Uneasy Laughs in Simpson Humor

It’s still with us. Having outlasted a couple of football seasons, the Jackson-Presley marriage and its own “Trial of the Century,” the saga of O.J. Simpson continues to twist its way through daily conversations and nightly news.

The court cameras were turned off months ago, but Simpson’s profile in the public consciousness has been as high as ever since his interview on BET, the making of his self-vindicating videotape, his curious spate of phone calls to TV and radio programs and the beginning of depositions in the civil trial against him.

And, perhaps in the story’s truest test of staying power, Simpson humor continues to score with a national audience. It’s regular fodder on Jay Leno’s and David Letterman’s nightly network shows, on Bill Maher’s nightly Comedy Central program, “Politically Incorrect,” and on Dennis Miller’s weekly HBO series. Howard Stern weighs in on his daily radio show and the nightly TV version that airs on E! And along with Stern on the radio side is satirist Harry Shearer, whose weekly “Le Show” is syndicated nationally.

“The story’s got a long way to go,” Leno says. “The trick for me doing material every night is that I’ve got to hit on what people are talking about, and they’re still talking about O.J.”

As many of the nation’s most popular comics and satirists have seized upon the issues raised by Simpson’s criminal trial, acquittal and ongoing attempt to regain the public’s good graces, the resultant material has often been based upon a blunt assessment of Simpson’s guilt. For example, during Comedy Central’s coverage of President Clinton’s State of the Union address, Simpson’s name came up, prompting host Dennis Miller to look directly into the camera and say: “Juice . . . you are a bad guy. Do not murder again.”

The comedic challenge has been to express personal opinions through material that can appeal to a public whose views have often been powerfully divided by race.

“I’ve tried to keep a sense of balance,” Leno explains. “My jokes always imply O.J.’s guilty, but we also did a lot of jokes about Mark Fuhrman and the planting of evidence. I did a lot of Johnnie Cochran jokes, but I also spent a lot of time defending him . . . That gave both sides a chance to laugh, and when I look out and see a racially mixed crowd laughing at the same joke, I think I’ve done my job.”

That job, in Leno’s view does not include changing anyone’s belief in Simpson’s guilt or innocence. “You don’t really change anybody’s mind with comedy,” he says. “You just reinforce what they already believe.”

Celebrity, wealth and sex all play a part in the lure of the Simpson story, but the verdict uncovered racial divisions in the public and, attempts at balance notwithstanding, the voices dominating Simpson humor on television are overwhelmingly white.

BET’s nightly “Comicview” and Russell Simmons’ weekly “Def Jam” series on HBO are the sole vehicles where black comics regularly hold forth on the matter. The HBO series has the higher profile, but because of its frequently bawdy language and raunchy material, its programs almost always air after midnight. Comedy Central has a sanitized version of “Def Jam” called “Comic Justice,” but the show has been in reruns for some time.

The comedy featured on the more widely seen white-hosted shows may occasionally pull diverse crowds together, but veteran comic Paul Mooney believes some of the Simpson comedy on TV has reinforced those racial divisions.

“I think a lot of comedians were telling a white audience what they wanted to hear, speaking as if they had inside information,” says Mooney, who has built a career confronting issues of race. He says that courtroom evidence did not sway him from speaking up on Simpson’s behalf from the beginning of the trial. “It bothered me to hear an instant judgment,” he says. “Black people didn’t actually give a damn about O.J., because he hadn’t been black since he was 17, but there’s two sides to everything.”

The central issues and peripheral absurdities of the Simpson story have been very effectively skewered on Harry Shearer’s “Le Show” radio program. Shearer has employed his own 800 number to sell CDs of his favorite sketches, which include a Lance Ito Christmas special and a wacky “Crime Lab Crew” sitcom.

“I didn’t believe O.J. when he worked for Hertz,” Shearer says. “But, while having my own strong opinions about the whole thing, I tried to make fun of the excesses of both sides. This particular circus had plenty of clowns for everyone.”

On “Politically Incorrect,” Bill Maher took an early, unflinching stand pronouncing Simpson guilty, but also felt compelled to poke fun at a variety of targets. “There are definitely two different sensibilities still out there,” Maher says, “but I don’t have two different sensibilities and I wouldn’t change for an audience, although I would expect different reactions to material. Then again, one of my best lines did play to both sides--I said, ‘The LAPD is the only police department so incompetent that they couldn’t frame a guilty man.’ That’s the one that everyone can get behind.”

On his late-night HBO talk show Dennis Miller has taken an equally hard line, but he does not assume that his audiences are laughing in unison.

“I don’t think blacks and whites are laughing at the same things now. The case is still ground zero as a clear demarcation of the rift we have between the races in this country, and probably always will be.”

For his own purposes, Miller says he’s tended to view the case in simple terms rather than through larger issues.

“I don’t have any political stance on it as far as race. I just think O.J. Simpson’s a bad man. Some people don’t see it, but some people like anchovies and I find that unbelievable too. I don’t have an agenda when I look at O.J. I’m a pragmatist--when evidence gets up in the billions-to-one range, I believe it.”

Comic Chris Rock was not a Simpson defender, but was somewhat taken aback by the speed of conviction in the majority of white minds. “Some of us black comics gave him the benefit of the doubt. It wasn’t that we felt he was innocent just because he was black, but we were saying: ‘Hold up now. Let’s see what happened.’ That came from a much stronger suspicion of the police among us.”

But Rock, who hosted a recent episode of “Def Jam,” says it is a mistake to view the Simpson trial, and the varied comic takes on the continuing story, as a study in the divisions of race. “There’s a myth that this whole thing was racial. Look, black people throw black people in jail every day. This had everything to do with fame. When you’re famous, you’re like an honorary uncle, and no one wants to send their uncle to jail because of DNA tests. If Jerry Seinfeld was charged with double murder and the guy that found the glove happened to be in the Nation of Islam, Seinfeld would walk. It’s all about celebrity.”

Comics may have extracted some rich material from all sides of the Simpson story, but Miller is quick to point out that such material can’t be viewed as a gift. “I can’t be too happy about the [slayings] of two people. Truth be told, I wish I’d never had a reason to tell an O.J. joke. I wish I’d never heard of the victims. This wasn’t a gift--it was a train wreck you come upon.”

Still, it’s clear that as long as Simpson remains in the news, he will be a comic target.

“I think he should just shut up at this point,” Mooney says. “People in America might get past your involvement in a murder, but they really hate telemarketers. They’ll get you if you call too much.”

“His behavior is what’s keeping this interesting,” Maher says. “Originally we had ‘Othello,’ then it became ‘Crime and Punishment,’ and now it’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ He’s compulsively trying to clear himself in the media, and he can’t be quiet. If he’s going to keep setting himself up, how can you resist?”

Shearer says he can’t. “I haven’t seen this story get boring yet . . . as a kind of late 20th century drama being played out, you can’t beat this. They say L.A. has no theater, but this is the best show in town.”