| "It Hits the Fan" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Production code | 502 |
| Original air date | June 20, 2001 |
"It Hits the Fan" is the fifth season premiere of the American animated television series South Park, and the 66th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 20, 2001. In the episode, after the word shit is said uncensored on the network television crime show Cop Drama, everyone starts saying the word repeatedly. This eventually brings on a mysterious plague that unleashes the ancient Knights of Standards and Practices, and only Chef and the boys can save the world.
The episode was written by series co-creator Trey Parker and is rated TV-MA in the United States. Throughout the episode, the profanity shit or shitty are exclaimed uncensored a total of 162 separate times; in syndicated or re-aired versions of this episode, a counter in the bottom left corner of the screen counts the number of times the word has been uttered. The written occurrences are not counted, but "shit" is written 38 times, which brings the count up to an even 200. On a statistical average, the word "shit" is uttered roughly once for every eight seconds of showtime; one such count includes the episode's theme song in the calculation.[1]
This episode marked the transition in animation software from PowerAnimator to Autodesk Maya.