Cee Lo Green has thanked actor William Shatner for the commercial success of his naughty hit "F--- You" - because the song became more acceptable after the Star Trek icon performed a comedy spoken word version on TV show Lopez Tonight.

Green claims he was allowed to perform the original version of the 2010 anthem - with bleeps - after Shatner made it more accessible as a novelty hit.

Appearing on comedian George Lopez's late-night show on Wednesday, Green was shown footage of Shatner performing his song, and he admitted he loved his version - because it made censors and TV producers take another look at the lyrics of the tune.

He said, "I heard about it... and I got a chance to track down the footage on YouTube.

"There was a lot of politics surrounding that record and no one expected it to be as big of a commercial success as it was... We had discrepancies trying to perform it the original way but that really, really helped us."