r/interesting • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 10h ago

SOCIETY In 2018, a customer secretly photographed Geoffrey Owens best known for playing Elvin on the Cosby Show working at a Trader Joe's in Clifton, New Jersey, and the images were published online in an attempt to "job-shame" him. Instead, he was able to get more work as an actor because of it.

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He went on to explain that most actors and indeed most entertainers are gig workers. For every a-lister many other actors work gig to gig and having steady work and a steady income that pays well is really hard because the field is so unpredictable. And many actors including many well know actors and artists have to have a secondary source of regular income between gigs and for most working entertainers it means getting a regular job and taking whatever roles you can get.

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u/ElectronicDrop 9h ago edited 6h ago

That is on Cosby. He could have signed away his financial rights to the show for a lump sum like Roseanne did so the could have continued to air/stream and everyone else could have continued to earn royalties. 

Also fuck the people that tried to shame Geoffrey. Man stepped up and found a job. 

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u/suspicious_bag_1000 9h ago

I don’t think it was a financial rights issue. It was broadcasters stopped airing reruns of the show so he lost royalties associated with that

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u/FromFluffToBuff 7h ago

I think people truly underestimate just how aggressively fast The Cosby Show was pretty much yanked from the airwaves on all the channels that aired it. For anyone who had their royalties from that show, their residual payments all but evaporated.

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u/Ohnoanywayz 8h ago

I remember (I’m an old) when the show aired-I didn’t watch it too often myself but I think a lot of people don’t realize how immensely popular it was. So the whole thing was extra shocking and weird.
I felt bad for the other actors that had to deal when all that went down. :(
Apparently Lisa Bonet (iirc) refused to comment so one wonders if he tried shit on her, too.

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u/braaaaaains 7h ago

What’s interesting is how he publicly criticized her for some R rated movie she made, doing a racy photoshoot for Rolling stone He even got mad when she got married and then pregnant. They wouldn’t write the pregnancy into the Cosby Show spin off she was in and that basically forced her off the show.

It was just always in the news that that he had some beef with her during that period and that she was ruining the wholesome image of the show. Anyway, I guess we can all see that he projecting now.

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u/sacredblasphemies 6h ago

I know. That was Cosby's reputation.

He shamed Eddie Murphy for using swear words in his act and Eddie turned it into a classic bit. Well before the general public was aware of Cosby's OTHER reputation. Of course, his bit is even funnier now that we know Bill was drugging and raping women the entire time.

Because it's SO shitty and hypocritical for someone doing that to act as some sort of moral authority.

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u/MiggyEvans 3h ago

Bill Cosby had a joke in his standup about drugging women with Spanish Fly.

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u/Ohnoanywayz 5h ago

Was that Eddie’s joke about Richard Pryor?
Iirc Bill criticized Richard also.

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u/sacredblasphemies 5h ago

He did both Eddie and Richard.

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u/Ohnoanywayz 4h ago

I remember Eddie’s joke about Richard Pryor, something like, Have a Coke and a smile mf

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u/HonoluluSolo 6h ago

Projecting and... jealous? That she wasn't hiding her sexuality and willingly attracting attention from others beside himself? One wonders...

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u/Ohnoanywayz 6h ago

Yes! I remember that too and thought that was weird.

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u/e60deluxe 3h ago

He also wrote Sondra AFTER the pilot because he decided after the fact that actually, that the Huxtables need to have their first child be perfect and not Denise

The guy was literally obsessed with showing the world perfection

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u/issacsullivan 7h ago

The show is great! Just hard to stomach now that we know our collective dad, handing out good advice, was out there just raping everyone.

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u/Coal_Morgan 6h ago

Loved the show as well.

One of the all time great sitcoms but watching an episode and wondering how many people he's raped by this point or will go onto rape...it sucks any enjoyment that can be had.

I can't separate the art and the artist in this case because of how genuinely 'great' I thought he was when I was young.

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u/issacsullivan 6h ago

I think because his character asked us to trust him as a moral authority figure and it is super hard to have the same emotional connection now.

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u/PassiveMenis88M 3h ago

I remember (I’m an old) when the show aired-I didn’t watch it too often myself but I think a lot of people don’t realize how immensely popular it was

To help put into context just how popular it was my father, a racist at the time but we fixed that, watched the Cosby show every time it was on.

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u/FatJuggernaut-916 5h ago

The show fell off after s2 and especially with the Elvin character.

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u/tossNwashking 9h ago

I'm starting to think Cosby isn't a great guy!

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u/Ural-Guy 9h ago

Worse thing is, he's a hypocrite.

RIP Norm

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u/DamonLazer 8h ago

I think the worst part was the raping.

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u/life2eli 7h ago

Then you know drugging women, then actually getting the drugs, then way down here, the hypocrisy!!

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u/Phyraxus56 7h ago

You heard him

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

When he came out and said Paul Rubens did nothing wrong, he wasn't kidding on multiple levels.

He legitimately did nothing wrong, but compared to Bill, he was an absolute saint.

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u/clutchthepearls 9h ago

RIP?

I didn't even know he was sick!

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u/deprecateddeveloper 6h ago

But also, happy birthday Norm! Today is his bday.

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u/TeeEYEdoubleDUHer 5h ago

That's cool, I didn't know that. Also, happy cake day to you!

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u/deprecateddeveloper 5h ago

Haha thanks I had no clue.

Me pointing out Norm's bday just to have my own reddit bday pointed out to me haha. WHO'S NEXT?!

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u/wizard_of_awesome62 4h ago

Me?! Nope, damn.

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u/Legonistrasz 9h ago

Hell of a bartender though

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u/MondoDuke2877 9h ago

I know, right? Just one drink and I was blackout drunk!

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u/MarketCrache 9h ago

Self-taught chemist too...

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u/four204eva2 8h ago

If only someone would offer me a qualuude

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u/Beginning-Bid-749 9h ago

Insert spitting drink gif

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u/topsyturvy76 9h ago

His Manhattan was a knock out!

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u/Interesting-Tax6562 9h ago

Thanks norm

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u/topdangle 9h ago

I'm not watching a single second of the cosby show until Norm is dead and buried!

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u/drsideburns 8h ago

I think he was cremated. It might be a while.

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u/dj_milkmoney 9h ago

The worst thing is the hypocrisy.

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u/MouseRat_AD 8h ago

Really? I thought it was the raping.

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u/mrpeabodyscoaltrain 9h ago

Some people say the hypocrisy was the worst part…

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u/TheWhooooBuddies 9h ago

He’s a real jerk.

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u/bballj1481 9h ago

It's the hypocrisy

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u/Paddy_Tanninger 8h ago

You know, with Cosby...the more I learn about that guy, the more I don't care for him.

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u/Yorstawker 7h ago

Yeah he’s a real jerk

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u/MediumAcceptable129 6h ago

The more i read about him the less i care for him

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u/Calm-Math-3421 3h ago

It was the hypocrisy.

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u/Any-Organization9101 9h ago

I don’t think people would want to watch the show any more no matter who owned the rights. Hard to look at Bill Cosby in that role and laugh.

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u/MongolianDonutKhan 9h ago

That's the worst of it. With Roseanne and Home Improvement, Barr and Allen may be dickweeds, but their characters are meant to be abrasive to a degree, so they are still watchable shows. Cosby sold himself and Dr. Huxtable as 1:1 good upstanding moral characters.

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u/Initial-Way-4968 9h ago

Exactly, that’s what made the whole thing so disturbing. People expected Dr. Huxtable to be someone they could look up to, which makes the betrayal of that image hit so much harder.

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u/Altforwrestling 8h ago

When I was a kid, Bill Cosby inspired me to want to be an educator. The fact that he did comedy records and The Electric Company, made me take certain art and English courses in high school. But by the time I was in college, his image was tarnished.

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u/cothomps 7h ago

Bill Cosby was probably the biggest “media” star for the childhoods of people in their 50s now.

All the kids shows, “Picture Pages” at the public library, a bunch of movies, the Cosby Show, etc. etc.

It’s still hard to mentally connect _that_ Bill Cosby with the man who was drugging his rape victims.

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u/DreadfulDuder 5h ago

Even for those of us in our early 40s, he was often a massive part of our childhoods. The Fat Albert cartoon originally aired in the 70s, but its reruns were still playing in the 90s.

And I remember Cosby show reruns were sometimes the only watchable sitcom in their time slot - especially if you were stuck with rabbit ear antennas or very basic cable TV in the 90s.

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

And how in the 80s he made a big stink about Eddie Murphy's raunchy comedy.

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u/SnooRegrets1386 6h ago

Plus his heavy handed “moral authority “ crap he pulled on young men’s behavior

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u/Aegi 5h ago

Isn't the lesson that we made the mistake in thinking that way, not that he did anything impossible for other people in his position to do?

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u/MongolianDonutKhan 1h ago

Never meet your heroes and all that, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to earnestly believe a supposedly good person is actually good. Being cynical sucks.

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u/DocJimmie 8h ago

Bill Cosby: Himself was stand-up you could watch at anytime and laugh. Especially getting into fatherhood.

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u/braaaaaains 7h ago

I never really liked him. My first exposure to him was through the cartoon Fat Albert. I was literally four and five years old and didn’t know shit about the world or race or anything and I would watch feeling absolutely horrified at how black people were portrayed. I started to get self conscious and wonder if that’s how the world saw me.

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

We wore out the VHS copies we made of his HBO stand-up special. The first album I ever got was Bill Cosby is a very funny fellow, right? My father bought it for me in, I don't know, 1983.

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u/Ok-Reaction9095 7h ago

I watched that so many times, I think I still have bits of it memorized.

When I was a kid around 8 yrs old I lived with my uncle for a few months and he had albums Cosby comedy albums from before his Fat Albert days, which is what inspired the cartoon. I was a huge fan all my life so it was crazy when all the stuff came out about him.

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u/rayhiggenbottom 3h ago

But Dad, I'm Jesus Christ.

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u/CartographerNo2717 7h ago

Roseanne. I'm not watching for that ditchpig. John Goodman carried that show for me. Superlative talent and a consummate professional.

She can get bent.

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u/ZenMasterOfDisguise 8h ago edited 4h ago

I don’t think people would want to watch the show any more no matter who owned the rights.

That is probably why TV One "only" airs it in syndication 36 hours per week ha /s

But seriously, they legit have it on weekends from 3pm-11pm, and Weekdays from 7am-9am and then again at 6pm-8pm... in 2026 https://tvone.tv/schedule/

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u/scalyblue 8h ago

I’ll bet the licensing fees were dirt cheap

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u/ZenMasterOfDisguise 7h ago edited 4h ago

Ha true, but imagine being the guy who works in advertising who has to sell ad time to fill 36 hours worth of Cosby Show ad timeslots

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u/St0ckY0u 3h ago

companies care about numbers.. are the ratings good? which audience ?

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u/FatJuggernaut-916 5h ago

I see it on my scroll practically every day and in blocks of 4.

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u/subterfugeinc 6h ago

I absolutely loved the Cosby show. I threw away all my dvd box sets. I just can't. Fuck bill cosby

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u/PenelopeLumley 5h ago

The Cosby Show reruns were my go-to show for when I wanted to veg out to something nice on TV. I remember, a few months after the scandal, trying to see if I could still watch it and just see Dr. Huxtable as a character, not Cosby. Nope. I had to change the channel.

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u/KetoLurkerHereAgain 6h ago

The episode in the later seasons when he's bragging about giving everyone a "special sauce" or whatever so they'd all get all horny, omg, it's APPALLING to see cause you absolutely see his real self in that. The predator.

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u/Creepy_Meringue3014 6h ago

Just bought all seasons for my elderly mother

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u/St0ckY0u 3h ago

most people really don't give a fuck, they would still watch it, but networks don't want to risk losing big ads

or is chris brown a poor man today? or any other big celeb that

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u/schweddybalczak 57m ago

A black entertainment channel called The Grio currently airs Cosby reruns regularly so someone is watching it.

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u/Busy-Juggernaut277 8h ago

Tbh I feel like except for Malcolm Jamal Warner(RIP), Raven Symone, and Phylicia Rashad(who also is a professor) the rest of the cast basically disappeared and havent had acting gigs since.

No shame in working another job if your acting gigs dried up, they’re able to make money to put food on the table I hope.

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u/Ohnoanywayz 8h ago

Lisa Bonet did

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u/skyturnedred 5h ago

Last acting credit in 2016.

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u/Ohnoanywayz 5h ago

I meant immediately following her leaving the Cosby show.

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u/St0ckY0u 3h ago

you think someone who was in a relationship and married to Jason Momoa could not get an acting credit if they wanted?

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u/skyturnedred 2h ago

No. But her career isn't exactly prolific after the Cosby related shows.

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u/badluckbandit 8h ago

Awww man I forgot Malcolm passed 😢

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u/Ok_Outcome_6213 7h ago

Phylicia is also very vocal in her support of Bill Cosby and his innocence.

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u/Busy-Juggernaut277 7h ago

do not get me started…… obligatory fuck Phylicia Rashad

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u/ElectronicDrop 6h ago

While a dean at Howards University.

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u/Rose-Poet-21 6h ago

That kills my respect for her.

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u/PhillyRush 8h ago

Dule Hill continued to work. He was on the show Psych.

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u/Busy-Juggernaut277 7h ago

hold up, Dule Hill was on the cosby show?!

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u/FlowRemote9890 7h ago

He wasn't.

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u/Apart_Republic_1870 4h ago

No, but the joke on Psych was that his character had played Bud on the Cosby Show.

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u/Busy-Juggernaut277 4h ago

OH I’m dumb lmaooo

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u/SnooPets8873 7h ago

And The West Wing!

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u/OldWar1111 7h ago

Holy shit, I had no idea that was him in Cosby. He was the ahole little kid neighbour? I was/am a huge fan of his because of Psych.

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u/LiliKinMaryland 5h ago

Geoffrey Owens was recently on The Pitt.

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u/scrumple26 8h ago

I get where you’re coming from, but even if he signed away his rights, that doesn’t mean anyone is going to want to watch a show with Cosby as the main character or any network/streaming is going to want to air it.

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u/UselessFactCollector 8h ago

Exactly. Like Seventh Heaven.

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u/Wooden-You-4211 7h ago

Wait what happened on 7th Heaven or with the actors

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u/Zuiden 7h ago

The actor who played the dad confessed to diddling multiple minors.

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u/Wooden-You-4211 3h ago

Oh man I don't think I knew that or I erased it from my memory it's good to see his filmography shows he hasn't had any rolls since the confessions came out back in 2014 but I remember he had a cameo or was a guest on the show the office and also on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia but that was before the confession.

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u/FatJuggernaut-916 5h ago

R. kelly fans put the lie to that

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u/JustYourNeighbor 7h ago

I don't know but I don't think that would have helped. Stations are reluctant to air Cosby because of the scandal.

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u/attgig 9h ago

Pretty damning when you are pretty much saying Rosanne is a better person than bill

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u/msut77 9h ago

Before she went insane. Insaner

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u/ElectronicDrop 9h ago

Both are shit people.

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u/soIDONTLIKEANYOFYOU 8h ago

He is worse. She’s just a dumbass who talks a lot of nonsense. He literally raped people.

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u/FlowRemote9890 7h ago

She's a piece of shit but she's not a rapist.

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u/scarves_and_miracles 6h ago

Yeah, not defending Roseanne, but somebody who said some nasty shit really can't be compared to a literal serial rapist.

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u/serabine 3h ago

She also has the ... excuse is the wrong word, more like contributing factor from literally having had an accident with a highly traumatic brain injury in her youth, which even back then altered her personality so severely and violently after the coma she was in that she was put into a mental facility for months after. She also has been diagnosed with DID (formerly called multiple personality disorder) and had severe psychic breakdowns all throughout her career.

I abhor her views, but I also feel pity for her.

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u/kgreys 6h ago

She didn't rape people, though

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u/SirAtrain 7h ago

TIL I can watch Rosanne without support Barr? Excellent!

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u/airbrushedvan 6h ago

Rosanne is a bigot and an asshole, Cosby is a rapist. Don't expect him to be better

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u/GrandDaddyDerp 5h ago

Good for him, trader Joe's rejected my ass.

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u/2Slow2Nice 4h ago

Idk if people would’ve watched it tbf. People still enjoy artists and actors who are shitty in real life, but Cosby playing the father role in a wholesome family is just weird.

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u/breakfastbarf 4h ago

Difference is they continued the show. No advertisers would want it since he’s the main character

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u/Unique-Risk-9180 9h ago

It was his show, not theirs. Why should he have to give up his earnings for them?

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u/Expensive_Editor_244 9h ago

Insert gif of Jay and Silent Bob giving internet trolls a beat down here

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u/bolanrox 7h ago

Are you Magnolia fan 135 from moviepoopshoot.com?

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u/shakygator 7h ago

What the fuck is the Internet?

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u/Vast-Percentage-7312 8h ago edited 7h ago

this is why i don't agree with trying to cancel entire movies/tv shows just because of one bad actor. television shows and films are made on the backs of hundreds of hardworking people.

imagine you stop making money for the work you've done because your boss turned out to be a terrible, terrible person. we should be able to deal with bad actors without punishing anyone who was unknowingly in their vicinity.

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u/ScriptioAfricanus 6h ago

Thank you for saying this. I work in film/tv and 99 percent of the people in my industry are kind, normal, average people who work hard for surprisingly little money. 

Run the bad apples out of town, absolutely! There’s no shortage of Hollywood psychos who need to be gone.

But let the rest of us work and do what we love - attempting to make things that give people enjoyment and escape.

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u/Lucky-Earther 7h ago

Look most people aren't going to be interested in watching a show where the main character raped multiple people in real life, especially when he is presented as a morally upstanding figure. Like I'm sorry that it cost everyone else money but that still isn't going to get me to watch, there is only so much separating the art from the artist that you can do.

Bill ruined a lot of childhood memories for a lot of people.

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u/SwingNinja 7h ago

I don't think they do that these days. At least, not always (Two Half Men, Marvel Cinematic Universe).

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u/SmartAlec105 6h ago

The intent is so that fucked up people don't get put in movies/shows in the first place because making a financial impact is the only way to get a huge business to take action. Of course, this also means they're more likely to try and cover up anything fucked up that their people do.

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u/UnlikelyPollution715 4h ago

A few months ago I downloaded and watched the entire Cosby Show, very season. When watching it I basically ignored Heathcliff enjoyed rewatching the antics of Theo, Rudy, Alvin, Vanessa and all the others. It really was very good TV for the first 3-4 seasons with the main Huxtable children

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u/msut77 9h ago

He was recognized universally as a good actor. He was able to be selective while he was making royalties

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u/Jumpy_Radish_9604 5h ago

I’ll shame him. He had a politician as a dad and a Yale degree. He could have done more for himself.