Bill Cosby’s Evolving Comedy

Because parents are not interested in justice.

They want quiet.

(audience laughing)

[Kelefa] I'm Kelefa Sanneh, I'm a staff writer here

at The New Yorker, and we're watching a clip

from Himself, the 1983 comedy special by Bill Cosby.

By this point Bill Cosby was already a major star.

He'd been on a number of successful TV shows.

He'd been a successful stand up since the early 1960s,

but Himself kind of captures him right on the verge

of his big moment, right before The Cosby Show goes on air,

right before he goes from being a star, a celebrity,

a famous comedian, to something even bigger than that.

Something like the American archetype of fatherhood,

and a lot of people consider Himself

to be his greatest work.

And it's a moment of transition in a sense,

it's the moment where he really establishes himself

as a father and decides that fatherhood is gonna be

central to his comedic identity.

So I go to kill my son.

(audience laughing)

He was in the room, looking pitiful.

(audience laughing)

And I can understand that because my mother sent me

to the room many times.

Your father comes home he's going to shoot you

in the face with a bazooka.

(audience laughing)

And I am not going to stop him this time either.

You know he's always wanted to kill you.

(audience laughing)

The day you were born, he said, Kill it.

(audience laughing)

I stopped him from killing you, for 11 years.

(audience laughing)

And this is the thanks I get for saving your life.

(audience laughing)

[Kelefa] The next year in 1984,

The Cosby Show debuted which was patterned very closely

on Bill Cosby's own family life.

In a really famous exchange from the first episode,

the pilot episode, he has a discussion with his son Theo,

which was based on a real discussion

that Cosby had had with his own son Ennis,

and Theo makes this grand speech about how he just wants

to be a regular person.

Make your point.

You're a doctor and mom's a lawyer.

And both successful and everything, and that's great.

But maybe, I was born to be a regular person.

And have a regular life.

If you weren't a doctor, I wouldn't love you less.

Because you're my dad.

And so,

instead of acting disappointed,

because I'm not like you,

maybe you can just accept who I am, and love me anyway.

Because I'm your son.

(audience applauding)

Theo,

that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

There's no wonder you get...

[Kelefa] This was an important moment for the show

because it wasn't just Heathcliff Huxtable showing Theo

who was in charge, it was Bill Cosby showing

the studio audience who was in charge,

I mean it's a really unusual moment in a sitcom

for the audience to cheer one character

and then the main character to come out

and say, No you were wrong to cheer that character.

Here's the way things are gonna be

in this family and also on this show.

I am your father, I brought you in this world

and I'll take you out.

[Kelefa] Bill Cosby is still doing comedy.

He does about 50 or 60 dates per year,

and to a large extent he's still talking about

what he's always talked about which is being a father,

being a husband, he's now a grandfather

and so you start to see bits of age creep into his act.

Both in the fact that he's slightly less animated,

he's a little bit slower,

but the thing is it doesn't really matter

that much because he's always been good

at dealing with pauses.

You know a lot of comedians try to fill that space

so there's no silence in the room.

They're trying to keep talking until they can get

to the next laugh,

and Bill Cosby is happy to sort of sit back.

Often literally sit back in his chair, and wait.

Because he knows that the audience is within the audience,

is following along as he tells the story.

I'm telling you now I'm not afraid to say it.

I

lost

my key,

it was given to me.

I lost my key,

to the house.

That was,

48 years ago.

(audience laughing)

I don't have a key.

(audience laughing)

I don't know any

codes,

Nothing.

I get off

the plane,

and

someone

who works for us,

will pick me up, bring me home.

That person has a key.

(audience laughing)

That's if my wife is not there.

And then that person will lock me in.

(audience laughing)