Welcome to the Internet, Bill Cosby.
The Emmy-winning comedian and actor, 77, came under fire on Monday, Nov. 10, when he asked his Twitter followers to meme him. The request backfired excruciatingly as Cosby’s dark past was brought to the forefront.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, The Cosby Show star posted a throwback photo of himself grinning and reading “HAPPY MONDAY!” The message linked to a meme generator (which has also been pulled) and the star wrote, “Go ahead. Meme me! #CosbyMeme.”
Presumably expecting good-natured jokes referencing his family-friendly stand-up routines and eponymous sitcom, Cosby endured something entirely different. Rather than riffing on Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, Twitter users focused on Cosby’s history of sexual misconduct charges.
Using provided photos of the star, meme-makers wrote messages such as “I just googled ‘Bill Cosby’ and ‘rape,'” and “Define ‘drugged.'”
Cosby’s past allegations were recently brought back into light when writer Mark Whitaker released a biography about the actor, which blatantly excluded any mention of the years of legal troubles Cosby faced.
Just weeks after the book’s release, comedian Hannibal Buress took it upon himself to touch on the charges in a stand-up set in Philadelphia on Oct. 16. Calling Cosby a “rapist,” Buress brought up the numerous women who have alleged that the star drugged them and inappropriately touched them.
“Thirteen?” Buress, 31, said of the number of women who have made complaints against Cosby. “It’s even worse because Bill Cosby has the f—ing smuggest old black man public persona that I hate… Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby. So, brings you down a couple notches. I don’t curse on stage. Well, yeah, you’re a rapist, so, I’’ll take you saying’ lots of motherf—ers on Bill Cosby: Himself if you weren’t a rapist. …I want to just at least make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show reruns. …I’ve done this bit on stage, and people don’t believe. People think I’m making it up. …That s— is upsetting. If you didn’t know about it, trust me.”
While Cosby has made little comment on his history of sexual misconduct allegations, 13 unnamed women were included in a case brought against the funnyman in 2005. He later settled out of court in 2006, and women included in the original case have since come forward with their stories.
