I love Isaac. I saw him perform at the Wrestlemania Rage Party before Wrestlemania XV in Philly (catering by Chef Boyardee...seriously), and he was great. I'd pay to see him again.
It does seem sort of hypocritical if it's just the Scientology episode that he's up in arms about. It's arguable that South Park has done much worse to other religions (the Mormon episode comes to mind).
I'd called that as soon as I saw that they were going to have that Scientology episode. Only surprise about it is that it took this long for him to leave the show. And the writing had been on the wall last season, when Matt (or was it Trey) had said that Chef would be back in the future but they weren't sure what form...
That said, they were really soft on Tom Cruise and John Travolta. It should've been so much worse...
Ok, I may be out of the loop, but...since when has Isaac Hayes been a Scientologist? That's news to me.
Whether he was underused or not these past few seasons, Chef helped make South Park what it was when it first aired. His presence will be sorely missed.
SOUTH PARK creators TREY PARKER and MATT STONE avoided poking fun at Scientology for years because they didn't want to upset show regular ISAAC HAYES.
The outrageous animators recently took a swing at the controversial religious movement in an episode, which found humour in TOM CRUISE and his sexuality - after growing tired of being told they couldn't attack Scientology by TV executives.
Parker explains, "To be honest, what kept us from doing it before was Isaac Hayes. We knew he was a Scientologist and he's an awesome guy. We're like, 'Let's just avoid that for now.'"
But, after hearing how comedy illusionist pal PENN JILLETTE was banned from poking fun at the controversial religion on his cable show BULLS**T, Stone and Parker decided it was time to point their comedy fingers at Scientology and it's most famous convert.
Parker adds, "Finally, we just had to tell Isaac, 'Dude, we totally love working with you, and this is nothing personal, it's just we're South Park, and if we don't do this, we're belittling everything else we've ripped on.'"
(edited by Zeruel on 13.3.06 2356)
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Originally posted by It's FalseOk, I may be out of the loop, but...since when has Isaac Hayes been a Scientologist? That's news to me.
Whether he was underused or not these past few seasons, Chef helped make South Park what it was when it first aired. His presence will be sorely missed.
I agree. However, reading the story left me a bit uneasy about his reasoning...
Originally posted by Yahoo.comNEW YORK - Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.
"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said.
"South Park" co-creator Matt Stone responded sharply in an interview with The Associated Press Monday, saying, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians."
Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
I'm tending to side with Parker and Stone on this. South Park has made fun of every major religion but after the Scientology episode, we don't see Chef anymore and now Hayes officially quits. If this is truly the case, then I say good riddance.
"Speaking of Thomases, I loved your recent Atrocious GM Summit column, although I think that you flatter Isiah Thomas far too much by suggesting that he is merely one of a number of atrocious GMs. The truth is that Rob Babcock and Billy King are Einstein next to him. The mess he is creating right now in New York will be studied by business school students 50 years from now alongside Enron and pets.com."
What's interesting is the excerpt from this interview, where he more or less insinuated that you have to come to accept stuff like that on the show and roll with the punches:
Originally posted by TheOnion.comAVC: There's some pretty harsh satire on South Park. They don't really care who they offend.
IH: But that's their thing! They're success was built on that cutting-edge stuff. I've had to defend them a lot of times. One time on BET Tonight I defended them because Tavis Smiley, the host on that show, was coming at me. It was a call-in show, too, so people were calling in. I told them not to take this stuff seriously. If you do, you'll get in trouble. Just enjoy it. Remember your high-school yearbook? You look at those pictures now, you laugh, right? That's what South Park is. You got to laugh at it. Because we cursed, but we just didn't dare let the principals, the teachers, or the preachers hear it. And we didn't turn out bad, okay? Just look at it that way. Also, usually there's some kind of moral message at the end for the kids, by the Chef.
AVC: They did just do an episode that made fun of your religion, Scientology. Did that bother you?
IH: Well, I talked to Matt and Trey about that. They didn't let me know until it was done. I said, "Guys, you have it all wrong. We're not like that. I know that's your thing, but get your information correct, because somebody might believe that shit, you know?" But I understand what they're doing. I told them to take a couple of Scientology courses, and understand what we do. (Laughs.)
I suspect this wasn't entirely Hayes' decision.
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In all honesty, Chef's been almost non-existent these past few seasons. They phased him out and characters like Butters took a more active role. Chef was always a sort of mentor and adult model for the boys over the years. He was always there to back them up or give them advice.
When is the last time Chef did one of his sex/love songs?
Perhaps, its because you know, Chef doesn't really have anything to do on the show anymore?
I can somewhat understand Isaac Hayes leaving over the Scientology episode. Why? because in other episodes when they poked fun at a Religion, they usually stressed something positive about the religion, to show that some form of faith is usually good. Like the Mormon episode, for example. They poked fun at the beginnings of the of the movement with John Smith and all that, but at the end they let the mormon kid "win" in a way, talking about his family and such.
But no such luck with the Scientology episode. They beat it into your heads that all scientologists are kooks. they even put "SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS" during the part about the aliens and all that. I dont know if Scientolgist belive in Aliens and all that, but if they did, is that any more crazy than Christians believing in a all seeing Being that talks to man thru Burning Bushes? I just thought they could have stressed something positive about the religion. Maybe their anti drug stance. Obviously not all of them are kooks, they were able to work with Isaac hayes for almost 10 years.
(edited by rockdotcom_2.0 on 14.3.06 0816) "I could be wrong, but I doubt it"---Charles Barkley
Originally posted by rockdotcom_2.0They beat it into your heads that all scientologists are kooks. they even put "SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE THIS" during the part about the aliens and all that. I dont know if Scientolgist belive in Aliens and all that, but if they did, is that any more crazy than Christians believing in a all seeing Being that talks to man thru Burning Bushes?
Many governments (including Belgium, Russia, Greece, France, Germany and Spain) reject the Church of Scientology's claims to be a legitimate religious organization; it has been variously judged to be a commercial enterprise or a dangerous cult (see the list of alleged cults).
Scientology is, however, legally accepted as a religion in the United States and Australia, and enjoys the constitutional protections afforded to religious practice in each country. In October of 1993 the U.S Internal Revenue Service recognized the Church as an "organization operated exclusively for religious and charitable purposes." The Church offers the tax exemption as proof that it is a religion. (This subject is examined in the Wikipedia article on the Church of Scientology).
Originally posted by rockdotcom_2.0Maybe their anti drug stance.
From my readings and understanding, they're against ALL drugs. So, yeah, my diabetic girlfriend would be dead if she was a scientologist.
All Matt and Trey have to do is somehow write Chef off of the show and have him replaced with maybe Chef's brother (Cooke maybe?). Get James Earl Jones to do the voice and the show doesn't miss a beat.
"Oh it's on like Donkey Kong." - Stifler, American Wedding
Originally posted by KevintripodAll Matt and Trey have to do is somehow write Chef off of the show and have him replaced with maybe Chef's brother (Cooke maybe?). Get James Earl Jones to do the voice and the show doesn't miss a beat.
Hopefully they bring in Evil Chef, the skinny white lawyer (or was he an insurance salesman?) from the alternate dimension...
He had no problem with Parker and Stone making fun of pedophilia, drug addiction, prostitution, the handicapped, racism, A.I.D.S. or other religions, but when they riff on Scientology, he walks out on them?
That's the biggest crock of shit I've heard all year. Total bullshit.
The following argument assumes that Hayes quit because of the Scientology episode, or that the episode was a major contributing factor. Whether that's actually the case is still ambiguous for me, but assuming it's true:
While I believe Hayes overreacted to the whole thing, I do respect him for standing up for his religious beliefs (however misguided I think they may be) if he felt he was being discriminated against. In general, I'm very much in favor of many forms of nonviolent protest.
I, personally, think that with the sheer number of times South Park has made fun of practically every other religion on the planet with Hayes as part of the show, the fact that the Scientology episode is what made Hayes say "enough" is pretty ridiculous.
But.
His leaving South Park may not have been his decision, nor the decision of Parker and Stone, but the decision of the Church of Scientology itself.
From what I've heard about Scientology, they may have, behind the scenes, coerced Hayes into making this decision, saying they'd excommunicate him or designate him as a Suppressive Person or something. And if Hayes' family are also Scientologists, they'd have to disassociate themselves from him or risk also becoming SPs.
At the very least, I have very little doubt that as a result of the episode, Parker and Stone have been labeled SPs by the Church of Scientology, and that would mean Hayes' continued association with Parker and Stone would be forbidden by the Church and he'd be at risk of becoming an SP, or at least a Potential Trouble Source, himself.
(edited by ekedolphin on 14.3.06 1913) "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." --Stone Cold Steve Austin
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His leaving South Park may not have been his decision, nor the decision of Parker and Stone, but the decision of the Church of Scientology itself.
From what I've heard about Scientology, they may have, behind the scenes, coerced Hayes into making this decision, saying they'd excommunicate him or designate him as a Suppressive Person or something. And if Hayes' family are also Scientologists, they'd have to disassociate themselves from him or risk also becoming SPs.
At the very least, I have very little doubt that as a result of the episode, Parker and Stone have been labeled SPs by the Church of Scientology, and that would mean Hayes' continued association with Parker and Stone would be forbidden by the Church and he'd be at risk of becoming an SP, or at least a Potential Trouble Source, himself.
(edited by ekedolphin on 14.3.06 1913)
I'd agree with that possibility after reading the info from link you posted. In that, I clicked on a link to wikipedia's section on L. Ron Hubbard. Towards the end of it I found this bit of info...
Originally posted by wikipedia.comOn the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet", it was claimed that Stan Marsh is L. Ron Hubbard reincarnated. As a reference to Scientology's litigious tendencies, all the credits at the end of this episode were changed to read "John/Jane Smith". A sequence which might appear to be a satirically exaggerated view of the Scientologists' version of history has the caption, "This is what Scientologists actually believe". Issac Hayes, who voiced "Chef" on the show and is himself a Scientologist, ostensibly left the cast on account of this episode. However, it isn't clear whether this was his own decision or a decision of upper-level Scientologists; on a radio interview after the episode aired, Hayes defended South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, saying, "If you take the shit they say seriously, then I'll sell you the Brooklyn Bridge for two dollars."
"Speaking of Thomases, I loved your recent Atrocious GM Summit column, although I think that you flatter Isiah Thomas far too much by suggesting that he is merely one of a number of atrocious GMs. The truth is that Rob Babcock and Billy King are Einstein next to him. The mess he is creating right now in New York will be studied by business school students 50 years from now alongside Enron and pets.com."
By the way, for anyone who hasn't seen the episode, this site has the episode in its entirety. It'll probably never be aired again in the United States, so unless you wanna wait for the season nine DVD (in which it still might be edited, who knows?), this might be something you wanna see.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." --Stone Cold Steve Austin
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Originally posted by ekedolphinBy the way, for anyone who hasn't seen the episode, this site has the episode in its entirety. It'll probably never be aired again in the United States, so unless you wanna wait for the season nine DVD (in which it still might be edited, who knows?), this might be something you wanna see.
Don't know about edits, but my digital cable tells me that the scientology episode will be on tomorrow night at nine, so...if you really wanna see it, there ya go.
Don't bet on it showing. Our local paper ran a special commentary on the episode because Comedy Central was supposedly replaying it a couple of weeks ago. We TiVo'd it because we were out of town and got "The Passion of the Jew" instead. Checking around here, that's what everyone got.
Tim
Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit. -- Erasmus
Originally posted by KevintripodAll Matt and Trey have to do is somehow write Chef off of the show and have him replaced with maybe Chef's brother (Cooke maybe?). Get James Earl Jones to do the voice and the show doesn't miss a beat.
Hopefully they bring in Evil Chef, the skinny white lawyer (or was he an insurance salesman?) from the alternate dimension...
Just bring back Mr. Derp! Wasn't that silly? Deeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrp!
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I don't think there will be any major issue from this- happened after midnight, they dubbed it out of the West Coast airing, from what I've heard, and it was pretty clearly an accident, going by the "Oh, crap!