WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for The Naked Gun.The Naked Gun jokes about the franchise’s most infamous actor, O.J. Simpson, in the best way possible. Simpson starred in the first three Naked Gun movies before his arrest and trial for murder, which cast an indelible shadow over his role and the franchise as a whole. However, with 2025’s The Naked Gun rebooting the franchise, how it would address the former star was a high point of intrigue.
The latest Naked Gun movie revolves around Liam Neeson’s Frank Drebin Jr., who is canonically the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin. This allows for plenty of Naked Gun Easter Eggs and references to the original movies. This includes acknowledging the characters from Leslie Nielsen’s original Naked Gun movies, including the one played by Simpson, in a hilarious fashion.
The Naked Gun Has 1 Great O.J. Simpson Joke
The Naked Gun, somewhat surprisingly, only has a sole joke about Simpson that takes place early in the film. Specifically, it occurs in the scene where all the officers at Police Squad, including Frank and Ed, express how much they miss their parents, who have portraits of them hanging on a wall. These pictures include Simpson’s now-ᴅᴇᴀᴅ character, Officer Nordberg.
The film then cuts to a young officer played by Moses Jones, implied to be Nordberg’s son, standing in front of Simpson’s portrait. However, instead of saying anything nice about Nordberg, he just looks at the camera and shakes his head before leaving, not wanting to be ᴀssociated with Simpson’s character.
Without any words, The Naked Gun makes a hysterical meta joke about Simpson and the horrible legacy he has left behind since his last film in the franchise.
O.J. Simpson was arrested in 1994 for murder, but was acquitted in 1995 after the trial. In 2008, he was sentenced to 33 years in prison after being found guilty of armed robbery and kidnapping.
The Naked Gun could’ve made more jokes about Simpson, given how easy a target the disgraced actor and professional athlete is now. Instead, the film addresses the elephant in the room, pokes fun at it, and moves on. During a recent interview with Screen Rant, one of the film’s writers, Doug Mand, explained the limited O.J. Simpson references in The Naked Gun:
We knew that it was something we had to deal with. We quickly learned while we were writing it with Akiva that we didn’t want to live in it too long. Obviously, we’re laughing, [but] there’s a significant tragedy behind this man and his legacy, so you don’t want to live in it too long or feel like you’re poking fun at this horrible tragedy.
This acclaimed Naked Gun reboot worked best by forging its own idenтιтy within the franchise, making few explicit references to Nielsen’s films. Frank Jr. himself expressed this goal with his meta-desire to be similar but different from his father.
Making too many jokes about Simpson and Nordberg would’ve meant hinging too much on what came before in the previous films. Thus, The Naked Gun‘s brief roast of Simpson made for an especially funny moment in Neeson’s hit new comedy.
