Bill Cosby

Over the last decade Bill Cosby has received less attention for his creative ventures than for his blunt views on morality and personal responsibility in the black community, which can perhaps come across as harsher than the former sitcom star intends. His critiques of rap culture in particular can sound like an attack on a younger, less privileged class than his own, but at the core of his arguments are the same values he espoused on “The Cosby Show”—namely the belief that parents have a responsibility to raise their children the right way. If the 74-year-old Cosby can sometimes appear doddering in his more serious television appearances, he uses that same quality for comic effect in his standup act, which is as good-natured as ever, sidestepping hot-button issues in favor of fatherly ruminations on kids and matrimony.