SNL Legend Norm MacDonald Was Supposedly Fired For Telling OJ Simpson Jokes By A Friend Of OJ Simpson At NBC

Yesterday we released the SNL Draft and it was a great little trip down memory lane. Memory lane because that show hasn't delivered for me in at least 15 years. Luckily, if you're my age, you lived through a great run of SNL performers and skits. Throughout all the years, the only consistent sketch has been Weekend Update and in my opinion, nobody did it better than Norm MacDonald. That dry Canadian wit and smirk gave me a license to tell jokes that other people probably couldn't. The drum he banged more than of them was the OJ Simpson punch lines. 

NBC at the time had an executive named Don Ohlmeyer. Olhmeyer was apparently the only guy in the world who didn't like Norm MacDonald compiling 35+ minutes of OJ Simpson jokes on Weekend Update. 

Just imagine that conversation that led to Norm's firing

Ohlmeyer: "Lorne, we have to get rid of Norm"

Michaels: "What? Why?"

Ohlmeyer: "He won't stop making fun of my friend and his tragic situation?"

Michaels: "Huh, who is your friend?"

Ohlmeyer: "OJ Simpson"

Michaels: "......."

Ohlmeyer: "It's inappropriate. It's gone on too long. He's getting away with murder"

Norm was truly one of a kind. An all-time great gone too soon.