The sister of the late Nicole Brown Simpson, who was murdered in the '90s, has condemned Kim Kardashian for joking about the fatal stabbing that ended her sister's life.
According to TMZ, Tanya Brown called Kardashian's gags at Nicole's expense "beyond inappropriate and insensitive" saying it was in "poor taste" to use the then-35-year-old's murder for comedy fodder.
During her opening monologue, Kim remembered her father, the late Robert Kardashian, who represented Nicole's ex-husband OJ Simpson in court when he was charged in connection to her murder, and later acquitted.
"Now, you know, my father was and still is such an influence and inspiration to me, and I credit him with really opening up my eyes to racial injustice," she said on Saturday Night Live.
"It's because of him that I met my first Black person. Want to take a stab in the dark at who it was?" she asked as the crowd roared with laughter.
"I know it's sort of weird to remember the first Black person you met but OJ does leave a mark - or several. Or none at all. I still don't know."
Kim's mother Kris Jenner, who also featured on the SNL episode, was one of Nicole's closest friends, and TMZ reports Tanya is now questioning how much the Kardashian family cared about her sister.
The celebrity gossip website reports that Tanya feels Kim should have pushed back on jokes suggested by SNL's writers, or refused to do them at all. She also reportedly said she was shocked to hear the audience's laughter at the references to Nicole and OJ.
Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were found brutally murdered outside her home in 1994, around two years after her divorce from the former NFL star. Despite substantial physical and circumstantial evidence linking OJ to the killings, he was let off all charges in a highly-publicised trial.
OJ was later found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil lawsuit, and ordered to pay the victim's families US$33 million, which has now nearly doubled, and remains contested and unpaid by the former sporting star.
