Rape allegations won't go away for Bill Cosby

On Monday, the comedian -- or whomever was in charge of his social media -- put out a challenge with a jovial picture of Cosby in a cap: "Go ahead. Meme me! #cosbymeme."

The Internet immediately reacted, but probably not in the way Cosby expected.

"Claire, have you seen my ... nevermind, found my raping hat!" tweeted Trill Withers over the cap picture.

"My two favorite things (--) Jell-O pudding & rape," tweeted E.J. Coughlin over a photo of Cosby smiling.

"Look at this wacky shirt I'm wearing (--) also I am a serial rapist," tweeted Jason Steele over a picture of a thumbs-up Cosby in a patterned shirt.

By nightfall, Cosby's original tweet had been pulled from the Web, which led to this conclusion from Jensen Karp: "If anyone is looking for a job, the Social Media Manager position for @BillCosby is about to open up."

But if Cosby's social media manager has gone underground, in the Internet age -- where nothing ever goes away -- the rape allegations, which Cosby has repeatedly denied, have stubbornly remained in the open.

In late October, comedian Hannibal Buress bluntly attacked what he perceived as Cosby's "smuggest old black man public persona" by saying, "Yeah, but you rape women, Bill Cosby, so turn the crazy down a couple notches. 'I don't curse onstage.' Well, yeah, you're (a) rapist, so I'll take you saying lots of m*****f*****s on 'Bill Cosby: Himself' if you weren't a rapist."

A couple weeks later, Cosby was booked on Queen Latifah's talk show, but the allegations reportedly gave the staff "cold feet,"according to TMZ. Cosby's booking was "postponed at his request," the website reported in an addendum. (Cosby did do interviews with Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon without incident.)

Now comes the social media fiasco.

For years, Cosby has denied the rape allegations. In February, after Newsweek ran an interview with one of the purported victims, Tamara Green, Cosby's representative said, "This is a 10-year-old, discredited accusation that proved to be nothing at the time, and is still nothing."

Nine years ago, when Green was interviewed by Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, his lawyer issued a statement: "Miss Green's allegations are absolutely false. Mr. Cosby does not know the name Tamara Green or (maiden name) Tamara Lucier and the incident she describes did not happen. The fact that she may have repeated this story to others is not corroboration."

In the case of Andrea Constand, who sued Cosby in 2005 over an incident the year before, Cosby says the sex was consensual.

CNN has reached out to Cosby's representative for comment on this story, but has yet to hear back.