# How should Bill Cosby be remembered?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 27, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050 "2020-01-27T15:49:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/1 "2020-01-27T15:49:24Z")
Bill Cosby has not died, but another recent celebrity death brought to mind the fact that Bill Cosby is 82 years old and may not be with us for many more years.
How should he be remembered when he dies?
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/2 "2020-01-27T15:51:23Z")
As a rapist, obviously.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/3 "2020-01-27T15:52:42Z")
It’s like there are two Bill Cosbys: the one we “knew” before the revelations about his behavior came out, and the one after. I don’t think either one should be forgotten.
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/4 "2020-01-27T15:55:13Z")
Comedian, who was mostly soft-edged (i.e. bland) but did somewhat expand opportunities for African-American actors, and a serial rapist. Maybe put rapist first.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/5 "2020-01-27T16:02:56Z")
Predatory serial rapist abusing icon level, celebrity and influence to evade detection for decades.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/6 "2020-01-27T16:07:50Z")
Yeah, he can’t escape his conviction. It will forever overshadow his comedic talent. As **Thudlow** said, there are two Bill Cosbys. I’d love to remember only the Cos that made me laugh my ass off with his stories of Fat Albert and his brother Russell, but I can’t.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/7 "2020-01-27T16:10:57Z")
For I Spy, being a funny guy (right!), Noah (ping!), Jello pudding, Fat Albert, the Cosby Show, The Brown Hornet, The Bill Cosby Show.
You people sure are hard core judgemental.
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### Author:  [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/8 "2020-01-27T16:12:26Z")
Sleepily?
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/9 "2020-01-27T16:15:34Z")
> [@Quercus](#):
>
> Comedian, who was mostly soft-edged (i.e. bland)
There are two types of comedian, those who tell jokes (Take my wife, please!) and those who tell stories (I want you to build me an ark, Noah.) plus of course, those who can blend the two. I don’t find a well-told story bland. Not all can be Mort Sahl.
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### Author:  [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/10 "2020-01-27T16:15:37Z")
As a cautionary tale about the subversive power of celebrity. On several levels.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/11 "2020-01-27T16:25:57Z")
If he hadn’t been revealed as a rapist, his signature achievement was a smug sitcom that inspired a backlash of anti-Cosby sitcoms, including _Married With Children, Roseanne_ and _The Simpsons._ He was a pioneering black TV star in the 1960s (_I Spy_ and _The Bill Cosby Show_). In an era of black comedy “party records,” he made some that also appealed to children and white audiences. He was eclipsed pretty quickly by Richard Pryor in the 70s and Eddie Murphy in the 80s. His peers were the guys he hung out with at the Playboy Mansion, like OJ Simpson (who murdered his wife) and Robert Wagner (who might have murdered his, too). Yeah, I think the rapes would have inevitably have come out one way or another.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/12 "2020-01-27T16:38:10Z")
A very funny rapist.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/13 "2020-01-27T16:50:53Z")
> [@Horatius](#):
>
> As a cautionary tale about the subversive power of celebrity. On several levels.
You think it was celebrity that made him a rapist?
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/14 "2020-01-27T16:53:05Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> A very funny rapist.
Why not a very rapey comedian?
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/15 "2020-01-27T16:54:09Z")
Should? A convicted rapist.
Will be? No clue.
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/16 "2020-01-27T16:56:53Z")
As a rapist who was also a successful comedian and TV actor Same way I remember OJ: a double murderer who played professional football and acted.
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/17 "2020-01-27T16:56:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> A very funny rapist.
😃
Every answer I try to put together for the OP keeps boiling down to that. At least his victims eventually got to confront him, got to see the effective end of his career, and got to see him behind bars. He is tasting at least some measure of justice. Not all recently deceased celebrities were held to such account.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/18 "2020-01-27T17:00:46Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> You people sure are hard core judgemental.
About serial rape? Yeah, I think that warrants a certain amount of judgementalism.
I don’t see anybody arguing that, for example, the late Jeffrey Epstein ought to be remembered only for his notable acts of philanthropy, or the not-yet-late OJ Simpson only as a great football player. Why should Cosby’s history be artificially sanitized, any more than theirs?
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/19 "2020-01-27T17:05:38Z")
All of the above?
I mean, it’s possible to acknowledge his cultural impact while also acknowledging his criminal behavior, right?
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### Author:  [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-bill-cosby-be-remembered/847050/20 "2020-01-27T17:07:41Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#):
>
> You think it was celebrity that made him a rapist?
Being a celebrity did not make him a rapist. Being a celebrity certainly gave him access to victims and helped him get away with it for decades.
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