{"id":207,"date":"2006-03-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/south-parks-chef-hanging-up-hi.html"},"modified":"2006-03-14T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-14T12:00:00","slug":"south-parks-chef-hanging-up-hi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/south-parks-chef-hanging-up-hi.html","title":{"rendered":"South Park\u2019s Chef Hanging up his Apron"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

What\u2019s that saying about getting out of the kitchen if you can\u2019t stand the heat?<\/p>\n

Looks like Isaac Hayes, the voice of Jerome “Chef” McElroy, doesn\u2019t like what those “South Park” boys–Matt Stone and Trey Parker–have been cooking. E! Online<\/a> reports that Hayes has asked to be let out of his contract due to the series\u2019 “inappropriate ridicule of religious communities.”<\/p>\n

Hayes, a Scientologist, did not specifically cite in his complaint the 2005 \u201cTrapped in the Closet<\/a>\u201d episode, which goofed on Scientology with visits from Tom Cruise and John Travolta, but felt that \u201cas a civil rights activist of the past 40 years\u201d he could not support a show that made fun of people\u2019s beliefs any longer. “There is a place in this world for satire,\u201d Hayes said, \u201cbut there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker feel that the only intolerance on display is Hayes\u2019s, and that he\u2019s “cashed plenty of checks” mocking Christianity and other religions. Stone told the AP<\/a> that the team “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.”<\/p>\n

In fact, while South Park has been busy parodying many religions and sects, including Christianity, Mormonism, Islam, and Judaism, the show has also been subversively teaching audiences about these faiths.<\/p>\n

“One of the most interesting episodes of South Park dealt with a Mormon family moving to town,\u201d noted Mark Pinsky, author of \u201cThe Gospel According to Disney,\u201d during a Beliefnet roundtable discussion<\/a> on television and religion. \u201cIn less than half an hour, the show gave a history of the denomination that was both knowing and satiric. The conclusion was a knockout–the Mormon kid who was so badly treated lets fly. Yes, our Scriptures may seem wacky to you, he says, and maybe the Book of Mormon wasn’t discovered or written by Joseph Smith, but so what? My religion provides me with a stable loving family. Wow! And this from a potty-mouth cartoon!\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hayes was offended by the Scientology-skewering episode, he should just come out and say so. But to say that he\u2019s taking a stand for all people of faith after almost nine years with the show seems a bit disingenuous, especially after telling the New York Daily News in January 2006 that Matt and Trey are \u201cequal-opportunity offenders. Don’t be offended by it. If you take it too seriously, you have problems,\u201d according to E! Online.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s nice to know that there’s someone willing to stand up for the “followers” of illusionist David Blaine, “Blaintologists,” as featured in “South Park” episode “Super Best Friends<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s that saying about getting out of the kitchen if you can\u2019t stand the heat? Looks like Isaac Hayes, the voice of Jerome “Chef” McElroy, doesn\u2019t like what those “South Park” boys–Matt Stone and Trey Parker–have been cooking. E! Online reports that Hayes has asked to be let out of his contract due to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSouth Park\u2019s Chef Hanging up his Apron<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2006\/03\/south-parks-chef-hanging-up-hi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Park\u2019s Chef Hanging up his Apron\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What\u2019s that saying about getting out of the kitchen if you can\u2019t stand the heat? 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