Comedian Hannibal Buress Called Out Bill Cosby's Rape History on Stage

Thanks to The Cosby Show, Fat Albert and standup, Bill Cosby has become one of today’s most beloved public figures. Of course, mixed up in his celebrated entertainment career are over a dozen instances where Cosby allegedly drugged and raped various women — but that’s the part that most people would rather not talk about. Too bad for them, though, because Hannibal Buress is talking about it anyway.

Buress ( 30 Rock, Broad City) was recorded dropping this bold and beautiful bit during a set at the Trocadero in Philadelphia late last week:

“And it’s even worse because Bill Cosby has the fucking smuggest old black man public persona that I hate. Pull your pants up, black people. I was on TV in the ’80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom. 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 sayin’ lots of motherfuckers 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 shit is upsetting. If you didn’t know about it, trust me. You leave here and google ‘Bill Cosby rape.’ It’s not funny. That shit has more results than Hannibal Buress.”

The bit’s not only a solid call-out of Cosby’s hypocrisy, it’s also brave. Buress is a comedian with a sitcom in the works and fans (like Chris Rock and Louis CK) in high places, but nothing gets people quite as angry and defensive as going after their entertainment heroes and exposing — or reminding us of — their gross and sometimes criminal pasts (see Woody Allen and Michael Jackson for more examples).

Buress takes his job as a comedian seriously and nothing is more important to the profession than being outspoken and honest to yourself — two qualities he managed to perfectly embody in his fearless (and, more importantly, accurate) Cosby musings.