I've received quite a bit of mail on the topic of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as discussed here. A number of folks referred to the song as being "banned," which I think is an incorrect term that muddies the issue. The song isn't being banned. Anyone can play it. A few radio stations have merely decided to not play it, which is absolutely their right even if their reason seems silly. If you and I ran a radio station, there would be hundreds of thousands of songs we would never play. I personally would never allow "Billy, Don't Be a Hero" by Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods.
But "Baby, It's Cold Outside" isn't being suppressed. In fact, I'll bet because of this inane controversy, ASCAP payments to Frank Loesser's estate for it will go up, not down. (By the way: Mr. Loesser is one of my all-time favorite creators of songs but if I ever assembled a CD of his 50 Greatest Hits, this tune would not be on it. Maybe on his 100 Greatest. He wrote a lot of great songs, most of them better than the one under discussion.)
Also, some people seem to have a problem with "Baby, It's Cold Outside" being passed off as a Christmas song. It isn't a Christmas song. It's a "cold weather outside" song. But this is an even more pointless debate than whether it's a song about rape.
Janet Ybarra sent me a link to a piece by Camilla Collar who feels that the song is really about "slut-shaming" — the social condemnation of a woman for having sex. Well, maybe if the lady in the song slept with the guy in the song and anyone else found out about it, yeah. Janet also writes…
I agree when you say we can consider time and intent, but also our cultural mores change over time and can sometimes draw lines on material once considered acceptable but now seen as racist or whatever…although I'm not necessarily saying that's what's happening.
I'd be curious as to what you think about The Honeymooners, which strikes some of us today (particularly those of us who have lived it) as portraying domestic violence. Now please realize I'm not saying we should keep people from the content but I certainly believe there is room for media criticism and analysis and asking the questions.
Also, would you ever have an interest ever again watching The Cosby Show, given what we now know of Bill Cosby? I don't.
Well, I watched The Cosby Show once back when its star was the most beloved TV dad ever and after that, I had no further interest in watching it. So in light of his new reputation, my interest in the show has gone from zero all the way down to zero. I did though once love his records and live performing and I Spy and even had a good opinion of the Fat Albert cartoon show…and I doubt I will ever get the pain of 50+ women far enough out of my head to again enjoy any of the Cosby stuff I liked. Sometimes, you can separate the art from the artist and sometimes, you just can't.
As for The Honeymooners: I loved that show. I still love that show…and I'm mainly referring to the classic thirty-nine half-hour episodes, which I think comprise one of the ten-or-so greatest TV shows ever done. The "Honeymooners" sketches and musicals that Mr. Gleason did before and after the thirty-nine were of varying quality — none of them as good but some of them rather entertaining.
I don't think any of it portrayed domestic violence except maybe when Ralph slammed his own thumb in a drawer. It portrayed a guy who occasionally threatened to send his wife "to the moon" via fist…and I think it's not insignificant that he didn't say "I'll beat the hell out of you." He made a cartoony threat because he was a cartoony guy on a cartoony show and his wife Alice never believed for one second he'd ever strike her or anyone. In fact, if it had ever come to fisticuffs between them, my money would have been on Alice. Ralph was no more likely to hit her than Rob Petrie was to smack Laura around or George Burns was to deck Gracie. As I recall, Ricky Ricardo actually did spank Lucy on at least one occasion.
Yeah, the threatened lunar launches are dated and a little uncomfy but I can't think of a sitcom where the husband loved his wife more than Ralph Kramden loved Alice. All of his crazy get-rich schemes were about trying to make a better life for that wonderful woman who'd paid him the supreme honor of marrying a fat loser like him. Maybe it's possible to view the threats as a reminder that couples do lose their tempers and say things they don't mean. "Forgiveness" was a big theme on that series. Ralph often needed forgiveness for his Big Ideas and his Bigger Mouth.
And you knew Ralph was a large-hearted soul because you saw how much he cared for her, and also because he had Norton. How could anyone who had Ed Norton as a best friend not be a good guy?
I think it's fine to criticize Ralph's fist-shaking and to wish it wasn't there. But sometimes, concern about such things remind me of a huge fight I had with ABC Standards and Practices back when I was doing the Richie Rich cartoon show. I have to rush off to an appointment right now but maybe I'll write about that later today or tomorrow. Thanks, Janet…and all of you who wrote.