Twitter cheers Hannibal Buress after Cosby verdict

Bill Cosby been found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault against former Temple University employee Andrea Constand, and the entertainer could now face up to 10 years in prison on each count.

As news of the verdict against Cosby spread Thursday, some followers of the case took to Twitter to bring the focus back to comedian Hannibal Buress, who famously made a joke about the sexual misconduct allegations against Cosby in a Philadelphia stand up set in 2014, and is considered to be one of the cultural catalysts behind the start of the comedian's most recent legal proceedings.

"Bill Cosby has the f——— smuggest old black man persona that I hate," Buress said in 2014. "He gets on TV, 'Pull up your pants 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."

The bit created a media firestorm around the allegations against Cosby, and led to more women making public accusations against the long-beloved TV dad. In total, about 60 women made accusations against Cosby, with some alleged incidents dating back to the 1960s, according to reports.

Following his Cosby bit going viral, Buress called himself an "accidental whistle-blower" in the case, and said that the media "put me too much at the front of that s——."

He addressed the bit in his 2016 Netflix comedy special: "That situation got out of hand. Yikes," he says in the special. "I was just doing a joke at a show! I didn't like the media putting me at the forefront of it. They were sly dissing me in the news: 'Unknown Comedian Hannibal Buress…' 'Brokeass comedian… Homeless comedian Hannibal Buress took the stage in Philly, covered in rags…'"

Buress had no comment on the verdict, his publicist said via email. The comedian is scheduled to play the Merriam Theater here in Philadelphia on May 19. Tickets are currently available.

With Cosby now guilty, many fans cheered Buress on on Twitter:

Other users, meanwhile, pointed out that the Cosby case began long before Buress' joke, and continued long after he stopped talking about it, thanks to the women who stepped forward with their stories: