Kim Kardashian on 'Saturday Night Live': 'I know, I'm surprised to see me here too'

Reality star impressed critics in a show peppered with a family roasting, John Cena and Chace Crawford cameos, and Skims for 'thick dogs' sketch

Kim Kardashian during her opening monologue on 'Saturday Night Live'. Photo: NBC / SNL

Kim Kardashian's stint hosting Saturday Night Live has wrapped up.

The reality TV star was at the helm of the second episode of the 47th season of the comedy sketch show; however, when she was announced for the gig last month, she was a divisive choice to say the least.

Opening monologue

The mother-of-four tackled the critics head-on, proving that she has a degree of self-awareness and can poke fun at herself.

"I know, I'm surprised to see me here too," she joked at the beginning of her opening monologue, adding: "I'm excited to be here tonight to show you guys I'm so much more than a pretty face." She then listed a series of all of her beautiful features, including "good hair and great make-up".

It then became a straight-up family roasting, describing herself as the "reference photo her sisters showed their plastic surgeons."

The Keeping Up with the Kardashians star launched into a joke about OJ Simpson, who her late father Robert Kardashian served as a defence lawyer for during his 1995 murder trial. Kim, 40, is currently studying for her law degree.

"I credit my father for really opening my eyes to racial injustice. 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 said. "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."

The rest of her family were also targets of jokes in her opening monologue. She pretended to use the opportunity to announce a political campaign but then backtracked, joking that there "can't be three failed candidates in the family", which references estranged husband Kanye West's attempted presidential campaign and stepfather, Caitlyn Jenner's run for Governor of California.

Kim Kardashian's 'SNL' sketches – 'Aladdin' and a John Cena cameo

Kim got involved with a number of comedy sketches, as comes with the SNL territory.

In the first one, she played Jasmine opposite Pete Davidson's Aladdin, with them holding hands on a magic carpet.

"What's the matter?" she asks "Do you feel self-conscious because I'm the daughter of a Sultan and you're just a lowly street rat ... are you intimidated that I'm friends with a tonne of wealthy celebrities and your only friend is a monkey?"

Then there was a girls' night out sketch with Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim, and Punkie Johnson, in which Kim tries to rap.

That was followed by a Bachelorette sketch with an A-list line-up that included Chace Crawford, Tyler Cameron, Blake Griffin, Chris Rock, Jesse Williams, John Cena and Amy Schumer.

She then played her sister Kourtney Kardashian, in The People's Kourt skit, where Mikey Day is Kourtney's boyfriend Travis Barker, and Kim's sister Khloe Kardashian made a quick appearance, as they try to solve family dramas.

Ever the entrepreneur, a fourth sketch sees Kim bring the focus to Skims, her shape-wear brand, except she's trying to sell it for "thick dogs".

Twitter response to Kim Kardashian on 'SNL'

The overwhelming response to Kim's SNL hosting gig has been positive.

After the show aired, SNL posted a Twitter poll, and "awesome" and "been better but GOOD" received 28 per cent and 34.2 per cent of the vote respectively, compared to the bad options that had 37.8 per cent, at the time of writing.

The fact that she "roasted" her famous family has been applauded by many on social media. One fan tweeted: "Kim Kardashian West understood the assignment and delivered."

Another wrote:" Kim Kardashian West’s SNL monologue being the funniest one of this century … her comedic timing outranks half of Hollywood’s best! Respect her for once in your lives!"

Of course, there were critics. One viewer said they "turned to HBO Max" after the opening monologue.

A second wrote on Twitter: "Wasn't particularly impressed with Kardashian, but they went all out this week, and I laughed at multiple sketches. A lot better than last week where I thought [Owen] Wilson did well but the writing just wasn't funny."