One thing that Neeraj Chand of MovieWeb mentions when it comes to the fact that Jonah Hill has somehow dethroned Samuel L. Jackson as the most foul-mouthed celebrity (in movies) is that it’s about quantity over quality. Hill’s fan base might want to say that it doesn’t matter, a record is a record, but keep in mind that a Razzie is a Razzie, but actors don’t necessarily want to get one either. When talking about swearing in a movie a lot of people, parents especially, might wince and cover their children’s ears since they don’t want their youngsters repeating what they hear. But there are plenty of heated moments in movies and even appropriate times when swearing can provide an added emotional impact and create a great deal more tension between characters than might have otherwise existed. It’s enough to give Hill his moment since he is a big star and has earned his way to where he’s at, but it’s a dubious place in history all the same since the quantity of swear words in a movie doesn’t always make it better, as just throwing out F-bombs left and right doesn’t necessarily make a person less intelligent, but it does become a bit excessive at times. While swearing can obviously add to a movie it can also take away from the main theme as well, creating controversy where none needed to exist.
Being fair, Jackson has taken the swearing game to extremes as well since not every situation he’s ever been in during a movie really calls for the level of language that he’s been known to introduce. Whether it’s been his idea or was simply written into the dialogue there are times when it’s clear that it was written just because, and not for any other reason than to elicit a response or fill in a gap. Paul Chi of Vanity Fair had something else to say concerning this idea. In fact Jackson has even lamented at times his swearing in movies due to the fact that it’s caused others to emulate and even greet him in ways on the street that he doesn’t care of, according to his own account. Some might call that karma, others might call it coincidence, but the truth is that people do tend to repeat what they see on TV and in the movies and Jackson has been known to swear repeatedly in some instances. It’s not a horrible thing really but it is something to think about when people start relating to you in a way that has more to do with the language of your characters than anything else. Jonah Hill is still typically thought of as the awkward guy that doesn’t ever really fit into any given situation but does his best to try and make sure that people know who he is.
At this point it’s kind of difficult to not know who Hill is and what he’s known for since he’s taken on so many iconic roles over the years and been one of the more prolific actors of his time. There have been moments when he’s less than effective and comes off as more of a pain the backside in one movie or another, but this is another part of his act that makes him so effective, people will actually hate or admire him based on his character in a movie. Like him or not, Hill is still a very convincing actor and has all but mastered the desperate loser/jerk role that he’s played so often to the point that people have actually believed that this is his real character outside of the movies. Whether he swears as much as some of his characters do or not is hard to say, but there are few instances in which his mouth never stops running at times and is just one swear word after another, such as the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Dan Thorne of Guinness World Records had something else to add to this. The staggering number of times that the F-word is dropped in this movie is enough to make a person wonder how it didn’t end up being heavily edited, even though the answer is pretty clear, if the sexual content wasn’t enough to get the rating changed then the language wasn’t going to even nudge the needle.
So the king of cussing has been dethroned at this time and it’s likely that he’ll rest at third place, behind Jonah Hill and Leonard DiCaprio for a while, unless Danny McBride, who was kind of a surprise to see lower on the list, can possibly ascend. In a way it’s not hard to believe that this happened since Jackson has been cussing his way through the movies since actors like Hill were just kids, meaning that one way or another it was bound to happen. It’s kind of a strange honor to be given but all the same, it’s something that people tend to notice.
Follow Us
