Is there a rule as to how many “cuss words” can be used in a script?

Delving into the sometimes mysterious world of the MPA ratings system.

There is no rule per se, but there is an entity which determines — on a case by case basis — what rating a movie receives and that is the MPA: Motion Picture Association. Their rating system, which is over fifty years old, exists — in theory at least — to provide parents with a guide about which movies may or may not be appropriate for their children. Here are the categories for those ratings:

G: General Audiences
All ages admitted

PG: Parental Guidance Suggested 
Some material may not be suitable for children

PG-13: Parents Strongly Cautioned. 
Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13

R: Restricted. 
Children under 17 require accompanying parent or adult guardian

NC-17: No one 17 and under admitted 
These are films that the Rating Board believes most parents would consider patently too adult for their children. No children will be admitted.

Specifically with regard to use of “cuss words,” here is the best take I’ve found on how the MPA approaches this subject:

A motion picture’s single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, initially requires at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive requires an R rating, as must even one of those words used in a sexual context. The Rating Board nevertheless may rate such a motion picture PG-13 if, based on a special vote by a two-thirds majority, the Raters feel that most American parents would believe that a PG-13 rating is appropriate because of the context or manner in which the words are used or because the use of those words in the motion picture is inconspicuous.

The word this refers to is, of course, “fuck”. If it is used in a “sexual context” such as, “I want to fuck you,” that is almost assuredly going to derive an R rating. If the word is used as a “cuss word” as “Ah, fuck, here come the cops,” that could stand in a PG-13 movie. In fact, I found this list of 15 movies which have multiple “fucks” in dialogue, yet still received a PG-13 rating including the movies Iron Man 2, The Fast and the Furious, and Lincoln.

Note: I would assume the use of the words “motherfucker” or “cocksucker”, even one time, would merit an R rating.

Why the MPA ratings system is relevant to screenwriters is we can reverse engineer from what they to do what we write in our scripts. If we are writing a script which is at its heart a PG-13 movie, we pretty much know we can get away with at least one — and perhaps more — non-sexual F-words. [FYI, we can use the word “shit” or “bull shit” multiple times, although I suspect the MPA may bristle at its too frequent employment.]

I run into this with writers I work with at the university level or through Screenwriting Master Class. They’ve got a fine little PG-13 script, then they hit one scene with multiple F-words or one with a sexual connotation, and I tell them, “You just got yourself an R-rating.”

That’s fine, by the way, if you want to write an R-rated movie. In fact, you can use the F-word as many times as you want. The record holder according to Variety is believed to be The Wolf of Wall Street which used the word “fuck” in all its variations 506 times in its 180 minute run-time. According to my calculations, that comes out to 2.81 uses of the F-word per minute!

Of course, the irony in all this is that we can write scripts where multiple people get beheaded, disemboweled, blown up, and generally tell a story drenched with blood, and THAT can breeze through with a PG-13 rating. That says something about our American culture, how violence gets more leeway that a few “cuss words” or explicit sex, but there you go.

Bottom line, there’s no rule’ but there is a ratings system which we can use as a reference point in how many “cuss words” we write in our scripts. Which means…

We fucking got that going for us.

If you wish to learn more about the MPA rating system, go here.

UPDATE: I just bumped into this New Yorker video.

You can tell the dad is a writer as he explores the many variations of The F-Word.