Lawyers, Los Angeles, and <i>Le Show</i>

In 1994 and 1995, the O. J. Simpson double-murder trial was ubiquitous in American culture. Over the span of approximately 15 months, it became the focus of American news reporting, comedy shows, and radio and television talk programs. This article examines the remembered experience of one broadcast journalist, a CNN assignment editor in the Los Angeles bureau covering the Simpson case, and his listenership to one specific program, Harry Shearer’s Le Show, during this period. The piece explores the nexus of radio listening, humor, and newswork and selectively examines and critiques some of the comedy that arose from the “Cirque du O. J.”