Comic who called Bill Cosby a rapist in a 2014 act is credited after the TV icon’s conviction

Stand-up comic Hannibal Buress, whose 2014 remark about sexual assault accusations against Bill Cosby went viral, is getting another serious surge of attention.

The path to Cosby’s conviction on Thursday on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home arguably started three-and-a-half years earlier in a Philadelphia comedy club.

During his act, Buress mocked Cosby’s smug preachiness and called him a rapist.

‘I’ve done this bit on stage, and people think I’m making it up,’ Buress said at the time. ‘Bill Cosby has a lot of rape allegations…When you leave here, Google “Bill Cosby rape”.’

Stand-up comic Hannibal Buress (pictured, November 2017) whose 2014 remark about sexual-assault accusations against Bill Cosby went viral, is getting another serious surge of attention

Stand-up comic Hannibal Buress (left and right), whose 2014 remark about sexual-assault accusations against Bill Cosby went viral, is getting another serious surge of attention

Three-and-a-half years before Cosby's conviction, in a Philadelphia comedy club, Buress  mocked Cosby's smug preachiness and called him a rapist during his act (pictured)

Three-and-a-half years before Cosby’s conviction, in a Philadelphia comedy club, Buress mocked Cosby’s smug preachiness and called him a rapist during his act (pictured)

'I've done this bit on stage, and people think I'm making it up,' Buress said. 'Bill Cosby has a lot of rape allegations...When you leave here, Google "Bill Cosby rape"' (pictured)

‘I’ve done this bit on stage, and people think I’m making it up,’ Buress said. ‘Bill Cosby has a lot of rape allegations…When you leave here, Google “Bill Cosby rape”‘ (pictured)

Cellphone video of the moment, taken by then-Philadelphia Magazine reporter Dan McQuade went viral, and so did the allegations.

Stories that had been public but largely ignored for years suddenly got a footing. New accusers emerged, and old accusers reemerged. Lawsuits and criminal prosecution soon followed.

Buress was silent on the subject after Thursday’s verdict against Cosby, tweeting out only tour dates, and his representatives didn’t respond to requests for a statement. But thousands of people were talking about the comic on Twitter.

‘Somebody buy @hannibalburess a drink today. And then again tomorrow. Forever,’ tweeted TV comedy writer Travon Free. 

‘Big big thanks to Hannibal Burress [sic] for getting the Cosby train started,’ wrote another user. 

CNBC politics reporter John Harwood even got in on the action, tweeting: ‘Think about the impact Hannibal Burress [sic] made.’

On Thursday, Cosby (pictured, exiting Montgomery County Courthouse) was found guilty of all three counts of aggravated indecent assault

On Thursday, Cosby (pictured, exiting Montgomery County Courthouse) was found guilty of all three counts of aggravated indecent assault

Thousands of people took to Twitter to credit Buress for his role in helping put Cosby behind bars

Thousands of people took to Twitter to credit Buress for his role in helping put Cosby behind bars

Cosby, who was known for his good-guy image as wisdom-dispensing, sweater-wearing Dr Cliff Huxtable on ‘The Cosby Show,’ repeatedly denied sexually violating a Temple University employee at his mansion in 2004. 

The 80-year-old could get up to 10 years in prison on each of three counts of aggravated indecent assault but is likely to get less than that under state sentencing guidelines.  

Louisa Moritz, one of Cosby’s accusers called him ‘a raping monster’ and she looks forward to seeing him ‘in handcuffs on his way to prison’ following his conviction. 

Moritz says Cosby ‘has groomed, then raped, then threatened so many’ women. She says he raped her in a dressing room of ‘The Tonight Show’ in the 1970s.

Another Cosby accuser is actor and former bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno’s wife, Carla Ferrigno. She says she’s ‘so happy’ to learn about Cosby’s convictions. 

The 80-year-old (pictured, Thursday) could get up to 10 years in prison on each of three counts of aggravated indecent assault but is likely to get less than that under state sentencing guidelines

The 80-year-old (pictured, Thursday) could get up to 10 years in prison on each of three counts of aggravated indecent assault but is likely to get less than that under state sentencing guidelines

Buress has refused to talk about Cosby (pictured, with spokesperson Andrew Wyatt exiting Montgomery County Courthouse) in interviews, but he addressed what he had started in his 2016 Netflix special

Buress has refused to talk about Cosby (pictured, with spokesperson Andrew Wyatt exiting Montgomery County Courthouse) in interviews, but he addressed what he had started in his 2016 Netflix special

Buress has refused to talk about Cosby in interviews, but he addressed what he had started in his 2016 Netflix special.

‘That situation got out of hand. Yikes!’ Buress said. ‘I was just doing a joke at a show.’

He said most of the media coverage contained a ‘slight dis’ when it called him ‘unknown comedian Hannibal Buress.’

No one calls him that anymore.



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk