Bill Cosby gives a grasshopper-style response to ABC News question about rape allegations

Fans of the old Kung Fu TV show starring David Carradine will recall how the elderly, blind Shaolin priest would give deeply philosophical answers to questions from a young Kwai Chang Caine. The priest often called the budding kung fu master "grasshopper".

Embattled comedian Bill Cosby has tried to pull off a similar type of response to serious rape allegations. You can read the transcript below of a question from ABC News correspondent Linsey Davis, which was broadcast yesterday on Good Morning America.

Davis: Are you prepared for the backlash if a young person comes up to you and says, "My mom says you've done some bad things." How will you answer them if they are pressing you: "Are you guilty? Did you do it? Are the allegations true?"

Cosby: I am prepared to tell this young person the truth about life. I'm not sure that they will come like that. I think that many of them say, "Well, you're a hypocrite. You say one thing, you say the other." My point is, okay, listen to me carefully. I'm telling you where the road is out. I'm telling you where as you're driving, you're going to go into, into water and it looks like it might only be three inches deep but you and your car are going to go down. Now, you want to go here or you want to be concerned about who's giving you the message.

Cosby might as well have said, "Patience, young grasshopper."

More than 30 women have publicly alleged that they were either drugged or sexually assaulted. Cosby's lawyers have adamantly denied that any of these stories are true.

"This is a situation that's unprecedented," Cosby told ABC's Davis. "My family, my friends—I have been in this business 52 years and I've never seen anything like this. And reality is the situation and I can't speak."

Yesterday, the Black Belt Community Foundation invited Cosby to join a March for Education in Alabama, arousing outrage from his critics.