Get off my property, you brain-eating zombie bastards!
No, Chef!
Chef, no!
Oh.
Sorry, children.
I thought you were one of them.
This is Chef from South Park, voiced by '70s Southern soul
music legend Isaac Hayes.
Chef was one of the show's main characters for nearly a decade,
often serving as a friend and confidant for Stan, Kyle,
Cartman, and Kenny, teaching them lessons
through a series of increasingly inappropriate songs.
After 2006, Isaac Hayes made the extremely controversial
decision to quit his role on the show,
leaving South Park fans shocked and wondering just
what happened that could have caused the actor
to quit so abruptly.
No, Chef, they've filled your head with lies.
Can't you see that?
Get the hell out of here, children!
Before we get into the back-and-forth of what
happened here, you should probably
like and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
if you haven't done so already.
For those of you who may not remember,
Chef was a South Park elementary school cafeteria
worker who, basically, acted as the town's gigolo.
He seduced several South Park characters,
including Eric Cartman's mother.
He fought a hordes of pinkeye-infected townsfolk,
married a succubus, and was sued by Alanis Morissette.
Outside of the four principal characters,
Chef was one of the biggest characters on the show.
In a previous life, Isaac Hayes was a Southern soul superstar.
He wrote the song "Soul Man," in part with David Porter.
He also wrote and performed the theme from Shaft.
However, during the time period we are discussing,
South Park was the largest project
that Isaac Hayes was working on at the time.
"Chocolate Salty Balls-- P.S. I Love You"
wound up topping the UK and Irish singles chart.
And he was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Best
Actor in a Comedy Series.
Chef essentially revitalized Isaac Hayes's career,
which had been on the downturn since the early '80s.
Taking all of this into consideration,
it really does seem strange that Isaac Hayes would just up
and leave without any notice or warning whatsoever.
On November 16, 2005, an episode of South Park
titled "Trapped in the Closet" aired on Comedy Central.
Within this episode, which would go on
to receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated
Program, there is a description of the core beliefs
present in the upper echelons of the Church of Scientology.
South Park is notorious for not pulling any punches when it
comes to criticizing religion.
And they made no exception here.
Not only does this episode paint Tom Cruise and John Travolta
in an extremely unfavorable light--
--where he lives.
Is this where Ron Hubbard is?
Oh my god!
--it also served as one of the first glimpses
the general public received into what Scientologists actually
believe.
We aren't here to slander Scientology or make light
of anyone's belief systems.
We'll leave that up to Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
However, it's no secret that the Church of Scientology
can behave in some rather extreme ways
when it comes to those who step up to criticize it.
There are quite a few members of Scientology
actively working in the entertainment industry.
Isaac Hayes was one of them.
On March 13, 2006, a statement came from representatives
of Isaac Hayes stating, "There is a place
in this world for satire.
And there is a time when satire ends and intolerance
and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.
Religious beliefs are sacred to people,
and at all times should be respected and honored.
As a civil rights activist for the past 40 years,
I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs
and practices."
Hayes's representatives further clarified this
by stating that he felt the show was inappropriately ridiculing
religious communities.
Matt Stone fired back and, quite fairly,
criticized Hayes, stating that he had no problem cashing
checks when South Park made fun of other religions
or political figures and that Hayes
was asking for his own religion to be treated differently
because of his relationship to the show.
One week later, a different statement
was made on behalf of Isaac Hayes stating that he never
intended to quit South Park and that someone
had quit the show in his stead.
Isaac Hayes suffered a stroke.
And his father, who was a devout Scientologist,
took it upon himself to quit the show for him.
The Church of Scientology did not
hesitate to act quickly after the episode aired.
They had their legal team reach out to Viacom
and told them that they would get advertisements
pulled from their network if the episode ever went to air again.
With this organization being this upset
over the content of the episode it's pretty safe
to assume that the practicing members who
were working on South Park were pressured
to take action as well.
All this back-and-forth ultimately
soured the working relationship between Isaac Hayes and South
Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
While Isaac Hayes would not return
to lend his voice to Chef for one final episode,
Parker and Stone did something quite brilliant
with Chef's dialogue.
In the season 10 episode titled "The Return of Chef,"
they recycled old recordings of Chef's previous dialogue
and spliced them together to make
Chef seem completely insane.
Hello there, children.
Hey, Chef!
How's it going?
Good.
Well, how about I meet you boys after work
and we can (SINGING) make love?
This might seem like a very pointed and targeted attack
on Isaac Hayes.
But if you really take the time to understand
the context of this episode, it seems
more like Matt Stone and Trey Parker are reaching out
to Isaac Hayes in a very sympathetic way.
The episode centers around the boys
trying their best to save Chef from the Super Adventurers
Club.
Every line of dialogue spoken to Chef from Stan, Kyle, Cartman,
and Kenny feels like the writers' way
of reaching out to Hayes and flat out telling him
that he's gone off the rails.
Chef's shocking dialogue throughout the episode
serves as their way of telling the world
that there is something wrong with Isaac Hayes
and he is spouting nonsense in the name of the Adventurers
Club, which is an analog for the Church of Scientology.
As the episode plays out, the children
become increasingly confused by Chef's behavior
up until the point where Chef falls down a cliff
and dies without ever coming to his senses, which is basically
an acknowledgment that Isaac Hayes was too far gone
and would inevitably end his career as this seemingly
disillusioned member of Scientology.
Despite this episode's somewhat aggressive skewering
of Isaac Hayes and Scientology by way of the Super Adventure
Club, there is a level of reverence the writers keep
for Hayes, specifically at the end of the episode
through Kyle's dialogue.
I'm going to remember Chef as the jolly old guy who
always broke into song.
I'm going to remember Chef as the guy who gave us advice
to live by.
Kyle's sentiments feel completely genuine,
almost as if the writers are reaching out of the screen
and telling it to us directly.
These sentiments were echoed in a later interview
with Matt Stone and Trey Parker in an interview
for The Hollywood Reporter.
Matt Stone stated that it sucked to get the full picture
because the initial statement made them look like bigots.
And Trey Parker said that despite that, they
knew in their hearts that there was something else going on.
After Isaac Hayes's passing in 2008,
South Park dedicated the episode titled "The China Problem"
to his memory.
If you look at this entire scenario,
it seems like a pretty huge dust-up for a single episode
of a cartoon series.
However, creating controversial subject matter
is something that Matt Stone and Trey Parker could probably
write a book on.
They took a college animation project
made from construction paper and turned it
into a self-contained universe serving
as a microcosm for current events
told through the eyes of 10-year-old children.
Regardless of the fallout or repercussions
of this episode going to air, the controversy
serves as a huge reminder to the power of satire.
A function of satirical artists is
to criticize the absurdities of political and religious
institutions and beliefs.
And when they do this well, those religious and political
institutions lash out in a variety of ways.
Sometimes, this can just be calling for boycotts
or issuing some inflated criticism on the news.
South Park is an equal opportunity offender.
And they've been lambasting religion
since day one of their bootleg VHS titled
"The Joy of Christmas."
Their entire brand is built off of satirizing and criticizing
everyone.
And for the most part, they do this in very fair ways.
South Park thrives on their ability
to draw people in and utilizing satire
to make people think about certain controversial topics
and spark thoughtful and meaningful conversation.
Churches like Scientology thrive on the unwavering
and unquestioning support of their members.
And when something emerges as a threat to that,
they do everything they can to extinguish that threat.
So you're not the prophet, huh?
You made me look stupid.
I'm going to sue you, too.
Well, fine.
Go ahead and sue me.
I will.
I'll see you in England.
The departure of Isaac Hayes from South Park
was controversial, to say the least.
Hayes was a part of the show from the very beginning
and had definitely cemented himself
as a fan favorite character.
However, his inability to allow his religion to be satirized
created an impasse between him and Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
Good religious satire should be divisive to some degree.
In fact, it absolutely needs to be divisive to be effective.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be satire at all.
Due to its divisive nature, satire can have consequences.
These consequences can range and vary
from legal challenges and litigation.
But more often than not, the biggest consequences
of satirization can be on the level
of interpersonal relationships.
In the case of South Park, the biggest consequence
of their satirization of Scientology
was the loss of Isaac Hayes as a performer.
And that's it for this one, folks.
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