The often imitated, never duplicated Stephen A. Smith made his return to First Take on Monday and we didn’t even get an hour into his return from vacation before the show delved into doing some impressions. You rarely know what you’re gonna get during those two hours of First Take, and most viewers were probably not expecting Kimberley A. Martin to take a crack at impersonating Smith.
The 55-year-old Smith went on a long-winded rant about how the Philadelphia Eagles are the team to beat in the NFC. For emphasis, Smith put some stress on a few words towards the end of his monologue, which led to Ryan Clark mocking him. It also led to Martin jokingly airing some grievances with Smith’s whole “act.”
“I’m just exhausted. It’s Monday and I’m tired of this whole act,” Martin said.
Martin then made a case for the 49ers to win the NFC, making the point that we don’t know how the NFC Championship Game would’ve gone if San Francisco didn’t lose its only two healthy quarterbacks—Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson—in the 31-7 loss.
“You would still fix your face to sit up and say, ‘Oh, the Eagles are far and anyway, head and shoulders above everyone else,’” Martin said, giving her best Stephen A. Smith impression.
Smith, unfazed, sat with his fist under his chin before Martin did the same. In the meantime, Clark was dying laughing
“She sounded just like him,” Clark mustered to say in between laughs.
Yes, she did.
First Take should lean into this and have Martin impersonate Smith more often. She may be one of the few who can do it and do it well. Take some notes, Saturday Night Live.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter, The Big Lead]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.