Comedy unites generations
Cosby's comedy reflects on parent, child dynamics
10:09 a.m., Nov. 1, 2011--For more than half a century, Bill Cosby has been an icon in comedy, spanning multiple generations from his television roles as Dr. Heathcliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show and the voice of “Little Bill” on Nickelodeon to his stand-up acts and infamous Jell-O commercials.
On Friday, Oct. 14, Cosby kicked off Parents and Family Weekend at UD when he took the stage to a sold-out crowd of nearly 5,000 at the Bob Carpenter Center -- not only to entertain but also to share his insights as a parent.
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Beginning with a joke about how difficult it is to age, Cosby proceeded down memory lane, relating his experiences as a father to those of the parents and students attending.
“And they [children] will do what we [parents] say because they know that we love them,” Cosby joked while talking about how well children listen to their parents.
Cosby explained the challenges he and his wife faced with their daughter when she was 11 years old and would not clean up her room. Playing all three parts, Cosby told the story of how his wife outsmarted his daughter by having her get the scale from the bathroom and demonstrated that when you put a sock on the scale, it weighed nothing and the needle didn’t even move. “So my wife said to my daughter, ‘Then why can’t you pick that up!’” Cosby exclaimed, drawing a roar of laughter and applause from the audience. However, he continued and said, “And I got mad [at my wife] -- because I hadn’t thought of that.”
Cosby’s wit entertained the crowd as he talked about the challenges parents face with college-age students, particularly when they are not putting their studies first.
Telling another story, Cosby said his daughter got a 1.6 GPA one semester in college, and he had to talk to her about it. He sat her down and said, "I don't like you. But I love who you should be."
In an interview before the show, Cosby circled back to this same point about how parents want the best for their children even those the children do not always see it. “When you’re young and people give you advice,” Cosby explained, “you digest it and store it somewhere -- until something happens when you’re much older and suddenly it all makes sense.”
Photos by Evan Krape