It didn’t take long.
In fact, it was just hours after former football great and double-murder suspect Orenthal James Simpson died before the photoshopped image showed up in a group chat.
The image showed the late comedian and “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update host Norm Macdonald standing at the pearly gates. “O.J. died? You’re joking,” the caption read.
“Really? Well, where is he? I don’t see him. Are you sure?”
Norm would have loved it. After all, this is a man who lost the most high-profile job he ever held because he was willing to say the blindingly obvious: All the evidence in the world pointed to the fact that O.J. Simpson was a double-murderer.
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And while the Canadian-born comedian may have died in 2021 after a private battle with cancer that last eight years, his comedic legend lives on — something that O.J.’s few remaining supporters were reminded of after Macdonald’s jokes went viral again after Simpson died last week.
As Celebretainment reported, the comedian’s “constant jokes about O.J. Simpson being guilty of double murder have gone viral since the infamous NFL player’s death.”
The outlet added: “Norm repeatedly targeted Simpson during the ‘Weekend Update’ segment of ‘SNL’ – and later said he was fired over his gags.”
This is pretty much true; Macdonald was taken off the Weekend Update segment in 1998 upon the orders of Don Ohlmeyer, an NBC executive who was a close friend of Simpson’s. In interviews, Macdonald said the constant jokes about Simpson were the reason for his dismissal.
Do you remember the O.J. trial?
Ohlmeyer said this was untrue at the time: “Mr. Ohlmeyer, a friend of Mr. Simpson’s who stood by him during his trial and acquittal, has said that had nothing to do with the decision to remove Mr. Macdonald. He pointed to the innumerable monologue jokes that NBC’s biggest late-night star, Jay Leno, has delivered about Mr. Simpson, without drawing any reaction from Mr. Ohlmeyer,” The New York Times reported after the 1998 firing.
“Mr. Ohlmeyer forced Mr. Macdonald off that assignment this season, citing declining ratings and what he said was a drop-off in quality.”
However, later developments seemed to point toward Ohlmeyer’s motivations being Macdonald’s targeting of Simpson; after Macdonald’s death, Conan O’Brien — whose show was the venue for many of Macdonald’s most legendary appearances — seemed to confirm that Ohlmeyer had not only wanted him gone over Simpson but wanted O’Brien to stop booking him. (To Conan’s credit, he didn’t budge on that.) What’s more, Ohlmeyer’s reputation after the firing became focused on one thing: the fact that he fired Norm Macdonald over O.J. Simpson jokes.
And the jokes were indeed brutal.
Take Macdonald’s reaction to the verdict in the case, perhaps his most famous O.J. joke of them all. “Well, it is finally official,” Macdonald said at the start of Weekend Update. “Murder is legal in the state of California.”
Another legendary wisecrack? “In his book, O.J. Simpson says that he would have taken a bullet or stood in front of a train for Nicole,” Macdonald said. “Man, I’m gonna tell you, that is some bad luck: When the one guy who would have died for you, kills you.”
“In his book, O.J. Simpson says that he would have taken a bullet or stood in front of a train for Nicole. Man I’m going to tell you, that is some bad luck—when the one guy that would have died for you, kills you.”
-Norm MacDonald pic.twitter.com/I5gwVgjxFo
— History of Comedy (@ofComedyHistory) April 12, 2024
Other Weekend Update jokes that went viral?
“Our top story tonight comes from O.J. Simpson’s civil trial, where this week it was revealed that in his first interview with police Simpson had refused to take a lie detector test. His reason: It detects lies.”
“Our top story tonight comes from O.J. Simpson’s civil trial where this week it was revealed that in his first interview with police Simpson had refused to take a lie detector test. His reason—it detects lies.” pic.twitter.com/N2jhxweWxA
— History of Comedy (@ofComedyHistory) April 12, 2024
Another favorite: “According to the National Transportation Safety Board, sleepy truckers are responsible for one thousand deaths a year. In second place? O. J. Simpson, at two deaths a year.”
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, sleepy truckers are responsible for one thousand deaths a year. In second place? O. J. Simpson, at two deaths a year. pic.twitter.com/YfZOABsR97
— Norm Macdonald Joke of the Day (@NormSNLJokes) October 5, 2023
And then there was arguably the most famous Macdonald-O.J. joke of all time, which happened at the 1998 ESPY awards. One of his jokes was directed toward Charles Woodson, the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy. That was something that could never be taken from him, Macdonald noted — except under certain conditions:
Simpson’s 1968 Heisman was one of the items of memorabilia seized as part of the civil judgment against him, according to The Washington Post. Woodson has managed to keep his — having not killed his ex-wife and a waiter like Simpson allegedly did — and is now a Super Bowl champion and Hall of Fame member.
Here’s one of the compilations of Macdonald’s Simpson jokes that’s been making the rounds, just in case you forgot how funny the man was — particularly in regard to O.J.
As for Macdonald, the moment of virality was a reminder of how much the comedian was missed. One of my editors remarked that “one of the great tragedies of the 21st century is that Norm died before O.J.”
However, if there is a silver lining, it’s that Macdonald was likely in the better real-estate of the afterlife, being able to bask in the small joy of almost certainly not being joined by Orenthal James. I’m not sure if God permits schadenfreude in Heaven, mind you, but I think he’ll make an exception for Norm.
At the very least, those of us on social media did.
