--- 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' > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 21, 2014 1:16 AM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Oct 21, 2014 1:16 AM UTC 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) 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) and became viral Monday after [BuzzFeed](http://www.buzzfeed.com/arianelange/hannibal-buress-bill-cosby-rape-allegations?utm%5Fterm=3k44jvp#md7ub8) 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) 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)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/) ```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. 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