Bill Cosby's classic comedy records/performances -- pick your faves

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Sadly, there seems to be no thread on this (or Cosby in general as opposed to the Cosby Show). I now correct this.

My first Cosby comedy experience straight up was actually the way brilliant Bill Cosby Himself film, from the early eighties. But tonight I'm finally getting around to taping my old vinyl copies of Wonderfulness and To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With. So great.

"Would it mean anything to you if I said I just had breakfast?"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 02:51 (twenty years ago)

Search: Noah. Hofstra. I Started Out as A Child.

He's just a master of language -- when he gets rolling, the images come at you so fast you can hardly keep up.

Himself is one of the funniest movies ever. I wish I could find a version of the whole thing, uncut. Seems like at some point, someone decided to cut the whole bit about drinking until you're sick (deadly funny) and cocaine, and the movie has this weird jump in the middle of it. I guess to make it family friendly? Then why not cut the 15 or so minutes about beating the kids ("The same thing happens every night")?

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Monday, 27 June 2005 03:29 (twenty years ago)

I really could quote Himself all day long. It's so so great.

"This is not the woman I grew up with. This is an old person who's trying to get into heaven now."

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Monday, 27 June 2005 03:38 (twenty years ago)

The chicken-heart thing is maybe his best ever.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 27 June 2005 06:43 (twenty years ago)

i think himself on DVD is uncut...

― stevie (stevie), Monday, 27 June 2005 08:27 (twenty years ago)

Coming from a religious family, the only one I've ever heard is:

"Noah, I want you to build AN ARK!!!"

― MIS Information (kate), Monday, 27 June 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)

loved his stuff when I was about 10-12 y.o. he had a syndicated radio show where he'd do bits from the comedy LPs. also remember a Johnny Carson appearance from the early 70s where the newly bearded and groovy Cos sounded like he'd been HITTING THE BONG. (or maybe the hookah, don't think bongs had been invented at that point)

herbie hancock's music for the Fat Albert cartoons is BAD (good).

beware the TURTLEHEADS lurking in yr bed

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 27 June 2005 09:49 (twenty years ago)

The chicken-heart thing is maybe his best ever.

One of my favorites easily, and probably why I hold Wonderfulness in such esteem (but the whole album is pretty great -- Cosby doing gawky nerd/Goofy voices for 'Special Class' is a beaut).

But yeah, "Chicken Heart."

"GOOD EVENING."
*pause*
"...it's the guy!"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 13:17 (twenty years ago)

"Dad is great.......he gives us chocolate cake!"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 June 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

I can never remember the titles of any of his pieces, just circumstances. Like the one where he and "Old Weird Harold" went to see a scary movie, and the one where Fat Albert comes to the game of buckbuck, and one where he's driving a Volkswagon bug up a hill in San Francisco. Those are good ones.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 27 June 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

The thing is with Cosby's old stuff is that it was ALL in his delivery. You can tell the exact same jokes in as many words and they will straight up not be funny AT ALL.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 27 June 2005 13:25 (twenty years ago)

His skill with voices might just be underrated, come to think about it. But he's GREAT with those, and knows how to make them work, to the point where it's almost like several different people onstage rather than one dude.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 June 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

I will go to my grave trying to get my peer group to appreciate these records the way I do. SO many good moments, and I'm still discovering new things. Recently picked up It's True! It's True, which meanders more than a bit but also includes some truly inspired moments, particularly the discussion of Spanish Fly. "I figure there's gotta be one guy, three thousand years old, looks 13, travels the world telling people about Spanish Fly..."

Destroy: Most of the "difference between men and women" material, which hasn't aged well at all. In fact, most of his "aimed at grownups" stuff just doesn't have the same sharpness - Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby is particularly weak.

Search: The "Noah" sequence ("RIGHT! ...What's a cubit?"), "The Lone Ranger" ("Tonto, don't go to town!"), "Driving in San Francisco," "The Playground," "Chocolate Cake For Breakfast," "The Dentist," and yes, "Chicken Heart," which has to be the single greatest one-man-and-a-mic storytelling experience I've ever heard.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 25 March 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Driving In San Francisco:

"20, 40, 60, 80... then I get to the top of the hill, and there's a stop sign at the top of the hill..."

Slays me. Every time.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 25 March 2006 17:00 (twenty years ago)

search: bill cosby talks to kids about drugs

― spastic heritage (spastic heritage), Sunday, 26 March 2006 14:00 (twenty years ago)

Loved the classic albums too (esp Bro Russell) but he was a really prickly, morose Tonight Show guest host shortly before "The Cosby Show" hit big, sort of like a sober WC Fields. I saw him at Radio City around '84/85 and he did a bit about taking his kids to McDonalds in which he called em "brain-damaged morons." I've always mourned that this Cos was killed by Dr. Huxtable (as a performer, at least).

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:33 (twenty years ago)

don't think bongs had been invented at that point

In an historical sidebar, I made a bong in 1974. Far from being the first to do this, I knew what I made was called "a bong". I seem to recall seeing bongs in the display windows of head shops as early as 1971. I thought I should record this, for the sake of posterity.

― Aimless (Aimless), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:14 (twenty years ago)

Just a couple weeks ago I found myself obsessing over the bit where Cosby-as-kid makes the snowball and saves it in the freezer, waiting for the perfect opportunity to smack some other kid.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

xpost

hahaha I vaguely remember competing in an event called the Bonging Olympics during the bicentenial summer of 1976!

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:35 (twenty years ago)

I don't see how any of these bits, brilliant though they are, hold any more than a couple of candles to Side One of To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With. What is it, 26 minutes long, not a word wasted, total control and timing and social commentary (just a bit). And all live; this performance is the epitome of OWNING THE ROOM.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:35 (twenty years ago)

"....and my mother had thrown the snowball awaaay."

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:36 (twenty years ago)

i like the one about how he hates poor people

― ath (ath), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Oh, man, the bit about scaring Fat Albert with the Frankenstein monster . . . that one always stuck with me. In fact, many time when I'm stuck in slow traffic, either I or my wife will break out, "Faster, faster, you fool, you fool."

― phil d. (Phil D.), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey Jeffrey

― The Milkmaid (82375538-A) (The Milkmaid), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:44 (twenty years ago)

Thanks to HBO's repeat airing of it and my parents getting me a tape of Bill Cosby Himself, there were several years where I could repeat certain routines word for word.

But yeah, the Chicken Heart bit was probably his best. "I was dumb enough to do whatever the guy on the radio said."

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

Dad is great! Give us the chocolate cake!

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:57 (twenty years ago)

"Just a couple weeks ago I found myself obsessing over the bit where Cosby-as-kid makes the snowball and saves it in the freezer, waiting for the perfect opportunity to smack some other kid."

haha so bill watterson stole this?!?

― builds character, Monday, 27 March 2006 16:58 (twenty years ago)

In that Comedian documentary there's a little moment where Seinfeld or Chris Rock or somebody is talking in quiet awe about seeing Bill Cosby live a few weeks earlier and how he just came out and did two hours without breaking a sweat, totally in control, totally killing. That's how I see Himself -- one of the best live performances I've ever seen from a comedian, not just in terms of the bits themselves (which rule and completely hold up today) but in terms of pure mastery of the material, being able to own the audience from beginning to end.

― Petroski (petroski), Monday, 27 March 2006 20:53 (twenty years ago)

"Alright, Ernie, you're the bottle cap. Frank, you're this piece of broken glass. On 'hut,' Frank, you go out wide, take a left at the green chevy, and get on the J bus. ... I'll fake it to you."

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:00 (twenty years ago)

"nurse, hand me the knife. clamps. ... stamphsis. ... fnunts. ... clamps. ... oops."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY????"

"nothing, i --"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:03 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Update: don't buy My Father Confused Me... What Should I Do? What Should I Do?. I bought it today and it's just plain unnecessary. The Dentist bit is way way better on Himself, all the parents material is recycled, there's a bunch of flatly unfunny "husbands and wives" stuff, a "People who speak English differently" segment that never gets off the ground, etc.

I also picked up My Brother Russell... finally; haven't listened to it yet, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that stands up to the hype...

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Friday, 28 April 2006 02:06 (twenty years ago)

It does, my friend, it does.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 28 April 2006 02:28 (twenty years ago)

seven years pass...

still kickin' it live, apparently

http://geneseymour.com/?p=757

― ballin' from Maine to Mexico (Dr Morbius), Friday, 21 June 2013 19:09 (twelve years ago)

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