Cover of "Wonderfulness"
Cover of Wonderfulness

This is the first part of one of my favorite routines by Bill Cosby.

The routine is called “Chicken Heart” and is on the Wonderfulness recording by Professor William Henry Cosby Junior.

Wha?!?

Professor you say?

Yes I do.

Cosby has received honorary doctorates from many colleges and universities, including:

  • Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • Berklee College of Music
  • Baylor University
  • Yale University
  • Sisseton Wahpeton College (for his contributions to minority education)
  • West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  • Haverford College
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • University of Cincinnati
  • Amherst College
  • University of Pennsylvania

He also EARNED an Ed.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1976. His disseration was entitled “An Integration of the Visual Media Via “Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids” Into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning”. Copies of his dissertation are available from University Microfilms International as document number 7706369. So suck on that for a minute if you doubt the Cos and his commitment to humor and to education.

But to me Bill Cosby will always be first and foremost a Master of Fine Comedy,  and a legend of our time. I hope you enjoy the first segment of the Chicken Heart routine as much as I.

I got the vinyl LP of Wonderfulness when it first came out and played it over and over, marvelling in the mastery of Cosby’s timing and ability to tell stories of his childhood. And listening to the album years later on the Wonderfulness compact disc brought back all of those memories and the laughter that the Cos has shared with our world.

Bill Cosby has become known in recent years for espousing his views on race, economics, and class and their impact on society. I don’t want to get too heavy on your ass, but in my opinion this is nothing new for him. Here is a brief quote about his early career that is very interesting – to me it makes clear that the Cos is no Johnny-come-lately about these issues:

While many comics were using the growing freedom of that decade (the 1960’s) to explore controversial, sometimes risqué material, Cosby was making his reputation with humorous recollections of his childhood. Many Americans wondered about the absence of race as a topic in Cosby’s stories. As Cosby’s success grew he had to defend his choice of material regularly; as he argued:

A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, ‘Yeah, that’s the way I see it too.’ Okay. He’s white. I’m Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike. Right? So I figure this way I’m doing as much for good race relations as the next guy.

See, not just funny, but he’s also really smart. Even during the ’60’s Bill Cosby had a keen insight into how to most effectively use his public behavior as a means of both enlightening/educating and making us laugh our asses off, regardless of our race, creed, color, or sex.

Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
The Cos – Chicken Heart Part 2, Bill Cosby: Grandparents, Bill Cosby – Dentists