--- title: Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a Rapist description: Comedian Hannibal Buress accused Bill Cosby of being a rapist during a stand up act at Trocadero in Philadelphia canonical: https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-21T01:16:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:55.531Z og:title: Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a Rapist og:description: Comedian Hannibal Buress accused Bill Cosby of being a rapist during a stand up act at Trocadero in Philadelphia og:url: https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a Rapist twitter:description: Comedian Hannibal Buress accused Bill Cosby of being a rapist during a stand up act at Trocadero in Philadelphia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Comedian Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a 'Rapist'  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 21, 2014 1:16 AM CUT  by [Olivia B. Waxman](/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 21, 2014 1:16 AM CUT New York-based comedian Hannibal Buress referred to Bill Cosby as a “rapist” during a stand-up set at the Trocadero in Philadelphia last Thursday. In his act, Buress suggested that _The Cosby Show_ creator, widely recognized for his portrayal of one of America’s favorite dads, Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable, was hypocritical to give out advice, given a string of [sexual abuse allegations](http://www.vulture.com/2014/09/timeline-of-the-abuse-charges-against-cosby.html "undefined") against the entertainer. Buress encouraged the audience to “Google ‘Bill Cosby, rape,'” and joked that it would produce “more results than Hannibal Buress.” The remarks were reported by [PhillyMag.com](http://www.phillymag.com/ticket/2014/10/17/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby-rapist/#ZfGw7D5EsvUTRQ5l.01 "undefined") and became viral Monday after [BuzzFeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/arianelange/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby-rape-allegations?utm%5Fterm=3k44jvp#md7ub8 "undefined") and [Gawker](http://gawker.com/hannibal-buress-called-bill-cosby-a-rapist-during-a-sta-1648541091?utm%5Fcampaign=socialflow%5Fgawker%5Ffacebook&utm%5Fsource=gawker%5Ffacebook&utm%5Fmedium=socialflow "undefined") aggregated them. You can watch the Cosby-related part of the performance here: Buress concluded the joke with a self-deprecating quip: “I don’t know what I’m doing by telling you this. I wanted to at least make it weird to watch _Cosby Show_ reruns.” It is not the first time that Cosby, whose pioneering career in standup influenced comedy legend Richard Pryor, among others, has been called out by another comic onstage. [Eddie Murphy famously impersonated Cosby in his 1987 HBO special _Raw_, saying ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYfenUt0u9A "undefined")that the elder comedian “chastised” him for material that was “too dirty.” **MORE:** [Bill Cosby’s Maddening Paradox](http://time.com/3397074/bill-cosbys-maddening-paradox/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/"},"headline":"Comedian Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a 'Rapist'","datePublished":"2014-10-21T01:16:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:55.531Z","description":"The explicit remarks are going viral now","url":"https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3525865/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby/","name":"Comedian Hannibal Buress Calls Bill Cosby a 'Rapist'"}}]}] ```