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History of Swear Words is Nicolas Cage‘s look at how swear words can be effective in everyday life and in an actor’s life.
Over six episodes, Mr Cage will look at six different words, starting with the f-word… and I’m not talking about “fuschia”… and gets comments from a number of comedians such as Jim Jeffries, Nikki Glaser and lexicographer Kory Stamper.
Listing the others as per the episode list, they are Sh*t, Bitch, D*ck, Pu**y, Damn. I’m not sure why sometimes the vowels have to be santised, and sometimes it’s the consonants. And for some reason, they’re missing out the C-word. Maybe that’s saved for series 2?
Mixing in chat with the experts and interviewees, there’s also various film clips, and tit-bits of information, such as how swear words live in a different part of your brain.
At this point, I’ve watched the first couple of episodes, and that’s enough, since it does rather drone on after you’ve seen more than a few minutes… It’s the kind of show which sounds like a good idea from the start, but feels a bit lazy in execution.
The Wire‘s Senator Clay Davis – aka Isiah Whitlock Jr – details how he became famous for treating the world to “Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”, and the question is answered in episode one as to whether the f-word was spawned from “Fornication Under Consent of the King”.
However, while we’re told the f-word might be amongst most people’s famous last words. I want mine to be: “I followed you on many adventures. But into the Great unknown mystery… I go first, Indy…”
History Of Swear Words is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from today.
Episodes 1 and 2 Score: Meh…
Director: Christopher D’Elia
Writers: Joe Randazzo, Joel Boyd, Sara Schaffer
Host:
Nicolas Cage
Experts:
Benjamin Bergen
Elvis Mitchell
Melissa Mohr
Kory Stamper
Interviewees:
Nikki Glaser
London Hughes
Elvis Mitchell
Melissa Mohr
Kory Stamper
DeRay Davis
Nick Offerman
Sarah Silverman
Benjamin Bergen
Joel Kim Booster
Jim Jefferies
Patti Harrison
Open Mike Eagle
Zainab Johnson
Mireille Miller-Young
Baron Vaughn
Isiah Whitlock Jr
Alicia Castile
Deray Davis
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.