Frank Loesser's Daughter Blames Cosby For 'Cold' Ban

Baby, it’s really, really cold outside for Frank Loesser’s Oscar-winning song this Christmas season.

Under fire amid the #MeToo movement from critics who say "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is sexist and hints at date rape, radio stations in Cleveland and San Francisco have dropped the holiday staple from their Christmas playlists and others in the U.S. and Canada are following suit.

This is not sitting well with the daughter of Broadway legend Frank Loesser, who said she has heard complaints in the past about her dad’s ditty but blames Bill Cosby for turning it into something fiendish.

"Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody," Susan Loesser told NBC News on Thursday. “Way before #Me Too, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”

Cosby was convicted earlier this year of drugging and sexually assaulting one woman and has been accused of doing the same to dozens more. And the link between the song and disgraced actor was even reinforced in a memorable SNL skit — from 2015.

Sue Loesser

Loesser, 74, said she understands why women nowadays might bristle at the song, which features a man trying to convince a woman to spend the night because the weather outside is frightful — and includes the line, “Say what’s in this drink?”

"Absolutely I get it," she said. “But I think it would be good if people looked at the song in the context of the time. It was written in 1944.”

How would her dad, who died in 1969, react to his song being banned from the radio?

"I think my father would be furious at that," she said. "People used to say 'what’s in this drink' as a joke. You know, this drink is going straight to my head so what’s in this drink? Back then it didn’t mean you drugged me."