01x01 - f*ck

[bunniefuu]

"f*ck are you lookin' at?"

"I've had it

with these motherfuckin' snakes

on this motherfuckin' plane."

"f*ck you. f*ck you. f*ck you.

You're cool. f*ck you. I'm out."

"You want me to go trash your lights?

You want me to f*ck' trash 'em?

Then why are you trashing my scene?"

"You are one ugly m*therf*cker."

"You have insulted me

for the last f*cking time."

"f*ck you! That's my name."

"Don't waste my motherfuckin' time."

"f*ck it. We'll do it live."

An actor's greatest tool

is their imagination.

But swearing…

is definitely up there.

With swear words,

we can cut, soothe, delight,

frighten, insult, and seduce.

Of all the swear words

in the English language,

none is as malleable as "f*ck."

It's capable of expressing

the full range of human emotion.

The pain, the wonder,

the unlawful carnal knowledge,

in a single syllable.

[inhales deeply]

[softly] Fuuuuuck ♪

Or we can say it like this…

[inhales]

[yells] Fuuuuuck!

[bleep]

[cat meows]

They're the most popular

and alluring taboos we have.

But the secrets to their strange power

have been shrouded in mystery.

Until now.

Join me on a journey through the history,

evolution and cultural impact

of swear words.

And let's get f*cked.

"f*ck" is the all-time classic.

Number one with a b*llet.

"f*ck" is another word

that helps you release frustration.

It's it's a word that conveys emotion.

If I had only one swear word

to take with me to a desert island,

it would probably be "f*ck."

My name is Kory Stamper.

I am a lexicographer and an author.

I used to write

dictionary definitions at Merriam-Webster,

and, among other things,

my job there was to work on profanities.

English, m*therf*cker. Do you speak it?

I love the word "f*ck" so much.

It's just so versatile.

You can put it anywhere in a sentence,

and give it a little bit of zhuzh.

My name is Ben Bergen

and I'm a cognitive scientist.

I do research on language.

You can use "f*ck" in absolutely any way.

I'll take you all to f*ck' hell.

We say "f*ck" all the time.

"What the f*ck?"

"You little f*ck."

It could be a good thing.

"Cheeky little f*ck!"

It can be used in compound nouns

like "f*ck" and "f*ck."

When something's really impressive,

you go "f*ck!"

If you use it one way,

you can offend people.

"f*ck you, Jack!"

Use it another way, you can make friends

- and influence people.

- "f*ck, yes!"

My name is Melissa Mohr

I have a PhD from Stanford University,

and I write about swearing.

If you hear someone say "f*ck,"

that word has has a lot of power.

It can work with when you're shocked.

"f*ck!"

It can work with when you're surprised.

"Shut the f*ck up!"

"f*ck" is just

the most acceptable curse word,

but it still is the worst one of all.

[bell dings]

But for all its myriad uses,

"f*ck" is ultimately about f*ck-ing.

So, where did the word itself come from?

[typing]

[Ben] With "f*ck,"

it has a really long history

of not meaning something related to sex.

Thousands of years.

And, starting right around

the beginning of the 14th century,

it gained this new meaning related to sex,

and probably preserved it

without ever being a banned term

for about 400 years.

So, there's an acronymic etymology

that people think

the word "f*ck" came from a phrase,

"Fornication Under Consent of the King."

- The idea is…

- [neighing]

…that when people

in the middle ages got married,

they had to go to the king,

they had to ask for permission

to have sex.

- [woman] Oh, don't stop!

- [crashing]

Oh, I'm almost thither! [gasps]

- [horses neigh]

- Halt this carriage!

I'm almost thither!

- Almost!

- [fanfare]

Cease this unsanctioned erogeny at once!

If you didn't have papers

from the king, you were breaking the law.

But, my lord, you've given your consent.

[dog barking]

[king] Ah! Very well, then.

Let it be known

that this household has been given

my royal, kingly consent

to fuuuuuck!

Such a great story for such a great word.

It is total horseshit.

It's not real. Sadly.

Because we like colorful words

to have colorful origins.

I think "f*ck" is just made up.

I feel like this one guy

one day just went, "f*ck."

And the other guy was like, "Oh, I kinda…

That's exactly how I feel, actually."

The best that etymologists can tell,

"f*ck" probably comes

from a medieval Dutch verb,

which means "to blow,"

"to hit," "to strike."

What? "f*ck" means "to hit"?

You can f*ck someone up

by hitting them really hard.

Technically,

it still hasn't lost its original meaning.

So, if I got hit in the face,

I would get f*cked in the face?

[laughs]

Talking to them's an uphill struggle,

innit, Dad?

f*ck off!

[Melissa] "f*ck" doesn't appear

very often in language

before the 1500s.

But there are some uses of the word,

and they occur in people's names.

So, there's a man called John Lefucker.

Who was a known gigolo in the area.

[Melissa] There's somebody f*ck.

Incredibly well endowed.

[Melissa] Somebody Roger f*ck.

What? Are you crazy?

It could refer to the fact that he is, um…

an inelegant copulator.

But it could also mean

that he got hit in the stomach.

Or that he punches people in the stomach.

We just With names,

you don't really know,

because they tend to be metaphorical, or

You know, nicknames

aren't necessarily explainable

if you're outside of that in-group.

A lot of people's last names

in English come from their profession,

or some characteristic they're known by.

So you've got a Taylor.

He would have sewn clothes.

A Miller would have ground grain,

you know?

So, you've got In the 13th century,

you've got John Lefucker.

What did he do? He

You know, was he the original f*ck?

[Nicolas] How many ways can we use "f*ck"?

There's so many different ways

to talk about "f*ck."

You have the f*ck Family Tree,

where f*ck meets Motherfuck,

and those two f*ck

and they have a Fuccboi.

He never gets married

because he's always f*ck' around,

but he had a f*ck and a f*ck Nut

with this absolute f*ck fiend,

f*ck' Brenda.

They all f*cked.

But the m*therf*cker's brother,

Uncle f*ck, was a real sick f*ck.

But he put them in the will,

so the little f*ck run around

with a f*ck ton of money.

Then, there's the other

f*ck' side of the family.

They're all f*ck' dicks anyway.

"f*ck" means "sex," for sure.

And then you can move outward

and say, well, "f*ck" also refers

to really mess something up,

or "f*ck" meaning "to screw someone over."

These are all metaphorical uses.

And and the fact that it's so taboo,

and has been taboo for a while,

you know, it's kinda like Silly Putty

you can stretch it

into just about any meaning you need to.

[Nicolas] Where does "f*ck"

live in your brain?

When you automatically,

spontaneously swear,

it's an evolutionary old reflex.

Apparently, swear words live in,

like, a different part of your brain.

They live in, like,

the mom's basement of your brain.

And I'm goin'

to that part of my brain a lot.

There's a deeper, more emotional,

evolutionarily old place

that profanity comes from.

Deep in the middle of the brain,

a part of the brain

we share with other primates,

with other mammals, with lizards.

That's the part that leads you

to swear when you stub a toe,

or when your favorite football team

scores a touchdown.

If something is tragic,

my reaction will involve the word "f*ck."

When you swear, you produce adrenaline.

It's part of the same

fight-or-flight reaction people have

when they experience fear or anger.

It can cause

the listener's heart rate to increase,

make your palms sweat.

You f*ck' do that again

and I will sh**t you myself.

That adrenaline

and the blood flow to the extremities

makes it easier to tolerate pain there.

It's also the same reason

why swearing makes you stronger.

For example,

five percent stronger in grip strength

when you're swearing,

compared to when you're not.

[Nicolas] "f*ck!"

It's so primal, so universal,

that some of history's most famous people

channeled its power

for their last words.

Like beloved children's author Roald Dahl.

"It's just that

I will miss you all so much."

- [squirt]

- "Ow, f*ck!"

- [church bell tolls]

- Or notorious people lover W. C. Fields.

"God damn the whole f*ck' world

and everyone in it but you, Carlotta."

[church bell tolls]

And even Venezuelan freedom fighter,

Antonio José de Sucre.

- [g*nsh*t]

- "f*ck, a b*llet wound."

[horse neighs]

[church bell tolls]

Every single person who's fallen

off a cliff, their last word was "f*ck."

Everyone who's been eaten by a shark,

they also said "f*ck."

I'm not surprised.

I feel like that's probably

a lot of people's last words.

[typing]

I'm Elvis Mitchel,

and I host a show called

The Treatment on KCRW.

Thanks to the Supreme Court

and the ruling of 1971,

"f*ck" is part of our protected speech,

we have the right to say it.

We have what they would call

"the God-given right."

Using the word "f*ck"

becomes a way to be heard.

Certainly In the '60s,

Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland,

they had a touring troupe, FTA.

f*ck The Army.

And f*ck The Draft.

You were using that word to say,

"I was taking a stand."

"f*ck" is also something a person says

when they are deeply hurt

or disappointed by something.

f*ck tha police

Comin' straight from the underground… ♪

When NWA said "f*ck Tha Police,"

it wasn't said

out of a sense of pure malice.

It was said

with a deep sense of disappointment.

f*ck tha police ♪

f*ck, f*ck, f*ck tha police ♪

- f*ck, f*ck, f*ck… ♪

- That's what "f*ck Tha Police" did.

That's what those words did.

The power of NWA is that they were

some of the earliest

successful gangsta rappers,

and what gangsta rap really meant

in that time…

was people sayin' things on songs

that people were

not used to hearing in public.

Going to a Public Enemy show

or NWA in the '80s,

and just watching the way Eazy-E

It became lyrical,

the way he used the word "f*ck."

…f*cked up incident? ♪

And to watch the way Cube would react,

and basically sort of

They'd do this call and response.

That to me was art.

That was raising profanity

to the level of art.

And making that part of art,

becomes part of a conversation

we have every day, forever after.

And, of course, the police

did not like to hear this sentiment.

[woman] The group is NWA.

The group's lyrics are

anti-police and anti-authority.

I'm personally very offended.

f*ck tha police ♪

[Open Mike] They didn't invent

the term "f*ck the police."

But they said it out loud.

And it was analogous

that that same year, 1989,

Public Enemy says "Fight The Power."

So you got "Fight The Power" in New York,

and you got "f*ck Tha Police" in LA.

It's the same sentiment.

It's just people

finally saying these things on record,

because we have this new form

of expression called rap music

where it's okay to say things

that you've been saying in secret.

[Zainab] When you hear

people say "f*ck the police,"

it's like, "I have no other options.

And that's how I got here.

Because there's no other option."

"f*ck" is a good protest word,

because it is the swear word

that carries the most emotion.

[Elvis] People need to be offended,

to be shaken out of their complacency,

out of their misguided belief system.

f*ck tha police ♪

According to numerous studies,

"f*ck" is not only the most used

swear word in the English language,

it's also the most censored.

It's the granddaddy of cussing,

and we can find it all around us.

It's one of the oldest,

most vulgar words we have,

limitless in its ability

to shock and offend.

So, why do we see it now on cross-stitch

and scented candles?

And if we see it everywhere,

why is it still censored

on TV and in movies?

Often there will be censorship.

Uh, generally,

it's not government censorship,

although it can be,

like in the case of the Soviet Union.

Often, it's people self-censoring,

like, just deciding that this is not…

these words

have no place in public discourse.

they're harmful to morality,

they're harmful to children,

and so, we will not say these things.

And of course, everybody does.

But then they're shocked.

People just laugh when you say "f*ck."

It's just… everything's f*ck' funnier

when you say "f*ck."

I feel like swear words are

definitely more powerful in America.

Not that powerful in Britain.

You can say, "Morning, you f*cking c**t"

to someone and they'll be fine.

Say that to someone in America,

you'll get shot,

because g*ns are legal here.

When you're being offended,

you're basically saying to the world,

"I have better morals than this person."

"This person did this,

but I'm better than them."

They're not going home and going,

"I couldn't believe

the words I had to hear…"

And if they are, they can f*ck off.

Like, what's the point?

They shouldn't be out

in the general public and all that stuff.

I think the word "f*ck"

has a baseline magic

that can never be removed.

If somebody looks at you

and says, "f*ck you,"

you're gonna feel that.

Just because it's more common,

doesn't mean it's lost any power.

Those f*cking killjoys at the

Motion Picture Association of America

still consider the word bad enough

to slap an R rating

on just about any movie

that uses it more than twice.

[typing]

Until the 1960s,

you got basically you were graded

by the Hays Code.

And there were things

you just couldn't say.

Then Jack Valenti came along

and the MPAA said,

"Well, we're losing people.

There are movies coming from Europe

where people talk about sex,

and they apparently have sex

in these movies.

We can't act like that

doesn't happen anymore."

So, you had to acknowledge

that the real world existed.

And the ratings offered ways

to gently introduce the concept

of the real world to movies.

With these rating, a G-rated movie

will have a lot of sunlight,

and that's about it.

That'll do, pig.

[sighs]

That'll do.

You get to PG

and there are levels of violence,

maybe a couple of swear words.

Son of a b*tch.

For PG-13, you can use the word "f*ck"

and get away with it once.

From the entire Channel 4 News team,

I'm Veronica Corningstone.

And I'm Ron Burgundy.

Go f*ck yourself, San Diego.

It can't be about f*cking.

And then you get to R,

and you have movies

where characters talk like real people.

Are you f*cking kidding me?

[silence falls]

Profanity was

the life-preserver for movies.

People went to the movies again.

I think the first time I heard a curse

was in the movies.

I think my parents took us

to see Coming to America.

Once they got to, like, Queens,

he was like, "We've arrived,"

or something.

And somebody was like, "f*ck you!"

And he was like, "Yes, yes! f*ck you too!"

[Sarah Silverman] I was in,

um… School of Rock,

and I remember, in between scenes,

the director was saying, uh…

"It's PG-13, so we can say 'sh*t'

and we can say one 'f*ck.'"

I pitched that, um,

you don't use "f*ck" at all,

and then just the last, like,

after the credits,

every you know,

the whole cast just goes, "f*ck!"

[laughs]

They didn't do that.

Swearing in movies is big business.

Just look at the filmography

of one randomly generated actor.

You can see that

of the big six swear words,

"f*ck" and its derivatives

are by far the most frequent,

making up 71% of the curses uttered

in the films of this random actor.

So who do you think is

the sweariest actor of all time?

Per movies, per swear words,

per time on screen,

I think Eddie Murphy is your number one.

No. Samuel L. It has to be Samuel L.

He's swearin' He don't get the role

unless he can swear in it.

When you're talking about the word "f*ck,"

it's hard not to really fall back

on the connoisseur of f*ck,

Samuel L. Jackson.

What the f*ck am I doin' in the back?

You're the m*therf*cker

should be on brain detail.

I remember I went to see Snakes on a Plane

only to see Samuel L. Jackson say,

"I'm tired of these motherfuckin' snakes

on this motherfuckin' plane."

It was it was magical.

The sweariest actor

isn't Samuel L. Jackson,

Al Pacino,

or my personal favorite, Yosemite Sam,

but… Jonah Hill.

And while Jonah Hill is known

for his R-rated comedies,

it was The Wolf of Wall Street

that made him the king of the curse words,

swearing a confounding 107 times

in that movie alone.

- Jonah Hill?

- Jonah Hill?

There's no Who's counting these?

This is That's not true!

That's not true!

How did Jonah Hill say it so many times?

It wasn't until 2004

that "f*ck" first arrived

uncensored on the small screen

in an airing of

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

onComedy Central.

But it was way back in 1970,

when MASH dropped the first F-b*mb

in a major motion picture.

Movies can still move the needle

when it comes to characters…

basically, in effect,

inventing catchphrases.

We see this happen with, uh…

with newly-invented swear words.

So MILF is the great example,

because we know exactly the thing

that spread it throughout the world,

which was this movie,

which was American Pie in 1999.

[John Cho] M-I-L-F.

- A Mom I'd Like to f*ck.

- [laughing] Yeah, dude!

If the best movies can do something

that make us want to be like them,

and we hear something and,

"Wow, that's perfect. That…

MILF? I'm usin' that.

I'm gonna find a way to use that."

And you hear that in American Pie,

and then, ten years later,

on 30 Rock, there's a fake reality show

called MILF Island.

And it's everywhere. I mean, so…

movies still can… act as these catalysts

for keeping the language alive

in ways that are exciting.

I love "f*ck."

It's like the Tom Hanks of curse words.

It can do anything, can be in anything,

and we never get sick of it.

We need to be able to say swear words.

We need to be able to say "f*ck."

It's a gateway for creativity,

it's a form of protest, and…

it's good for us.

- [bell dings]

- I think there's a need now

for swearing and profanity

more than any other time.

We need the relief, the release.

That's really what profanity gives us.

"Oh, sh*t!"

Just a chance

to get that kind of stuff out.

b*tch. f*ck. sh*t. Damn. p*ssy. d*ck.

I like that there are words you can't say

and that you can only say

on special occasions.

Like Christmas.

Swearing is important if you need it

to get out your frustration

or your despair.

What the f*ck?

It's not important when

you're just swearing for swearing's sake.

Don't swear for swearing's sake.

We're better than that.

Swear because you mean it.

I'm Nicolas Cage.

Have a great f*ck' night.

[man] G-dshh!