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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Fine! Sue me!

well, the big news on Monday was that Isaac Hayes, the legendary composer of the score and theme to Shaft along with countless other movies, quit his role as Chef on Comedy Central's groundbreaking topical animated series South Park, claiming "he can no longer stomach its take on religion". He'd played the character Chef, the small mountain town's grade school cafeteria chef, sage advice giver to the boys, lone black character (until a few years ago when they introduced Token and his family), and all around ladies' man, for roughly eight years, performing many songs and even inspiring an all-star tribute episode and CD called "Chef Aid" which featured brand-new original songs by Master P, Perry Farrel, Elton John, Rancid, Ween, and then-still-called-Puff-Daddy, among many others.
Hayes said in a statement:
"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..Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored...As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

A respectable arguement, but one that raises the question Then why did he do the show for eight years? After all, the very first episode of South Park poked fun at Christianty and both Christianity and Judaism have been regular targets for jokes all along the way, with special episodes targeting Mormonism, Buddhism and others. There was even a special "Super Duper Friends" episode where a variety of historical religious figures formed a superhero team (along with Aquaman) that made fun of all of their stereotypes. And lets not forget the "Passion of the Jew" episode from the beginning of Season Eight, where Kyle tries to convince his temple to admit their responsibility in the death of Jesus after he sees Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, all while Cartman, also inspired by the film, tries to lead a new Nazi regime to get all the jews out of town, and Stan and Kenny are stalked by a raving mad Daffy Duck-like Mel Gibson after demanding their money back when they dislike the movie. Religion has been a consistant target in the world of South Park, and Hayes has never spoken out about it before, so why now?
it all has to do with an episode from this past November titled "Trapped In The Closet" (if you have a half-hour to kill and a broadband connection, you can view the whole episode here.) which pokes fun at the widespread belief that Tom Cruise refuses to admit that he's really gay as well as the phenomenon that was R. Kelly's "Trapped In The Closet" music video soap opera. the main plot in the episode, however, has to do with Scientology. in the episode, Stan is discovered to be the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard and the entire Church of Scientology crowds around his house to hear the words of the new prophet. from there, the episode stays fairly true to pretty much everything you may have heard or imagined about the Church of Scientology, complete with on-screen text reminding the audience "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE". I'd heard a great deal of the "secrets" a year before this episode aired, so it was no surprise to me (still hilarious, though) but I can see how this might have been a bit of an absurdist shock to much of the audience. besides, i love it when a telelvision show's grand joke extends itself into the end credits, and this one's are particularly tickling.
Isaac Hayes has been an outspoken Scientologist for a while now, and clearly the episode (which he was not featured in) did not sit well with him, hence the quitting suddenly. South Park co-creator Matt Stone once again proved that there is an educated but spiteful mind inside his afro in a counter statement:
"[We] 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...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."

between this and Tom Cruise squaring off against Matt Lauer over the summer, it seems to me that Scientologists are just a bunch of whiny little tempermental kids. I, personally, love it when they make a Unitarian joke on The Simpsons and in Kudzu. i remember at least six, three from each. the Kudzu ones were usually more accurate, but the Simpsons ones were pretty funny too and always made me smile.

11:30 AM
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