South Park
It Hits the Fan
TV Flash files “It Hits the Fan” as a desk essential hour — South Park (1997–present) on Comedy Central, season 5, episode 1, aired 2001-06-20, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E01: listed hour 66 of 335 in the South Park guide, first listed hour of season 5. It aired 2001-06-20 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “A Very Crappy Christmas” (S04E17). Next is “Cripple Fight” (S05E02).
Essential hour: “It Hits the Fan”. The bleep-battle hour: satire testing how loud a basic-cable cartoon can get before Standards blinks.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The boys realize they may have made history of some sort when Cartman utters an expletive.
Viewer FAQ
Where does It Hits the Fan sit in the South Park guide?
S05E01 is listed hour 66 of 335 — first listed hour of season 5, season 5 episode 1.
When did South Park S05E01 air?
It Hits the Fan aired 2001-06-20 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Why can it react so quickly to current events?
Episodes are often produced in roughly a week, trading polish for immediacy so a Monday scandal can air as Wednesday farce.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Construction-paper kids roasting the news cycle before the week is over. Trey Parker and Matt Stone built Comedy Central's meanest appointment ritual: Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny as a Greek chorus of American outrage, plus a pipeline that trades polish for currency. Celebrity lawsuits, bleep battles, and the perpetual too-soon dare — satire that refuses to age into nostalgia.
The drop window is the week itself. Comedy Central puts four construction-paper Colorado kids on the air August 13, 1997, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone do not wait for a prestige season to mellow. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny roast celebrity feuds and sacred cows as crude farce before Friday. The pipeline is the product: episodes often produced in **roughly a week**, a Monday scandal already a Wednesday cut. Rex will tell you satire used to need a living-room appointment and a laugh track with manners. Fine.…
Filed against
- Trey Parker as Stan / Cartman
Trey Parker’s Stan and Cartman roasted the news cycle on South Park before the week was over — construction-paper kids, Comedy Central’s meanest appointment ritual, a Greek chorus of American outrage that trades polish for currency. Matt…
- Matt Stone as Kyle / Kenny
Matt Stone voiced the moral kid and the weekly death as Kyle / Kenny on South Park — construction-paper children roasting the news cycle before the week is over, Comedy Central’s meanest appointment ritual. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny as a…
- Isaac Hayes as Chef
Isaac Hayes voiced Chef on South Park as the adult who could still sing the problem — construction-paper kids roasting the news cycle, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's meanest Comedy Central appointment, Stan Kyle Cartman Kenny as a Greek…