Happy Birthday, Bill Cosby!

See, jazz is like new coke. No, jazz is like a jello pudding pop...

The problem with the kids today is that they don't understand the jazz. With all their hippin and their hoppin and thier bippin and their boppin.

We already have seven grandfathers, and they're all famous jazzmen!

Great from '64-85ish. I bailed on The Cosby Show when it started preaching (middle of first season).

Oh god, the Cosby Show was grebt at the time, but he turned out to be a smug little bastard. (He might have been then, but I didn't realize this.)

Cosby rules and the haters can suck it.

Cosby memories:

http://www.history.navy.mil/pics/cosby_b.jpg

Also, how come imitations of Cosby never really sound like Cosby?

http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Uptown2.jpg

http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/Uptown.jpg

Damn, xpost with kenan

http://tleaves.com/weblog/images/articles06/cos.jpg

I loved the Jello pudding pops when I was too young to know they were kinda gross.

Oh I prefer to suck it, Nick.

Eddie Murphy's impression usta be pretty good

Cos did do my fave drug joke with a 'heckler':

HECKLER: Cocaine intensifies your personality!

COS: But what if you are an asshole?

Eddie is a great Cos. "I would LIKE to talk to YOUUUUUUUU"

That is a weird heckle.

Cosby rules and the haters can suck it.

OTM

Now I have a craving for chocolate Jell-o pudding pops. They probably were gross, but now that they're gone, I'll never know for sure.

http://news.windingroad.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/Leonard-Part-6-Movie-Poster.jpg

OMG hugglez Morbius, this "Cosby Show jumped the shark in the middle of season one" theory is like the staggering apotheosis of genius batshit video-snob discernment, rendering any future fake-Morbii pointless from the get-go. I love you so.

I may have noted this here previously, but I seriously take issue with the claim that Seinfeld is "a show about nothing," given that every episode is packed with Cervantes-level plotting -- the great show about nothing has always been early Cosby Show, where entire episodes will consist of "Rudy's friend comes over to play" or "Claire's parents visit for dinner" or "Cliff tries to take a nap, but keeps getting woken up."

Many fond birthday wishes extend from me to Mr. Cosby, along with the hope that he doesn't keep raising his blood pressure over modern-day black people not always being as exceptional as the cream of the crop of the civil rights generation.

http://www.britposters.com/images/mother%20jugs%20and%20speed%20320x240.jpg

I bailed on The Cosby Show when it started preaching (middle of first season).

PS this is so awesome, but doesn't it basically translate to "I have only watched nine episodes of the Cosby Show?"

I saw Cos on the Tonight Show 3 or 4 weeks ago and he didn't seem altogether. I know he's old now (happy birthday, sir!), but he's always had a really sharp mind. Now it seems like it's losing steam.

I may have noted this here previously, but I seriously take issue with the claim that Seinfeld is "a show about nothing," given that every episode is packed with Cervantes-level plotting -- the great show about nothing has always been early Cosby Show, where entire episodes will consist of "Rudy's friend comes over to play" or "Claire's parents visit for dinner" or "Cliff tries to take a nap, but keeps getting woken up."

i think the domestic bliss of the cosby show is a big part of its appeal, for sure, along with the performances.

I wish the Cos got more screen time on the Cosby Show; in all the episodes I've seen he pops up for a 5-minute nugget of wisdom 20 minutes in and then vanishes

You must have been seeing later episodes, when all kinds of people had joined the cast. The first two seasons, he was around all the time.

I have often thought that Seinfeld is NOT a show about nothing, but I have never realized that the Cosby Show IS. Thank you, nabisco, for opening my eyes. No, rlly.

<i>Cosby rules and the haters can suck it.

-- n/a, Thursday, 12 July 2007 15:32 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link</i>

^^^ this

Bill Cosby is (was) the best stand-up comic of all time.

yeah you're probably right, Johnny

isn't there an episode where rudy tries to grow breasts by rubbing cream all over herself or something? and dr. huxtable gives the best pearl of wisdom ever? I forget the pearl, unfortunately.

i do, however, remember hearing that dr. huxtable was in fact a GYNECOLOGIST.

The real Cosby gold is in his live comedy albums from the early sixties: "Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow Right!", "To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With", "Wonderfulness", and a few others. I couldn't do justice to the routines by trying to quote them here.

However, a friend of mine, during a performance of live electronic music, unintentionally triggered an file of the three "Noah" bits spliced together. Hijinks ensued.

Actually, Dr. Huxtable was an obstetrician.

Which album has the bit about being on the Hofstra football team, the worst football team in the history of anything ever? And they're on TV so they're not allowed to touch certain areas of their bodies? Anyway. Tears.

One lifelong tic Cosby has left me with is that whenever anyone says "it's ten o'clock," I say/think "THAT'S WHEN THE MONSTERS COME OUT."

Which is the funniest album? Someone do a poll? I've never heard any.

I've heard most of them, but I might have to go the populist route and say Himself. I know it backwards and forwards.

"Chicken Heart" and "Noah" are probably the best bits he ever did. I might still have my mom's record of this from when she was in school 40 years ago.

xp

as a whole performance, Himself is tops. HBO running this over and over again drilled it into my skull at a young age.

just seen that there's a 1969 'BEST OF...' cd from the warners era after his contract ended. this has got to be the one to get hold of right?

Track listing:

Noah: Right! - 2:05
Noah: And the Neighbor - 1:43
Noah: Me and You, Lord - 3:11
Revenge - 5:58
The Lone Ranger - 0:55
Old Weird Harold (9th Street Bridge) - 5:12
Driving in San Francisco - 3:45
The Apple - 1:43
Babies - 3:49
The Water Bottle - 0:58
Street Football - 1:17
Fat Albert (Buck, Buck) - 9:05

The best albums are probably "Very Funny Fellow Right" and "Wonderfulness."

In response to kenan's question, the Hofstra skit is on "Why is There Air?"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Cosbybadfootbrown.jpg
^^^ this record is the jam + coz plays organ

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d1/Cosbydiscobill.jpg/200px-Cosbydiscobill.jpg
DISCO BILL

Bill Cosby Is Not Himself is another great music one.

doesn't it basically translate to "I have only watched nine episodes of the Cosby Show?"

Yes, you are absolutely OTCosby, nabisco.
(maybe twelve eps)

I would see it occasionally in later years, but it'd usually revolve around stunt guests like Danny Kaye or Dizzy or Robert Culp.

also, those "about nothing" plotlines remind me of the Burns & Allen TV show, which ended up way more surreal than Seinfeld.

also, one reason I soured quickly on the Cosby Show is that just before it premiered he'd guest-host Tonight a lot, and he was REALLY FUCKING MEAN. You can imagine how much more I liked that than Dr. Huxtable.

oh wow, I want to see some of that.

ok, this is kinda great

http://youtube.com/watch?v=O7c5JMOIdvo

Man, I really hat when all people know of Cosby is that fucking thing on the Simpsons (ie all my friends).

That said, here he is announcing Jello is the state snack of Utah:

http://saltlakecity.about.com/library/weekly/01art/hiresjell-o_p.jpg

" To commemorate Utah naming Jell-o the official snack of the Beehive State, comedian Bill Cosby, left, presents Utah Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, right, with a plaque during a joint session of the Utah House of Representatives and Utah State Senate Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2001 in Salt Lake City. Walker then bestowed honorary citizenship on Cosby, as Vice President of Kraft Ann Fudge, center, looks on. "

He wants the youth to eat lots of it to fill those baggy pants.

http://www.i-mockery.com/halloween/bag/pics/halloween-pen21.jpg

His friend, the hallucinatory bee/marker.