--- title: Bill Cosby Rape Allegations: Seth Meyers, Conan O'Brien Jokes description: Seth Meyer's four-minute sketch carefully explores the challenges of making light of the rape allegations against Bill Cosby canonical: https://time.com/3599482/bill-cosby-seth-meyers-joke/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-21T15:52:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:15.456Z og:title: Watch Seth Meyers Build the Perfect Bill Cosby Joke (That Isn’t Really a Joke) og:description: It carefully explores the challenges of making light of the rape allegations against Bill Cosby og:url: https://time.com/3599482/bill-cosby-seth-meyers-joke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b26c9ad467ae9a2/69876a3ce20a874f5aa83843/screen-shot-2014-11-21-at-10-20-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-11-21 at 10.20.04 AM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Seth Meyers Build the Perfect Bill Cosby Joke (That Isn’t Really a Joke) twitter:description: It carefully explores the challenges of making light of the rape allegations against Bill Cosby twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b26c9ad467ae9a2/69876a3ce20a874f5aa83843/screen-shot-2014-11-21-at-10-20-04-am.png?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Seth Meyers Make the Perfect Bill Cosby Joke > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b33b2f74-2996-4e17-829a-33e54c158d38&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See Bill Cosby's Only Public Comment on Rape Allegations [Watch (HLS stream): See Bill Cosby's Only Public Comment on Rape Allegations](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5EZrnNYI.m3u8) (4:13)  _Published 2014-11-20. See Bill Cosby's Only Public Comment on Rape Allegations_ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 21, 2014 3:52 PM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 21, 2014 3:52 PM UTC Late night TV hosts have (understandably) been hesitant to make jokes about the growing [sexual assault allegations ](http://time.com/3592547/bill-cosby-rape-allegations-timeline/)against comedian, sweater enthusiast and Jell-O pitchman Bill Cosby. But on Thursday’s episode of _Late Night_, Seth Meyers decided to tackle the topic with something that was more of an elaborate meta-joke than a simple, straightforward quip. A planted audience member begins pestering Meyers about his take on the scandal and eventually gets fellow audience members to begin chanting “Bill Cosby joke! Bill Cosby joke! Bill Cosby joke!” Meyers eventually gives in, and the audience member soon realizes that he had, uh, misunderstood what the whole scandal was even about. The four-minute sketch becomes more of a general commentary on why it’s not a good idea for comedians to make light of this issue — and how challenging it is to do so effectively. Conan O’Brien also made a Cosby joke Thursday night, though his was more of a quick quip thrown hastily into an otherwise unrelated sketch. Watch about two and a half minutes in: So far, it seems other late night hosts are still hanging back and avoiding the scandal altogether. _Read next:_ [_So What Do We Do About The Cosby Show?_](http://time.com/3599978/cosby-show-reruns-rape/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript NBC says it has scrapped a Bill Cosby comedy that was under development. The second outlet within a day to put off or abandon a Cosby project after another sexual assault allegation against the comic emerged. [ LAUGH ] [ INAUDIBLE ] It is against that backdrop that the associated press is showing for the first time a new portion of an interview with Cosby. Taped on November sixth in Washington. The interview centered around an art exhibit. At the end of the interview, Cosby was asked about long circulated accusations of sexual assault, in recent criticism from comedian Hannibal Buress, this is that exchange. I didn't want to, I have to ask you about. Your name coming up in the news recently regarding this comedian. No, no, we don't answer that. Okay. I, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to respond at all about whether any of that was true. There's no response. Okay. Can I ask if? With the, the persona that people know about Bill Cosby should they believe anything differently about what- There's is no. Comment about that. Okay. And, and I'll tell you why. Okay. I think you were told. I, I don't want to compromise your integrity, but, we don't, I don't. Talk about it. As the interview wound down, Cosby then continued the conversation. The camera was still running and Cosby and his wife were wearing Lapel Microphones. Thank you very much. Thank you We appreciate your time. Thank you. Now, can I get something from you? What's that? That none of that will be shown. I. I can't promise that myself. You didn't say anything. I know I didn't say anything, but I'm asking your integrity that since I didn't want to say anything, but I did answer you, in terms of I don't want to say anything, of what value will it have? I don't think it will have Ma'am? What did you say? Sorry. What did you say? I don't think it has any [ INAUDIBLE ]. And I would appreciate it if it was scuttled. I hear you. I will tell that to my editors and I think that they will understand. Well I think if you want to consider yourself to be serious, then it will not appear anywhere. Okay, I appreciate what you've asked. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we thought, by the way, because it was AP that it wouldn't be necessary to go over that question with you. And we have. I haven't written about this at all in the past two months, and, but they want, my boss had wanted me to ask. If you will just tell your boss that the reason why we didn't say that up front was because we thought of the, the AP had the integrity. To not ask - >> And, and, one other point on that the, the, one of the three major TV writers for the AP in Los Angeles called me up and - >> Right. And asked me, Lynn Elbert [ UNKNOWN ] - >> Right. We're, we're not addressing it. So she, she said fine then. He just closed it off. Okay. And I think you need to get on the phone with his person immediately. IPO? Okay. Okay, thank you. Since that AP interview, two women have come forward publicly to accuse him of sexual assault. As the allegations gained increasing attention, the AP went back through the full video and made the decision to publish Cosby's full reaction to questions about the claims. The interview was on record. The AP made no agreement to avoid questions about the allegations or to withhold publishing any of his comments at any time. David Krugs, the Associated Press. [ CROSSTALK ] Because it really was his audience. 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