I treated a former fiancee of Cosby 25 years ago

[PCIntern]

She said at that time that almost no one knows how”insane” he is. I’ve carried that knowledge thru this whole thing and will always recall the certitude of her statement.

[MineralMan]

1. I walked out on Cosby a few years ago.

He was the "entertainment" at a conference my wife and I attended. Due to why we were there, we were up front, right by the stage. I listened to him for a while, rambling on and on without any real thread or theme to his chat with the audience, all professional people. After sitting there for 40 minutes, with no end of it in sight, my wife and I got up and walked out.

Cosby actually stopped talking as we left, and was watching us walk out. Then, he picked up his rambling chatter again and continued to make no sense at all about anything.

After we left, we hung around to chat with some people. Shortly, we noticed that others from the hall where he was speaking were leaving, too. We were not entertained that evening.

[BigmanPigman]

2. That sounds like the fucking moron's last rally in PA.

[PCIntern]

3. LOL! Nt

[NewJeffCT]

4. I think on his big TV show and earlier

he was pretty funny sometimes, but some time after that, he seemed to start losing it.

[EffieBlack]

9. Think hes always been strange and nothing like his image, but he seemed to take

a sharp bend away from reality after his son died.

[NewJeffCT]

15. interesting

I haven't really followed it all that closely.

I just remember Fat Albert when I was a kid growing up and then the Cosby Show showed a very successful and happy black family raising young children, which was quite different than most Hollywood portrayals of African-Americans before that (Sanford & Son, What's Happening, Good Times, and probably a few others I'm missing) The only other show featuring successful African Americans in lead roles was The Jeffersons before Cosby, and I believe they had grown children when the show started. i could be wrong about shows before Cosby, though.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I went to a stand-up show he did back about 1968 and it was funny as hell.

I think this was before he got into TV. I never paid much attention to his TV shows after that but that stand-up was hilarious. I don't know if I'd still think it was funny, since tastes in humor change; and knowing what I know about him now I probably wouldn't find it funny anyhow.

[Autumn]

8. "Noah. How long can you tread water?" That one always cracked me up so I

bought the album. One he got on TV he was all down hill.

[rsdsharp]

6. As a stand up in the early to mid sixties, Cosby was hilarious.

About the time he got a doctorate in education (which has been called a sham, he stopped being funny, and began to pontificate, often, as you say, rambling aimlessly.

[EffieBlack]

10. I still know his 1960s comedy routines by heart from listening to the

records nonstop

Kindergarten, idiot mittens, Ole Cryin’’ Harold, the Chicken Heart ...

He was funny as hell back then.

[rsdsharp]

12. The Chicken Heart was the first thing I saw him do on television.

I literally fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.

Gotta go. It's time to smear some jello.

[EffieBlack]

13. boom BOOM. boom BOOM

[raven mad]

19. Don't forget "Snakes"! NT

[tenderfoot]

7. He's been dead to me since the mid-80's

Phil Donahue had him on his show. He was grouchy, couldn't care less about Reagan's disastrous policies that affected PoC adversely. Oh and I H A T E D!!!!! The Cosby Show.

[EffieBlack]

11. Black folks stuck with him for a long time, but when he started trashing the black community

In general and young black men in particular in the late 90s, to the delight and glee of conservative whites, we started walking away

Now he’s trying to claim he’s a victim of racism but black folk are just giving him a blank stare.

[nadine_mn]

14. I listened to his comedy albums until I about wore them out

I had so many routines memorized - I really looked up to him (I have a secret desire to be a comedian - I also had Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, Steve Martin records) so I remember the first time I heard the allegations, I was gutted.

I remember trying to separate the comedian from the man back when he was giving speeches criticizing young black men, and finally I was just so disgusted with his behavior I realized who the "real" Bill Cosby was.

I cannot imagine what it has been like for members of the African American community - he was held up as a ideal (by white people) of what a successful black entertainer should be like.

His cultural impact cannot be denied and it is such a damn shame he turned out to be such a cruel predator

[Initech]

16. Listening to some of the older routines now...

There's no way in hell Dean Martin or any of the regulars on his show would have been famous today. No way in hell. Some of the stuff they talked about was not only extremely racist and sexist, it was uncomfortably cringe worthy in some cases.

[poboy2]

17. "You're not watching Fruffy the dog, because he's dead!" -as a child, I too wore that comedy album

out. My sister and I listened to it over and over.

Crushed here as well.

[EffieBlack]

18. I think most black folk gave up on him a long time ago

After he gave up on and turned on us.

So most people I know are just shrugging our shoulders, shaking our heads and saying, "what's that you were saying about black people and personal responsibility? Maybe you should have spent less time dogging us out and focused on straightening up your own sorry ass."

We're disappointed but not heartbroken - we started seeing through him some time ago.

[Tavarious Jackson]

21. I'm a gen X'er

He was just another sell out.. like OJ to me.

[Azathoth]

20. Dude sounds like a true sociopath

Keeping an entirely alternate personality completely hidden for decades is not easy.