Did Bill Cosby swearing seem just plain wrong to anyone else?

It did strike me as odd hearing the Cos' swear at first...until I remembered that before he was Heathcliff Huxtable the Superdad he was a stand-up comic who used colorful language to good effect occasionally. If you have never seen the legendary stand-up film "Bill Cosby: Himself" check it out. You can pick it up at Amazon for under $10 and it's a must-see. The part that comes to mind is when he is talking about how he and his brother thought their names were "Goddammit" and "Jesus Christ" when they were little because that's all their father ever called them. "Something like "Goddammit, clean up your room! Jesus Christ, get over here!"

When I was an early teen, and cursed in front of my grandfather for the first time (he was a folk singer and early West Village acquaintance of Cosby on and off stage) and instead of hushing me, he urged me to look to early Cosby for the proper use of the vernacular, and learn.

The lesson to learn, was that proper usage of curse words was acceptable, if not taken out of context, and only in appropriate circumstances.
Cosby was always very cautious of his (public) use of swearing, so I understand you noticing it now wore than before.
(Although, during his wonderful Letterman fill in slot earlier this year, he obviously held himself back a dozen times.)

Cosby's use of comedic cursing evolved through time with Rudy Ray Moore and Richard Pryor, up to Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock.

Not that I am a student or anything, but (hint-hint) I bet an essay tracing the roots of swearing through comedic history could be fun.
This could also lead to very similar arguments for free speech as were used in front of Congress like those of Frank Zappa's and 2-Live Crews'.


Black historians could have more fun, since it is easy to trace white comedic swearing way back to Vaudeville and Burlesque if not further..
Did Cosby break the mold back in the 50's? And if not, who did?

Havin fun yet kiddies? :)

Yep, both Cosby and Seinfeld swearing was really weird. But personally, I thought it brought more realism to the whole documentary. We really get to see the true Jerry, a side we had never seen before. I thought it was really interesting.

For movie chat minus the idiots, check out http://trebas.hyperboards.com.

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