Bill Cosby Prides Himself on Comedy that has No Shelf Life

[Zoneboy]

To hear Bill Cosby tell it, he got his comedic start as a bartender in 1960 with "about 10 great dirty jokes."
But to be clear, those jokes probably wouldn't be considered dirty in today's culture.

"Your dirty jokes are loaded with profanity," Cosby says. "Our dirty jokes had innuendo. They were stories and you could see it because they would paint a picture."

The 72-year-old comedian's brand of familial humor has earned him countless awards and accolades and made him a household name.

On Monday, he'll become the 12th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He will be honored at a star-studded celebration at the Kennedy Center. (Bill Cosby: The Mark Twain Prize airs Nov. 4 on PBS; check local listings for times.)

"I find that Twain covers everything," Cosby says from his home in New York. "He really has covered America. Not only politically, socialistically, but he has covered it as a human being. ... So many of his pieces spanned time. And I am very, very pleased to be given this award for what I have done."

When it comes to his success, Cosby points to the timeless nature of his writing. "If you took the top five of my CDs and just put 'em away and then you have children, 10 years later, you break these out and put 'em on ... you'll be laughing. And your kids will be laughing."

And to Cosby, it doesn't get any better than the thought of making future generations laugh. "That's where I smile, big time."

The same goes for his iconic family sitcom, The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 to 1992 and followed the day-to-day life of the Huxtables, an upper-middle-class black family living in Brooklyn. The show still runs in syndication, and this year marks its 25th anniversary. "You put The Cosby Show on — there won't be any cellphones and people might be wearing funny sweaters — but that same human behavior will still connect with people."

And Cosby still keeps a connection with his TV family. "I just got off the phone with Malcolm-Jamal Warner about eight minutes before you called," he says. "He was friends with Ennis (Cosby's son who was killed in 1997) and calls from time to time."

And of course, there's "my other wife," he says, referring to Phylicia Rashad, who played the matriarch of the Huxtable family. "There are some people that think she is my real wife!"

That position belongs to his wife of 45 years, Camille. "The secret is — and this is not grammatically correct — I just keep coming home."

He gives Camille credit for getting him on Facebook and Twitter. "The wife is always ahead of the husband. She tells me what to do. She comes in and says, 'I need ... ' and I do it."

One thing Cosby says he doesn't do anymore is watch TV.

"I'm not thrilled with the deliberate onslaught of the public by the major networks in terms of the sitcoms," says Cosby, who has been outspoken about socioeconomic issues. "They still don't get it about race. They still don't get it about gender. Jokes are still about jerks and body parts and sex. The excuse is always the public wants stuff that raises the dopamine level."

He points to Kelsey Grammer as "about the only one I see in the sitcoms that is still trying to keep the intellect and the writing."

As for his own dirty jokes, which he used to entertain patrons at his part-time bartending job while a student at Temple University, one thing led to another, which led to a gig at the Gaslight, a club in New York's Greenwich Village.

"I was hired by two Jewish fellas, and then a lawsuit came about and this white man by the name of Clarence Hood took over the club," Cosby recounts. "And this man said to me, 'Bill, you have it. You are going to make it.' "

Decades later, Cosby is still on the road making people laugh, with no plans to stop. Don't even bother suggesting an easy retirement on an exotic island.

"Why does everyone want to send me away to an island? I don't want to go to an island! Why not a small Philadelphia bar, making people drinks and telling dirty jokes?"


http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...ll-cosby_N.htm

[tv star collector]

If anyone deserves this award, it's Cos. I still laugh at his monologues (I
have two of his comedy albums) and reruns of his classic sitcom. His humor
is timeless.

[ThomasE]

Yes, this is true. I am happy for him. I recently bought season one of his 1969 show "The Bill Cosby Show". The show is sooo Bill Cosby. I hope season two comes out soon.