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It probably wasn’t a random joke but, rather, something Hannibal Buress had been working into his routine for quite some time. Nonetheless, it was that joke that seemed to reignite interest in drugging and rape allegations about Bill Cosby that had been around for decades.
But Buress doesn’t want to be known as the Cosby-rape-joke guy. In an interview with the Associated Press, Buress doesn’t exactly express remorse about the joke but says that he didn’t realize it would set off a maelstrom.
“I was doing a joke in my show, and that shouldn’t influence public opinion. I don’t know if it should go that far,” Buress said. “It’s weird to me that a joke did that.”
During an October 2014 stand-up show in Philly, Buress called Cosby a rapist, and for some reason a lot of people acted as though it were their first time hearing about those allegations. Now, almost two years later, more than 50 women have come forward accusing Cosby of drugging and/or raping them. Now Buress says that he doesn’t want people to know him for just that joke.
“I’ve been working for a while and I continue to work,” Buress said. “That’s just one joke that … people took and really ran with it,” he said.
While Buress was speaking at a TV critics’ group promoting his upcoming Angry Birds movie, as well as a Netflix stand-up show, he didn’t mention why he included the joke about Cosby in his stand-up routine.
Needless to say, Cosby probably isn’t a fan of his work.