Oso planning to go pro
Is it true he was fired from SNL because of too many O.J. jokes?
As I remember it, Don Ohlmeyer was president of NBC and a close friend of OJ Simpson. Norm was relentless with the OJ jokes and was warned to lay off. He didn’t, of course, and was eventually canned.My favorite OJ joke was told by Norm at the ESPYs. He pointed out Charles Woodson in the audience and said: “Heisman trophy winner Charles Woodson is here tonight. The Heisman is college football’s highest honor, something they can never take away from you….unless you kill your wife and waiter”.
Lol. I feel like I should have appreciated Norm more, although he was a little before my time. Clearly a unique talent.
Approximately how old are you muggs?
That was fantastic -- I was going to comment on that specific one when I watched the ESPYs link above, but I forgot. I just watched a whole clip of Norm doing OJ jokes on Weekend Update. I had forgotten how relentless he was. They were great. Conan just released a special podcast episode just talking about Norm. It's worth a listen. He mentioned that Ohlmeyer forbade him from having Norm on the show. When Conan pushed back saying "how can I do my best show for you if you won't let me have my best guest", Ohlmeyer apparently gave him the "i expected more from you" pitch.
Those Conan appearances were the closest thing to improv you can find in that setting. Norm had no clue what the hell he was gonna talk about half the time and Conan was a master at playing along, and you won't get any more genuine of laughs and reactions out of Conan than during those bits.