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I recently re-watched the Samuel L Jackson vehicle 51st State where he is also surrounded by some very sweary British actors (like Robert Carlyle). So I expected a lot of profanity. Obviously Jackson says "motherfucker" at least once (is this part of his standard contract or something?).

I was prompted to think about profanity in movies and wonder what the sweariest movie ever is. I suspect that there might be some debate about what counts as swearing, so let's keep it simple and stick with the word "fuck".

Which movie has the most uses of the word "fuck"? And is it the same movie that has the largest number of uses per minute? I'm guessing that something by Tarantino might win, but then, his movies are long and that might cut down the rate.

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    If it was about the proportion of "fuck" to all words spoken, the current "All is lost" would be very high in the list.
    – his
    Jan 8, 2014 at 22:55
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    Even if you've got some fucking answers, this fucking question needs a fucking comment like this. Apr 11, 2016 at 14:21
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    @randal'thor Fuckin' A! Jun 5, 2016 at 20:54

3 Answers 3

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This is a point of great contention, with different sites grading different profanities to different levels of 'swearyness'...

Back in 2009 The Magazine TOTALFILM claimed that Casino held the title with 398 F-Bombs, at a rate of 2.23 per minute. This was apparently enough to make it into the Guiness Book of records.

Since then however, certain films have been re-appraised and other contenders for most fucks have been entered.

Wikipedia lists the contenders here.

The highest count now belongs to a documentary called, aptly; 'Fuck'. The word is used 857 times, at an average rate of 9.21 fpm (fucks-per-minute).

The highest use in a fiction film belongs to the cult slasher Gutterballs, with 625.

Closely behind it is the very recent The Wolf of Wall Street, with 506. Certain Newspapers erroneously claimed this to be a new record.

However, if you factor in the running times of Gutterballs against The Wolf of Wall Street, you realise that Gutterballs packs in three times as many swearwords per minute, making it pretty unbeatable...or should that be, unbearable?


EDIT: Here's one for the Conspiracy theorists amongst you! since someone posted a comment correcting the article in the Independent, the Gutterballs entry has been removed from the wiki-link! interesting, considering anyone who has seen it can definitely vouch it has more F-Bombs than The Wolf of Wall Street.

I wonder if Scorcese's people have leaned on wikipedia to hide the truth, so they can claim the soundbite-friendly prize, or if there is some genuine reason why it would have been removed? Maybe migrate this to Skeptics, ha ha.

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  • now this post has instilled a curiosity in me to go watch wolf of wall street on theatres now!!
    – Dredd
    Jan 8, 2014 at 15:38
  • I wonder how the Trailer Park Boys' guys movie SWEARNET stack up. Jul 13, 2014 at 19:14
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    You don't lean on wikipedia. You just hit the EDIT button.
    – DA.
    Sep 5, 2015 at 16:17
  • Swearnet: The Movie has 935. A clear winner. (Finally saw it a few weeks ago.) Sep 10, 2015 at 7:32
  • I'm amazed at the fpm for some films. I mean, consider that even a character driven film must have scenes which don't feature talking at all! I guess Wolf of Wallstreet was narrated though, so a non-talky bit still has talking - ifyaseewhatImean.... Aug 16, 2017 at 10:38
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SWEARNET : The Movie, the movie by the guys who "are" The Trailer Park Boys, has 935 F-bombs. According to Wikipedia:

The Guinness World Records website lists the film as holding the record for the most expletives in a film, with a total of 935 of them.

It also helps to realize that while The Wolf of Wall Street was 3 hours long, SWEARNET was only 112 minutes long. Over an hour less. That's a lot more fpm (Fucks Per Minute) at 8.35 fpm.

Wikipedia's page that tallies swear words in movies can be found here.

EDIT : I just checked the Guinness page and it now reads:

The most swearing in one film features 868 [emphasis mine] expletives which was achieved by Swear Net Inc. & The Pits Inc. (Canada) for the film Swearnet as directed by Warren Sonoda (Canada). The record was verified in London, UK, on 12 September 2014.

That drops the fpm to 7.75. Still a clear winner in numbers and fpm. I'll do one more update with my own tally when I can find my copy of the movie. I have most of my stuff boxed up haphazardly right now.

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  • Where this says expletives... is it definitely f-bombs? expletives could be anything. Aug 16, 2017 at 15:03
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According to our computations, considering that our database currently contains around 350 titles only, the ten most swearing movies in history are:

4.44 - End of Watch 4.39 - Kajaki 2.99 - The Wolf of Wall Street 2.91 - Mommy 2.87 - Fury 2.83 - Fresh 2.68 - Brother 2.68 - Street Kings 2.46 - The Boys in Company C 2.44 - 22 Jump Street

The number is the "Swearingness index", computed as the ratio [bad words]/[total words] in the movie script. Bad words are not only f* and derivates. We have a very comprehensive list of bad words.

See http://www.cinecount.com for more details.

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    "Our" computations? Could you expand on that please.
    – Chenmunka
    Sep 5, 2015 at 17:41
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    "350 titles" No offense, but that might not be enough just yet for a definitive answer...
    – Walt
    Sep 5, 2015 at 18:15
  • @Chenmunka: I and some friends created the site www.cinecount.com, where we post statistics based on the analysis of subtitles files
    – alejacop
    Sep 8, 2015 at 20:08
  • @Walt: I know that 350 titles is not much, but the number is continuously increasing. I didn't claim that mine was the definitive answer. It is more a suuggestion that, to compute the swearyness of a movie, counting F* is not enough. btw, the sweariest movie ever in the small cinecount database is now "Redirected" (2014) with more than 5% bad words.
    – alejacop
    Sep 8, 2015 at 20:08

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