I get no kick from champagne.
Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all,
So tell me why should it be true
That I get a kick out of you.

These lines are from Cole Porter’s song “I Get a Kick Out of You,” written for the Broadway musical *Anything Goes* (1934). Porter’s lyric plays on the slang “kick” (a thrill or jolt of pleasure) by contrasting ordinary stimulants—champagne and alcohol—with the more potent, inexplicable excitement produced by a romantic interest. The song emerged during the early-1930s Broadway era when Porter was celebrated for urbane wit, internal rhyme, and sophisticated double entendres. In performance, the lyric is typically delivered as a suave confession: the singer claims to be unimpressed by conventional indulgences, yet disarmed by the beloved’s effect.

Porter’s speaker insists that common sources of pleasure or escape—drink, and by implication other fashionable vices—leave him unmoved, while the beloved produces a genuine “kick.” The humor lies in the mock-logical setup (“So tell me why should it be true”) that treats desire as a paradox to be solved. The lyric also flatters the addressee: their presence outclasses champagne’s sparkle and alcohol’s buzz. More broadly, it exemplifies Porter’s signature blend of sophistication and emotional candor, using worldly references to dramatize the irrational, involuntary nature of attraction.

1) “I get no kick from champagne / Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all / So tell me why should it be true / That I get a kick out of you?”
2) “I get no kick from cocaine / Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all / So tell me why should it be true / That I get a kick out of you?”
3) “I get no kick in a plane / Flying too high with some guy in the sky is my idea of nothing to do / Yet I get a kick out of you.”