Update December 11, 2014:

The Bill Cosby accusations have led South Park to create yet another version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with a Cosby cartoon character trying to get Taylor Swift to stay.

“Well I guess it’s time to leave”
“But it’s snowing out there”
“I need to get home.”
“But it’s snowing out there”
“I really should go”
“Don’t hurry”
“Say what’s in this drink?”

While their duet is only about 15 seconds long, it brings attention once again to the creep factor in what has long been a favorite Christmas novelty song.

Right up there with being told there is no Santa Claus is the news, suddenly prevalent, that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is not just a sweet duet for the holidays.

First somebody at Salon called it a date-rate anthem. Then at The Atlantic, two staff members helpfully suggest how to fix the lyrics

Then, most devastatingly, William Akers shows me this video from the comedy duo Key and Peele

This apparently is the view of many. As playwright Joshua Conkel puts it sardonically: “That is the most adorable song about date rape ever.”

I just discovered this song two Christmases ago, and couldn’t get it out of my head, hunting up all the many versions:

That was the year it was on Glee, with a gender twist

(This was not the first time two men sang the duet. A comic version was done with Bing Crosby and James Stewart!)

Kevin Daly pointed me to this classic rendition by
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Jordan.

Zooey Deschanel & Leon Redbone from the “Elf” soundtrack

Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer

How did this song get a holiday context?
It was reportedly intended that way.

Frank Loesser, best-known otherwise for the music and lyrics of the Broadway hits “Guys and Dolls” and “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,”  wrote the song in 1944, according to an account years later by his daughter, and sang it with his wife, Lynn Garland at a housewarming party.”Lynn considered it “their song,” and was furious when Loesser sold the song to MGM.” It debuted in the 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter” as a duet by Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams and then, with the roles comically reversed, by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett. The song won an Academy Award.

It has since been sung by Ray Charles and Dionne Warwick; Sammy Davis, Jr. and Carmen McRae; Dean Martin and the Andrews Sisters; Willie Nelson and Norah Jones; Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart; Rudolph Nureyev and Miss Piggy; and, just last night, Audra McDonald and Stephen Colbert

Here are the lyrics:

I really can’t stay
Baby it’s cold outside
I gotta go away
Baby it’s cold outside
This evening has been
Been hoping that youd drop by
So very nice
I’ll hold your hands their just like ice
My mother will start to worry
Beautiful what’s your hurry?
My father will be pacing the floor
Listen to the fireplace roar
So really I better scurry
Beautiful please don’t hurry

Well maybe just a half a drink more
Put some records on while I pour

The neighbors might think
Baby it’s bad out there
Say.. what’s in this drink?
No cabs to be had out there
I wish I knew how to break the spell
Your eyes are like starlight now
I’ll take your hat your hair looks swell
I ought to say no, no, no sir
Mind if move in closer?
At least I’m gonna say that I tried
What’s the sense of hurtin’ my pride?
I really can’t stay
Baby don’t hold out
(Both) Ahh but its cold outside!

I simply must go
But baby it’s cold outside
The answer is no
But baby it’s cold outside
This welcome has been so nice and warm
Look out the window at that storm
My sister will be suspicious
Gosh your lips look delicious!
My brother will be there at the door
Waves upon a tropical shore
My maiden aunts mind is vicious
Gosh your lips are delicious!
Well maybe just a cigarette more
Never such a blizzard before

I’ve got to get home
But baby you’ll freeze out there
Say lend me a coat?
It’s up to your knees out there!
You’ve really been grand
I feel when you touch my hand
But don’t you see?
How can you do this to me?
There’s bound to be talk tomorrow
Think of my life long sorrow!
At least there’ll be plenty of invised
If you caught pnemounia and died!
I really can’t stay
Get over that old out
Ooooooooh!
(Both) Ahhh but it’s cold…….Outside