Bill Cosby learned a lesson about the Internet after his staff created a Cosby meme generator on the comedian’s official website, inspiring many to make comments about the numerous rape allegations against him.

#CosbyMeme Backfires

Cosby, the comedian who made a career on being a father figure in The Cosby Show, invited his nearly 4 million Twitter followers to “Meme me” using a special feature on his website. The meme generator, which has since been taken down, allowed users to choose from a series of photos of Bill Cosby and add in their own captions.

As one user reported, examples on Cosby’s website were mostly innocent fun, with memes ranging from “How do you like my hat?” to “Vegetables? YUCK!”

Once released to the worldwide web, the meme generator quickly became host to much more controversial thoughts. Many fans jumped on the opportunity to bring to light the many allegations of rape made against Cosby.

Bill Cosby Rape Accusations

Though never charged with sexual assault or rape, over a dozen women have accused Cosby of drugging them and raping them, with allegations dating all the way back to the ‘70s. In 2005, 15 women accused Cosby of rape in a civil complaint filed by Andrea Constand. Cosby settled the suit in 2006, supposedly for an undisclosed amount of money.

The meme generator did feature an approval period, but users were still able to take screenshots of their created memes and share them on the Internet. The generator has been taken offline and the original tweet by Bill Cosby requesting memes has been deleted.

Cosby has not commented on the failed social media campaign, nor has NBC, which recently signed a deal with Cosby to produce another family sitcom starring the comedian. Cosby developed the show with actor/writer Mike O’Malley and The Cosby Show executive producer Tom Werener and brought on showrunner Mike Sikowitz. According to reports, the new show “stars Cosby as Jonathan Franklin, a patriarch of a multi-generational family who shares his many years of wit, wisdom and experience to help his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren navigate their complicated modern lives.”

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