No Kardashian or Jenner was safe from the jokes when Kim Kardashian served as host of Saturday Night Live. The star poked fun at her sisters, estranged husband Kanye West and former stepdad Caitlyn Jenner, to name a few. But a few jokes in Kardashian’s monologue related to the famous family’s connection to O.J. Simpson and the late Nicole Brown, and they drew the ire of Brown’s family.
Kim Kardashian joked in the Saturday Night Live monologue that her father, Robert Kardashian — who served as one of O.J. Simpson’s defense attorneys in the murder trial following the killings of Nicole Brown and Rod Goldman — introduced her to her first Black person. Kim asked the audience, “Want to take a stab in the dark at who it was?” Kardashian continued, saying meeting Simpson left a mark, “or several. Or none at all. I still don’t know.” Tanya Brown, Nicole’s sister, called the jokes “distasteful,” according to TMZ, criticizing SNL for making Nicole’s brutal murder into a joke:
Tanya says the jokes were ‘beyond inappropriate and insensitive’ and she's questioning just how much the Kardashians actually cared about Nicole.
Kris Jenner, in particular, was close with Nicole Brown and, at this time, it's unclear as to how she felt about the jokes. TMZ reports that Tanya Brown wishes the star would have made the murder an off-limits topic:
Kim should have pushed back or refused to do the jokes, assuming SNL writers came up with the bit.
To be fair, we don’t know what conversations did happen between the writers and the media mogul, and whether or not she did push back against more or different material. But either way, it resulted in pain for the family of a woman who was brutally murdered in 1994.
Seemingly no subject was taboo for Kim Kardashian’s first SNL hosting appearance, as she joked about her impending divorce with Kanye West; called her mother’s boyfriend, Corey Gamble, a gold-digger; parodied sister Kourtney Kardashian’s passionate relationship with Travis Barker; and even joked that her mom Kris Jenner was involved in the release of her sex tape back in 2007.
O.J. Simpson has been connected to the Kardashians in the tabloids for years — not for his relationship with the late Robert Kardashian, but rather for the speculated relationship he had with Kris Jenner. The rumor that Simpson is the biological father of Khloe Kardashian was one that wouldn’t seem to go away. It was to the point that Simpson even commented on it ahead of Khloe giving birth to daughter, Tru Thompson, saying he was not Khloe's father:
I have nothing to do with it. I would be proud ... but trust me, I had nothing to do with it.
Up next for Saturday Night Live hosting duties is new James Bond villain Rami Malek with musical guest Young Thug. And stay tuned for news about Kim Kardashian’s upcoming Hulu reality series, which will, in part, feature Kim Kardashian’s quest to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. Be sure to check out our 2021 fall TV Schedule for all of the upcoming premiere dates.
