ENTERTAINMENT

Screen | Bill Cosby – Reviled for all time?

Todd Hill
Reporter

What a deeply strange summer this has been, and we still have more than a month to go in the season. It’s anybody’s guess what’s still to come down the pike.

In 2003, President Bush stands with comedian Bill Cosby during the announcement of Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.

I’m speaking of the various fronts in America’s culture wars, many of which have seen fresh skirmishes this summer. It began with the U.S. Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling in late June, although that outcome was widely anticipated and the uproar over it has since died down, except in those quarters where it will never die down, never ever.

The delicacy with which we now approach matters of sexuality is also probably behind the muted response to Caitlyn Jenner’s transformation from Bruce Jenner, which included that Vanity Cover magazine cover, so I guess I won’t say anything more about that.

For a political off year, this year is certainly getting political, although some media outlets have already relegated Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to the entertainment division, where it probably belongs.

And South Carolina has relegated the Confederate flag to a museum, where that probably belongs. Yet still we’re prohibited from enjoying “The Dukes of Hazzard,” that insidiously racist piece of propaganda (I’m being sarcastic) recently pulled off the air by TV Land because it featured the Stars and Bars atop a 1969 Dodge Charger.

Good luck finding “The Cosby Show” anywhere now either (1984-92). It had been airing in syndication on two cable channels I had never heard of, its viable syndication life essentially over, but it’s no longer being broadcast anywhere, given Cosby’s recent troubles.

Based on what the comedian said under oath in a newly released 2005 court deposition, not to mention the allegations of some 40 women, it’s no longer difficult to imagine Cosby as a serial rapist, but he hasn’t been charged with the crime, and statutes of limitations being what they are, he might not be.

Cosby has already been tried in the court of public opinion, however, and what a surreal court that is. On one hand it features celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg who one day is vehemently defending the comedian against any and all accusers and then literally the next day is calling him a serial rapist.

On the other hand there’s the filmmaker Judd Apatow, who’s used every public opportunity in the past several months to call Cosby even worse things.

“This is one of the most awful people that you’ve ever heard of,” Apatow told CNN last week. I don’t know, but that Hitler fellow did some pretty bad stuff, too.

All the same, Bill Cosby is finished. His career is in the Dumpster, and again, that’s where it probably belongs. These flare-ups in the culture wars can turn really ridiculous at times, but in the end, the dust generally settles where most clear-thinking people expect it will.

Cosby might be innocent until (or unless) proven guilty and is unlikely to face anything but a civil penalty, but he would have a hard time selling tickets to any more of his standup comedy shows. (Actually, he sits down; the man is 78 years old).

Cosby’s legacy, however, is another matter entirely. Granted, the absurdity of watching an accused serial rapist moralize on “The Cosby Show” is palpable, but we, the television-watching public, should be given the choice to watch if we want. Likewise, we’re smart enough to know whether watching Bo and Luke Duke leap into the General Lee will turn us into raging hatemongers.

Bill Cosby pauses during a news conference in 2014 about the upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art in Washington.

These decisions, however, are being made for us. Maybe Bill Cosby’s legacy will follow that of O.J. Simpson, never proven guilty in a criminal court but for all intents and purposes guilty in the eyes of the public.

Cosby’s contributions as a comedic entertainer, however, are not just vast, they’re historically significant. They matter — and always will. Charlie Chaplin was a communist and a pedophile and reviled by his peers in his time. He also was, and is, a Hollywood legend.

I don’t know where Cosby’s legacy will ultimately land. That’s a tough one. I’m so relieved other people will decide this for me.

thill3@nncogannett.com

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Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ