'SNL' Weekend Update Anchor Dropped an OJ Joke That Would Make Norm Macdonald Proud

Who doesn't love an O.J. Simpson joke?

Although the trial over the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ron Goldman, concluded 29 years ago this October (yeah, seems hard to believe), the case was such a cultural phenomenon for many Americans that summer, it still draws a deep reaction today. (It's worth noting that Simpson was found guilty 10 years later, on unrelated charges of kidnapping and armed robbery; he spent nine years in prison.)

For example, one of my friends on the X platform made a joke connecting one of Sunday's decisive NFL playoff games with "The Juice"s famous, slo-mo police chase in a certain White Bronco:

Ravens brought in Ray Lewis to pump up the crowd.

Maybe the Bills should've tried this with O.J.

🤔🤔
— Mav for POTUS (@TheMaverick21) January 28, 2024

Someone else who fancied a good O.J. joke was the late actor/comedian Norm Macdonald. Many people loved his stint as "Weekend Update" anchor. And as I've previously written, he was likely let go from the coveted post because he refused to stop jabbing two pretty high-profile celebrities. More on that in a minute.

When the long-running comedy program returned for its new season (the month after Norm's death) in October 2021, the current co-anchors, Michael Che and Colin Jost ceded most of their segment to a compilation of "greatest hits" by Norm:

But these aren’t just randomly chosen jokes culled from the year-and-a-half span Norm did “Update.” Two of them in particular were especially gutsy to include, and serve as a classy goodbye for the comedian — because they likely were part of the reason Macdonald was fired from the anchor chair.
The video below begins with one of them (about Bill Clinton), and there’s an O.J. joke a bit later. NBC execs, in particular Don Ohlmeyer, the head of the network’s west coast division, was thought to have been peeved at Norm’s continued needling of his lefty pals. But if you told Norm not to do something, that was the surest way to get him to double down. Ohlmeyer fired him.

Of course, it's no secret to readers that SNL has shown a tendency in recent years to be very one-sided politically. But they have overcome that tendency at times. Which brings us to the latest episode of "Saturday Night Live."

SNL roasts Trump on E. Jean Carroll verdict, DeSantis endorsement in "Weekend Update" https://t.co/zBmRSlvwU1 pic.twitter.com/T05vKMwjMP
— The Hill (@thehill) January 28, 2024

It might sound incredible to hear this, but one of the genuinely funny one-liners on the "Weekend Update" this week included a mention of Donald Trump and -- surprisingly -- O.J. Simpson:

Co-host Colin Jost roasted Trump on the show’s segment of “Weekend Update” for being ordered by a jury last week to pay $83.3 million to Carroll in his defamation lawsuit. He also poked fun at him for campaigning off of the jury’s ruling.

Jost said:

The jury in his defamation case has ordered Donald Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million. And Trump is a billionaire — so obviously he immediately hit up your grandma for five bucks. They ordered Trump to pay $83 million. That’s how unlikable he is. For perspective, OJ Simpson only had to pay $33 million for a double murder.

I think Norm would have been proud of Jost's attempt here.

But there was also a dud from the comedy duo, which is the part getting all of the chatter on social media; this happened because they made a pathetic attempt at dunking on Trump over his using a real word -- "de-bank."

Watch:

SNL did a segment mocking Trump for using the word de-bank:

"Trump introduced an interesting new term: de-banking. I don't know what the hell de-bank even means."

This is what happens when you live in your own echo chamber.

Not one SNL writer or audience member realized that… pic.twitter.com/oUKZjFa1SL
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 28, 2024

The rest of the post notes that "de-banking is real," to several different conservative people and groups who have been attacked with it:

Not one SNL writer or audience member realized that de-banking is a real thing actually happening to the right. Canada did it to the truckers. JPMorgan is doing it to conservatives and Christians. It was done to J/6 protestors. All it takes is a simple Google search. De-banking is real.

X user Doug Powers points out the biggest problem with the joke:

SNL’s in such a hurry to dunk on Trump that they made themselves look like idiots again. https://t.co/4nu4OpSWL1 pic.twitter.com/KY4hk9F33I
— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) January 28, 2024

Anyway, the joke itself is lazy writing on the show's part, depending on the repetition of the word in the edited clips to create bemusement in the audience. It's a very dumb style of humor. They're expecting their audience to be ignorant, in order to pull it off-- which is sad. They've shown that they are capable of doing better.

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You can watch the full segment below (including the O.J. joke at :36), courtesy of the "Saturday Night Live" YouTube channel: