Norm Macdonald’s scathing OJ takedowns on SNL resurface after Simpson’s death: ‘Murder is legal in California’

The former ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast member claimed he was fired from hosting the popular Weekend Update segment over his Simpson jokes

Following the announcement of the death of OJ Simpson, Saturday Night Live fans are sharing compilations of Norm Macdonald roasting the infamous NFL star.

Simpson died on Wednesday aged 76 after a battle with cancer, his family announced.

Macdonald, who died in 2021 aged 61, was known for his regular jokes about Simpson following the latter’s 1995 acquittal for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman the previous year.

The comedian took aim at Simpson during the Weekend Update segment of the show, and later claimed he was fired over the repeated jibes.

“In his book, OJ Simpsons says he would’ve 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 who would’ve died for you kills you,” Macdonald said in one episode before the verdict.

Following the news of the former American football star’s acquittal in 1995, Macdonald quipped: “Well, it is finally official. Murder is legal in the state of California.”

Norm Macdonald on ‘SNL’ (NBC Saturday Night Live)

Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC’s West Coast division, was a friend of Simpson’s, and Macdonald’s comments did not sit well with him. Despite the objections of Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, Ohlmeyer ordered Macdonald to be replaced as Weekend Update anchor in late 1997.

Ohlmeyer cited declining ratings for the show rather than the jokes about Simpson, but Macdonald went on talk shows to complain about his treatment, calling the studio boss “a liar and a thug”.

Appearing on The David Letterman Show in 1998, Macdonald told the host: “I talked to a guy that said I’m fired”.

Reacting in disbelief, Letterman praised the Weekend Update for “being the best part of the show”. “It’s all a matter of opinion – that’s your opinion – but then the guys that can fire me, that’s not their opinion,” Macdonald responded.

Asked if creator Lorne Michaels was the one who fired him, Macdonald reassured that “[Michaels] didn’t fire me. He likes me”.

“[NBC executives] told me that Don Ohlmeyer, who turns out to be the president, [fired me].” Recalling a phone call he had with Ohlmeyer, Macdonald said the executive told him: “You’re not funny.”

OJ Simpson in court (AP)

Being fired did not stop Macdonald’s vendetta against Simpson, though. Hosting ESPN’s Espy Awards one month after he left SNL, he congratulated Charles Woodson on winning the Heisman Trophy: “That is something that no one can ever take away from you,” he said, “unless you kill your wife and a waiter”.

The comedian never reclaimed the stardom he had during his years on SNL, however.“I think a lot of people feel sorry for you if you were on SNL and emerged from the show anything less than a superstar,” Macdonald wrote in what he called an autobiographical novel, Based on a True Story (2016). “They assume you must be bitter. But it is impossible for me to be bitter. I’ve been lucky.”

In the 2008 book Live from New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live, Ohlmeyer, who died in 2017, reflected on his decision to remove Macdonald from anchoring the Weekend Update, writing: “Lorne’s point at the time was, just do it for the rest of the season and we’ll make a change in the summer. And he probably was right.”

Years before his highly regarded football and acting career became overshadowed by his highly publicised murder trial, Simpson hosted SNL in 1978.