Baby, It's Cold Outside

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is a beloved Christmas classic. It was prominently featured in the movie Elf. And it is also all about date rape. Of course, I didn't actually realize this until I sung it for karaoke and had to pay attention to the lyrics. It's kind of weird that I didn't though, cause it's really all there. It's hard to believe I'd been listening to it my whole life and never picked up on what it was really about - a guy trying to coerce a hesitant young lady to stay at his place and get drunk so he can take advantage of her. In fact, on the original printed score, the parts are labeled "mouse" and "wolf".

Maybe I'm overreacting, though. After all, it was written by Frank Loesser to be a duet with his wife, which is kind of romantic. You can't date rape your spouse, right? It won an Oscar for best original song in 1949, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't give an Academy Award to a song about attempted rape. And Blossom sang it with her dad in an episode of Blossom, so... okay that's kind of weird.

There have been countless versions of this song released over the years bringing together pairs like Ray Charles & Dionne Warwick, Robert Palmer & Carnie Wilson, and Bette Midler & James Caan. But to me, the creepiest version is by Tom Jones and someone named Cerys Matthews. Tom Jones has always struck me as kind of rape-y anyway, and this video featuring him as some kind of rape demon makes me feel all kinds of uncomfortable (although there is a twist ending). Merry Christmas?