When someone at the open house breaks a vase, Leon asks Simpson if it was him. Simpson, perhaps forgetting it’s all staged, gets visibly angry. Leon, playing the homeowner, keeps calling Simpson Danny Glover. The one truly funny bit, in that it is seriously uncomfortable, involves Simpson pretending to attend an open house. Through it all, he tells people who have been Juiced that he’s the guy from movies like Naked Gun or from the football field. He puts on prosthetics to transform into an old white man who wanted to call a Bingo game before he died. In another sketch he dresses as a homeless man and sells oranges on the side of the highway-oranges from O.J.-as…a meta-commentary on his fallen celebrity? (Just kidding! There’s no deep meaning here.) He pretends to be having an affair with a guy’s girlfriend.
Oj simpson the lost tapes code#
Health code violations! You’ve been Juiced! (Get it? Because she’s fat.) In one bit where he bullies an employee he says, oh-so charmingly, “I think he’s a retard.” He rubs cheese on his apron before serving the burger to a customer. He asks an overweight woman if she’s sure she wants fries. He takes a sip from a drink before giving it to a customer to make sure there’s enough ice in it. Another: “I would go to another restaurant.” That Simpson is a scary person is very much the joke. Simpson was at, I would not eat that food,” says one of his accomplices to the camera. In the first sketch, Simpson pretends to work at the drive-thru window of a fast-food joint. The video then shows Simpson in a recording booth, for some reason wearing a curly wig and-yes, for the love of god-a wife beater. He spits lyrics: “Don’t you know there’s no stopping the Juice / When I’m on the floor I’m like a lion on the loose / Better shoot me with a tranquilizer dart / Don’t be stupid, I’m not a Simpson named Bart.” Simpson is dressed like a pimp, surrounded by topless dancers who gyrate all over him.
Oj simpson the lost tapes tv#
This pinnacle of trash TV that simply does not have its due.
was completely shitfaced.”īut, really, the glory is in watching this beautiful, shameful disaster. “And that was actually the most mind-numbing part about the two-week production, was that people just were actually thrilled when they find out they’d been juiced by O.J.”įor gossip hounds, too, it’s more than worth reading Leon’s account for his regaling of Simpson’s behavior on set. “I thought, oh, man, there’s going to be like just outraged people, or people freaking out,” Leon told This American Life reporter Nancy Updike. His recounting of how abysmal Simpson was at improv-a key talent for the star of a hidden-camera show-is hysterical, about as hysterical as his recollection of how most of the innocent victims reacted to Simpson is horrifying.
On his first day of production, for example, Leon was sternly warned by his producer, “You know, Harmon, we really can’t mention… the murders.” There are multitudes of can’t-make-this-shit-up gems in Leon’s testimonial, which reads almost as a survivor’s memoir of sorts. Leon and Juiced gained some cult notoriety last year when Leon wrote a column for Vice about the experience, and then was interviewed by This American Life about it.
You’ve been Punk’d! By that guy we still think is probably a killer. The punchline is as obvious as you suspect, and that’s what makes this whole thing so dumbfounding.Īs Harmon Leon, who played Simpson’s sidekick on the show, relates the typical chronology: “A prank is pulled, OJ Simpson pops out, and goes, ‘You've been Juiced,’ at which point the person pranked goes, ‘HEY, AREN‘T YOU THAT GUY WHO MURDERED THOSE PEOPLE?! YOUR WIFE AND THAT OTHER GUY?!’” Simpson would infiltrate some establishment, sometimes in disguise and sometimes not, needling customers to their breaking point before shouting, “You’ve been Juiced.” This isn’t an image-rehabbing celebrity comeback, a charming comedy bit meant to erase negative feelings the public may have about its star. The idea is straightforward-almost chillingly so.
Juiced was produced by the same patron of the arts who shepherded Bum Fights and Backyard Wrestling to the Earth. “No one is safe because ‘THE JUICE’ is loose,” the site promises, ominously. Should you think that this peak moment in culture was above capitalizing on Simpson’s reputation as a, um, murderer, you needn’t fear. “You be the judge.” It teases the special as starring “The Most Notorious Celebrity on the Planet.” Are you confused? “Yes, that O.J. “Has reality TV gone too far?” the site teases, unaware it is asking a rhetorical question. Juiced was a one-time special airing on Pay Per View, that was then repurposed for a special-edition DVD.