by Jackie Potts
Years ago, when I worked at a posh shopping mall, they would play holiday music endlessly starting the day after Thanksgiving. Most of the songs, “Santa Clause Is Coming to Town” and “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” were cheerfully benign, but there was one vintage ditty that always set my teeth on edge – “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
Flash-forward to today. Turns out that the comedians on Comedy Central’s sketch comedy show “Key and Peele,” Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, noticed the same thing. “It’s a little rape-y, isn’t it?” Keegan asks. Yep, kinda!
The premise of the duet is that a young woman has stopped by her beau’s house and decides it’s time to leave. But he doesn’t want her to go, so he counters all her objections with the line, “But, baby it’s cold outside.”
She: I really can’t stay
He: Baby, it’s cold outside
She: I gotta go away
He: Baby, it’s cold outside
Harmless enough, right? Except then he tries to roofie her … and keeps singing.
She: Say .. . what’s in this drink?
He: No cabs to be had out there …
And then she utters the word that’s cited in every Anti-Date Rape handbook …
She: The answer is No
He: But, baby it’s cold outside
We never find out if she finally makes it to the door in the song. It just ends with them singing harmoniously together. However, Key and Peele responded with their own parody in which the cornered cutie gets her revenge, called “Just Stay for the Night.”
What do you think? Is this old-school holiday tune clever or cringe-worthy?
Jackie Potts is a blogger at Marketsmiths.com.
Key and Pelle show? Never heard of it before on Comedy Central.