A Wild Morning With Cosby

When Bill Cosby visited the set of CBS This Morning, he turned the place upside-down with spontaneous comedy, even as he ironed a shirt with Martha Stewart and promoted his new book, Kids Say The Darnedest Things. (The book, as every Cosby fan has figured out by now, is based on his CBS program of the same name.)

Cosby, who also stars in his own primetime sitcom, had a chat with "This Morning" Co-Anchors Jane Robelot and Mark McEwen, and demonstrated how he used to iron a shirt when he was in the Navy. He also kidded with Meteorologist Craig Allen during the weather report.

But he finally did settle down long enough to talk about his new book, a collection of memorable conversations with kids, completely uncensored, taken from his program. Also in the book are some unforgettable gems from Art Linkletter and his classic House Party shows.

Cosby says Linkletter was his mentor. "When I watched him," recalls Cosby, "I laughed and I laughed at the way he moved from kid to kid, his expressionsÂ… There will never be another Art Linkletter."

Travelers who have read the book, reports Cosby, often have run into an unusual problem: laughing aloud in a plane or train. "People come up to me and they say, 'You know, this book made me stupidÂ… I'm on the plane, I'm on the train ,and I'm reading, and I'm laughing. I close the book, and I laugh out loud. People look at me and on the train and on the plane, you're supposed to be serious'."

On Kids Say The Darnedest Things, sometimes the children are more serious than they're supposed to be.

"I've had some kids that just, by the time I got to the third chair, that kid had gone. Not physically, but mentally. The kid was gone," says Cosby. "When I said, 'Hello?' the kid went, 'Yeah. And so?' And I've had a couple of them where you had to try and save them. You had to try and save them because they start Â…yelling, and the audience began to feel this is not a nice kid. So, obviously, we give you the best part. We have the editing."

Parenting is a "lost art form," Cosby says. He says the days when you saw your father at work as a farmer, for example, are long gone. Cosby's suggestion: Both men and women should bring their kids to work with them.

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