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ChefGate keeps getting hotter!

As I mentioned last week, Isaac Hayes abruptly quit his role as Chef on the ever popular animated series "South Park" over an episode from this past November which blasted Scientology, the religion that Hayes has been an outspoken advocate for for fifteen years now. The controversy surrounding his resignation earned Hayes the dignified position of BBC News' Face of the Week, and rumors started swirling that Hayes was pressured by fellow Scientology advocate and all around crazy person Tom Cruise to chastise the show and that Cruise threatened Viacom executives not to promote the upcoming Mission: Impossible 3 unless the episode was pulled from future broadcasts (Viacom owns Paramount, who is producing M:I3, as well as Comedy Central, who produces "South Park". Viacom is apparently banking on M:I3 being their biggest money-maker of the year). Of course, all of these rumors have been denied by the people involved, but that hasn't stopped "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone from amping up the funny. Once Comedy Central pulled the episode's reairing last week, Parker and Stone release this statement through their lawyer (yes, this is the actual statement, not an internet joke):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!

-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu

Man, those kids are wacky. And keeping with their typical topical issues on the show (remember the big payoff "wardrobe malfunction" joke from the season 8 premeire? I sure as hell do. Or how about the treatment of Osama Bin Laden as an Arab Elmer Fudd back in late 2001? Wild!) tonight's premeire episode for season ten pays tribute to the past week's hilarious controversy:

The launch of South Park’s tenth season is marked by the triumphant homecoming of school chef, Jerome McElroy. “The Return of Chef!” premieres Wednesday, March 22, at 10 p.m., only on Comedy Central.The town is jolted out of a case of the doldrums when Chef suddenly reappears. 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.

And if you're asking yourself how the hell can they make a full episode making fun of this situation so soon, don't forget that season 8 also featured a disheveled and heavily bearded Saddam Hussein making a spiderhole joke a mere TWO DAYS after his capture in the real world. I know I'm going to be watching tonight at 10pm and I think everyone else should too.

Speaking of things people should be watching, Liam Lynch has a new video podcast, so anyone with video podcast receiving capabilities should totally tune in and tune out. The videos are in m4v format, so very specifically designed for the video iPod and the newest versions of iTunes, though Quicktime 7 should still play them with no problem. For those who don't remember Liam, he was the brains (and hands) behind MTV's "Sifl & Olly Show" in the late 90's, he wrote songs for Richard Linlater's School of Rock and MTV's cancelled-too-soon animated series "Clone High", he recently directed the cult hit film Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic and he's spent the last few years working with Jack Blank and Kyle Gass on their feature film Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny.
He's totally hilarious and totally cool, so tune into his podcast sometime and watch all of his wacky little short films. They are divine.