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Kim Kardashian hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time in her career on Saturday, October 9th – and everyone thought that she, for the most part, did an amazing job. However, there was one joke in her opening monologue that didn’t go down too well. No, we aren’t talking about her “divorcing Kanye West for his personality” joke – we still think that was hilarious! – but we are talking about what she said about O.J. Simpson. What was she thinking?!
The 40-year-old Keeping Up with the Kardashians star made the “insensitive” reference to Simpson in her opening monologue, saying her late father, Robert Kardashian Snr – who served as one of the defense attorneys in the footballer’s infamous trial for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman – was the reason that she met her “first Black person.”
Kim said: “It’s because of my father that I met my first Black person. Want to take a stab in the dark at 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.” (Omg! We can’t believe she was allowed to say that!) A quick recap – Simpson’s ex-wife (who was also one of Kris Jenner’s closest friends at the time) and her friend were fatally stabbed on June 12th in 1994. Simpson was charged with both of their murders, but after an 11-month-long criminal trial that gripped the whole world, was acquitted on October 3rd, 1995.
As you can imagine, Kim's joke didn’t land with everyone – least of all Nicole's sister, Tanya, who branded it "beyond inappropriate and insensitive." Brown also said that Kim's joke made her question whether the Kardashians ever truly cared for her sister, and thought Kim should have refused to tell the joke if she had any respect for the family. "If she and her family loved Nicole so much as they claimed, this was done in very poor taste," Brown said in a statement to People. "I think the taste of writers at SNL was beyond inappropriate and insensitive as was the reaction in the audience."
"Regarding Kim, I believe everyone has a choice to control what they speak on," she continued. "She easily could have said, 'This is inappropriate and disrespectful to everyone!' Not only for Nicole and Ron, but for all victims of domestic violence who were murdered by their significant others." Brown concluded: "Our loss, Browns and Goldmans, should not be portrayed as a comedy — family or non-family. Loss, tragedy, murder, crime should not be portrayed as comedy. Everyone has a choice!"
Brown wasn’t the only one who had that opinion, as author Don Winslow also had the same view, tweeting, "Can the press who praised Kim Kardashian’s SNL monologue which made multiple jokes about Nicole Brown’s repeated beatings by OJ Simpson and her horrific and violent death (she joked about both) take a minute and post photos of Nicole’s repeated injuries? It’s not *expletive* funny."
Do you think Kim should have refused to tell the controversial joke out of respect to the Brown family?
