Bill Cosby's rape charges are now gaining media attention after ten years that it have been previously reported. Thanks to comedian Hannibal Buress after he included them in his set, for giving Cosby's sexual misconduct a new light.
CBS reported Hannibal Buress brought up Bill Cosby's rape charges while performing at the Trocadero, a club in Cosby's hometown of Philadelphia on Thursday, Oct.16. Though the allegations seemed to have been a joke, he'd sometimes include in his routine previous to his controversial performance in Pennsylvania.
Hannibal Buress is a nationally known comedian who has appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" along with "30 Rock," "Louie" and "Broad City." Meanwhile, Bill Cosby has enjoyed a reputation as one of the most beloved comedians in the United States.
According to The Huffington Post, Buress caused a buzz this week when jokes he made about Bill Cosby's rape charges was recorded during a Philadelphia performance. He then went on "The Howard Stern Show" to talk about the repercussion.
"It was unexpected," Buress said of the attention that the set received. "It wasn't my intention to make it part of a big discussion. It was just something I was doing at that venue, right there."
Buress also noted that he had been performing the set about Cosby for six months before it went viral.
"It's just information that's out there," Buress said. "I said it and I gotta stand on it, but it is an interesting situation."
Meanwhile, in a video provided by Philadelphia Magazine, Buress questioned Bill Cosby's disapprovals of young black men, suggesting the veteran comedian as a hypocrite considering the multiple rape charges allegations that have come to light over the past decade.
"Thirteen? It's even worse because Bill Cosby has the f***ing smuggest old black man public persona that I hate. He gets on TV, 'Pull your pants up black people, I was on TV in the 80s," Buress said during on his set. "I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom.' Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches."
"'I don't curse onstage.' Well, yeah, you're rapist, so I'll take you saying lots of motherf***ers on Bill Cosby: Himself if you weren't a rapist," the stand-up comedian continued. "I don't know what I'm doing by telling you. I guess I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns."
As said by The Inquisitr, Buress is not the first person to highlight a strange lack of media coverage for the rape charges against Bill Cosby. Amanda Hess of Slate also underscored that the press has been quiet about Cosby's sexual misconduct. And some critics believed the accusations were swept under the carpet.
Several women have come out in recent years claiming that Cosby had affairs with them, including over a dozen who stepped forward to expose the alleged sexual assaults in 2004. A full chronicle of these events can be seen at Vulture.
In spite of the allegations regarding Bill Cosby's rape charges from at least 15 women, Mark Whitaker left out any comments of sexual assaults on his recent book about the veteran comedian. Whitaker is Cosby's biographer who authored "Cosby: His Life and Times."
"In these cases, there were no definitive court findings, there were no independent witnesses, and I just felt, at the end of the day, all I would be doing would be, you know, 'These people say this, Cosby denies it,'" Whitaker told HuffPost Live. "And as not only a reporter but his biographer, if people asked me, 'Well, what's the truth? What do you think?' I'd be in a position of saying 'I don't know.'"
Because of Buress' controversial joke about Bill Cosby's rape charges, the allegations have gained media's attention after a decade that has been previously reported.
