After nine years as the voice of the smooth talking, horny school cook Chef on the hit show South Park, singer/songwriter and Scientologist Isaac Hayes is calling it quits after the show made fun of his religion in an episode that aired November 2005.
“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,” the 63-year-old soul-singer said in a statement yesterday.
South Park co-creator Matt Stone shot back in an interview with the Associated Press: “This has 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 ten years and over 150 episodes of ‘South Park,’ Isaac never had a problem making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured
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on the show. Of course we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well.”
Apparently, show creators – Trey Parker and Matt Stone – have held off on doing an episode mocking Scientology so as not to offend Hayes. But “…finally, we just had to tell Isaac, ‘Dude, we totally love working with you, and this is nothing personal, it’s just we’re ‘South Park,’ and if we don’t do this, we’re belittling everything else we’ve ripped on,'”Parker said.
The episode that has sparked the controversial split is titled Trapped in the Closet and targets Scientology and its most famous convert, Tom Cruise, who ends up getting stuck in a closet and is urged to “just come out.”
Stone told The AP that he and Parker“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.”
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Reported by: N. Corren Conway
