, 1996), because that surname inevitably makes me think of Jeffrey Epstein. It must suck to have those connotations attached to your name. Makes me glad that my surname is non descript

[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Why? Nondescript is an extremely unusual surname.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I would legit change my name. Not saying that they should but I couldn't live with the correlation

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Opposites cancel, making him the least sex pest in the US

[–] MotoAsh@piefed.social 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Wait... two sexpests aren't opposites...

[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 3 points 4 days ago

They are if it's a spit roast.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

it becomes neutral. a fusion of 2 sexpests = a normal person.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think it's like magnets, they repel each other.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Perhaps instead of opposites they meant to say it was like two negatives multiply to a positive

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago

I will never reveal my secret

[–] Juice@midwest.social 8 points 4 days ago

"First names dont indicate familial relationsh..." sees kanji in username "..oh never mind, carry on"

[–] assa123@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Maybe he's related to Harvey Dent then? That's how given names work, right?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

not a lot of Hitlers get elected any more.

[–] SolidShake@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Only the one Hitler

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

Ya know what grinds my gears? This American penchant for pronouncing Germanic names incorrectly. Like 'stein' as 'steeeen'. EpstEEN. WeinstEEN (even more frustrating, that last one, as the 'ei' is pronounced how it 'should' be, but not the second occurrence!).

Even the people with these names often insist themselves on these pronunciations. I mean it's their right ultimately, it's their name after all -- but why/where/how did this pronunciation take root in the USA?

I was taught in German class that 'ei' is always a long 'i' -- hence 'schtIne' not 'stEEEn'. Hmmph.

Same with Robert 'Muller'. His name's spelled Mueller, so by German language rules it would seem it should be pronounced 'Müller' ('ue' in English being a substitute for the umlauted 'u').

I guess it falls out of what appears to be an American myopic view that everyone else has 'accents' and they must be purged from American speech since it's 'foreign'...

Grumble grumble... OK, I am done my little rant now.

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I mean, I can see where you're coming from. However, you neglected to mention an equally important problem with the English pronunciation of Weinstein. The w is pronounced as a v. So, vineschtine.

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Good catch, yes.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's pretty fascinating considering the history of the US that Americans tend to be worse than the English at pronouncing various European languages. You'd think at least some people would cling on to the correct pronounciation of their own name, as the bare minimum.

I don't really care how Americans pronounce their own names—if anything I think most Europeans are happy to be easily distinguishable from Americans with shared ancestry at this point—but it is a bit striking.

[–] radix@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Not necessarily relevant to the people mentioned in this post, but broadly speaking, there were lots of immigrants to the US between 1930 and 1950 that very intentionally changed the spelling or pronunciation of their names to look and sound less German and Italian.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

There was also the practice of giving people a new name upon arrival in Ellis Island, establishing pretty early on what kind of names were considered "American".

I guess it worked wonders, at least if the stereotype is true that they managed to transform the Irish into a bunch of racist cops.

But yeah, you certainly had a lot of German Americans voluntarily backing away from their cultural heritage in the 30s and 40s.

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

Very good point... it would have been uncomfortable for many to cling to more foreign forms of their surnames during & just after WWII I suppose.

[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 days ago

For me, it's the Bergs. Bööörk.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Same with Robert ‘Muller’. His name’s spelled Mueller, so by German language rules it would seem it should be pronounced ‘Müller’ (‘ue’ in English being a substitute for the umlauted ‘u’).

This one gets a pass from me because the German vowel "ü" doesn't exist in English. Are you going to complain to ze Germans that they can't natively pronounce the th, too?

[–] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Yeah, you're right there, that one makes more sense as it isn't a common sound in English.

[–] Envy@quokk.au 6 points 4 days ago

https://youtu.be/v6QF-sRdU9g

SNL nailed his election ad last year

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Sonuvabitch, you beat me to it.

Yep.

Literal first thing I thought of: how is this person real?

No not the name, the face.

[–] MourningDove@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I cannot think of anything that could be less interesting or more irrelevant to anything that has, is, or ever will- happen. Seriously…. What idiot thinks someone can be related on a first name basis?

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

hey that's my city councilman, he's been in the NY state assembly for a while, he's just replaced the talented but term limited Carlina Rivera

[–] otter@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

Who's Jeffery?