Keep in mind, Bill Cosby’s accusation woes and his inevitable conviction was before the Me Too Movement scandal that swept the nation.
Cosby, or America’s Dad before Tom Hanks officially donned the title, has been accused of drugging dozens of women over decades at the height of his career.
And now imprisoned Bill Cosby still believes this outrageous thing about his conviction.
Along with George Carlin and Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby is considered to be one of the greatest standup comedians of all time. That’s why he got his own show coincidentally entitled “The Bill Cosby Show” in the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s.
It’s a weird thing. Some of the greatest supposed “artists” in the history of Hollywood have some controversy surrounding them. Roman Polanski was at one point considered to be the greatest film director in the world when he was convicted of raping an underage minor.
Michael Jackson escaped conviction of child pedophilia on two different criminal investigations but after the documentary “Leaving Neverland” came out on HBO earlier this year, it paused the entire legacy of his artistry.
Bill Cosby is another one. His standup comedy entitled “Himself” is widely considered one of the greatest standup routines of all time. But when he was exposed of drugging and raping women – upwards of 30 different women – in his decades in Hollywood, that’s when people were guarded with him.
Cosby was convicted approximately a year ago and sentenced to 3-10 years in prison.
But Cosby surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) still maintains his innocence.
Cosby was interviewed with BlackPressUSA.com and he said to the interviewer, “I have eight years and nine months left. When I come up for parole, they’re not going to hear me say that I have remorse. I was there. I don’t care what group of people come along and talk about this when they weren’t there. They don’t know.”
Clearly he still feels he’s innocent of these charges even though the crime that convicted him is one of dozens of others that accused him over decades.
He added, “It’s all a setup. That whole jury thing. They were imposters.”
This kind of sounds like the O.J. Simpson defense, doesn’t it?
He still maintains his innocence but the public thinks otherwise? Yes, it sounds exactly like that.
Cosby’s sentence came after a lengthy trial that resulted in one mistrial and an eventual guilty verdict, over accusations from former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand. He was found to have drugged and sexually assaulted Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Multiple women have come forward against the famed comedian with similar allegations of assault.
Keep in mind that in most states there are statute of limitations that actually save him from criminal prosecution even if civil lawsuits are timeless.
Cosby’s trial was heralded as the first major celebrity trial of the #MeToo movement and the first to result in a conviction. Cosby’s reputation sank after comedian Hannibal Buress brought up the numerous sexual assault allegations against the comic in 2014. A fellow African American and comic was genuinely the one who brought attention to his alleged sexual abuse.
Seth Rogen recently told a story on late night television that when he expressed to Buress how much of a fan he was of Cosby’s, Buress said “F-ck that guy,” and went on to explain how many women had accused him.
This is important. There were a lot of Caucasian comics who had no idea about Cosby’s allegations but black comics like Buress and Dave Chappelle had known these accusations for years. That speaks volumes about some of the circles comics run in to and how some of it is known or unknown within those circles.