Norm Macdonald died at the age of 61 this week after a lengthy battle with cancer. Many fans paid tribute to the Saturday Night Live legend by sharing clips of some of his funniest moments. One of the more notable videos to resurface was Macdonald showing love to NFL great Charles Woodson at the ESPYs. Macdonald congratulated him for winning the Heisman Trophy, saying that no one will take that away from him, “unless you kill your wife and waiter.”
Macdonald was referring to O.J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in 1994. Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995, but Macdonald continued to take aim at Simpson during his time on Saturday Night Live. In fact, things were so bad that NBC fired Macdonald from SNL for his Simpson jokes.
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In 2017, Macdonald was looking to get Simpson on his podcast. “I thought I had O.J. and his lawyer said, ‘Oh yeah, O.J. will do it,’” Macdonald said to the Daily Beast at the time. “And then he came back and said, are you the Norm Macdonald that was on NBC?” When Macdonald said he was once on show called Saturday Night Live, the lawyer replied, “O.J. said you were a little tough.” Macdonald also looked back at the trial and said he’s not sure that Simpson is guilty.
“I’m not completely sure he’s guilty anymore,” Macdonald says before adding “I’m almost completely sure, but I’m not completely sure. … I feel sorry for the victims of the double murder. Although I guess I was a victim also. I guess there were three victims that night. Nicole Simpson, some waiter, and me.” Along with being a regular on SNL, Macdonald also appeared in his share of movies and TV shows. His first credited film was Billy Madison with Adam Sandler while also appearing on the Dr. Dolittle films and Klaus as voice characters. Macdonald also had his own TV series, The Norm Show, which aired on ABC from 1999 to 2001.
“Today is a sad day,” Saturday Night Live wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “All of us here at SNL mourn the loss of Norm Macdonald, one of the most impactful comedic voices of his or any other generation. There are so many things that we’ll miss about Norm – from his unflinching integrity to his generosity to his consistent ability to surprise. But most of all he was just plain funny. No one was funny like Norm.”
