"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 is also the 1st episode of Season 5 when going by production order. 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. Plot Kyle has tickets to The Lion King on Stage, but Cartman tells him that the HBC crime show Cop Drama is going to use the word "shit" uncensored. The broadcast of the show leads to widespread acceptance of the word, even in schools, causing people to use it constantly, in casual and often out of context during conversations. Furthermore, Ms. Choksondik is forced to clarify the acceptable context of the wordas a noun or adjective meaning bad, or as an exclamation of disappointment, the word is acceptable, but as a noun or adjective referring to feces, it is apparently unacceptablethoroughly confusing the children (a reference to the real-life FCC standards of indecency). A strange illness that causes people to spew up their intestines and die suddenly rises in South Park, so action is taken. Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison teaches the kindergartners not only about the word "shit," but also about the word "fag," which he is allowed to say uncensored because he is homosexual. Later, in the local bar, he demonstrates this when he says the word uncensored, but any heterosexual who attempts to say the