The Naked Gun’s OJ Simpson joke…..

Enthusiasts of the late, humorously iconic Norm MacDonald didn’t hold back on joking about OJ Simpson during SNL’s Weekend Update segment. However, in the upcoming reboot of The Naked Gun, just a single joke involving OJ Simpson seems to be featured prominently in the trailer. Thus, when asked about this one joke and why it’s the only one, director Akiva Schaffer explained…

In our case, we didn’t encounter any resistance or issues. Regarding the borderline humor, people would respond with, “Oh, I’m not sure.” To which I would reassure them, “Don’t worry. The film will only be 85 minutes long. A quarter of the script is being removed. Anything that doesn’t fit will also be removed.” This was my way of keeping everyone calm throughout the process.

As a cinema enthusiast, when I shared with my buddies that I was penning a new Naked Gun installment, they’d inevitably ask, “What about O.J. Simpson?” Right off the bat, I realized, “Ah, that’s the elephant in the room that needs addressing.” The iconic Hall of Legends scene in the teaser trailer provides all the answers. Will Frank be Frank Sr., or will he be stepping into Leslie Nielsen’s shoes and trying to mimic his style? No, he’ll be Frank Jr., played by Liam, and he’ll embrace his own unique talents. The visual aesthetic and musical direction for this project are already clear in our minds, as we wrote them during the first week, while pondering these very questions.

As a movie enthusiast, let me clarify that we didn’t pen any more O.J. jokes after the first one. It was more like, “Yep, that solves it.” That was all it ever was. Honestly, I didn’t anticipate how well that joke would resonate at our initial test screening, and I remember thinking, “Wow, this audience is really into it.” If I had known the impact, maybe I would have crafted more jokes. I guess I don’t know for sure. But given its sensitive nature surrounding him, it didn’t feel right to exploit it further. We simply aimed to address it in a way that didn’t seem like we were capitalizing on anyone’s misfortune.

…….and that why there’s only one OJ Simpson joke in The Naked Gun reboot!

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2025-08-02 14:23