'History Of Swear Words' Trailer: Nicolas Cage Explores The Origins Of Obscenities With Help From Experts

From taking faces off to hijacking a plane filled with prisoners, Nicolas Cage has been in plenty of movies where he's spouted off a vulgarity or two. Now the Oscar-winning actor will tell you more about obscenities than you ever wanted to know as the host of the new Netflix documentary series History of Swear Words. Cage begins the trailer for this new series in quite the epic fashion, but you'll probably want to have the kids leave the room or put on some headphones before you watch the trailer below.

Nicolas Cage isn't the only one diving into the history of swear words. In addition to experts on history and language, there's also some commentary from comedians Sarah Silverman and Nikki Glaser, film critic Elvis Mitchell, and many more. Though not featured in the trailer, there will also be appearances by Jim Jefferies, Nick Offerman, Baron Vaughn, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., and if you've seen The Wire, you know which word the latter will be talking about.

Already I can tell this is going to be a series that teaches us a lot. For example, I had never heard of the acronym "fornication under the consent of the king" as a possible origin of arguably the most famous swear word "f***." But now I'll never forget it, even if the expert who talks about it immediately debunks it as "total horseshit." I'm sure there are plenty of misconceptions and false myths about many vulgarities out there thanks to the internet.

But it seems like there are some real secrets and revelations that this show holds about the words we scream in anger and triumph. I like the experiment that shows people can endure holding their hand in ice cold water for longer if they're swearing in response to the extreme temperature. An early graphic in the trailer also seems to tease a dive into the origins of the acronym "MILF," with a reference to both American Pie and 30 Rock. So basically, I'm all-in on this series.

An education in expletives: the history lesson you didn't know you needed. History of Swear Words, hosted by Nicolas Cage, is a loud and proudly profane series that explores the origins, pop culture-usage, science and cultural impact of curse words. Through interviews with experts in etymology, pop culture, historians and entertainers, the six-episode series dives into the origins of "F**k", "Sh*t", "B*tch", "D**k", "Pu**y", and "Damn."

History of Swear Words debuts on Netflix on January 5, 2021.