For those wondering why the late comedian Norm Macdonald was trending on social media on Thursday along with O.J. Simpson, fellow comedian Conan O'Brien shed some light on the proceedings.

O'Brien was asked about Simpson's death during an interview appearance with Jake Tapper on CNN Thursday, with Tapper pointing out how often Simpson was late-night fodder for O'Brien and other comedians during the era of the infamous O.J. trial, in which he stood trial for the 1995 double murder of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

O'Brien was quick to give props to Norm Macdonald in particular, who he described as doing “some of the most brilliant comedy of anybody during that whole period.”

Norm Macdonald hosted the fan-favorite Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live at the time and regularly skewered Simpson, whom he strongly believed to be guilty of the murders.

Tapper noted that Macdonald was even alleged to be fired for his skewering of Simpson on the air, with O'Brien elaborating that this was largely due to the fact that “the head of the network at the time was tight with O.J.”

The NBC head the two were referring to is Don Ohlmeyer, who fired Macdonald from Saturday Night Live in 1998, allegedly largely related to Madonald's barrage of Simpson jokes.

So what were the jokes that Norm Macdonald made about O.J. Simpson?

As many compilations circulating on X/Twitter and other social media platforms on Thursday made clear, Macdonald had a number of recurring bits he liked to do centered on Simpson's presumed guilt in the trial.

One of those was introducing a news story about a seemingly unrelated public figure with a new book coming out, which would always culminate with Macdonald revealing the title of book that would invariably be a referendum on how guilty the figure thought Simpson was.

Macdonald also infamously hosted the ESPYs in 1998 and drew a wide range of reactions to his O.J. Simpson Heisman joke to conclude his monologue. In the joke, Macdonald praised Charles Woodson for being the first defensive player to win the Heisman trophy that year, which Macdonald “called something that no one can ever take away from you… unless you kill your wife and a waiter, in which case, all bets are off.”

Probably Macdonald's most famous O.J. Simpson joke — and one of the most famous SNL Weekend Update jokes of all time — was the one he told the Saturday following the “not guilty” verdict being announced in Simpson's criminal trial.

With the picture of Simpson celebrating the verdict over his shoulder, Macdonald declared, “Well, it is finally official… Murder is legal in the state of California.”

Conan O'Brien was undoubtedly referring to examples like this when he singled out Macdonald as the definitive comedian of the O.J. Simpson trial era.

O'Brien's interview made clear the difficulty of how to talk about the death of O.J. Simpson, with so many believing him to be guilty of the double murder. Jake Tapper tried to coax O'Brien into making a joke himself, but O'Brien wouldn't take the bait, declaring “I never make a joke about someone the day they pass.”

Then, in typical Conan fashion, he added that Tapper can get in touch with him Friday for a good one.

It seems that Conan O'Brien and others are subscribing to the old childhood axiom when it comes to O.J. Simpson jokes following his death — if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything. Or pass along a compilation of Norm Macdonald jokes about the person.