Netflix Original Documentary Series Presents History of Swear Words Review by Ryan Balkwill

Genre: Documentary series, Comedy

Written by Joel Boyd, Sara Schaefer

Presented by Nicolas Cage

Theme music composer: Adam Blau.

• Executive producers:
• Brien Meagher
• Rhett Bachner
• Mike Farah
• Joe Farrell
• Beth Belew
• Bellamie Blackstone

Producer: Ben Stoddard

Production companies: B17 Entertainment, Funny or Die

Distributor: Netflix

Premise: Hosted by Nicolas Cage, the unscripted series explores the History of Swear Words through interviews with experts in etymology, popular culture, history and entertainment, with each episode diving into the origins, usage and cultural impact of specific curse words: fuck, shit, bitch, dick, pussy and damn.

I was intrigue of this new documentary series concert because it is hosted by “The One and Only” Nicolas Cage.    

History of Swear Words is so outrageous.   

Pros: The key reason you should tune in to this new show is because of Nicolas Cage, he is the host. This series dive right in to the history of these words & the evolution of how they became and how they are used now. I was impressed with them for how far they manage to get a different range of Entertainers & experts joining in through this journey & each episode does so well balancing every swear word in its 20 minutes run-time.          

Cons: You might be a bit exhausted from the amount of times they use these words and it is too much sometimes & this series might not be for everyone.   

Casts:

Hosts:

• Nicolas Cage as Host
• Jess Harnell as Grandpa

Entertainers:

• Sarah Silverman
• Nick Offerman
• Nikki Glaser
• Patti Harrison
• Open Mike Eagle
• Joel Kim Booster
• DeRay Davis
• London Hughes
• Jim Jefferies
• Zainab Johnson
• Baron Vaughn
• Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Experts:

• Benjamin K. Bergen – Professor of Cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego
• Anne H. Charity Hudley – Linguist, Professor of African-American English at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Mireille Miller-Young – Professor of Women’s studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara
• Elvis Mitchell – Film critic
• Melissa Mohr – Author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing
• Kory Stamper – Author of Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, Lexicographer, and former editor for Merriam-Webster

I would think twice before watching this documentary series only on Netflix.   

Rating: 9 out of 10 Stars

Ryan Balkwill:

Resident documentary reviewer,

Level Best Art Café.