Isaac Hayes Wants Out of South Park

Isaac Hayes, renowned soul singer best known for singing the theme to Shaft, has asked Comedy Central to release him from his contractual obligations on the hit TV series, South Park. Hayes, who plays the school’s cafeteria chef and local ladies’ man, Chef, has cited South Park’s inappropriate ridicule of religion as his reason for wishing to part ways from the successful Comedy Central show.

Hayes, 63, has played Chef for nine seasons, and through the feature movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, but has balked at the recent content on the series. ABC News has posted excerpts from a statement made by Hayes. “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.” He goes on to say “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.”

Throughout its nine seasons on the air, South Park has made ridicule and satire of religions a mainstay of their highly successful series. At different points in the series, co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have taken jabs at Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, Islam, none of which have evoked a response from Hayes. Rather, Matt Stone sees this reaction as coming from the mocking of Hayes’ religion, Scientology. In a statement made by Matt Stone to Comedy Central, re-published on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Stone says, “In 10 years and over 150 episodes of South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons or Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show.” Stone went on to add that “of course we will release Isaac from his contract, and we wish him well.” However, ABC News quotes Matt Stone’s interview with the Associated Press, painting a more scathing picture of their feelings. “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.”

In a recent episode of the show, one of the shows stars, Stan, takes a Scientology test. Stan scores so highly that followers believe he is the next L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of the religion. The episode is laden with attacks on Scientology and Scientologists. In one scene, Stan tells Scientologist Tom Cruise that he’s a bad actor. Cruise’s response is to lock himself in a closet, while everyone asks Cruise to come out of the closet. As a sign of possible tension, Hayes chose not to participate in the making of that episode.

Parker and Stone had purposefully put off an episode of the show dealing with Scientology, knowing that it was Hayes’ religion. MTV’s website relates an article of GQ about the topic. “To be honest, what kept us from [parodying Scientology] before was Isaac Hayes. We knew he is a Scientologist and he's an awesome guy. We were like, 'Let's just avoid that for now.' ... 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.'”

South Park, which started in 1997, will begin airing its tenth season this year. The first seven seasons have been released on DVD. The movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, was a success at the box office, grossing $52 million on a $21 million budget, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song. Famous names appearing in the movie were George Clooney, Brent Spiner, Dave Foley, Eric Idle, and Minnie Driver. The series has had such guest voices as Michael Buffer, Jennifer Aniston, Cheech Marin and George Clooney.

Hayes was rocketed into fame with the 1971 movie, Shaft. Hayes performed the massively popular theme, as well as the entire soundtrack for the movie. As the LP went to #1, Hayes received an Academy Award and a Grammy Award for his efforts. Hayes was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. According to Hayes’ website, Hayes is also “a coronated King of the Ada coastal district of Ghana in western Africa where he is a member of the Royal Family.” More recently, Hayes entered into a partnership with Lisa Marie Presley to bring Scientology-based studies and practices to disadvantaged inner-city children.

Reuters reports “Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said producers have not decided whether Chef would be dropped from the show or continued with another actor supplying his voice.”

Additional Sources: ABC News, CBC, MTV, Reuters, isaachayes.com