The Bill Cosby #CosbyMeme Creates An Immediate Backlash

It probably seemed like an innocuous campaign for an Monday afternoon. “Go ahead. Meme me!, #CosbyMeme” Bill Cosby’s account called out to his 3.93 million Twitter followers.

Go ahead. Meme me! http://t.co/uM3KSji8or #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/9PbpQqz33X

— Bill Cosby (@BillCosby) November 10, 2014

But as many public figures and brands have learned, it’s not the best idea to give Internet users tools to berate you, especially when you are being dogged by a significant controversy. And it didn’t take long for the social media reaction force to go after Cosby, who has been has been accused — but, it should be noted, never criminally tried — of rape by 13 women.

#CosbyMeme quickly hit Twitter’s U.S. trending list; the hashtag was mentioned more than 5,000 times in the first two hours after Cosby’s tweet. And let’s just say that most of the reaction wasn’t what the comedian’s social team was looking for.

If you're wondering how @BillCosby's team *thought* #CosbyMeme would go, these are the examples from his website. pic.twitter.com/skq3WC7sBM

— dan barker (@danbarker) November 10, 2014

Instead it was like a social media roast, with a lot of this:

I think Bill Cosby still thinks he's America's Dad and not America's creepy Uncle who's not allowed to visit anymore… #CosbyMeme

— Elon James White (@elonjames) November 10, 2014

#CosbyMeme In a very special Fat Albert… pic.twitter.com/yUYLBBzARD

— [email protected] (@alpha1906) November 11, 2014

Cc: @ceelogreen RT @Discipline_99: Kill.. RT @jujoffer: #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/86PuzFQMhn

— Melly Berry (@JamelleMyBelle) November 11, 2014

#CosbyMeme Oh Boy! pic.twitter.com/5shOSuH74c

— E.J. Coughlin (@ejc) November 10, 2014

Don't do it! Reconsider! Read some literature on the subject! RT @BillCosby: Go ahead. Meme me! http://t.co/whKB8UEgBA #CosbyMeme

— Chris Burton (@ChrisB06) November 11, 2014

I can’t hear you. #CosbyMeme pic.twitter.com/gvL9BRZGep

— Sean Campbell (@Melanism) November 10, 2014

Someone's getting fired. #cosbymeme pic.twitter.com/GSMsNFcz1D

— Adam Hammer (@AdamHammer) November 10, 2014

Postscript: Sometime Monday night, the Cosby Meme generator was taken down. And the original tweet by @BillCosby was deleted.