This week, the public relations team in charge of Bill Cosby’s twitter account tried to make the former patriarch Huxtable into a popular internet meme. Coupled with past accusations of rape, the marketing campaign couldn’t have come at a more imperfect time.
The campaign was quickly hijacked by a slew of Twitterers who took many different screenshots of Cosby from The Cosby Show and plugged in text mocking Cosby. The accusations were made about 10 years ago; however, they came back into the public realm when NBC said it was weighing the creation of a biographical sitcom about Cosby.
Hannibal Buress, a stand-up comedian, fanned the flames more when he called Cosby a rapist during a set in Philadelphia, Cosby’s hometown. The following memes were created and posted with the hashtag #CosbyMeme:
This comes a very close second. #CosbyMeme #billcosbymeme “@Floyd_Banks: Oh man, these are making my day! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/49PzVRYyK6”
— Cerys Howell (@Cezzabean) November 12, 2014
This one should easily get approved! #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/GYysETPODn
— Jake Currie (@jakecurrie) November 10, 2014
Bill Cosby asks the Internet to “meme” him, Twitter responds with rape allegations http://t.co/j3evWYUlzj #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/EO80Oi93hC
— New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 11, 2014
#CosbyMeme Oh Boy! pic.twitter.com/5shOSuH74c
— E.J. Coughlin (@ejc) November 10, 2014
Grap #BillCosby onfploft in zijn eigen gezicht! http://t.co/cT9J4dBww9 #CosbyMeme @luuk @Michiel3FM pic.twitter.com/ucmYjwDPhJ
— Trending (@Trending_puntnl) November 12, 2014
And the coup de grace meme that probably sums up this entire situation:
Someone’s getting fired. #cosbymeme pic.twitter.com/GSMsNFcz1D
— Adam Hammer (@AdamHammer) November 10, 2014
The first allegations came about around 2004 when a woman accused Cosby of drugging her, taking her back to a hotel room, and sexually assaulting her. Two years later, Cosby settled out of court with a Canadian woman who accused him of rape.
