I had such hopes.The History of Swear Wordslooked likethe right combination of interesting and funny, and while the full series is sort of interesting, it is not very funny. And worse, pursuit of jokes actually makes it less interesting. The series, directed by Christopher D’Elia—not to be confused with disgraced comedian Chris D’Elia—and written by comedy producer Bellamie Blackstone, is a mix of comedians and actual experts walking through the history of a half-dozen choice swears, ranging from “F-ck” to “Damn”. Weirdly, the series starts with “F-ck” and ends with “Damn”, even though it feels like that should be reversed. Seems like you’d want to build up to the biggest, baddest of the dirty words, butHistorystarts big and then gets small, which pretty much encapsulates the experience of watching it: deflation.
Nicolas Cage makes for a charming host, though his role is mostly limited to bookending each episode with only moderate interjections throughout the episodes, which are surprisingly short. At just 20 minutes a pop,Historyis easy to binge, but the individual episode length does a disservice to the topic. The experts interviewed include lexicographer Kory Stamper and cognitive scientist Benjamin Bergen, who outline the evolution of these words and how they influence everything from history to our brains, and film critic Elvis Mitchell and women’s studies professor Mireille Miller-Young add context for how these words shape pop culture and social interaction. It’s really interesting! ButHistory继续降低,喜剧演员,像那些老了VH-1 clip shows that were popular 20 years ago, which makes the show feel dated and more like a webisode than a proper television show.Historyfeels a lot like Netflix trying to do Buzzfeed. Like it would not take much to turnHistoryinto a web series.
接受采访的漫画包括Sarah Silverman，Nikki Glaser，Nick Offerman，Joel Kim Booster，Zainab Johnson和London Hughes等，但真正的杰出表现是Patti Harrison（也可以看到她在Amazon Prime的Instagram上看到了Instagram的影响力Yearly Departedspecial). She doesn’t even try to be funny, Harris simply speaks earnestly about how profanity relates to her own lexicography of slang, such as how the word “bitch” intersects with her personal expression of feminism. Similarly, Joel Kim Booster is at his best when discussing whether or not the LGBTQ+ community can reclaim “bitch”, a word often used to emasculate and humiliate gay men. Less effective are Glaser and Silverman, who keep trying to do bits whenHistoryreally doesn’t need it. Cage is there to provide a humorous slant to the show, but the real heart ofHistoryis the sincere exploration of how profanity has evolved in the English language. The comedians just get in the way of that.
The History of Swear Wordsfeels unfinished, like it barely scratches the surface of its own conceit. Also, how did we get through two-plus hours of a discussion of profanity and pop culture and no one mentioned Lenny Bruce evenonce?! If we’re going to listen to a random assortment of comedians opine on swears, one of them should definitely bring up the one and only comic to ever truly get cancelled for some sh-t he said on stage. Another gaping void is a total lack of George Carlin, who had an incredibly famous bit aboutwords you can’t say. IfHistorymeans to be more of a comedy special and less of a docuseries, then it should lean into how these words mix into the history of comedy, but that element is missing completely. Instead, we’re left with a strange hybrid, a too-short series about the history of bad words with one too many comedians horning in on the cool parts about how these words worked their way into common parlance. It’s short enough that if you want to bingeThe History of Swear Words, it won’t take much of your time. But it will leave you wanting more, and not in a good way.
