X

William Shatner comes to defense of Baby, It's Cold Outside

Say, what's in this drink? A lyrics controversy that now features a Star Trek captain, that's what.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read

William Shatner, best known for his role as ladies' man Capt. James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek , is speaking up for a song that's created controversy lately.

The Oscar-winning tune Baby, It's Cold Outside has sparked heated debate over how its 1944 lyrics read to some modern eyes.

The duet features a man and woman volleying back and forth as he tries to convince her to stay with him. But what some see as innocent flirtation, others view as suggestive of date rape, especially the line, "Say, what's in this drink?"

CBC Music, a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, pulled the song from two of its holiday-music streams last week but now has restored it. When Shatner, himself a Canadian, began tweeting about the song on Tuesday, the CBC hadn't yet restored the tune.

First, Shatner urged his Twitter audience to, "Call in to CBC radio all day and get them to play 'Baby It's Cold Outside' over and over until midnight."

Some fans chided Shatner for getting involved in what they saw as a minor controversy, or pointed out the squirmy sections of the song's lyrics.

But others felt he was striking a blow against extreme political correctness.

Some assumed Shatner was just goofing around, but no, the captain was boldly going exactly where he planned to go.

Even when the CBC reversed its decision, Shatner encouraged readers to keep the phone calls coming.

"I'd still call and request the song be played just to stick it to the Myopia Censorship Club members!" he wrote.

Shatner is a fitting defender of the song. Not only does he have a new CD, Shatner Claus, where he duets with noted singers on classic Christmas songs, but Capt. Kirk seems like the kind of guy who might've convinced a woman to stay a little later in his quarters on the USS Enterprise back in the day. 

Baby It's Cold Outside, which is more a winter song than a Christmas tune, isn't on Shatner's album.

Zip me up, Scotty: 50 years of Star Trek uniforms

See all photos

CNET's Holiday Gift Guide: The place to find the best tech gifts for 2018.

NASA turns 60: The space agency has taken humanity farther than anyone else, and it has plans to go further.