Talk:Bill Cosby

=Criticism?!

Cosby did so many commercials during the 1980's that Dennis Miller (on Saturday Night Live's weekend update) joked that Cosby had broken his "no awards" rule to accept the "John Houseman anything for a buck celebrity endorsement award", making the exception because they had paid him a lot of money). Also, on Married... With Children, main character Al Bundy (during a brief period of fame) wore product patches all over his shirt and announced he'd "hawk more products than Bill Cosby."

This doesn't belong in his main autobiographical sketch. I'm going to move it.

Fix Cosby's birthdate please

Bill Cosby was actually born July 12, 1937 (not 1917/September 12, 1915) as the article states. According to the article he was over 40 years old when he recieved a track and field scholarship to Temple.

Reference: (click 30's in timeline to view birthdate) http://entertainer.billcosby.com/biography

Protect?

There have been several vandalisms recently, should this be protected? Allyourbasearebelongtousomg 02:03, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Were the Huxtables middle class?

He was an OB/GYN and she was a partner at a law firm. They owned a Brownstone in an excellent area of Brooklyn. I think a good argument can be made that the Huxtables were upper-class. Why not just leave the family's social standing out? --Ted 21:49, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I think their financial situation is relevent. Whereas I do agree that calling them middle-class puts into question "What defines it?" it was a very obtuse direction in comparison to previous Black family sitcoms such as Sanford & Son, Good Times, & even the Jeffersons (the Jeffersons were rich, not because of hard work but because they won the lottery). From What's Happening to Different Strokes there was never a sitcom based on Blacks that were more than poor through any effort on their part. --Duemellon 22:01, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

As I recall, the Jeffersons did win the lottery in an episode of "All In the Family," but George was depicted as having worked hard to build up his chain of dry-cleaning stores. He was portrayed as a racist, posturing blowhard, but never as lacking in ambition.Carlaclaws 15:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Brooklyn?? I remember the Cosby's residence being in Philadelphia for the entire run of the series. Am I mistaken about this or is Ted in his above post? CanadianMist 16:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Nope, it was Brooklyn New York. Americaninseoul 06:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

What intrigued me most about The Cosby Show was that unlike most sitcoms about blacks, they never, ever mentioned the fact that they were black. Compare this to Whoopi Goldberg's unlamented sitcom, or the Jeffersons, where they could not go more than a sentence or two without bringing up race. What the Cosby Show DID do was spotlight music by black artists, or inobtrusively hang a painting by Jacob Lawrence on the wall, or have the grandparents talk about participating in civil rights marches in the 1960's. Great stuff! 68.116.40.228 20:42, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Military Brat (Navy Brat)

On the "Military Brats" Wikipedia page, Cosby is listed as a famous 'military brat' (child of a military family, which is not considered a derogatory term by most who grew up in military families) and more specifically, he is listed as a Navy brat. A military childhood has many significant challenges and strengths associated with it, and the military aspect of Cosby's own childhood should be included here in the "Early Life" section.

Sean7phil 19:47, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Also, Cosby's parents are not mentioned in the article. That is customary for wiki and also would allow us to research and document the history of military service in his family.

71.208.226.116 18:59, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Background

Can we get a link to the text of his speech to support "In the same speech he had scathing remarks for Christians and the police, as well as praise for the efforts of the Black Muslim organization and it's effectiveness, however, these statements were not reported in the articles in the mainstream media."

The Gettosburg Address's full text is the link that needs to be moved to WikiSource has the full text for review (those statements appear at the middle and end of the speech). I'm not sure how to have that done so I would appreciate anyone who does that &/r explains how to do it. --Duemellon 14:27, 19 August 2005 (UTC) (p.s. plz sign your comments)

"There wasn't any proof that these last two alleged allegations took place and Cosby was acquitted." This is very poor. No details are offored of any trials, just that allegations were made. Can we have at least a mention of whether a trial took place, adn poreerably whoch court, links to transcripts if anyone can find them. Rich Farmbrough 22:57, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

The background section needs MAJOR work. It is completely unsourced and frequently POV. With the intense scrutiny Wikipedia receives regarding entries on real people, a section such as this would seem to fail to meet the necessary standards of Wiki for biographical entries. But for the loss of a great deal of information, I would be inclined to delete the entire section. Hopefully someone can find the time for the badly-needed rewrite. SINsApple 06:31, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Opinion/Vandalism in Personal Life

I'm not sure it is academically profitable for an article to indicate that Cosby had an "ugly" wife, nor to comment on her academic standing unless the author would like to cite a credible source for the proposition. Second,66.157.144.28 15:50, 28 December 2006 (UTC) I don't think it is necessary to repeat the stories of his possible indiscretions, once in the article is likely enough to bring it to the reader's attention.

Death

I can't find any proof that he actually is dead anywhere on the internet. A Google News search shows nothing. Is this the first time a vandal lied about the death of someone famous? 86.133.134.207 did add some other questionable info. --Jnelson09 20:14, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to revert this. If I'm wrong, sorry. --Jnelson09 20:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC) --Hails21 16:43, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[[Media: == Bill Cosby is not dead ==]]

Awards

{{{editprotected}}} Honarary Degree - The Ohio State University - June 8th, 2001 [1] --Jbnovotny 05:18, 7 March 2007 (UTC)jbnovotny

I always heard that Bill Cosby did not accept awards, yet there are several instances here that mention him being honored with awards and also "accepting" awards. Is this hypnocrisy in later life or does Cosby only accept certain kinds of award (i.e. he won't accept an emmy but he will accept an humanitarian award)? In any event, should there be a paragraph on Cosby's history with accepting and not accepting awards?--Dr who1975 01:44, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Cosby and jazz

I removed the section about Cosby being a jazz fan because it was way too short, and sounded off-topic. --YoungOcelot 12:35, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

I moved it to trivia, where it BELONGS! --YoungOcelot 17:27, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

Death

Is he dead? Floaterfluss ^{(talk) (contribs)} 13:15, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

No. --Fang Aili ^talk 13:24, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Stop believing everything you see on 4chan, also gtfo

Influences

Groucho Marx is one of his biggest influences, have we forgotten?? He even re-did 'you bet your life.' The cigar thing? come on people!

Trip to Cuba

According to Tavis Smiley on the Friday, 22 Jun 2007 broadcast of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Bill Cosby and his wife accompanied Tavis, Danny Glover (and I'm not sure who else) on a trip to Cuba where Tavis interviewed Fidel Castro. Tavis referred to them as "the Cosbys", so I assume it was also his wife. Is this worthy of being added to the page? I think it could add some insight to his personal politics if he's willing to take a trip to Cuba to see Castro, let alone the fact that he accompanyied Danny Glover, who is pretty much lambasted for his own politics.

Scool Apperences

Should we include a listing of schools he has appeared at? I know for a fact he has appeared at Mott Community College here in Flint, Michigan. Just a thought.

Meme

how is Bill Cosby an internet meme? ~~ There is this picture of Cosby with a movable mouth that keeps showing up in flash cartoons on the internet. Don't ask me why, but for some reason this picture seems to keep showing up in flash online.