i'm "late-night posting" cosby...

September 11, 2005 9:14 PM

Bill Cosby has no sense of humor... In a move that shocked the internet to the very soles of its shoes, Bill Cosby sent had his lawyer send a Cease and Desist letter to the creator of channel101.com's wildly popular House of Cosbys series, asking... nay, demanding the cessation of all Cosby related creative material generation. That's it. That's all there is to the story.

Wait! There's more! Channel101.com's Dan Harmon wrote an open letter to Cosby's legal team informing them of his intention to continue hosting the original 4 episodes, even if no further episodes would be made.

Hell, even the adorable Andrew Baio loves it. But then again, Andy Baio also likes peach colored page designs...
Channel101.com also mentioned here and here.
posted by shmegegge (26 comments total)

Cosby hasn't been the same since 9/11...
posted by Rothko at 9:54 PM on September 11, 2005

Don't tell him about this.
posted by homunculus at 10:04 PM on September 11, 2005

Well, heck, I hadn't heard of these before now, but my favorite response to Cease and Desist orders as they apply to downloads is to download 'em while they are available and mirror them after they're gone.
posted by spock at 10:08 PM on September 11, 2005

That Cosby Talks To Kids About Drugs record is fantastic. How could anything be more surreal than Bill Cosby talking to 9 year olds about shooting heroin, and singing "no" to "pushers"? Perfect DJ material.
posted by SweetJesus at 10:09 PM on September 11, 2005

Channel101 lost my interest when they cancelled sockbaby after only two episodes.

No-one touches sockbaby.
posted by ulotrichous at 10:26 PM on September 11, 2005

If you think I'm adorable, you should see my son.
posted by waxpancake at 10:42 PM on September 11, 2005

How can you really say Cosby has no sense of humor? He's getting on in the years, but he was always funny.

You can be funny and a dick at the same time.
posted by delmoi at 10:42 PM on September 11, 2005

Phew! I was worried I was going to have to choose!!
posted by jonson at 10:53 PM on September 11, 2005

Cosby hasn't been the same since 9/11...

Neither has Dennis Miller..
posted by scheptech at 11:01 PM on September 11, 2005

Cosby is about as funny as a hemorrhoid. He's grouchy,
intolerant, litigious, pompous, and a humorless bad sport.
posted by bat at 11:12 PM on September 11, 2005

I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you! To the very soles of my shoes... but otherwise, I don't think I could care any less.

That is all.
posted by crunchland at 11:17 PM on September 11, 2005

That Cosby Talks To Kids About Drugs record is fantastic. How could anything be more surreal than Bill Cosby talking to 9 year olds about shooting heroin, and singing "no" to "pushers"? Perfect DJ material.

Yes.
posted by wakko at 11:52 PM on September 11, 2005

(waxpancake, that kid is so cute, kittens explode every time you link to his picture. Please, won't you think of the kittens?)
posted by maryh at 1:11 AM on September 12, 2005

Cosby is truly a great comedian, or at least, he was. He is also a self-centered jerk. Maybe stardom made him that way, I couldn't say.
posted by Goofyy at 1:20 AM on September 12, 2005

Protecting the legacy of your entertainment image and career is being a self centered jerk? I too heard about the C101 C&D long ago and watched most of it -- it is juvenile and assinine to the extreme.

It is not a great parody or homage to the man and you know what, if it was me or my personnel they would have gone after it too. Jerk? I don't think so, it's about protecting my works and the value of said works versus some hackneyed wannabe entertainer whose only success is referencing my work.

Oh and by the way, nobody has ever seen the purported C&D letter or any letter from that matter from Bill Cosby or his representatives to the creator of this material. It's all "they told us to shut it down", and then "oh what the hell we're keeping it up." With no further response? WTF? Kind of makes you wonder if we're all just playing along -- certainly googling "Bill Cosby" and "Desist" gets you the Channel101 link 5 different ways from sunday.
posted by cavalier at 4:43 AM on September 12, 2005

Cosby may or may not be an unfunny jerk these days (and I suspect he pretty much is a jerk...and a largely irrelevant one at that), but I don't see how sending a cease and desist letter is much evidence of that. Many celebrities and artists all over the world protect their work through cease and desist letters. It's totally commonplace--hardly news. Not to be pedantic, but a cease letter is virtually always sent via the attorney not the artist. A cease and desist letter also, kind of by definition, "demands" that an activity stop. C&D letters are meant to sound as intimidating as possible, even though a C&D letter is not "the law", it's usually just a formal pre-pre-cursor to a lawsuit that the C&D letter is aiming to prevent.
posted by applemeat at 5:04 AM on September 12, 2005

taking down the shows is like killing a handicapped person

Well, that's a bit much. That gets my nomination for wild similie of the day. Sort of like murdering nuns.
posted by psmealey at 5:26 AM on September 12, 2005

Knowing someone in the biz, they are very protective of the use of their "likeness",it's how they make a living. That being said, it's also a form of flattery.
posted by 6:1 at 6:24 AM on September 12, 2005

Cosby spoke to incoming freshman at my school a year ago, and it was an incredibly surreal experience. He was in full old man, incoherent rant mode most of the time, telling us guys not to hit our girlfriends or get them drunk, and telling girls not to act like hos. He got funny toward the end, but mostly he just made everyone uncomfortable.

He also said, and I swear this is true, "Make love to me when I'm sober."
posted by deafmute at 7:03 AM on September 12, 2005

wildly popular

Oh, really? Never heard of it. Downloaded the first episode. Lame. It's a one-trick pony, with bad animation. I'm not at all surprised Cosby sent a C&D.

This is probably the greatest thing to ever happen to Channel101.
posted by mkultra at 7:06 AM on September 12, 2005

I still vote that it's fake and it's a (clever?) piece of C101 marketing. Too bad once you get there you don't want to stay..
posted by cavalier at 7:08 AM on September 12, 2005

I really can't imagine someone not enjoying House of Cosbys. It's a fun, weird, absurd, slice of awesome.

"I don't think so, it's about protecting my works and the value of said works versus some hackneyed wannabe entertainer whose only success is referencing my work."

Well, let's look at the facts here. If anything, this show made Bill's work *more* valuable among a certian group of people, NOT less. In fact, I would like to hear a scenario in which this could actually make his work less valuable. People who don't like it will/do rail against the creators, not Mr. Cosby. So there's that theory down the shitter. And all that "wannabe entertainer" was doing was trying to make people laugh. I don't know about you, but I didn't pay a dime for the 4 episodes of House Of Cosbys that I have, and I don't remember seeing any ads on them.

What, exactly, is wrong with creating something you think is funny, and hoping other people think it's funny, too?
posted by zerolives at 10:56 AM on September 12, 2005

Thanks for the devil's advocacy, zerolives. I guess my point requires being familiar with the work of one to properly contrast to the other. If you look at Bill Cosby's work, say, Himself or Wonderfulness, you find work that on the whole consists of warm, almost nostalgic stories that grab their humor from looking at the idiosyncrasies of life. Pretty G rated for the most part and dare I label it "Wholesome." At the time, it was -- I think one reviewer stated -- "gently rebellious", because it was indeed an amazing thing to see an African American entertainer with this success in the 1960's speaking their mind.

By contrast, from what I recall of the House stuff, there is a lot of humor based on tasteless things -- portrayed by the "Cosbys" -- jokes against the retarded, substance abuse, etcetera.

Now, I'm not arguing that kind of comedy is inherently horrible and should never ever be seen. Screw that, this is America, watch what you want. However what I AM saying is if you compare/contrast the former material against the latter I hope you will see the wide divergence in material. Thus, the latter stuff could impugn on Bill Cosby's work if you look at that and think gosh that Cosby is funny I'm going to go buy more of that stuff in Wonderfulness. So if hypothetically Bill Cosby's people did send a C&D, you can see a point they would have that someone watching this may get the wrong idea of BC's material and react accordingly.

Does this guy have the right to make stuff he thinks is funny? Sure. If it involves an entertainer who makes his living on what people think of him being impugned, then the entertainer has a right to step up and try to stop it. Still, I don't think a C&D ever really existed, and this is just a brilliant marketing point by C101 to get more hits.
posted by cavalier at 11:29 AM on September 12, 2005

I think the Coz is losing his mind. Look at the conversations he regularly has with this guy.
posted by Sidthecat at 7:26 AM on September 13, 2005

Cosby hasn't been the same since 9/11... - Rothko

I'd be willing to bet that he hasn't been the same since his son was murdered.
posted by dejah420 at 8:17 PM on September 13, 2005

Dear Mr. Baio,

thank you for replying to my post. Yes, your child is adorable. You and Penny Arcade's Gabe seem to have the two cutest kids among the internet elite.

Furthermore, thank you for existing. I found metafilter because I had been a fan of your site for some months. I also discovered many many other interesting things through your site, despite the peach, and for that I thank you. You are wholly beneficial to both the spirit and community of the internet, and you should be applauded for being so.

*applauds*

sorry for posting this so late that, by now, no one is reading this thread any more.
posted by shmegegge at 10:58 PM on September 14, 2005