The Common But Crude Misreading Of K-Drama “Sh**ting Stars” Title Is Actually Intentional

There’s a punny reason behind it!

Everyone has been anticipating tvN‘s new K-Drama Sh**ting Stars due to its great cast and plot. It stars model, actress, and singer Lee Sung Kyung and actor Kim Young Dae as PR team leader Oh Han Byeol and star actor Gong Tae Sung, respectively.

Oh Han Byul leads an entertainment agency’s PR team. One of her top clients is star Gong Tae Sung who does no wrong. They went to the same university, where he became her sworn enemy. They bicker but soon develop feelings for one another.

— IMDb

Still, there is one thing that netizens can’t get over… It’s the title.

Of course, while it is meant to be pronounced as Shooting Stars, it is always stylized as Sh**ting Stars, representing two stars in place of the “o”‘s.

Kim Young Dae (left) and Lee Sung Kyung (right) in “Sh**ting Stars” poster. | tvN

Consequently, netizens are saying that rather than look like stars, it appears censored as asterisks are usually used to omit something. So, they are commonly used to remove letters to censor curse words.

@rakuten_viki

Watch Sh**ting Stars, premiering 4/23, only on Viki! ✨💫💙 #별똥별#KimYoungDae#LeeSungKyung#이성경#김영대#ShootingStars#kdrama#kdramas#shoutout#dorama#fyp

♬ original sound – viki – viki

| @rakuten_viki/TikTok

Therefore, many are struggling to read the title. Rather than Shooting Stars, the brain fills in the blanks to read Sh*tting Stars rather than Shooting Stars.

Rakuten Viki even has the “uncensored” version as an alternative title in its listing for the K-Drama.

| Rakuten Viki

It has everyone wondering who thought it was a good idea to stylize the K-Drama’s title this way. Was it an honest mistake? Well, it might actually be the case that it was intended to have this crude misread.

Sh**ting Stars is the English title given for the K-Drama. The original Korean title is basically “별들의 똥을 치우는 별별 사람들” which gets shortened to “별똥뼐” (Byeolttongbyeol, shooting stars). The phrase means “cleaning the poop of stars (celebrities)” because the drama focuses on those working in public relations, a job that frequently works with cleaning up celebrities’ scandals. In Korean, the title is a play on words because “똥” in “별똥별” (shooting stars) means poop.

Lee Sung Kyung (left) and Kim Young Dae (right) in Sh**ting Stars poster.

Likewise, even episode titles reflect this. Episode 2’s title is even translated differently due to this complication. While one streaming service has is titled “The War of Sh**ting Stars,” another calls it “Star and Poop Star a war in the field.”

@kdramabride

I love💩stars🤩 #shootingstars #kimyoungdae #leesungkyung #kdramalover #koreandrama #kdramafyp #kdramatok

♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys – Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey

So, while the English translations cannot obviously contain the clear Korean pun, the asterisk stylization is a fun alternative that communicates the same humor.

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