I'm Gonna Miss "Chef's Chocolate Salted Balls"!

[ManInTheMiddle]

Gee whiz: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/17/D8GDL5O05.html

And now, Tom Cruise is in the melee!

Is this the end of South Park as we know it? J/K

[Joe Nazzaro]

I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more anti-Scientology digs if the South Park creators get their way. And as somebody pointed out, there were probably lots of people who never would have given the show a serious look before, who have probably tuned in to see what all the fuss is about. Obviously Tom Cruise and his high-powered lawyers never learned the first rule of publicity, or maybe they were just being too glib.

[Dr Maturin]

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" the "South Park" creators said in a statement Friday in Daily Variety. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies... You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail!"

The above statement issued by Stone and Parker is gold.

[David Panzer]

{ EDIT: Link removed } South Park Scientology episode[/URL] courtesy of YouTube

Moderator note: Please don't link to downloading or file sharing sites in open forums. Thanks.

[ManInTheMiddle]

Heck, they're not biased IMO. They practice EOE! (Equal Opportunity Empaling)

(And I mean that in a PRO - South Park kinda way ! )

[Karachi Vyce]

I won't miss him. Grow a sense of humor, jackass.

[Towelmaster]

Well, when they were bashing christians and muslims it was allright. But now they are taking on Scientology, all of a sudden it is discriminating etcetera etcetera?

What a hypocrite.

And he didn't get it from a stranger : http://www.tomcruiseisnuts.com/

[Capt.Montoya]

You won't have to miss him...

"South Park" Chef back after Scientology skirmish

The tenth season of "South Park" will launch on Wednesday with a new episode titled "The Return of Chef!", marking the "triumphant homecoming" of lusty school cafeteria cook James "Chef" McElroy to the show, the network said in a statement.

[...]

The network statement announcing Chef's return for the "South Park" season premiere this Wednesday was a clear sign that Parker and Stone planned to use the Hayes imbroglio as further grist for their comedy.

"Knowing these guys as I do, I can't imagine that they're not going to do just that," Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox told Reuters. He added that the producers routinely "turn around" new episodes in just six days, leaving them ample time to incorporate last week's dust-up into their season debut.

I'm not a South Park fan but this brouhaha makes me want to watch what will be the next dig at Scientology.

As for Tom Cruise M.D., did you know of his medical expertise?
http://drtomcruisemd.blogspot.com/

[Karachi Vyce]

What's fantastic about the Isaac Hayes comments is that he was on the Opie & Anthony satellite radio show a few months back, and a caller brought up that Scientology episode, and Hayes, at that time, said he had NO PROBLEM with it. He basically shrugged it off and said that "That's what Matt & Trey do."

So, either since then the Scientologist got to him, or Hayes himself didn't really make this statement, it was something put out by the Scientologists under Hayes name.

Either way, the moral of the story is that the Scientologists suck.

[frulad]

Now normally, the only time I use FOXNews as a source is as a source of derision. However, this was pointed out to me by a co-worker and so, in the spirit of broken clocks being right two times a day, present this to you-

Chef's Quitting Controversy
Monday, March 20, 2006
By Roger Friedman

Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park. My sources say that someone quit it for him.

I can tell you that Hayes is in no position to have quit anything. Contrary to news reports, the great writer, singer and musician suffered a stroke on Jan. 17. At the time it was said that he was hospitalized and suffering from exhaustion.

ItÆs also absolutely ridiculous to think that Hayes, who loved playing Chef on South Park, would suddenly turn against the show because they were poking fun at Scientology. Last November, when the ôTrapped in a Closetö episode of the comedy aired, I saw Hayes and spent time with him in Memphis for the annual Blues Ball.

If he hated the show so much, I doubt he would have performed his trademark hit song from the show, ôChocolate Salty Balls.ö He tossed the song into the middle of one of his less salacious hits and got the whole audience in the Memphis Pyramid to sing along. I can tell you, Hayes was very pleased with himself, was in a great mood and, as always, loved his fans' coming up to him and asking him about Chef.

As recently as early January, before his stroke, Hayes defended the South Park creators in an interview with ôThe AV Club,ö the serious side of the satirical newspaper, The Onion.

AV Club: They did just do an episode that made fun of your religion, Scientology. Did that bother you?

Hayes: Well, I talked to Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] about that. They didn't let me know until it was done. I said, 'Guys, you have it all wrong. We're not like that. I know that's your thing, but get your information correct, because somebody might believe that [expletive], you know?' But I understand what they're doing. I told them to take a couple of Scientology courses and understand what we do. [Laughs.]

The truth is, Hayes has a sly sense of humor and loves everything about South Park. ItÆs provided him a much-needed income stream since losing the royalties to the many hits heÆs written, such as ôShaftö and ôSoul Man,ö in the mid-1970s. Even though heÆs one of AmericaÆs most prolific hit writers, Hayes has been denied access to profits from his own material for almost 30 years.

But itÆs hard to know anything since Hayes, like Katie Holmes, is constantly monitored by a Scientologist representative most of the time. Luckily, at the Blues Ball he was on his own, partying just with family and friends. He was very excited about having gotten married and about the impending birth of a new child.

Friends in Memphis tell me that Hayes did not issue any statements on his own about South Park. They are mystified.

ôIsaacÆs been concentrating on his recuperation for the last two and a half, three months,ö a close friend told me.

Hayes did not suffer paralysis, but the mild stroke may have affected his speech and his memory. HeÆs been having home therapy since it happened.

That certainly begs the question of who issued the statement that Hayes was quitting South Park now because it mocked Scientology four months ago. If it wasnÆt Hayes, then who would have done such a thing?

Meantime, Tom Cruise may have gotten Comedy Central to pull its repeat of South ParkÆs Scientology spoof last week, but the result is that episode is all over the Web. You can see it for free at youtube.com.

Not only that, the Comedy Central Web site has four clips from the 21-minute show. And it also says that ôTrapped in the Closetö will air this Wednesday at 10 p.m.

So whether or not Cruise actually did use influence at Viacom/Paramount to get the show pulled from last weekÆs schedule, here it is, bigger and better than ever. Of course, no one would have cared one way or another if ôTrappedö simply had aired on schedule.

[Dr Maturin]

Now normally, the only time I use FOXNews as a source is as a source of derision.

I feel the same way about NPR, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN...funny how things like that work.

[Karachi Vyce]

Anyone else see the new episode?

Brilliant. And absolutely brutal, which is all that I could have hoped for.

[David Panzer]

I watched the episode. Thought it was very funny.

Then at the end I thought, "What if this was all a stunt between Trey, Matt, and Hayes?"

But then, I remember that I'm a cynic so such thoughts are just as natural to me like breathing.

[ManInTheMiddle]

I thought it was substandard. Basically, almost a half hour of fill to reach a couple of punchlines.