Does anybody find it kind of hard to watch when he talks about wanting to kill his son, or his son won't live much longer, or that he wants to shoot him in the face?
I just can't watch those parts.
"God, I'm glad I'm not me." -Bob Dylan
Yes, I totally agree. We watched it with our daughters for their first time tonight, and my wife and I both winced at the references to his son. We didn't tell them about the tragedy - we figured leave them with just a fun evening of laughter.
shareWell, that thing Bill said about killing his son was supposed to be a joke like a lot of parents say, he obviously didn't know what would happen to his son eventually.
shareObviously it was supposed to be a joke, and that he didn't know what was to befall his son is what made us wince.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
Did anyone feel bad at the beginning seeing pictures of his son?
shareWhy would it be sad to look at an early picture of him? He lived 27 years before his untimely end. Why look at a picture of him from 1982 and automatically associate it with the way he died? He was a human being, not just a victim of crime.
shareYeah, when I watched this again recently, I couldn't help but think about what happened to his son, and it saddens me.
"David Warner, you are under arrest by order of David Warner!"
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I think that the parts that he talks about wanting a son and praying for a son were to illustrate how much he grew as a parent. As a matter of fact, as a point of contrast, he actually used his son as an example of "be careful what you wish for" when he talks about the zipper, the haircut, and a couple of other things. You are not being fair to the comic and not really paying attention if you think one of the messages of BC:H is "Boys are better than girls". If anything, it's the reverse.
I also find it hard to watch when he talks about his son negatively. I doubt he regrets it though, because as smart as Bill Cosby is he knows that he was being facetious and trying to get a laugh because that's his job as a comic, and he accomplished that. This tempers any pangs of sympathy I feel to the man when I hear him say "Kill the boy! Kill the boy!."
Because one of my family is a comedienne, and a successful one at that, I know that they gear their performances to generate as much laughter as possible, even at the expense of family. The family is (usually) understanding of this, because it's the laughs that drive the business and because they know that blood is thicker than water.
Bottom line, Bill grieves for his son. But I don't believe he holds himself accountable for something he said thirty-five years ago, because to do so would be to invite madness.
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First the wife says - she would shoot bill in the face if he does not get up & make breakfast for the kids. It's when he gets home- the wife says go up & kill your son (because he has a reverse mohawk)- Not literally kill but do something with the boy. This was years before his son was tragically murdered.
shareI agree, I kinda wince at the jokes now but you have to remember that this was YEARS before Ennis was murdered. It's tragic and sad and strangely ironic even if that obviously wasn't Bill's intention. Plenty of people have used that phrase hundreds of times, just like in 12 Angry Men.
"I am the ultimate badass, you do not wanna `*beep*` wit' me!" Hudson in Aliens.
When I saw it in the 80's it was funny, cuz most parents feel the same thing.
Nowadays its not as funny, not just in Cosby's specific case because he lost his son, but because so many kids have died and been a big deal in the news, especially ones who die at their parents hands. You'll notice stand-up comedians and television writers don't say such things as frequently or seriously these days.