Tweeting “Go ahead. Meme me!†is rarely a good idea, but it’s particularly stupid when you’re a celebrity who’s been accused of raping 13 women. Nevertheless, Bill Cosby posted that message on Monday afternoon, along with a link to a meme generator on his website, where users could choose one of 12 photos and type their own text. The memes had to be submitted for approval, but unfortunately for Cosby’s PR team, most internet users know how to take a screenshot. The results tweeted under the hashtag #CosbyMeme were definitely not what the 77-year-old comedian had in mind.
Within a few hours Cosby’s tweet had been deleted, and the link for the meme generator had been removed from his website. However, it appears the PR team could not figure out how to prevent tweets referencing the incident from automatically showing up at the bottom of the site.
The allegations against Cosby first emerged a decade ago, though the women described incidents dating back to the ‘70s. Until recently his team would have been right to assume that the world had forgotten or did not want to think about the possibility that Dr. Huxtable drugged and sexually assaulted many women. However, many people were made aware of the abuse claims just a few weeks ago when this clip of Hannibal Buress calling Cosby a rapist went viral.
And this is why it’s so important to know your meme.