What are swear words? How did profanity come about in culture? Why were certain words not allowed to be on air (be it television or radio) or allowed to be said on television and/ or theater features (in some places, this is still happening)? Do these questions remind anyone of the infamous 7 words you can’t say on television stand up routine by the brilliant comedian George Carlin? Well, Nicholas Cage (of all people) will be hosting an unscripted Netflix documentary series titled History of Swear Words that will explain the history behind specific swear words.
The American documentary series is expected to focus on these six words – f**k, s**t, b***h, d**k, p***y and d**n (we apologize for censoring the words, but if you are an adult you should be able to recognize the words from the first and last letters, hopefully). The six-part series will focus on each of these words (one swear word per episode) and each episode will talk about the word’s origin, its “descension” into becoming profanity and its “use” in the present day 21st century.
The trailer starts off with a metaphorical kick-in-the ears with Nicholas Cage getting up from his seat and dropping a loud and long F-bomb. The trailer for this expletive-centric documentary series is brilliantly funny and we don’t want to ruin the fun for you. So check out the trailer at the end of this article. It will be worth it.
The series will be hosted by Nicholas Cage – an actor who have done plenty of swearing in his features and he will be joined by a panel of experts Benjamin K. Bergen – a professor of Cognitive science at the University of California- San Diego, Anne H. Charity Hudley – a linguist and a professor of African-American English & Mireille Miller-Young – a professor of Women’s studies – both from the University of California- Santa Barbara, Elvis Mitchell – film critic, Melissa Mohr – the author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing and Kory Stamper – the author of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, (who is also a lexicographer and was a former associate editor for Merriam-Webster) – who will discuss the origin, usage and the impact these specific swear words have had on past and current culture.
But it does not end there. There will also be a whole panel of celebrities consisting of actors, standup comedians, writers and presenters who will participate in discussions with these experts of etymology, popular culture, history and entertainment (and the “entertainers” will also take part in some experiments as well). This panel includes Sarah Silverman, Nick Offerman, Nikki Glaser, Patti Harrison, Open Mike Eagle, Joel Kim Booster, DeRay Davis, London Hughes, Jim Jefferies, Zainab Johnson, Baron Vaughn and Isiah Whitlock Jr.
The Nicholas Cage-hosted documentary series History of Swear Words will be streaming next month, on January 5th 2020.