Something happened the other night that surprised me. I laughed at OJ Simpson.
I LAUGHED AT OJ.
Go figure.
Here’s how it happened.
I went with friends to see “The Naked Gun” at the Screening Room, a
local cinema-café that shows classic movies.
And when it comes to comedies, “The Naked Gun” is a
classic. It’s on my list of the five
funniest movies ever made. I saw it
several times in movie theatres when it first came out, and have seen it
approximately a zillion times over the years at home.
But there’s a difference between watching a movie at home
and seeing it in a theatre…even a small one.
Seeing it in this setting…a room full of people laughing and
giggling along with me (although I was louder than most) made a very funny
movie even funnier.
And OJ was truly funny.
The first scene….where he gets riddled with bullets, then
burns his hand on a hot stove, has a window slam down on him, bounces off wet
paint, gets his foot caught in a bear trap….great slapstick humor.
The same for the scene where the hospital bed keeps folding
up on him.
And at the end, when Leslie Nielsen sends his wheelchair
careening down the steps at the stadium and he goes flying like a rag doll….laugh
out loud funny.
And not once, while I was laughing at OJ, did I think about
the fact that he brutally murdered two people.
(Allegedly. Never convicted. But we know the truth, don’t we?)
Anyway, while I was laughing at him being bonked and bounced
around like one of the Three Stooges, I
never thought about Nicole and Ron. A
savage double slaying that became part of the late night comedy
monologues. A murder trial that was
must-see TV. And a verdict that helped
drive a wedge through race relations in this country.
But I thought about all of that after the movie.
I thought about how sad it all was. I thought about the two people who died, and
all the other people who are still suffering.
Including OJ.
Even if you think he got away with murder, think about him
today. Sitting in a Nevada prison cell.
Talk about a fall from grace. It doesn’t get much more extreme than him.
Hall of Fame football player. Acting career. Commercials.
Rich, famous, and really really popular.
People all over America loved and idolized him. Here in Buffalo, we loved and idolized him
even more.
He was ours. He was
the greatest Buffalo Bill of all time. (Sorry
Jim, Thurman, and Bruce….if you only look at skill on the football field, it’s no
contest)
Then he became a villain.
And a punch line. And a convict.
When I worked at Skunkpost, I wrote stories about OJ all the
time. Most were snarky, but some were
serious. Some were even picked up by
national publications. Because all you
have to do is put OJ in a headline, and people will read the story.
Skunkpost was 15 years after the murders, and OJ was still
making news.
Hell, he’s still making news now.
Just today I saw a story about potential casting for a mini-series
about his trial.
The other day I read that ESPN’s “30 for 30” series is going
to do a long-form documentary about OJ.
It will never stop.
And we’ll never stop being interested.
Even if for a couple hours in a movie theatre, we forget how
much we hate him now, and remember how much we liked him then.
And we laugh.
