So how many people have been googling 'bill cosby rape' like Hannibal Buress said?

Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.

If Cosby's social media team hadn't made that colossal #CosbyMeme blunder, people might have just forgotten about it again.

So how many people <i>have</i> been googling 'bill cosby rape' like Hannibal Buress said?

Hannibal Buress' "Bill Cosby is a rapist" bit is now famous, after a clip of it from a show at the Trocadero last month started the ball rolling on what appears to be turning into the end of Cosby's career.

Partly transcribed:

It's even worse because Bill Cosby has the fuckin' smuggest old black man persona that I hate ... He gets on TV, 'Pull your pants up, black people, I was on TV in the ’80s! I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom!' Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. ... 

I've done this bit on stage and people think I'm making it up.... when you leave here, google 'Bill Cosby rape.' That shit has more results than 'Hannibal Buress.'

We thought it might be interesting to look at Google Trends for how many people actually were Googling 'Bill Cosby rape.' It turned up some interesting data — including that, if Cosby's social media team hadn't made that colossal #CosbyMeme blunder, people might have just forgotten about it again. 

(And, if you haven't been paying attention, this is a decent Cliff's Notes for the recent stuff. For a primer on the earlier stuff, check out Vulture's timeline of the whole thing.)

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