When I saw the trailer for the series, I expected it to be more of a comedy with various celebrities explaining curse words rather than established scholars detailing the words' various meanings and origins.
Some of my favorite scenes were misconceptions about some of the words and debunking them. For example, there was no such thing deemed Fornication Under Consent of the King. That was just an elaborate origin concocted by someone who wanted to give the grandfather of all profanities a fitting story for its name. There is an official term for this: acronymic etymology. Acronymic etymology is the practice of using letters in a word to create an origin story.
Acronymic etymology is not alone when it comes to crafting a fascinating origin story of an expletive. Another term, folk etymology, achieves this very same goal as many people believe a false tale to be true. So, I will not spoil that story as that is quite funny to watch.
I do have to say that some of the celebrities were very annoying in my opinion. I always love Nick Offerman and what he said was very funny in every scene. I have liked her in other projects, but I found Nikki Glaser to be somewhat annoying in this one. I did, however, really like London Hughes and Joel Kim Booster. Both of them were very funny and I am planning on watching London's recent special.
Another thing I really liked was how different cultures view the same curse words. If a Caucasian person were to say the word damn, it would just be a plain damn. However, the perspective of African American comedians who appeared on the show said how it is prolonged, similar to DAAAAMN. I have noticed this, but it was interesting to see that even certain words can be said differently. The inclusion of Isiah Whitlock Jr. was absolutely genius to further demonstrate how intonations and speech can vary with different cultures.
Nicholas Cage was an amazing host and I hope that I see him in more TV shows and films. His sense of humor was something that I appreciated.
I highly suggest the series because it is very educational. I also did not consider different meanings of famous swear words until I watched the show. If you are reading this review, I hope you watch History of Swear Words and enjoy!
Some of my favorite scenes were misconceptions about some of the words and debunking them. For example, there was no such thing deemed Fornication Under Consent of the King. That was just an elaborate origin concocted by someone who wanted to give the grandfather of all profanities a fitting story for its name. There is an official term for this: acronymic etymology. Acronymic etymology is the practice of using letters in a word to create an origin story.
Acronymic etymology is not alone when it comes to crafting a fascinating origin story of an expletive. Another term, folk etymology, achieves this very same goal as many people believe a false tale to be true. So, I will not spoil that story as that is quite funny to watch.
I do have to say that some of the celebrities were very annoying in my opinion. I always love Nick Offerman and what he said was very funny in every scene. I have liked her in other projects, but I found Nikki Glaser to be somewhat annoying in this one. I did, however, really like London Hughes and Joel Kim Booster. Both of them were very funny and I am planning on watching London's recent special.
Another thing I really liked was how different cultures view the same curse words. If a Caucasian person were to say the word damn, it would just be a plain damn. However, the perspective of African American comedians who appeared on the show said how it is prolonged, similar to DAAAAMN. I have noticed this, but it was interesting to see that even certain words can be said differently. The inclusion of Isiah Whitlock Jr. was absolutely genius to further demonstrate how intonations and speech can vary with different cultures.
Nicholas Cage was an amazing host and I hope that I see him in more TV shows and films. His sense of humor was something that I appreciated.
I highly suggest the series because it is very educational. I also did not consider different meanings of famous swear words until I watched the show. If you are reading this review, I hope you watch History of Swear Words and enjoy!