O.J. Simpson in his TV pitchman days
As so much of the news coverage this week indicates, former football star and acquitted murder suspect O.J. Simpson died Wednesday of cancer. Simpson was preceded in death by comedian Norm MacDonald, who also died of cancer, in 2021. However, the connection between Simpson and MacDonald is much stronger than just their both having had cancer.
MacDonald was “Weekend Update” anchor on NBC‘s Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1994-1998, coinciding with the period in which Simpson was on trial for murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend Ron Goldman. Taking advantage of the the unprecedented news coverage of the Simpson trial, MacDonald made a cottage industry out of mocking what he believed was the very guilty Simpson. MacDonald’s many hard-hitting jokes about Simpson’s guilt have been collected on YouTube and can be found here and here. Perhaps MacDonald’s most infamous O.J. joke on SNL came after the jury acquitted Simpson of murder in 1995. MacDonald said: “Well, it is finally official: murder is legal in the state of California.” Eventually, this relentless mockery of Simpson led to Norm being fired, reportedly because NBC West Coast division President Don Ohlmeyer was a close friend of Simpson and could no longer stand to see his buddy kicked around on TV by MacDonald. As the previous link indicates, Rolling Stone magazine dubbed NBC’s MacDonald firing number four on its list of “The 50 Worst Decisions in TV History.”
In the years after Norm MacDonald’s firing from SNL, he attained legendary status as a comedian unafraid to engage in very edgy humor, pushing the boundaries of taste and taking on tragedy no matter what the reaction. Eventually, MacDonald became known as “the comedian’s comedian,” i.e., the one comedian whom his colleagues (including David Letterman) regarded as the best of the best. MacDonald’s O.J.-filled stint at “Weekend Update” contributed greatly to this legend.
As for NBC (now NBCUniversal), more recently, it suffered another employment-related public embarrassment when its News Group hired former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel to be a contributor at MSNBC, then had to fire her just days later. McDaniel’s hiring had led to a swift outcry from the public, as well as from some of NBC News’ best-known anchors, who took to the airwaves to voice their displeasure at having to work with someone who was not only an election denier, but who actively took part with Donald Trump to try to invalidate and steal the 2020 presidential election after Joe Biden had won it.
And as for O.J. Simpson, his achievements in football have long since been overshadowed by his being the subject of “the trial of the century,” and, in the eyes of many, the infamy of literally getting away with murder.
Photo by Alden Jewell, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/gTVfJj
