‘SNL at Home’: Kenan Thompson Impersonates O.J. Simpson for Murder-Tinged Coronavirus Skit

Kenan Thompson has been viewed as one of the best performers on SNL since he first appeared in 2003. He has impersonated Steve Harvey, David Ortiz and several other prominent personalities. However, his O.J. Simpson impression is a favorite despite only appearing rarely, so fans were excited to see it return for SNL: At Home.

Saturday night, Thompson brought his Simpson impression back for the second “at-home” quarantine episode. He recorded a video, which was then posted on Simpson’s “official” Twitter account. To truly capture the former NFL running back’s character, Thompson held a golf club and identified himself before talking about other topics. Although he didn’t use the “hello, world” greeting that Simpson uses to start every Twitter video.

“I just want to send a big shout-out to my man, Lorne Michaels, and the whole gang over at SNL for doing another SNL: At Home,” Thompson said in the skit. “I know y’all thought y’all were only going to do the one and then you realized that you had to do another one. Trust me, I can relate.” This comment was only the first of many that referenced Simpson’s murder trial from 1994-95.

Thompson continued to discuss a recent trip to the grocery store and how he sparked some backlash from fellow shoppers. He said they were acting like he “had killed somebody” after he removed his mask. One person even reportedly threw her coffee in his face.

Throughout the entire skit, Thompson alternated between rage and the “happy-go-lucky” persona that Simpson has in all of his Twitter videos. There were also several references to avoiding something big and then later “getting taken out” by something else that was less important. He even threw down his golf club midway through one of the rants. If there were any doubts about the murder storyline, SNL erased them when an unseen passerby screamed at Simpson for being “a monster.”

“Best of show on @nbcsnl tonight goes to @kenanthompson for 3 good skits: game show with #CharlesBarkley; Big Papi cooking; and best of all, #OJSimpson dealing with gloves & masks & #COVID19. #SNL,” one person wrote on Twitter. There were some viewers that felt the Simpson skit was “insensitive,” but the majority proclaimed that it was one of the best of the episode. They had been waiting for SNL to acknowledge Simpson’s Twitter account for some time and were overjoyed to see it finally happen.