Bill Cosby accused of Rape - say it ain't so

You know something Hawk?

If the thumbs-up and thumbs-down system worked in this board, I'd never get to see any of your posts.

The system is for putzes, and you qualify.

Push the link next to my avatar, then on my home page push "ignore this user".

Did you notice the Ebony controversy?

Greg Fitzsimmons used to be a fan of Bill Cosby — but after hearing dozens of sexual assault allegations against his comedy idol, the admiration ran cold.

Fitzsimmons, a successful comic in his own right, joins guest host Rachel Giese to explain why he broke a cardinal rule of comedy — "don't steal other people's jokes" — in an attempt to hurt Cosby.

He describes his feelings as crowds enjoyed the material, the problematic aspects of his gambit, and what he thinks of the experiment now that it's over.

And why (others might ask) would you want to? Other comedians – such as Eddie Murphy at last month’s Mark Twain award ceremony – content themselves with mocking Cosby. Other artists explore what his story says about race, power and sex. Fitzsimmons’s project seems to be motivated by outrage at Cosby’s alleged acts. I sympathise with his desire for justice by other means (“I want to hurt him”), but it’s not clear that this is an effective way of executing it. Yes, joke theft is “verboten” in comedy, but only when you’re passing off another act’s jokes as your own. As soon as you credit the creator of the gag, it stops being an affront and starts being a tribute, no?

Fitzsimmons partly acknowledges this, telling Esquire, first, that he loves Cosby’s comedy and regrets it’s been tainted by the performer’s personal life; and second that, performing the material, “the tricky part I’m finding is I don’t want to glorify [Cosby] by doing it”. He senses his project needs more work, and wonders about whether to amend Cosby’s material to refer directly to his crimes, or to perform only those routines (like the one about Spanish fly) that seem retrospectively sinister in light of the rape allegations. A bit of thrashing out to do, then – but the plan is that other comics should join Fitzsimmons in plundering Cosby’s back catalogue, so this becomes not one man’s crusade against Cosby, but a whole industry’s.

I can see that would be a powerful gesture, both as an expression of solidarity with Cosby’s apparent victims and a zero-tolerance approach to those who’ve tried to excuse his activities. But I do find curious the Esquire article’s implication that comedy needs to defend itself from, or absolve itself of, Cosby’s behaviour. As if comedy were implicated in what Cosby has done; as if his alleged activities have made the artform itself suspect. You could make that argument, and it would focus on the faux intimacy of comedy, the power it grants the sole performer on stage, the implication that everything can be laughed off. But I wouldn’t buy it – any more than I’d accept the argument that Ian Watkins of the Lostprophets should make us wary of Welsh bands, or Rolf Harris of paintbrush-toting players of the wobble-board. I think that’s a claim too much for what is otherwise an intriguing, underdeveloped project – one that hasn’t decided whether it’s about punishing Cosby or about reclaiming the material from the man and celebrating it. Fitzsimmons may think it can do both, but I doubt it.

None of these people should be assuming that he is guilty at this point.

You are in the habit of changing them to suit your current discourse, dropping yesterday's opinion that you so strongly held, if only for enough time to make whatever point you were convinced of, at that time.

Interesting case study, if nothing else.

hawkeye10 wrote:

None of these people should be assuming that he is guilty at this point.

you obviously didn't listen to the interview

One man admits he’s a filthy pedophile who plied a minor with champagne and part of a Quaalude, then had sex with her inside Jack Nicholson’s house.

Another man has consistently claimed that he only had sex with females who wanted it.

Guess which one is entitled to the best tables in swanky Paris bistros? If you guessed the child molester, you win a gold star.

Filmmaker Roman Polanski, 82, a French-born Pole, has been a fugitive from the American justice system ever since he pleaded guilty in a Los Angeles court to unlawful sexual intercourse with a child in 1977 — a 13-year-old girl. For nearly four decades, he’s cooled his dirty heels mainly in France, winning Oscars and badass-ery points from his amoral moviemaking brethren in Hollywood and around the world.

Meanwhile, philandering comic genius Bill Cosby, 78, has never been charged with, much less convicted of, a sex crime, or any crime. Yet an avalanche of women have come forward to accuse him of drugging them and committing acts of completed or attempted sexual assault — the accuser count passed 50 this past summer, and includes a woman who claims Cosby took sexual liberties with her when she was 15 years old.

Some of the alleged attacks date back as far as the 1960s.

Some women admitted that they approached Cosby hoping to further their careers.

Polanski, the director and a producer of the 2002 movie “The Pianist,’’ is celebrated as a cinematic superstud by his toxic admirers.

Cosby has been stripped of product endorsements, standup comedy gigs, TV shows, and virtually his every friend and fan, not including his loyal wife/doormat of 51 years, Camille, 71.

The reason for this double standard seems plain to me. Cosby was thrown into the social and professional wilderness after he violated a commandment rigidly enforced by numbskull leftists in the entertainment industrial complex: Thou shalt not be conservative.

Cosby, a Democrat, has expressed views considered heretical by famous folks, particularly those of color. He’s preached that African-American males need to man up and stop blaming others for their failures, care for their children and clean up gibberish-laden speech.

“Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals,’’ Cosby said in the so-called “Pound Cake’’ speech he delivered at a 2004 NAACP awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

“These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola,’’ he said. “People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! And then we all run out and are outraged: ‘The cops shouldn’t have shot him.’ What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?’’

Rather than receiving applause for his moral values, Cosby was roundly condemned by liberals as an elitist hypocrite who blamed victims of perceived racism for their diminished stations in life.

Months after the speech, Cosby’s first accuser pointed her finger at him.

Polanski pleaded guilty to a relatively minor sex crime and served 42 days in jail, but fled America before he was formally sentenced. Then, in 2009, he was locked up in Switzerland — mainly under house arrest in his ritzy Gstaad chalet — as Swiss authorities decided whether to extradite him to the United States. This led to one of the darkest hours in the realm of make-believe.

Filmmakers from Martin Scorsese to Pedro Almodovar and Woody Allen — himself accused by his adult adopted daughter of molesting her as a child — 138 in all, signed a petition demanding Polanski’s immediate release on human-rights grounds. In the end, Polanski was not shipped back to America.

Is Bill Cosby a rapist? Or is he guilty of being politically incorrect?

As I’ve suggested, he’s certainly run afoul of the new feminist-written definition of what constitutes sexual assault.

Today, a person may self-identify as a victim if he or she willingly takes drugs or drinks alcohol to get in the mood for sex.

By keeping his mouth shut on matters of morality and politics, convicted pervert Roman Polanski has won the adulation of fans and peers.

Being conservative has cost Cosby dearly.

I rarely watch or listen to news, it takes too long,

Cosby faces multiple lawsuits as the result of the allegations. His former attorney, Martin Singer — with whom Cosby has parted ways — has denied the allegations in the past.

Bill Cosby was charged Wednesday with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman at his home 12 years ago — the first criminal charges brought against the comedian out of the torrent of allegations that destroyed his good-guy image as America's Dad.

The case sets the stage for perhaps the biggest Hollywood celebrity trial of the mobile-all-the-time era and could send the 78-year-old Cosby to prison in the twilight of his life and barrier-breaking career.

Cosby was to be arraigned in the afternoon on a charge of aggravated indecent assault, punishable by five to 10 years behind bars and a $25,000 US fine.

The charges came down just days before the 12-year statute of limitations for bringing charges was set to run out.

Case reopened in summer

The case represents an about-face by the district attorney's office, which declined to charge Cosby in 2005 when Constand first told police that the comic violated her by putting his hands down her pants at his mansion in suburban Philadelphia.

Prosecutors reopened the case over the summer as damaging testimony was unsealed in Constand's related civil lawsuit against Cosby and as dozens of other women came forward with similar accusations that made a mockery of his image as the wise and understanding Dr. Cliff Huxtable from TV's The Cosby Show.

At that point, "reopening this case was not a question. Rather, reopening this case was our duty as law enforcement officers," Steele said. He urged any other alleged victims to come forward as well.