Chef's Back, Even If Hayes Isn't (details on Wednesday's South Park show)

zap2it.com ^ | 3-20-06 | N/A

[Central Scrutiniser]

Chef's Back, Even If Hayes Isn't 'South Park' premiere trumpets character's return

March 20 2006

LOS ANGELES -- "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone may yet have the final word on Isaac Hayes' departure from the show.

The series, which has been the focus of much media speculation in the past week over Hayes leaving and Comedy Central's pulling of a Scientology-mocking episode, begins its 10th season Wednesday night with an episode called "The Return of Chef!" -- while making no mention of Hayes.

In the episode, Chef makes a "triumphant homecoming" to South Park (even prior to the "Trapped in the Closet" episode that apparently sparked Hayes' departure, the character hadn't been seen much for a while). The boys are glad to have their friend back, but "they notice that something about Chef seems different."

Where most animated shows need months to complete an episode, "South Park" is often able to turn out a completed show in a matter of days. Therefore, Parker and Stone, who also do much of the voice work, can poke fun current events faster than pretty much any other show in primetime (last spring's "Best Friends Forever," which commented on the Terri Schiavo case, is a good example).

Hayes, who's voiced Chef since "South Park" debuted in 1997, released a statement last week saying he wanted out of the show after deciding he no longer could take the show's frequent mocking of religion. The series has targeted Christianity, Islam and Judaism as well as Scientology. In his own statement, Stone challenged Hayes' stated reasons for leaving, noting he'd never objected to religious satire until after the "Trapped in the Closet" episode aired.

A few days after that, Comedy Central pulled a scheduled repeat of "Trapped in the Closet," which led to rumors that Tom Cruise -- also a target of the episode -- had threatened to pull out of promoting "Mission: Impossible 3" if the episode aired again. Paramount, which is releasing the movie, and Comedy Central are both owned by Viacom.

Cruise's reps denied the rumor, and Comedy Central said it wanted to give Hayes a nice sendoff by showing two Chef-centric episodes instead.

We're thinking all this might spark a little interest in the season premiere.

[noblejones]

>>
Who the heck knew Chefs name was Jerome McElroy?
<<

Holy crap! They tipped their hands this time -- McElroy was that guy that did that bad thing that one time.

[Feiny]

Ah yes, the succubus episode.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Chef will be the return of xenu.

[Ro_Thunder]

I thought it was Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls?

[Zeppelin]

That was my first thought too (that Chef comes back Scientologically-brainwashed), but then I thought that would be too easy.

Then I thought he would come back white, but that also seems subpar for South Park.

We can rule out "gay" or "sex-change" because those have already been done, and a gay/transsexual Chef would unravel the very fabrics of South Park.

Whatever it is, it's gonna be gooooood.

[uncitizen]

this is what I hope IT is; Chef joins a religious cult that forbids speaking. He loses his job because he won't speak, and he ends up suing everybody. In court the defendants are John and Jane Smith. Tom Cruise comes as a character witness. In the end Cruise kills Chef when it's discovered that Chef is the father of Katie Holmes' baby. The police chase Cruise, and he ends up hiding in Stan's closet. All of this is captured by the reality show COPS. but Cruise has the dirt on the shows producer and the episode of COPS is yanked at the last minute.

Hooray! Bravo! That's great. The chances that that exact scenario was also thought of by Trey and Matt is nil tho. But it would be cool if even part of your scenario was IT.

[Spyder]

Any idea if that one's online somewhere? ;-)