A comic's mic was cut off at Loyola University Chicago after he made a joke about the Catholic church's history of child abuse Saturday night, the school's student newspaper the Loyola Phoenix reported.
Hannibal Buress is best known for jokes about Bill Cosby's sexual assault allegations in Philadelphia and helped lead to the downfall of the comedian. He did not spare the church at the Catholic university, telling jokes about priests' molestation of children before his microphone was cut, the newspaper said.
The Loyola Phoenix wrote that Buress opened his comedy routine showing pictures of an email he claimed was sent to him from Loyola about the school's restrictions on comedy content during the performance, including a ban on jokes in reference to rape, sexual assault, race and sexual orientation.
Buress then mentioned the molestation of children by priests, a reference to the long-running sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and the church's response to the allegations, noted the newspaper.
That apparently was enough to get the comedian's microphone cut off and then background music turned up to high volume when Buress attempted to continue at the urging of the audience, the Loyola Phoenix said.
Buress departed the stage for 15 minutes, making jokes about school officials turning off his microphone though the rest of his set, the newspaper said.
Buress reportedly went to Twitter to say, "Weird way to celebrate Sweet 16," referencing the school's basketball surprise victories in the opening two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, the Loyola Phoenix wrote.
Many took to Twitter as well about the Buress ejection from the comedy show.
Buress was performing as part of Colossus, an annual, two-night show held by Loyola's Department of Programming, according to the Loyola Phoenix.
Leslie Watland, the assistant director of student activities and Greek affairs at Loyola told the newspaper that "student development administrators" made the decisions to pull the plug on Buress and not her department.
Buress' jokes about Cosby's sexual assault allegations during a routine of Cosby's hometown of Philadelphia in 2014 created a media firestorm, bringing new light to the charges, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Since then, some 50 women have come out to charge the comedian once known for breaking barriers for African-American entertainers, with sexual harassment and abuse charges, the newspaper said.
Cosby is awaiting an April retrial in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the sexual assault case where prosecutors charge that the comedian sexually assaulted former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine reported.
A jury deadlocked on criminal charges against Cosby, 80, last June, Rolling Stone reported.
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