Cosby Suite

About

Cosby Suite is a nickname given to a hotel room that served as an informal meeting place for Blizzard employees during the BlizzCon 2013 gaming convention. The room, named after comedian and accused rapist Bill Cosby, became a viral subject of discussions in late July 2021 in light of the Activision-Blizzard lawsuit concerning the history of sexual harassment within the company. It is inconclusive whether the nickname was picked as a reference to Cosby's sexual offenses.

Origin

On July 22nd, 2021, news broke that California had officially started the process of suing video game developer and publishing company Activision-Blizzard over troubling incidents discovered during a two-year investigation into sexual harassment and work culture problems at the company.^[1] There was evidence that multiple females within the Blizzard organization were allegedly not being promoted despite long years of working, instead being passed over for less-qualified or less-tenured male colleagues, as well as things that are commonly associated with sexual harassment and anti-female sentiment being commonplace in the company.

In the lawsuit, a hotel room referred to as "Cosby Suit" was mentioned. On July 28th, gaming news website Kotaku published^[2] an article titled "Inside Blizzard Developers’ Infamous Bill ‘Cosby Suite’" in which the "Cosby Suit" was investigated (tweet screenshot and photograph of Blizzard employees with a Bill Cosby portrait shown below, left and right).

The article provided screenshots of social media posts about the suite along with comments made by a number of Blizzard employees (shown below, left and right), including a screenshot of a chat conversation posted by Afrasiabi on Facebook. In the article, the room is described as "a booze-filled meeting place where many, including Afrasiabi, would pose with a portrait of Bill Cosby" and a "hot spot for informal networking at BlizzCon."

Origin of the Nickname

It is inconclusive whether the nickname of the suite referenced Cosby's sexual offenses. A source told Kotaku that the name of the suite referenced the comedian's iconic ugly sweaters and did not originally have any sexual connotations, with the running joke being about the suite looking dated like Cosby's sweater. Another source said that the room referenced an ugly boardroom at Blizzard's main office.

On July 28th, 2021, former Blizzard developer Greg Street, now a Riot Games employee, tweeted^[3] a statement in which he said that the suite was a green room for breaks during the convention, writing that he never saw or experienced any of the harassment described in the allegations.

In the Kotaku article, a photograph of a group of women sitting on a bed with the Cosby portrait is described, with one of the women appearing to have a hand on another's breast. Based on the images and two sources with knowledge of Afrasiaibi's predatory behavior, Kotaku concluded that Cosby's reputation was the point why the group of men gathered around the picture.

Spread

A July 28th tweet^[4] by Kotaku linking the article received over 3,600 retweets, 5,500 quote tweets and 13,200 likes in one day.

Starting that day, the Cosby Suite became a viral subject of discussions on social media within the larger topic of the Activision-Blizzard lawsuit. That day, Twitter^[5][6] users @R3Z2600 and @DiscordianKitty posted images identifying each of the eight men who took photos next to Bill Cosby's portrait (posts shown below, left and right).

A number of viral tweets assuming that the name of the suite was a reference to Cosby's sexual offenses were posted. For example, a Twitter^[7] post by user @jasminericegirl received over 420 retweets and 2,000 likes.

The photograph and the nickname also saw use in memes. For example, on July 28th, Twitter^[8] user @Schizoredditor posted a Wojak / Coomer meme that received over 280 retweets and 5,100 likes.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References