The 10 movies that use the word “fuck” the most
The use of profanity in the modern world is commonplace. They have many uses, from using them to emphasise a point to furious denigrating someone by employing one. Of course, the most popular one is the ‘F-word’, fuck, and it is used daily in many different contexts across the world. A natural part of them becoming so ubiquitous is that profanities have also impressed themselves upon movies for decades, with fuck used more than any other, reflecting its general cultural status. From Goodfellas to Pulp Fiction and The Big Lebowski, there are numerous iconic instances of its use.
Naturally, given that the use of vulgarity is still offensive to many people, the use of fuck in movies has long been controversial. It has been such a source of division and intrigue that in 2005, a span of 12 months when its everyday use and in the arts was brought into question by some detractors, Steve Anderson’s documentary Fuck was released, delving into its significance. The feature ultimately argues that the word plays a role in broader and more important topics such as censorship and freedom of speech. It’s a compelling watch, to say the least.
You might say that the use of fuck is a countercultural means of exercising freedom of speech or subverting the stuffy traditional status quo. Still, for many years, when the world was very much trapped in its past, its use was unthinkable, as religion and keeping up appearances took up much of people’s mental capacity alongside the soul-crushing jobs they had to rise early for every morning.
For instance, in 1927, the Motion Picture Production Code – also known as the ‘Hays Code’ – banned profanity. However, after the 1960s had shaken things up, in 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) established a system of ratings to use as a guide to determine the appropriateness of content. It must be said that war flicks from the decade, such as The Great Escape or even Sergio Leone’s Clint Eastwood-starring spaghetti westerns, would have been much more gritty and realistic with a few uses of fuck. The first significant movie from America to use it was M*A*S*H in 1970.
Furthermore, the MPAA rating system assigns a PG-13 rating if a flick contains the use of fuck in a non-sexual context. Then, the R-rating is generally needed if the title uses more than one use of the word or if it’s used sexually. There are some exceptions, but it has regularly seen filmmakers appeal the rating.
Regardless, across the world, there have been many movies released that do not care about what rating they are given and have freely used fuck as many times as they want. The movie that holds the Guinness World Record for most uses of the word in a film is 2014’s Swearnet: The Movie, on a whopping 935 instances, with an average use of 8.35 times per minute across its 112-minute run time.
It follows the story of ‘Swearnet’ stars, Mike Smith, Robb Wells and John Paul Tremblay in their post-Trailer Park Boys careers as they start their own uncensored network on the internet. It was dubbed so offensive that it was slapped with the NC-17 rating from the MPAA and was banned in the UK for three years, and not released until 2017 with the 18 rating.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, given the subject matter, coming in hot at second place is Fuck. It uses the eponymous word 857 times in its 93 minutes, giving it a rate of 9.21 per minute, which even eclipses that of Swearnet. The final place on the podium goes to Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of crooked stockbroker Jordan Belfort’s 2007 memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street. An expletive-laden romp covering 1980s excess, it uses an array of curses. However, fuck and its derivatives are used 569 times in its 180 minutes, giving it a rate of 3.16 per minute.
Other honourable mentions that viewers won’t be too surprised to see in the top ten include the stressful masterpiece Uncut Gems by the Safdie brothers. Partially due to the varied usage of the word, it reaffirmed to everyone just how immense Adam Sandler can be when extracted from the limbo of dumb comedies.
It’s not all just American projects either, with Gary Oldman’s gritty South East London drama Nil by Mouth reaching ninth place. A historical moment for profanity in film it features the ‘C-word’ 82 times and features 428 uses of fuck and its offshoots. Regarding the latter, it was more than any other before Summer of Sam trumped it two years later.
Find the complete list of the ten movies that most frequently use fuck below.
10 movies that most frequently use the ‘F-word’:
- Swearnet: The Movie (2014) – 935
- Fuck (2005) – 857
- The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – 569
- Uncut Gems (2019) – 560
- Gutterballs (2008) – 516
- Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022) -487
- One Day Removals (2008) – 440
- Summer of Sam (1999) – 435
- Nil by Mouth (1997) – 428
- Casino (1995) – 422
Watch the trailer for Swearnet: The Movie below.
