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The Cosby Show

For the last few months, it’s been impossible to ignore the many women who have come out and accused beloved comedian Bill Cosby of drugging them and sexually assaulting them. Just this week, it was revealed that Cosby himself admitted in a 2005 deposition that he gave a 19-year-old woman Quaaludes and had sex with her in 1976 (although Cosby insists the sex with consensual). It was a bombshell, certainly, and one that certainly made many of Cosby’s diehard supporters call into question their loyalty for the comedian.

The last few months have been tough for those of us who hoped to separate the art from the artist. I can’t say I’ve felt too great about watching The Cosby Show; back in November, I tried to figure out for myself if The Cosby Show still carried all of its merits despite its star’s fall from grace. Ultimately, it felt like a personal decision; I don’t blame the TV networks from pulling its reruns from their schedules, but there didn’t seem to be much of a connection between the fictional Cliff Huxtable and the actor who played him.

But… Hoo, boy. Some Reddit users found what might be the most uncomfortable and unnerving episode of The Cosby Show during its eight-season run. The Season Seven episode, titled “Last Barbecue,” involves Cliff’s special barbecue sauce… which, when ingested, makes the women on the show suddenly passive and, well, fairly amorous. As Maggie Serota over at Death and Taxes writes:

When the women all of the sudden become lovey-dovey, notice how Dr. Huxtable’s daughter Sondra is barely conscious as she lovingly lounges into her husband Elvin’s arms.

Writing credits for the episode go to Bernie Kukoff and Janet Leahy, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t assume that Bill Cosby popped into the writers room with this idea?

“It’s my barbecue sauce,” Huxtable explained to his wife Claire, played by staunch Cosby defender Phylicia Rashad. “Haven’t you ever noticed after people have some of my barbecue sauce, after a while, when it kicks in, they get all huggy-buggy? … Haven’t you ever noticed that after one of my barbecues—and they have the sauce—people want to get right home?”

Huxtable then implies that he’s got a cup of barbecue sauce ready to go in their bedroom. Jesus.

You can watch the episode on YouTube below, and it gets rather awkward around the 18-minute mark.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1117&v=RdOhWmshtmI]

This isn’t, of course, the first time that Cosby’s material ventured into this particular area. His 1969 comedy album It’s True! It’s True! features a track in which Cosby tells of his childhood obsession with Spanish Fly, joking about slipping the aphrodisiac into women’s drinks.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx6KAd_Su3I]

Ugh. Just… ugh.

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