Conservatives are used to losing culture war fights.
Remember when ABC finally served up a show that treated Trump Nation with some respect? Months later “Roseanne” was gone, a victim of one God awful Tweet.
Or how the right-leaning “Last Man Standing” nearly snared an early retirement after it didn’t get big enough ratings for ABC.
That didn’t happen with “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.” The 1944 yuletide classic came under assault, again, but this year felt different. The #MeToo wave, a worthwhile movement hijacked by the Left, targeted the film for cultural extinction. And Social Justice Warriors have more muscle than ever before.
Just ask Kevin Hart.
It looked grim for this yuletide favorite. And we’ve seen this story play out over again.
Beloved ‘80s movies? Now deemed problematic.
Modern comedies? They must walk the woke line or face the PC Police.
A funny thing happened with “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” though. A handful of stations yanked the film, fearing the usual SJW outrage. It should have ended there, even if those “offended” by the song were tiny in number. The Vegas odds surely leaned in that direction.
Instead, radio audiences fought back.
Hard.
The stations in question quickly backpedaled, putting the song back into regular rotation. A Denver station said the response in favor of the song hit 95 percent of respondents.
Need more? One station went so far as to play the number nonstop for two hours. It was a deliberate thumb in the eye to the monster that is PC Groupthink.
Right-thinking souls won. What made it official? GQ, a consistently leftish site, waved the white towel.
The magazine’s op-ed, titled, “The "Baby, It's Cold Outside" Discourse Is Boring as Hell,” tells the story. You barely have to squint to read between the lines.
Oh my god, I am so bored of the “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” discourse. Play it or don’t. It’s not a grand political position!
The article provides the necessary context behind the song, admitting it’s not remotely “rapey.” Then, in the next gulp of air, suggests it still could trigger a listener.
I’m all for erring on the side of making sure more people feel supported and included than not, and if the song is triggering and traumatizing then by all means, let’s not play it...
But what you think about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” represents just that—not that you’re more woke or more reasonable than those who disagree with you, not that you’ve aligned yourself with larger political strands. Just that you heard the song and, for all the reasons we are either drawn to or repulsed by art, landed somewhere.
Game. Set. Match.
The irony here is that magazines like GQ could be making similar arguments in any number of other PC Police cases. Just look at the uproar over the “racist” Clint Eastwood movie “The Mule.”
Guarantee you won’t find GQ rushing to the screen legend’s defense.
The “racist” scenes in that movie are nothing of the sort, or simply reflect an old timer using language made popular decades ago.
Few, if any, liberals will rally around this screen icon, though. Eastwood made that impossible several years ago when he accurately mocked President Barack Obama as an empty chair.
Once again, movie fans are fighting back against PC film critics. “The Mule” earned $17.5 million during its opening weekend, a handsome sum for a movie featuring an 88-year-old star. That’s even more impressive when you consider the film opened in 2,588 screens. Most wide-release films earn well north of 3,000.
“Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch,” for example, played in 3,680-plus screens last weekend –its sixth weekend of release.
Podcaster Adam Carolla offered a smart battle cry against the PC movement recently on his podcast. “You retreat, they encroach,” he said of these humor-free scolds.
Carolla is right. And, for once, fans of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” refused to retreat. And we’ll be hearing the song over and again for years to come. Let’s hope we learn the right lessons from this small but important cultural win.