Shit happens

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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 minced oath form is "stuff happens". It is an acknowledgment that bad things happen to people for no particular reason.[1]

Etymology researchers have yet to determine when the phrase was first used or when it first appeared in print (the movie Forrest Gump posits a fictional explanation for how it originated). However, in a 1991 case concerning a bumper sticker that read "Shit happens", the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that a state law prohibiting lewd or profane stickers and decals on vehicles was unconstitutional.[2]

[edit] Early examples

The origin or earliest use of the phrase is uncertain. In a review of a book of quotations, The New Yorker critic Louis Menand observed that it was "extremely interesting to know, for instance, that the phrase 'Shit happens' was introduced to print by one Connie Eble, in a publication identified as UNC–CH Slang (presumably the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), in 1983."[3] It was in common use by early 1988, appearing for instance in a April 1 edition of the Penn State Collegian.[4] That same year, a man was charged with obscenity for displaying a bumper sticker with the phrase.[5]

[edit] Notable occurrences

  • The phrase was featured in the movie Forrest Gump during the eponymous character's run across the United States. While being interviewed by an excited fan, Forrest steps in a pile of dog faeces. When this is pointed out by the fan, Gump's response is a mere "it happens." Inspired by the apparent "wisdom," the fan subsequently creates a "shit happens" slogan, that is then seen to appear as a bumper sticker on a pickup truck as another vehicle crashes into it on an intersection (in some TV editions of the film, the audio is blanked out to say "it happens" and the "SH" is blurred out on the bumper sticker).
  • 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: Why does this shit always happen to us?"[6]
  • 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 was posted with the phrase "In 3 days, Sith happens."[7]
  • Popular hardcore band Every Time I Die released a DVD entitled "Shit Happens" in 2006.
  • Debbie Lazarus published "Sh*t Happens: The Book" in December 2006.
  • A book by Stephen Clarke is entitled Merde Happens.
  • Keith Richards says the phrase a-many-a time.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Shit happens" (May 1995). Psychology Today. 
  2. ^ David L. Hudson Jr. (2006). Bumper Stickers. First Amendment Center. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
  3. ^ Menand, Louis (2007), “Notable Quotables (Book review of “Yale Book of Quotations”, ed. Fred Shapiro)”, The New Yorker (no. February 19, 2007) .
  4. ^ View Point on Life. Penn State Collegian. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  5. ^ VA Bumper Sticker Charge Dropped, But Case Still Sticky. The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  6. ^ Shit Happens. Humor collection. gnu.org. Retrieved on 2007-11-25.
  7. ^ Trailer. starwars.com.
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