Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Just Cos

It's been fascinating to watch America turn on Bill Cosby and it looks now like that's about to get even worse. Did he do what he's accused of? I don't know and neither do you. I think a large part of the public's about face is that we feel personally betrayed. There are certain celebs that no one would ever question would do this type of thing and so their careers wouldn't be affected like his has been. But Bill? Man! Fat Albert, Jello Pudding Pops, Noah, Scotty, Chet, Dr. Huxtable, The Electric Company. I mean, come ON! Cos was cool! Cos was safe! He didn't NEED to act like that. He WOULDN'T have acted like that. No way! Only now it looks more and more like he did. And we take that very personally. We feel sorry for the victims if he's guilty but beyond that, we resent the HELL out of what he's taken away from US! His routines are still funny. Hilarious as ever, in fact. Not one word has been changed. Only now we hate ourselves for laughing at them. And we hate HIM even more! How DARE your classic comedy be classic comedy still after...after...well...what you MAY have done. I feel it, too, nagging at me to stop quoting routines I've quoted for decades. The takeaway from this? It seems that in the end, nothing in life is ever really what it seems. Nothing is safe, no matter how comfortable you become or for how long. Everyone is human and idols have much further to fall and make a much bigger mess.

2 comments:

  1. Great summing-up of an increasingly uncomfortable subject. "I don't know and neither do you." Great line, and oh so true.

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  2. The question then becomes, do we destroy great literature becasue of the writer? Is the art no longer appreciable because of the artist, or does art survive and stand on its own merits ?

    No matter what Bill Cosby did, or did not do, are we to bad his work and destroy his records, ignoring the hours of laughter generations have gleaned from them ?

    Do we condemn Nazi Germany for its book burning on our way to our own demonstration of "decency" ?

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