On a Thursday in late October, Hannibal Buress kindled a fire that would burn down a career. Buress, former writer for NBC’s sitcom 30 Rock and rising standup comedian (whose set has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Comedy Central’s Standup Specials), unearthed serial rape allegations against Bill Cosby that had been oh-so-carefully put to rest by Cosby’s PR team. Buress referenced the allegations with a joke in a stand-up set: “Bill Cosby has the smuggest old black man public persona that I hate,” Buress said. “He gets on TV, ‘Pull your pants up black people, I was on TV in the 80s! I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom!’ Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. I’ve done this bit on stage and people think I’m making it up…If you didn’t know about it, trust me. When you leave here, Google ‘Bill Cosby rape.’ It’s not funny.”

That joke went viral. In a matter of days, Cosby’s reputation―which was already on shaky ground after rape charges were made public in 2005―began to collapse. Cosby’s PR team attempted to calm the fuss with a tweet asking fans to “meme Cosby,” which completely backfired. One meme read, “Fourteen allegations of rape? Zipzopzubbitybop!”

Since Buress’ joke dredged the allegations into the mainstream, twenty women in total have come forth claiming Cosby had raped them. The rapes themselves spanned from 1965 to about 2008. Most accounts claimed that Cosby took the same approach to force himself on them: first he drugged them, and then, while they were either doped up or unconscious, he took advantage of them.

Many people are highly skeptical and are coming to Cosby’s defense. Celebrities such as Whoopi Goldberg and Jill Scott are standing firm and are holding their faith in Cosby. On Sunday, Jill Scott tweeted, “U know Bill Cosby? I do child and this is insane. Proof. Period.”

In the meantime, Cosby’s career has come to an abrupt halt. The sitcom he had been developing with NBC was promptly scrapped, multiple live shows he had scheduled were cancelled and/or postponed (including one at the Tarrytown Music Hall) and TV Land stopped airing re-runs of The Cosby Show. The future of his career is unclear. Has any celebrity ever able to rebuild their reputation after being accused of rape as consistently and as horrifyingly as Cosby has? Will Cosby, legendary comedian, content creator, alleged serial rapist, ever manage to piece together his fragmented legacy?
Only time will tell.