[Editor’s Note: This comes from a podcast interview with comedian Patton Oswalt, which I found through this article on this site; it’s a longer selection than I’d usually post, but I think that in this case it’s fair game. And I can hardly imagine Oswalt wanting to object to its being more widely known, as it might help drum through the some of the thicker heads in our society how completely repugnant these actions are.]
Patton Oswalt spoke about Bill Cosby on a recent podcast, and said that the comedy world has known about the shocking sexual abuse allegations against him forever.
As a guest on the You Made It Weird podcast hosted by comic Pete Holmes, [Oswalt] said Cosby’s alleged behavior was a badly kept secret among people in the industry.
That is shameful, he says, noting that all the Cosby accusers speaking out now likely means dozens, even hundreds more who have yet to come forward.
“The Bill Cosby thing is so f–king awful,” he said, and the actor-comedian explained why in a simple but profound way that really illustrates how horrible it is.
“What’s worse for comedians is a lot of us have known for a long f–king time. It was a very badly kept secret in the comedian world, and a lot of us would talk about it.”
“Bobcat Goldthwait would mention it all the time, and really people would just go, ‘ah, that’s bulls–t.'”
“It took this long, and what really drives me f–king crazy about it is the idea that these women… just imagine, he did the s–t he did when they were young and they were on this upswing.”
“‘Oh wow! My life is starting, my career’s starting… I’m gonna meet Bill Cosby,’ and this awful thing happens. They can never talk about it, so he’s just shot the ground out from under them.”
“Not just in that one incident, but for decades of their lives when they’re supposed to be enjoying the time when they’re in their physical prime, in their mental prime, enjoying life.”
“Some guy takes that away from them, he doesn’t lose a second of sleep over it… and by the way, how many women have come forward at this point, like thirteen?”
“That means that there’s hundreds. That means that there’s f–king hundreds. If you see one cockroach there’s a thousand in your house.”
“And they had to sit there for decades while this guy did this over and over again, didn’t lose any sleep, was beloved, and even now, everything is being taken away from him, but at worst he lives in comfy seclusion for the last years of his life. He lives in absolute luxurious exile for the rest of his life.”
“That is one of the horrors of life.’”
The Rolling Stone screw-up in its reporting on the alleged U of Virginia fraternity gang rape is all over the news. Oswalt’s remarks remind us how much more this should still be too. Whatever the price paid by that fraternity and its members pales in comparison to what Oswalt describes. In the future, I’m sure that there will be more such stories that don’t pan out; that can’t blind us to their being exceptions to the rule that we see here.
“Objection,your honor, on the grounds of heresay. Move to strike.”
Overruled.
I wonder if one of his victims is the murderer of his son Enis
But not enough to use Google?
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cosby-sons-killer-confesses/
i wonder how the left is going to blame the cosby thing on white priveledge
Your headline is sexist. Most harassment of women is not based on age or whether they are “attractive”. It is about power .
Your comment is nonsense. The headline describes exactly what it says, “BILL COSBY’S” years of rape and molestation using “knockout drops,” which you somehow seem to have classified as merely “harassment.”
Cosby’s targets, based on the reports we’ve seen so far, have been all, to a person, “attractive young women.” If you’ve seen any instance where he administered his knockout drops to someone outside of that category and then violated them, please provide a citation. Failing that, the headline is precisely correct.
Recklessly flinging around misplaced charges of sexism lessens their impact — something worth avoiding if you care about reducing it more than settling personal scores or achieving some political gains — as you surely must, right?
I guess what you are saying is that as a make you believe it more when it comes from attractive young woman. I heard this king of response to our former Governor and mayor of San Diego. I read your posts about various woman politicians there is always something about how they look or flirt etc. maybe you should think about what you right and how it is perceived.
You looks fine, Florice.
You’re changing the subject, Counselor, which is not a bad idea given the face plant you just took.
Try taking what I’m saying at face value. Bill Cosby targeted, apparently exclusively, attractive young women. That’s why the headline says “attractive young women.” You think that noting that is sexist. It is not remotely sexist.
I have said nothing about from what sort of women “I believe it more” and I don’t think that I’ve ever posed that question to myself. So that was another bad “guess” on your part. I don’t think that I reacted any more slowly to the accusations against Schwarzenegger or Filner than these; probably more quickly, actually, for the same reasons that so many others have cited for the emotional obstacles to believing what sort of a man Bill Cosby has turned out to be.
There is “always” something about how women politicians look or flirt? Before I even start to push back on that one, why don’t you go ahead and amend “always” into something you can possibly defend. I just looked back at my comments on your race and there was no comment on your physical appearance, just on your temperament. Nor, looking a few posts from where I discussed your race, were there comments on Gila Jones, Katrina Foley, Cece Aguinaga, Sharon Wallin, Alicia Maciel, or Carrie Flanders, all of whom I was capable of describing had I wished (none unkindly.) I do think that there’s a reason that Mimi Walters is perched behind John Boehner on the TV these days, and that someone like Young Kim was chosen to run against Sharon Quirk-Silva, and that Loretta Sanchez’s holiday cards always get attention despite the double entendres alone — but if you declare recognition of the role of political attractive in politics off-limits than far be it from me to drag you into such a discussion.
You’re being pointlessly insulting (and not that well) in suggesting that I don’t think about how I [write].
Given how your perceptions of how men’s reactions to your actions are continually grounded in perceiving sexism rather than in simply how you act, period, I see no point in worrying about how my writings are perceived by you; you’ll react as it suits you, or as it profits you.
[REDACTED: Special to tdm: Don’t do that; post it on the Weekly’s site if you must]
it was in bad taste but you have to admit that, especially in the case of cosby, they are all described as attractive, supermodels
I don’t have to admit that because I already asserted it. But it was in bad taste.