Hannibal Buress Never Meant to Bring Down Bill Cosby: Sexual Assault Allegations Surge

As comedian Bill Cosby's sexual assault allegations continue to surge, with more than 50 women coming forward asserting that the once-upon-a-time respected comic assaulted them, the one who brought him down admits he never meant to do so. Comedian Hannibal Buress (30 Rock, Broad City) recently said that he's done with being known as that guy.

In a new piece from Entertainment Weekly, Buress admitted that it was the media who put him in front of the whole Cosby situation, largely because it was his joke – which had him calling Cosby a "rapist" – that went viral.

"[The media] put me too much at the front of that sh*t," he reportedly said. In fact, he claims that he "was just doing a show" that night and appeared to think nothing of the bit.

It all went down in October of 2014, when Buress was performing in Philadelphia. During a bit about Cosby's message to young African American kids to pull up their pants, Buress hit Cosby, calling him a "rapist" and then told the crowd, "I guess I want to just make it weird for you to watch Cosby Show returns."

And, well, he did.

Buress has done a number of interviews and public appearances since the whole thing went down. Back in March, when Comedy Central was gearing up for the Roast of Justin Bieber, which Buress was a performer on, the comedian appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and expressed, "I get a lot of messages from people about [the Cosby situation]." He further explained that he'll get death threats from people who have mutual friends on Facebook.

"And then having to hit your friend up and say, 'Hey man, can you tell your buddy to stop saying he's going to murder me?'"

Which, yeah, seems awkward.