Nicole Brown family upset at Kim K ‘SNL’ OJ jokes
Brown's sister, Tanya Brown, told TMZ that the jokes surrounding OJ Simpson and Nicole were "distasteful"
Kim Kardashian’s stint on SNL over the weekend brought in a ratings increase, but Nicole Brown Simpson‘s sister didn’t appreciate it. The family is angry at the reality TV star over the O.J. Simpson jokes in her opening monologue.
Kardashian’s highly anticipated hosting gig proved to be a success for the series. Pulling in higher ratings than last week’s season premiere, the episode saw Kardashian joined by the SNL players in various sketches and shorts poking fun at the pop culture fixture.
It was her opening monologue, however, that proved to be the most-talked-about moment from the night. Kardashian poked fun at almost every angle of the Kardashian family phenomenon from them being “famous for nothing” to their connections to infamous pop culture figures, including Simpson.
Setting up the Simpson joke, Kardashian opened up in her monologue about her sentencing reform work, saying that she is following in her late father, Robert Kardashian‘s, footsteps, as theGrio previously reported.
Kardashian, of course, helped represent Simpson, who eventually was acquitted of two counts of murder in the fatal stabbings of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and Ronald Goldman in 1994. Still, Simpson was ordered to pay $33.5M after a civil court jury found him liable.
Referencing her father in the monologue, she joked to the millions of viewers, “It’s because of him I met my first Black person. Wanna take a stab in the dark on who it was?” She continued, “I know it’s sort of weird to remember the first Black person you met, but O.J. does leave a mark, or several, or none at all, I still don’t know.”
While the joke seemed to work for the studio audience, according to TMZ, Simpson’s sister Tanya Brown found the jokes surrounding her late sister and the manner in which she was murdered, “distasteful.”
Brown reportedly told TMZ that the jokes were “beyond inappropriate and insensitive.”
While, of course, Kardashian did not write those jokes herself, Tanya feels Kardashian could have vetoed them, especially considering Kris Jenner‘s close personal relationship with Nicole.
Despite the controversy, Kardashian’s hosting stint was a success for SNL. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Kardashian-hosted episode, “drew 5.27 million viewers and a 1.04 rating among adults 18-49.” This marked the first time in years that the second episode of the SNL season drew in higher ratings than the premiere.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
