Bill Cosby : Did anyone outside of the U.S ever find him funny?

Being British, I never "got" Cosby. I remember when Channel 4 used to show The Cosby Show when I was a kid and even as a child, I found it incredibly bland. I understand he was pretty cutting edge in the 60's, as there weren't too many (if any) black comedians doing what he was doing, stand-up wise. To be honest, I've never saw his early stuff, only the sitcom and his movie bombs (Leonard Part 6 and Ghost Dad).

Am I really missing out be not checking out his earlier stand-up or is there something quintessentially American about his humour that is lost on international audiences?

Are there any Brits out there that liked The Cosby show and if so, why?

I never earned a nickel from another man's sweat!

Brit here, liked him - he wasn't Desmond (Which I also liked).

I think it was the caring, sharing family man thing which was appealing.

You should not threaten babies.

He had everyone conned. Like Donald Trump.

Ho Jew-dawg, can you read?

Check the thread title!

You should not threaten babies.

Not funny. Even less funny in his later years when he used to commandeer talk shows, force the hosts to bend all the rules and treat him like comedy royalty.

Oh. I see. The poster is addressing people from outside the country. My bad. Although, I have seen Cosby while I was in Canada and didn't find him funny, from that vantage point, either.

Jerking off on the back on some bimbos head is sort of funny. What doesn't make sense to me is why she just sat there until he ejaculated.

I'm from the US, my grandparents were from Italy, not sure if they were amused by Bill Cosby but I never was.

Indi, the truth is that many Americans didn't find him funny either. For us American kids who came of age in the 80's, his show & comedy rout were basically shoved down our throats by teachers, social justice warriors, and sympathetic media outlets to show us what a 'real black family' looked like.

Many sitcoms of the era were much funnier & edgier (Golden Girls, Cheers, to name a few) Even budding black sitcoms like Rock began to push the envelope in ways that Cosby didn't.

But like CannaeMan says, watching the show now has a whole new comedic affect, as we can know watch, as an informed audience, this perverse creeper dupe the nation with tacky sweaters, 4th grade jokes, family values, and self-imposed righteousness.

I don't know. I never knew what people from other countries thought of him. I do know that 'humor' is notoriously bound to the society and culture from which it originates, it needs a context and frame of reference. Back in the day, when albums by stand up comedians were being loaned from one kid to another, I thought he was quite funny. I never watched his TV series. Humor also changes from era to era and decade to decade. I remember that someone once tried to translate a joke for me from French into English. I did not get it. I found some British things funny, and others not. My favorite comedian from Cosby's era is Lenny Bruce. I would be surprised if Europeans found Lenny 'funny'.








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ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED??!!

Maximus Decimus Meridius

In 1964/5 when I was 9 and 10 he was hilarious on his old comedy albums.

His televison show was excruciating. I stayed with some friends one summer and they watched the weekly show. Felt like a mouse tapped in a cage with a starving panther - it was very uncomfortable: they enjoyed him enormously and it was all nails on a chalkboard to me.

LL