isaac hayes did the original chef's voice in south park.
isaac hayes did the original chef's voice in south park.
who does the original chef's voice in south park?
isaac hayes
the xenu story was also satirized in a november 2005 episode of the comedy central animated television series "south park" titled "trapped in the closet". the emmy-nominated episode, which also lampooned scientologists tom cruise and john travolta as closeted homosexuals, depicted xenu as a vaguely humanoid alien with tentacles for arms, in a sequence that had the words "this is what scientologists actually believe" superimposed on screen. the episode became the subject of controversy when musician isaac hayes, the voice of the character "chef" and a scientologist, quit the show in march 2006, just prior to the episode's first scheduled re-screening, citing "south park"s "inappropriate ridicule" of his religion. hayes' statement did not mention the episode in particular, but expressed his view that the show's habit of parodying religion was part of a "growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs" in the media that was also reflected in the muhammad cartoons controversy: "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." responding to hayes' statement, "south park" co-creator matt stone said his resignation had "nothing to do with intolerance and bigotry and everything to do with the fact that isaac hayes is a scientologist and that we recently featured scientology in an episode of south park ... in 10 years and over 150 episodes of south park, isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of christians, muslims, mormons and jews. he got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. of course we will release isaac from his contract and we wish him well." comedy central cancelled the repeat at short notice, choosing instead to screen two episodes featuring hayes. a spokesman said that "in light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for." it did eventually rebroadcast the episode on july 19, 2006. stone and "south park" co-creator trey parker felt that comedy central's owners viacom had cancelled the repeat because of the upcoming release of the tom cruise film "" by paramount, another viacom company: "i only know what we were told, that people involved with "mi3" wanted the episode off the air and that is why comedy central had to do it. i don't know why else it would have been pulled."
xenu
chef, after abandoning his musical aspirations, moved to south park with plans to open his own restaurant. before this, he had befriended several famous recording artists in the music industry, including elton john and meat loaf, helping them to launch their successful careers. despite failing at yet another dream, chef made his way onto the south park city council, representing public safety. in addition to dispensing advice to the children and a few of the adult townsfolk, chef speaks out against what he feels are outrageous ideas. for example, he opposes the rampant prescription of ritalin in the episode "timmy 2000", and he objects to the town's acceptance of mr. garrison committing purposefully flamboyant sadomasochistic acts in front of schoolchildren in "the death camp of tolerance". in "chef goes nanners", he briefly converts to islam and adopted the name "abdul mohammed jabar rauf kareem ali" when he demanded that south park change its official flag because it depicted the town's racist past. on several other occasions, chef helped save south park (and in a few other instances, the entire world) from potential disasters.
chef (south park)