David Letterman was ignoring O.J. For the entire week following O.J. Simpson's June 17 arrest and the bizarre police chase watched live by 90 million TV viewers: The nation's top talk-show host wouldn't touch the subject.
CBS News anchor Dan Rather appeared on Letterman's "Late Show" a few days after the arrest, but instead of asking him about one of the weirdest stories in TV news history, the normally topical Letterman had the veteran journalist warbling train songs.Leave it to Howard Stern to get Simpson on the program. Stern, a guest at the end of the week, walked onto the set and unbuttoned his heavy plaid shirt to reveal a T-shirt with Simpson's black-and-white police mug shot. As he criticized "Time" magazine for having darkened its cover photo of the former football star, Stern started coloring in Simpson's face with a black marker.
"Boy," said Stern as he stopped and looked over at a chagrined Letterman, "you're really not doing any jokes about O.J., are you?"
Letterman looked down for a moment. "I'll tell you my problem with the situation," he said. "Double homicides just don't crack me up the way they used to."
Oh yeah? So why all the jokes about Lyle and Erik Menendez, Dave? Why is it OK to joke about two California brothers charged in the deaths of their parents but not OK to poke fun at Simpson?
The answer depends on the particular comedian's act and just how he or she defines what's taboo.
"It's like the Supreme Court on obscenity. You know it when you see it," says Al Franken, the veteran "Saturday Night Live" writer-player, who recently spoke at the White House correspondents' annual dinner. During his speech, he delivered one-liners about many Washington bigwigs, including a few zingers about President Clinton and his alleged extramarital affairs set up by state troopers.
Shortly before the dinner, however, he edited out one joke about Al Gore and the environment because he said he thought it was too disrespectful to the vice president, who would be sitting at the head table.
"There's a lot of stuff that offends me. The word `ass' appears on `SNL' too many times, just to get a cheap laugh," he said. "However, I like nothing better than a cheap joke that has a real point."
Another joke Franken omitted at the last minute was part of a "SNL" skit in which the focus, appropriately enough, was "comedy killers": topics that comics usually are afraid to touch.
Comedians say they rely on their instincts to help them determine what's appropriate for satire. Of course, every comedian's instincts are different.
The writers at Comedy Central, who handle the jokes between shows and send out material daily to radio stations across the country, didn't hesitate to use the Simpson arrest as fodder for their material.
Within a couple of days, the writers were releasing lists of "euphemisms for being killed by O.J." (pulped, spiked into that end zone in the sky, permanently juice-boxed) and "future employment opportunities for the jailed O.J. Simpson" (cameo role in "Speed," guest shot on "CHiPs" reunion show, spokesman for Hertz rental-car "fugitive miles" promotion).
"There wasn't that much debate about it," said Comedy Central writer Paul Corrigan. "We weren't making jokes about Nicole (Simpson). It was more about the chase. It's touching the subject without crossing the line. You've got to use good judgment and hope that you're right."
Corrigan said the staff rarely flinches away from news items, but there are exceptions, notably the recent suicide of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. "It wasn't really a funny situation, and that was obvious from the beginning," he said. "I'm not going to write anything where people just look at me and start hating me."
Comedian Jeff Cesario thinks it's essential that current-event-oriented comics at least address the Simpson case - and any other major news stories - in their acts.
"I'm fairly disappointed with (Jay) Leno and Letterman. You've got an obligation to make an attempt," he said. "Why wouldn't you? Because its touchy? Yes. Because it might be distasteful? Agreed. But that's all in your control."
Mike Dugan, who writes with Cesario for HBO's "Dennis Miller Live," disagrees. Dugan doesn't bring up the Simpson situation in his own act. "I think it's a horrible tragedy," he said. "There's a fork in the road when you approach the O.J. Simpson joke. You can feel the depth and pain, or you can take the other road - the safe way to go - and make light of it. I think this is one situation that deserves for us to look at it deeper and think about issues like domestic abuse."
On the other hand, Dugan said, the Menendez brothers are fair game not because of the murder of their parents, but because of how they handled themselves during the court proceedings.
"I think it's the fact that these guys are so hapless, the way they've split with reality and put spins on everything," he said. "It's the choices they made since they killed their parents."
Murder isn't the only subject that makes audiences uneasy.
TV's "Roseanne" often focuses on subjects some comedians rarely touch, including abortion, overweight people and homosexuality. But the hit show is not simply poking fun or going for cheap laughs, said staff writer Laura Kightlinger, who is also the new host of Comedy Central's "Stand-Up, Stand-Up." The comedy has a social message.
The "Roseanne' scene in which Roseanne Arnold was kissed by Mariel Hemingway in a gay bar didn't just go for yuks. Instead, writers explored how someone like Roseanne, who considers herself a liberal, open person, still struggles with being uncomfortable around homosexuals. The episode was almost pulled because some people thought such a scene shouldn't be included in a sitcom.
"The overall mood was that it was going to be risky and that we would have problems," said Kightlinger, who played the bartender in that scene. "But homosexuality is not a tragedy. It's a fact of life, whereas murder just isn't that funny."
Comedian Steve Cochran, a former radio talk-show host in Minneapolis who recently moved to a Chicago station, ticked off his no-no list: rape, Michael Jackson, Chelsea Clinton, the Challenger space-shuttle explosion.
"There are no hard-and-fast rules, and there's no way to make a good judgment without years of experience," he said. "It's a tough way to make a living."