Bill Cosby Is the Latest ‘Canceled’ Comedian to Return for a ‘Monsters of Comedy’ Tour
This is your regular reminder that famous comedians cannot be “canceled.”
Yesterday, prolific sexual predator Bill Cosby announced his return to touring comedy on “WGH Talk” with Scott Spears. Cosby was released from prison just 18 months ago after his 2018 conviction of criminal sex assault was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The comedian, who has been accused by more than 60 women of various crimes of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault and sexual battery, is eyeing 2023 for his comeback tour after spending fewer than five years out of the industry.
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Not even decades of well-documented heinous crimes can remove a powerful man from the comedy world for more than a couple years. We don’t want to hear another hack comic complain about censorship or “cancel culture” ever again.
“I am just full of Christmas cheer,” Cosby announced after an introduction from Spears. He spent the first few minutes of the interview lamenting the laziness of the younger generation and chastising his college-aged grandchildren for complaining about their course loads. Somehow, the comedian’s signature condescension has survived the half-decade inconvenience following his lifetime of evil deeds.
Though five more women filed a new sexual assault lawsuit against Cosby earlier this month, he believes that he is in the clear and that the worst of the comparatively minor consequences of his actions are behind him. “When I come out of this, I feel that I will be able to perform and be the Bill Cosby that my audience knows me to be,” he remarked to Spears.
Cosby confirmed that he will return to touring in 2023, telling his host, “There’s so much fun to be had in this storytelling that I do.” Cosby’s publicist also told Variety that his criminal client is “looking at spring/summer to start touring.”
Cosby’s pending comeback tour highlights the limited legacy of the #MeToo movement that arose in response to the allegations that landed film magnate Harvey Weinstein in prison. Hugely famous figures such as Cosby, Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey were continually cited by the wave of people who spoke out about their own experiences of misconduct and assault at the hands of powerful men in entertainment following the Weinstein accusations. And although each of these men’s history of misbehavior varies in severity, the consequences have been mostly the same — after a short time out of the spotlight, they have all been allowed to return to their careers and continue to profit off of their celebrity status.
At the same time, the #MeToo movement has gotten so under the skin of America’s most prominent male comedians that they now constantly whine about the overzealous nature of “cancel culture” and the “woke mob” who seek to silence any man who dares to ask a woman on a date or make a racy joke. But if comedy’s most egregious sex offender can return to work in just a few short years, then it’s time to finally put those frivolous complaints to rest.
Weinstein should have been a comic instead of a producer – he’d be out of jail and on tour by now.
