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Hannibal Buress at the American Comedy Awards in New York City on April 23, 2014.Image: Brad Barket/Invision/Associated Press LOS ANGELES — It was the cultural equivalent of an action hero walking away from an explosion without looking back: Hannibal Buress has spoken his piece about Bill Cosby, and seems content to leave the billowing mushroom cloud behind. It is simply accepted as fact that Buress’ Oct. 16 standup routine was the tipping point in Cosby’s precipitous public downfall, an organically viral moment that, for reasons no one can quite explain, finally focused our attention on decades of sexual predation accusations while stirring up at least a half-dozen more. But if you thought the 31-year-old comedian would somehow seek to capitalize, or even continue to agitate for a reckoning with Cosby’s past, think again. Most comics toil their whole lives in relative obscurity, waiting for something they do or say to catch fire. Buress got his moment by way of a crude cell phone video. It’s a bit that Buress said he has done dozens of times over several months of public performances, but there was something about the timing of last month’s show in Cosby’s hometown of Philadelphia that piqued the Internet’s interest, emboldening more women to come forward and touching off a media firestorm. Since then, Buress has turned down dozens of interview requests, including one from Mashable. He has largely avoided the topic on his active social media channels, and has not revisited the Cosby situation, at least not in a performance caught on tape, in his 15 standup appearances since. Subtle clues in his Twitter feed hint that the Cosby story might still weigh on his mind, including this YouTube video (below) from Nov. 15, right around the time Cosby was refusing to address the gathering clouds during an interview with NPR. “People have been asking me to comment,” he wrote, then proceeded to “review” the Cracker Barrel meal that he and his crew ate while traveling between venues in an RV. But at about 3:15 in, Buress, who is waxing poetic about the $20 keyboard he just bought, says, “Sometimes we fail in life. That’s OK.” Then, a bleeped-out section. People have been asking me to comment. here it is. https://t.co/BZnZE7BMIZ — Hannibal Buress (@hannibalburess) November 15, 2014 “Delete, delete! That’s an edit,” someone says off-screen while the entire crew laughs heartily. Then, Buress: “That jump-cut is because we said something slanderous. And we won’t tell you who it is, but… don’t want to deal with that at all.” “That” could be any number of things, including pressure Cosby’s attack dog lawyer Martin Singer, or the inevitable blowback from members of the public who still support Cosby. In fact, a week later, Buress seemed to acknowledge just that. The only thing weirder than getting a death threat from a male bodybuilder/stripper on FB is seeing that you have one mutual friend. — Hannibal Buress (@hannibalburess) November 21, 2014 And then hitting that one friend up and […]

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