Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.

 

Hayes, who has played the ladies' man/school cook in the animated Comedy Central satire since 1997, said in a statement Monday that he feels a line has been crossed.

 

"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.

 

"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored," he continued. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

 

"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."

 

Last November, "South Park" targeted the Church of Scientology and its celebrity followers, including actors

Tom Cruise and

John Travolta, in a top-rated episode called "Trapped in the Closet." In the episode, Stan, one of the show's four mischievous fourth graders, is hailed as a reluctant savior by Scientology leaders, while a cartoon Cruise locks himself in a closet and won't come out.

 

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."

 

 

Translation: The Church of $cientology requires members to cut ties with anyone who's critical of them.

 

The episode is airing this week on Comedy Central (Wed. at 9:30 I believe), despite legal threats from $cientologists who don't want the episode rerun.

Parker and Stone hit it right on the head...

 

Hayes hadn't had any problems doing anything, let alone episodes with jokes about Christians, Jews, Mormons, and other religions but, when it came to Scientology, he got pissy.

 

 

There was at least one article I read earlier this month where he was pissed and talked about how Parker and Stone "got it all wrong" as far as Scientology goes and that they should "attend some classes" (join / be brainwashed) by the Church in order to see the truth.

I thought Scientology frowned on talking to anyone outside of the religion in general. Not surprised though. They had Hayes on Opie and Anthony way back in the fall and I was extremely disappointed when I heard he was in that cult.

You're allowed to talk to non-$cientologists as long as they don't speak against the church. Once they start being critical the church labels them a disruptive force and orders all ties be cut.

Ah, I had figured to better keep a person under control that they tried to keep them away from anyone not in the church. It's a pretty typical cult tactic.

Do these people like Isaac Hayes honestly believe that they are completely sane? It's so hard to believe that there are that many lunatics in this country that would buy into all this bullshit. I'm sure this Hollywood fad will be coming to an end soon, and it can't happen soon enough.

I wouldn't count on that, it's been part of their plans since the 60s to get Hollywood and sports celebrities recruited in order to give them some credibility.

 

As long as there's people with low self esteem in Hollywood, there's always going to be $cientologists eager to audit their Thetans for the low low price of half their yearly income.

Thats dissapointing coming from Hayes. But he hasnt been on the show in a few seasons anyway has he? He certainly hasnt been a prominent character in years.

 

 

FTR, the episode in question is a classic and everybody should check it ou.

He was on up to a few episodes before the $cientology one. Chef's character had been gradually getting less screen time, but that was more due to them having less episodes based around the kids in school. They probably got tired of coming up with more and more contrived ways to get Chef involved, kind of how they kept Kenny dead for a whole season because they got tired of coming up with ways of killing him every week.

The episode is airing this week on Comedy Central (Wed. at 9:30 I believe), despite legal threats from $cientologists who don't want the episode rerun.

They ended up not running the episode at the last minute. Considering how much free reign Comedy Central lets them have, this is shocking.

This may explain why I ended up with a copy of My Future Self N Me, which I thought I'd deleted from my to-do list.

Matt and Trey allowed the anti-$cientology site Xenu.net host the episode in AVI format if you want to see it. I guess they have a feeling the famously sue-happy cult might not let the episode ever air again.

 

I'll be PISSED if it gets left off the DVD whenever they get to releasing that season.

Not surprised at this. The show was stopped from being broadcast over here after Tom Cruise threatened Paramount Comedy. If anything I think the group makes themselves look like bigger assholes by not being able to take a joke.

From today's NY Post:

 

March 17, 2006 -- HOLLYWOOD bully Tom Cruise got Comedy Central to cancel Wednesday night's cablecast of a controversial "South Park" episode about Scientology by warning that he'd refuse to promote "Mission Impossible 3," insiders say.

 

Since Paramount is banking on "MI3" to rake in blockbuster profits this summer, and Paramount is owned by Viacom, which also owns Comedy Central, the tactic worked.

 

The "South Park" episode, "Trapped in the Closet," pokes fun at Scientology and shows Cruise, John Travolta and R. Kelly (who is not a Scientologist, but has a song called "Trapped in the Closet") literally in a closet.

 

The episode, which first aired last November, was set to rerun Wednesday night, but was mysteriously pulled at the last minute.

 

Now, hollywoodinterrupted.com reports Cruise went straight to the top - to execs at Viacom - and warned he'd boycott the promotion for "MI3" unless the "South Park" episode was pulled.

 

Series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been told not to discuss the matter - to avoid embarrassing Cruise as they did Isaac Hayes last week when Hayes, also a Scientologist, quit his role as the voice of the Chef character.

 

Hayes claimed he couldn't stand by while "South Park" made fun of religion, but Stone pointed out that Hayes had cashed plenty of checks while the show made fun of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Stone hinted that Hayes was pressed to quit by his minders in the Church of Scientology.

 

A rep for Comedy Central, asked if Cruise was responsible for the "Closet" episode being yanked, attributed it instead to Hayes' resignation, saying, "In light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for." But TV insiders weren't buying that explanation.

 

Now the question is whether Comedy Central will ever again air "Trapped in the Closet" and whether it will be included on the DVD of the show's ninth season.

 

Cruise has a history of playing hardball. He is allegedly responsible for the missing sex scene his fianc?e Katie Homes filmed (before she started dating Tom) in "Thank You for Smoking," which opens today.

 

And who will ever forget the way Cruise shouted down Matt Lauer on the "Today" show when Lauer argued that some people have been helped by prescription drugs?

This is going to get ugly. Nobody tells Matt and Trey to shut up.

The whole "Tom got Katie's sex scene cut" was made up by critics who saw a rough cut and assumed the scene was gone because of Tom. It's supposed to be in the finished cut of the film. Brother's a nut, but this wasn't his doing.

 

I agree, Matt and Trey aren't known for their subservience to the Man. I'm guessing that the season premiere next week is going to involve network exceutives getting their balls cut off by an evil cult.

I'm wondering what the terms of their contract are like in terms of the studio's editorial control over their content and any censorship thereof.

 

 

This is the kind of stupid shit that pissed them off so much at Warner Brothers...

 

When WB controlled the home video rights to South Park, they refused to allow Trey and Matt to put their recorded commentaries on the Season 1 release because WB didn't like that they'd trashed Contact, a WB film, and its star Jodie Foster on the commentary for Tom's Rhinoplasty.

 

Things worked out for them when WB sold off their remaining interest in Comedy Central to Paramount, but I don't think they'll be that lucky in this case.

 

 

 

 

I suspect what we're likely to see is a bunch of veiled digs at the Paramount execs and moviestars who threaten people when they don't get their way.

 

If they're bolder, they may do the full Phil Collins treatment and make massive Tom-bashing part of a season of their show. (They went on a wholesale Collins-bashing snit when Collins' Tarzan song won the Best Song Oscar instead of "Blame Canada")

The whole "Tom got Katie's sex scene cut" was made up by critics who saw a rough cut and assumed the scene was gone because of Tom. It's supposed to be in the finished cut of the film. Brother's a nut, but this wasn't his doing.

 

I agree, Matt and Trey aren't known for their subservience to the Man. I'm guessing that the season premiere next week is going to involve network exceutives getting their balls cut off by an evil cult.

I thought the director of Thank You For Smoking said it wasn't going to be in the finished cinematic release a few weeks ago.

 

I think Matt and Trey may second guess themselves from here on out if the people signing their cheques are telling them what they can't do. This could cause SP to jump the shark but let's hope not. I can't see MI3 doing that fantastic anyway at the rate Cruise's appeal is depleting.

Wednesday's season premiere episode is about Chef's return to South Park and something about him has changed. Should be very interesting.

(They went on a wholesale Collins-bashing snit when Collins' Tarzan song won the Best Song Oscar instead of "Blame Canada")

 

As Trey Parker put it, they accepted they weren't going to win, but they couldn't accept losing to Phil Collins.

 

Wednesday's season premiere episode is about Chef's return to South Park and something about him has changed. Should be very interesting.

 

Fox News (I know...) had something on their website saying Isaac Hayes had a mild stroke in January and wasn't in a position to be quitting the show and that the statement might have been put out by the CoS.

This is comedy. They're taking everything Chef has ever said on the show and splicing the soundbytes together to make him sound like a pedophile.

They're implying that Chef was brainwashed into being a pedophile by the Super Adventure Club he joined.

 

Heh, this is why people shouldn't try to push around Matt and Trey.

Kinda disappointing, the episode wasn't really that funny, just more bashing of Scientology (which I have no problem with).

 

The Darth Chef stuff was alright, too, I guess.

I really didn't enjoy the episode much. It had it's moments, but it definitely wasn't on par with what the last couple of South Park seasons have been. You could almost tell that this whole thing was thrown together in 7 days, just for the sake of getting their shots in on Isaac Hayes. I would have prefered a better episode that had been somewhat thought out, and then get around to Isaac in a week or two.

I didn't see it as them getting in a lot of shots as Isaac. Yeah, they did the whole pedophile crap, but it was obvious those were just spliced together soundbytes and it was all in good fun. I think the funeral speech at the end pretty much summed it up though. They like Hayes, he brought a lot to South Park and they'll miss him. It's just too bad that he's blinded by Scientology.

I really didn't enjoy the episode much. It had it's moments, but it definitely wasn't on par with what the last couple of South Park seasons have been. You could almost tell that this whole thing was thrown together in 7 days, just for the sake of getting their shots in on Isaac Hayes. I would have prefered a better episode that had been somewhat thought out, and then get around to Isaac in a week or two.

I remember reading an article in a magazine for audio engineers on how the guys actually DO throw their episodes together in a week. If I remember correctly, they write and record the voices early in the week, animate the show midweek, polish it and finally upload it about 20 minutes before the show airs.