The Juice Is Once More Loose
Never thought I’d be making a comic about OJ “The Juice” Simpson in 2017. Not even as a “strapped for material” type desperation comic. This was actual legit news. OJ Simpson got parole. He’ll be a free man as early as October. Wow.
I still remember the drama of the trial, even though I was 7 years old. I had to follow it via eavesdropping on my parents conversations. I didn’t really understand what was happening, but I have a very distinct memory of sitting at home watching TV with Mom after dinner, Dad comes in from the garage to a dark faintly lit kitchen, and says “Not Guilty, what a crock” and slaps a newspaper with the verdict on the table. I didn’t understand why he was innocent, my parents thought he was guilty, I was far too young to understand the complexities of what happened. Honestly, I don’t ever really think I truly “got” it until I watched the OJ “Made in America” Documentary on ESPN last year and I finally grasped the scope of it all, along with details I never bothered to learn. If you’ve never seen that documentary it’s worth every minute.
It still weirds me out to think that even though The Juice was ruled innocent, I don’t think a single person really thinks he actually was. I think everyone has run on the idea that he’s a cold blooded murderer pretty much since the trial. He may have been ruled innocent but he’s basically seen as guilty by the world at large. It’s a very unique case. I think him going to jail for the armed robbery felt like “putting Al Capone away for tax evasion” in some ways. He didn’t get the justice he probably deserved, but he got something that could put our minds at ease. But now he’s out! He’s 70 years old, but he’s still out. My thoughts go to anyone who knew the victims, this is probably opening some old wounds they hoped had healed by now.
In somewhat lighter and bizarrely coincidental news, Ford recently announced they are bringing back the Bronco. The car model that for about 20 years has basically been unable to outlive it’s most famous moment in history: being driven by OJ Simpson down a freeway. Can’t make this shit up.
Anyway, as an aside: OJ Simpson may be a vile human being, but “The Juice” is still an all time great nickname.
I still remember a friend of mine who’s a huge Bills fan went through all the effort of trying to figure out how to contact OJ from prison so he could get an OJ prison autograph. He thought it’d be the craziest niche collector’s item to have something OJ signed while he was in prison. I always told him it wasn’t worth it because “As soon as he gets out, he’ll come after you to get it back.”
Admittedly I don’t really know much about the circumstances behind the original murder trial because I, like Dave, was a kid at the time. I’ve been meaning to get around to watching Made in America, and I’ve heard really good things about “The People vs. OJ Simpson”, too. In the meantime, I do have a question for those more familiar with the details of it: Why was it such a big deal? Did OJ have this massive public persona that we don’t know about nowadays? Because I feel like if Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith were charged with double homicide, it’d be a big deal, but not the historic, earth-shaking thing with the kind of presence that the OJ trial still has all these years later.
He won a MNC and Heisman Trophy in college, was the first player to rush for 2000 yards in a season, was enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame, acted in films and TV series, was a sportscaster and had a killer Hertz commercial. The closest comparison would probably be if The Rock was accused of killing someone, and OJ may have been bigger.
He didn’t just get those deals, he was THE very first to athlete to land any sort of big time marketing deal. He never was as big as MJ, but he was the first to start approaching those higher levels of stardom
It was also the first major nationally covered high profile crime/court case ever televised. The media made a huge circus out of it. It basically had 24 hour news coverage for months.
It was the beginning of that era, and nowadays it’s hard to understand because terrible stuff happens every day as we all hear about all of it and then move on immediately.
Actually it had happened before, just that since the O.J. case it became sort of a regular thing. Just ask Roscoe Arbuckle.
Arena recap: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNKdTrq2e4
Fun arena fact: Jacoby Jones, who once burned Denver for the Rocky Mountain Rainbow and the 49ers in the superb owl to get Flacco elite monies, is now playing for the Monterey Steel of the National Arena League (where the J’ville Sharks went). So for all of you Broncos fans that wished Jacoby Jones would go to hell, just know that he is now getting paid less than $300 a game to play minor league arena football in Mexico. And he ended the season on Injured Reserve (J’ville won the title BTW with the former high school teacher and Storm qb Jason Boltus as their back-up; also the ‘Zona Rattlers won the IFL).
*Jason Boltus is currently a high school teacher/coach and formerly a Tampa Bay Storm qb.
Well OJ didn’t actually drive that Bronco on the interstate. He was in the back seat
You should have made the white bronco Jake Butt
I love the car dealer’s look in the 2nd to last frame!
D’oh!
Ford decided to faze out the Bronco thanks to OJ, so they debuted the Ford… Escape. Annyong
I think it’s funny they went from the bronco he was escaping in to just go ahead a call it the new version the “escape”. And nobody blinked an eye
Simpson’s line in Buffalo, “The Electric Company” (because they “turned on ‘the Juice'”, oy…), also has an all-time great nickname.
I recall a message board conversation several years ago where someone asked who Simpson voted for in the Heisman Trophy balloting. “Kellen Moore, the white (Boise State) Bronco” was the top response.
Good job that Jarvis Landry is any good, then.
For the record, it’s all the Bill’s fault.
http://i.imgur.com/ldXjMbc.jpg
Assuming OJ wouldn’t have just killed someone else, that is.
I was only 4 when the that trial was going on and I have no idea who told me this first but the first knock knock joke I ever learned was related to the OJ Simpson trial.
Knock knock
Who’s there?
OJ
OJ who?
Congratulations! You’re on the jury!
I think it was 10 more years before anybody explained that joke to me but I remember telling it to everyone. Even random parishioners in church. It was the beginning of a lifelong tradition of me saying terrible things without realizing it.
I don’t get it. What’s Siemian have to do with OJ?
He’s a white Bronco player and O.J was in a white Bronco during the thing.
OJ wouldn’t take Siemian in this situation, he’s wearing the Orange uniform not the White one