South Park Appreciation

[Ravi]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-03-21T003203Z_01_N20282496_RTRUKOC_0_US-LEISURE-SOUTHPARK.xml&archived=False

South Park" Chef back after Scientology skirmish
Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:32 PM ET14

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Isaac Hayes may have quit his job as the voice of Chef on "South Park" after a disagreement over religion, but his character will live on when the satiric cable TV cartoon returns to Comedy Central this week, the network said on Monday.

Hayes and his "South Park" alter ego are at the center of an ongoing flap over an episode last November that poked fun at the Church of Scientology and its celebrity adherents, including actor Tom Cruise.

The tenth season of "South Park" will launch on Wednesday with a new episode titled "The Return of Chef!", marking the "triumphant homecoming" of lusty school cafeteria cook James "Chef" McElroy to the show, the network said in a statement.

Hayes, 63, himself a follower of Scientology, surprised producers a week ago by announcing he was leaving the series because he objected to its "inappropriate ridicule" of religion, though he made no reference to the show's spoof of Scientology last fall.

Two days later, Comedy Central abruptly pulled a scheduled repeat of that episode, titled "Trapped in the Closet." Sources close to the show said the rerun was canceled after Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming film, "Mission: Impossible III," for sister studio Paramount Pictures.

Representatives for Cruise and the studio denied this. But "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone fed the furor by issuing a statement suggesting the Church of Scientology was behind the decision to scrap the rerun.

The network has also noted that various religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam have been targets of the show's satire since its inception.

The network statement announcing Chef's return for the "South Park" season premiere this Wednesday was a clear sign that Parker and Stone planned to use the Hayes imbroglio as further grist for their comedy.

"Knowing these guys as I do, I can't imagine that they're not going to do just that," Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox told Reuters. He added that the producers routinely "turn around" new episodes in just six days, leaving them ample time to incorporate last week's dust-up into their season debut.

Fox said he assumed someone besides Hayes would supply Chef's voice. Details of the new episode were vague.

But a network synopsis said the fictional town of South Park, Colorado, is "jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears," leading to new antics by the group of foul-mouthed fourth graders who are the show's stars.

"While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are thrilled to have their old friend back, they notice that something about Chef seems different. When Chef's strange behavior starts getting him in trouble, the boys pull out all the stops to save him."

Both Comedy Central and Paramount are owned by Viacom Inc..


© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

[squints]

I thought they handled the situation quite well.

But i wish hayes leaving would've been completely amicable. It probably would've made for a better episode.

[grand theft sparrow]

I thought they handled the situation quite well.

But i wish hayes leaving would've been completely amicable. It probably would've made for a better episode.

Considering that it was one of the best episodes they've ever done, I doubt it. 

I knew off the bat that they would be making obvious use of Chef soundbites but what they did with it... amazing.  The downside is that the episodes they do under duress are always the best ones and this one was so good that I can only guess that the rest of the season won't be as good.

[squints]

I thought the Scientology episode was shitty.

You must be a scientologist

[squints]

When was the last time they wrote an episode that wasn't relevent to the news at the time? I really think South Park has jumped the shark.

did you watch last season? it wasn't the best but very few episodes had anything to do with current events. unless i missed the headlines that said elementary school girls have invented a device that tells the future, or that killer whales are actually aliens from the moon.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I think that the most recent episode (Chef joining the Super Adventure Club) is one of the funniest episodes in South Park history.

[Reinhold]

I think that the most recent episode (Chef joining the Super Adventure Club) is one of the funniest episodes in South Park history.

i, too, thought it was great. the death scene was amazing.

[bonanzataz]

I think that the most recent episode (Chef joining the Super Adventure Club) is one of the funniest episodes in South Park history.

i, too, thought it was great. the death scene was amazing.

we saw the same episode?
yeah the death scene was good, as was the use of the soundbytes, but... eh? chef as darth vader? didn't some college kids do that on photoshop like eight years ago? i don't know. i was just looking over some season nine episodes and there were some REALLY funny ones in there. they got very overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the scientology episode and the virgin mary bleeding out her ass episode (which were only kind of funny compared to other episodes of last season). i think south park just needs to do shit to grab media attention (like this chef episode, which got a lot of publicity) and then go on to do what they do best. if episodes like "two days before the day after tomorrow" and "marjorine" are any indicator, i'm sure the show still has a little spunk left in it. this chef situation was just something they had to take advantage of and they knew it. i thought it was done a little bit half-assed, just to get it out of the way, and i assume the rest of the season will be much better.

[squints]

I think that the most recent episode (Chef joining the Super Adventure Club) is one of the funniest episodes in South Park history.

i, too, thought it was great. the death scene was amazing.

we saw the same episode?
yeah the death scene was good, as was the use of the soundbytes, but... eh? chef as darth vader? didn't some college kids do that on photoshop like eight years ago? i don't know. i was just looking over some season nine episodes and there were some REALLY funny ones in there. they got very overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the scientology episode and the virgin mary bleeding out her ass episode (which were only kind of funny compared to other episodes of last season). i think south park just needs to do shit to grab media attention (like this chef episode, which got a lot of publicity) and then go on to do what they do best. if episodes like "two days before the day after tomorrow" and "marjorine" are any indicator, i'm sure the show still has a little spunk left in it. this chef situation was just something they had to take advantage of and they knew it. i thought it was done a little bit half-assed, just to get it out of the way, and i assume the rest of the season will be much better.

i couldn't agree more. This last episode wasn't the "best episode ever" by far. I'll take the "Good Times With Weapons" Anime episode over the topical shows any day.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

I guess I consider it one of the best because of the timing, the fact that we all saw it, or should've seen it coming, yet it was still a "oh my god, they actually did it" kind of moment.  The Darth Vader thing was pretty stupid, I'll admit.  The only other dumb part of the episode was the "Know what you call Jewish women's boobs? Joobs."

Otherwise, I found it quite hilarious.

[matt35mm]

I'll take the "Good Times With Weapons" Anime episode over the topical shows any day.

This is my choice for the best episode ever.  That one cut from anime back to real life--you know the one I'm talking about--is the single funniest cut I have ever seen.  And I KNEW it was where the scene was going!  That only made it better.  I flopped around on the floor for 10 minutes or so in front of my friends.  Followed by ANOTHER one of those gigantic laughs when Cartman moves across the stage naked.  Two gigantic laughs from me in one episode?  Unheard of until this episode.  My friends said that they had never seen me laugh so hard.

I also agree that episodes like that are better than topical episodes, which lose sight of the premise of the show--naive kids doing or saying awful things because they don't know any better.

Which season is that anime show in?  I will buy the season for that episode alone.

[grand theft sparrow]

The only other dumb part of the episode was the "Know what you call Jewish women's boobs? Joobs."

That was actually my favorite joke in the episode.  The timing of it, given that they're walking across a rope bridge to a menacing place filled with child molesters, made it brilliant because it's exactly the sort of joke an 8 year old would HAVE to tell his friends as soon as he thought of it, no matter how out-of-context or inappropriate it might be.  That's why we fell in love with Cartman to begin with.

The only problem with this episode is that anyone who didn't watch the episode the week it was on is not going to get the full experience.  20 years from now, you'll have to explain to your kids why they killed off Chef.  Over time, the more "topical" episodes will probably fall by the wayside because of their reliance on knowledge of current events at the time, but if you're there when it's first on, it's pure genius.

[squints]

Which season is that anime show in?  I will buy the season for that episode alone.

It was the first episode of Season 8, which i'm guessing will be out around the same time as Season 11 premieres.

[matt35mm]

Which season is that anime show in?  I will buy the season for that episode alone.

It was the first episode of Season 8, which i'm guessing will be out around the same time as Season 11 premieres.

Thank you, sir.

[squints]

George Clooney's acceptance speech caused a smug storm so bad it made San Fransico disappear into its  own asshole.

better?