The Great "South Park" Chef Roast

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have taken another shot in the war with Isaac Hayes and Scientology. In the Season 10 premiere, entitled "The Return of Chef", Stone and Parker try to deal with Isaac Hayes' departure from the show, and the loss of the voice of Chef. The best way the South Park creators found to do this? Kill off Chef.

There was a huge buzz over what Matt Stone and Trey Parker would do with their season premiere (see South Park Keeps Chef). After the announcement that Chef would be in the season premiere of South Park, everyone wanted to know the closely guarded secret of who would play his voice and how long he would be around for. Last night's season premiere on Comedy Central gave us the answer.

It turns out the voice of Chef was…Isaac Hayes. By using lines from old South Park episodes, Matt Stone and Trey Parker were able to piece together enough material to keep Isaac Hayes for one more episode.

The South Park episode has Chef returning after leaving South Park to join the Super Adventure Club. However, Stan Marsh, Eric Cartman, Kenny McCormick and Kyle Broflovski quickly lose their excitement of seeing Chef when they realize he has been brainwashed by the Super Adventure Club and has been turned into a pedophile. As The Washington Post reports, Stan, Eric, Kenny and Kyle become curious when Chef says to them, "'"How about I meet you guys after work and we make love . . . come on children, you're my sexual fantasy, let's all make sweet love.' Those are the printable things, anyway." It's no stretch of the imagination that the Super Adventure club is a thinly-veiled reference to South Park's most recent enemy, Scientology. Matt Stone and Trey Parker never actually mentioned Scientology throughout "The Return of Chef".

The South Park boys then take Chef to a psychiatrist, and the psychiatrist tells Eric, Kenny, Kyle and Stan that Chef is suffering from heavy brainwashing. This was a subtle dig at Scientology, as Scientologists do not look highly upon psychiatrists. The kids then try to de-program Chef by taking him to a strip club. They manage to succeed, but the Super Adventure Club won't give up that easily. The Super Adventure Club hits Chef with darts, and Chef is brought back to their headquarters to re-commence the brainwashing.

Kyle, Kenny, Stan and Eric Cartman aren't discouraged, and follow the Super Adventure Club member make to their hideout. Along the way, the kids find out what the real secrets of the group are. As The Washington Post puts it, "The boys follow and learn the secret of the Super Adventure Club, founded by a guy who was an explorer, only every time he got someplace he discovered someone had beat him there. So he decided to become the first explorer to have sex with the native children in the various remote locations, which he felt would make him immortal."

After de-programming Chef and getting him out of the complex, Kenny, Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Chef cross a rope bridge over a ravine. While the kids make it across, Chef stops on the bridge, and is called out to by the Super Adventure Club followers. While trying to make a decision, the rope bridge is struck by lightning and Chef burns and falls to his doom, and is impaled on the way down, not to mention the fact he is attacked by a lion and a grizzly bear.

To quote Stan Marsh, "Oh my God, they killed Chef!"

Apparently, it's not all animosity from Matt Stone and Trey Parker towards Isaac Hayes. At Chef's memorial service, Kyle Broflovski gave a eulogy. The Chicago Tribune quoted the entire eulogy.

"A lot of us don't agree with the choices Chef has made in the past few days. Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to turn his back on us. But we can't let the events of the last week take away the memories of how much Chef made us smile. 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."

This episode, and even this eulogy, gave closure to Isaac Hayes' resignation from South Park last week (See Isaac Hayes Quits South Park). Isaac Hayes left the show, citing the show's religious intolerances. While the show has mocked various religions over it's nine-year tenure, it is believed Isaac Hayes was balking at the episode "Trapped in the Closet", which poked fun at Scientology and famed Scientologist Tom Cruise (See South Park Battles Scientology, Tom Cruise). Hayes is also a Scientologist.

One of the repercussions to the battle is that fans of South Park have threatened to boycott Tom Cruise's summer blockbuster, Mission: Impossible 3. With South Park's viewers falling into the same target demographic as Mission: Impossible 3, the threat may not be an idle one. All of this only stands to hurt Viacom, which is the parent company to Comedy Central, the network showing South Park, and Paramount, the company releasing Mission: Impossible 3.

[Additional Sources: Washington Post, Chicago Tribune]