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Bye, Chef!
Topic Started: Mar 14 2006, 06:34 PM (347 Views)
8247
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Apparently we look like this now
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle....umber=1&summit=

Quote:
 
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Soul singer Isaac Hayes said on Monday he was quitting his job as the voice of the lusty character "Chef" on the satiric cable TV cartoon "South Park," citing the show's "inappropriate ridicule" of religion.

But series co-creator Matt Stone said the veteran recording artist was upset the show had recently lampooned the Church of Scientology, of which Hayes is an outspoken follower.

"In ten years and over 150 episodes of 'South Park,' Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim, Mormons or Jews," Stone said in a statement issued by the Comedy Central network. "He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show."

He added: "Of course we will release Isaac from his contract, and we wish him well."

In a statement explaining his departure from the show, Hayes, 63, did not mention last fall's episode poking fun at Scientology and some of its celebrity adherents, including actor Tom Cruise.

Rather, Hayes said the show's parody of religion in general was part of what he saw as a "growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs" in the media, including the recent controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.


"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs ... begins," Hayes said.

The crudely animated cartoon, heading into its 10th season next week as one of Comedy Central's biggest hits, centers on the antics of four foul-mouthed fourth graders in the town of South Park, Colorado.

Outlandish religious satire has been a mainstay of the show since its debut on the Viacom Inc.-owned network in 1997. The series grew out of two short films by Stone and collaborator Trey Parker -- "Jesus vs. Frosty" and "The Spirit of Christmas," the latter featuring a martial-arts duel between Jesus and Santa Claus over the true meaning of Christmas.

Hayes, the first black composer to win an Oscar for best song with his theme to the 1971 film "Shaft," gained renewed fame on "South Park" as the voice of Jerome "Chef" McElroy, the school cafeteria cook whom the boys often seek out for advice.

In an episode last fall, one of the gang, Stan, scores so high on a Scientology test that church followers think he is the next L. Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded the religion. Hayes did not take part in that episode.

In an interview with Reuters late last year, Hayes talked about a foundation he formed to bring Scientology-based study techniques to disadvantaged inner-city schools, in partnership with fellow devotee Lisa Marie Presley.

"But it's not religious," he said then, describing himself as Baptist by birth and Scientology as "an applied religious philosophy."

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox said producers have not decided whether Chef would be dropped from the show or continued with another actor supplying his voice.


Cry me a river, Issac. I hope they get a celebrity impersonator to do Chef and make all sorts of crazy things happen to him.

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Fesarius
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Admiral
Scientology is in every one of my cult books. I have studied their beliefs somewhat, and know it's not for me. L. Ron Hubbard is still publishing BTW--years after he passed away. Not bad, eh? ;)
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captain_proton_au
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A Robot in Disguise

Satire needs to be funny to get us thinking.


I saw the scientology episode, it was pretty weak
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
My sons really like that show, my daughter can take it or leave it, and my wife really hates the voices, and refuses to be in the same room when it is on.

Personally, I don't think much of it and don't watch it often. And I think there is something very unfunny about it and about the Chef character.

If he has left because he didn't like his "religion" being paid off, good ridence.
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HistoryDude
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Shaken, not stirred...
That show is disgusting, crass, crude, rude, over-the-top, bigoted, profane, gratuitous, filthy, and obscene. Bathroom humor and sex jokes are the amazing and wonderful extent of Stone and Parker's talent. Not that I think Hayes is a saint for leaving the show on such "ideolgical grounds." :rolleyes:

You can be satirical and make fun of all kinds people in funny, fair, mild ways without being gross and still making poignant retrospections about society and the human condition (and still be just plain silly in the process, too). I'll point out Blazing Saddles, Dr. Strangelove, and Monty Python as classic examples (but there are dozens both older and more recent). 8-year olds throwing the F-bomb around doesn't cut it.
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Fesarius
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Admiral
Well, I've never seen it. I'm going to reserve judgement until I do. ;)
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
Southpark in its early years had some funny moments. I do think it is way past its prime however.

Fesarius,

If you really have never seen it, there is one episode you should watch for. The Southpark Mirror Universe episode. You could tell someone was from the Mirror Universe by virtue of the fact that they had a goatee.
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Fesarius
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Admiral
^^^
Really? I may look for that. Are there Trek references in it?
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somerled
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Admiral MacDonald RN
Fesarius
Mar 16 2006, 04:02 AM
^^^
Really? I may look for that. Are there Trek references in it?

I think there have been , no one , and nothing , is safe when it comes to that show.

They rip everyone and everything off eventually.
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HistoryDude
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Shaken, not stirred...
Fesarius
Mar 15 2006, 09:54 AM
Well, I've never seen it. I'm going to reserve judgement until I do. ;)

From what I know of your views and tastes, you don't have to. Trust me.
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Deleted User
Deleted User

About time. South Park was shite after the initial novelty wore off. It's unfunny crap.
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captain_proton_au
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A Robot in Disguise

Geez, Southpark has been going for 9 years!

About 7 years too long
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Data's Cat's Sister
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Commodore
I think South Park is great. Great satire, and some of the most fairly balanced you'll see, not many people have the strength to make fun of the right and the left.

I think it is such a shame that the Chef voice actor left on those grounds. I mean, he'd been in it for nine years, did he really not notice that they made fun of religion till then! :lol:
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8247
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Apparently we look like this now
Data's Cat's Sister
Mar 15 2006, 06:25 PM
I think South Park is great. Great satire, and some of the most fairly balanced you'll see, not many people have the strength to make fun of the right and the left.

I think it is such a shame that the Chef voice actor left on those grounds. I mean, he'd been in it for nine years, did he really not notice that they made fun of religion till then! :lol:

Yeah. How dare they not exclude scientology? Don't Parker and Stone know that scientology is the only religion that gets a pass? :lol:
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Swidden
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
Fesarius
Mar 15 2006, 10:02 AM
^^^
Really? I may look for that. Are there Trek references in it?

Bear in mind it tends to be a very crude show in a lot of ways. Definitely not a cartoon for children. However, there are times when there have been Trek references especially that Mirror Universe episode. The show draws on a wide variety of political and cultural sources to lampoon.
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