The Country Curmudgeon — A real American hero

By Roy Hicks
Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:15 AM PDT

His name is Bill Cosby. He has been entertaining our country for more than 50 years. I was reminded of this while watching the rebroadcast of a two-hour stage show “Bill Cosby Himself” from 1983.

Bill Cosby first gained national prominence while I was in high school with a record album entitled “Why Is There Air?” He immediately established himself as a national humorist on a scale with Will Rogers: commenting on the vagaries of everyday life, his childhood in Philadelphia, his family relationships, his experiences as an athlete at Temple University and generally poking fun at himself and everyone around him.

Over the next 20 years he perfected his early skills as an entertainer. 

A handsome man with a marvelous rubbery face he could shift at will to punctuate whatever he was saying, he quickly developed the expert timing and delivery of a Jack Benny, Victor Borge or Bob Hope.

I once saw Bill Cosby in person at the Circle Star Theater in San Mateo. 

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For almost two hours, I laughed so hard my ribs ached. 

What he did best was creating caricatures of his parents and his younger brother and later describing his own experiences as the father of five children with a devastatingly funny insight into the little adventures of everyday family life.

He eventually starred in three television series, but his life was not without heartache. 

The worst was when his only son was murdered in a highway incident. 

If I’d been him, I would have offered the Mafia a million dollars to kill the people who murdered his son. He didn’t do that but instead suffered through all of it in a heart-cracking silence.

Despite what must have been a great deal of pressure, Bill Cosby never succumbed to squandering his immense popularity as an entertainer by agitating foolishly for “civil rights” as did his predecessor Dick Gregory: a formerly successful black comedian who eventually destroyed his own credibility and reputation by claiming the Atlanta child murderer was killing little boys to extract genetic material from their bodies, when in fact the culprit was just a black child pornographer run amok.

Whatever he might have been feeling at any particular time, Bill Cosby has never played the race card but continues to present himself as the quintessential and totally average American: a mild-mannered, modest and witheringly on-target observer of the everyday social scene.

In presenting himself thus, Bill Cosby has done more for race relations in this country than anyone else by illustrating with gentle humor how we are all basically so much alike.

Roy Hicks, a Payette resident, writes a weekly column for the Argus Observer. Comments or questions for Mr. Hicks can be directed to: Roy Hicks, Argus Observer Newsroom; 1160 S.W. Fourth St., Ontario, OR 97914 . The views and opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily represent those of the Argus Observer.