Netflix Swearing History Review

Look, Netflix’s swear story probably doesn’t just exist so we can hear host Nicolas Cage yell “F ** K!” at the top of his lungs, but … it’s not either do not Exist only for this reason. Watching Cage presides over the show as Masterpiece Theater’s scholarly anchor is definitely the hook here. The actor is known to swear a storm in his film projects – with “f ** k” being the buzzword he says 71% of the time (oh yes, there are charts) – and his penchant for the adorably extravagant performances made him a cultural icon (and an Oscar winner, too). So it definitely works like the glamorous glue for a series that, without it, could float on the wings of its own scattered structure.

Using the age-old We Love the 80s / Best Week Ever format that VH1 has deployed with great success for many years, History of Swear Words tackles one expletive per episode, throwing the word at comedians like Sarah Silverman, Jim Jeffries , DeRay Davis, Joel Kim Booster and Nikki Glaser while lightly exploring the particular history and evolution of each blasphemy with lexicographers, cognitive scientists and various experts in cultural ebb and flow.

The series never installs in a full groove, although it is always engaging at surface level. Just when you start to touch a really interesting aspect or angle, an episode will bounce off something else and you won’t get the deep dive you expected. But there are a handful of interesting tidbits to absorb throughout – like how coercing swearing can actually help people tolerate more pain or how Jonah Hill, of all people, uttered more curses in movies than any other actor. You are still learning, even if it happens erratically.

Each episode has its own flavor to unleash and its own topics to discuss. The series is nicely reserved by “F ** k” (the big one) and “Damn” (which hardly anyone considers a curse anymore). In that regard, you start with the undisputed king of bad words (who is also the most malleable) and end with a cool historical look at a word that runs through the “full life cycle” of a secular phrase. And in between, you get “S ** t” (which always means mostly excrement), “B * tch” (an insult that women collect) and the coital combo of “D ** k” and “P * * * y “(both of which refer to the genitals). It’s a good mix of words that allows the series to tackle a variety of topics from politics and censorship to good old-fashioned jokes.