Shit happens

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For the short film, see Shit Happens (film).

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"Shit happens" is a common slang phrase, used as a simple existential observation that life is full of imperfections, or "C'est la vie". The phrase inherits the ambiguity of the word shit itself, which can mean (colloquially) either "bad stuff" or "excrement", but also "stuff" in general. It has become a well-known meme. Because it contains the word "shit", the phrase might be considered profane.

[edit] "Shit happens" in the media

It was used for the first time on national (US) television by Mark Harmon, on an episode of Chicago Hope. According to reports at the time, censors agreed that "it happens" did not have the same impact as the "proper" phrase.
The phrase was featured in the movie Forrest Gump during the lead character's (Gump) run across the United States. While being asked questions by an excited fan, Gump steps in a pile of dog excrement. The fan points this out to Gump in an excited fashion to which he innocently replies, "It happens." In the film, this incident inspires that fan to create the "shit happens" slogan, shown in the form of a bumper sticker.
In a Dilbert comic strip, Dilbert builds a quantum computer capable of interacting with matter from another universe to solve complex equations. Dogbert notes that according to the chaos theory, Dilbert's change to another universe would shift its destiny, possibly killing every inhabitant, to which Dilbert replies "Shift happens."^[1]
The phrase has inspired a list of jokes on religious and philosophical views, disseminated widely on the Internet and sometimes known as the "Shit List". Each viewpoint (e.g. Catholicism, Buddhism, existentialism) is summed up by some variation on the phrase, for instance: "Judaism: God, why does shit always happen to us?" list: [1]
Duke Nukem commonly utters this phrase when he steps into feces (often left behind by the enforcer monsters) in Duke Nukem 3D.
In an episode of the British sitcom Father Ted, the characters encounter a tough-talking milkman who has a prominently-featured sign in his truck bearing the phrase.
In the movie Predator 2, the Predator utters "Shit Happens." right before falling off a building. (The Predator learned of the phrase when hearing a Jamaican gangster exclaim it.)
In 1991 the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a state law prohibiting lewd or profane stickers and decals on vehicles was unconstitutional. The bumper sticker that was in question in the case read "Shit happens".
T-shirts for teenagers are for sale which read "Shirt happens"; these are often banned from high schools for their similarity to the actual phrase.
The 2000 horror parody Scary Movie had many scenes of people dying because of a serial killer. After a girl is killed, news stations arrive at her school. One of the policemen speaks out and simply says, "Uhh...You know? Shit happens."
Sith happens was jocularly used in fan circles as a placeholder for the name of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when the movie's name had not yet been revealed. Three days before the release of the film (on May 16, 2005), an official trailer ^[2] was posted with the phrase "In 3 days, Sith happens."
World Wrestling Entertainment began using the phrase to describe an incident in which the stable D-Generation X poured human feces on a few of their rivals.
On August 12, 2005, Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman remarked "Shit Happens" in a post-game press conference after injuring his ankle [2].
In 2006 Volkswagen introduced a series of television advertisements in which actors are involved in a car accident. Emerging safely from the vehicle, one actor says, "Holy-," and then the slogan "Safe Happens" fades to the screen.

[edit] References

^ Adams, Scott (1998). Journey to Cubeville. Andrews and McMeel Publishing. ISBN 0-7522-2384-4.
^ Star Wars: Episode III official trailer. Retrieved on May 16, 2005.

Promotional T-Shirts for Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog's 2003 album Come Poop with Me featured the phrase, "Poop Happens", A parody of "Shit Happens".