Twitter Fail of the Year: Bill Cosby’s #cosbymeme

Some celebrities can handle their Twitter account on their own. Some can’t. Is Bill Cosby one that can’t? Or does his social media team just fail at campaigning for him?

When Cosby (or his team) tweeted out “Go ahead. Meme me! #cosbymeme”, they thought they were in for a homerun. Turns out, they weren’t even playing the right game. Here’s how the disaster played out:

Cosby’s rape allegations had finally faded into the background of his career for a moment while he continued to do standup comedy and to make a select few appearances, the most recent ones being with Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.

The realization that things weren’t completely in the past appeared when the staff of Queen Latifah’s talk show got “cold feet” and an interview previously scheduled with the comedy legend was canceled.

Fast forward to the actual Twitter fail.

Bill Cosby asked folks on Twitter to turn him into a meme on Monday and it did not go well.

The tweet was accompanied by a picture of Cosby along with a link to their meme generator. The Twitterverse took to it immediately, but not in the way it was intended. The Cosby meme headed down the one path Cosby, or his social media team, never thought it would. His rape allegations were back in the spotlight courtesy of memes like these:

The tweet was taken down a few hours later along with the meme generator. The link now redirects to his website, but everyone knows the internet is forever. Needless to say, the memes are still circulating and Twitter users don’t need a meme generator to make them.

So is Bill Cosby looking for a new looking for a new social media manager? Or did someone forget to tell him that Twitter is ruthless: anything you say can and will be used against you.