Posting on Facebook, Issac Hayes III, son of the legendary singer Issac Hayes, who voiced the character “Chef” on South Park from 1997 to 2005, ended decades of speculation and revealed that his dad actually was written off the show not because of political correctness but because of Scientology.
As background, Hayes the elder voiced “Chef” until the character was written off the show in 2005 after the episode called “Trapped in the Closet.” The episode involves actor Tom Cruise, a noted Scientologist, and mainly consists of making fun of Scientology for some of the odder aspects of it and beliefs of its members.
At the time, Hayes the elder, who died in 2008, released a somewhat cryptic statement months after the “Trapped in the Closet” episode, saying, “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 other begins.” That led to speculation that race-based political correctness had led him to quit the show.
His son, Hayes III, released a statement on Facebook on Friday, July 18, in which he claimed that really Scientology is to blame, not political correctness or even the views of Hayes Sr., as it was someone in the Scientology organization who released the statement on his behalf after he had a debilitating stroke.
In his post about his dad’s reason for leaving South Park, Hayes III revealed that Scientology had yanked his dad off the show, and that his dad didn’t quit. He said, beginning the crazy post, “For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father @_isaachayes left South Park. I’m here to set the record straight. My dad did not quit South Park. Scientology did.”
Continuing, Hayes III explained how his dad’s stroke had given the Scientology organization a way of yanking him off the show after it made fun of Scientology in teh “Trapped in the Closet” episode, saying, “After the episode ‘Trapped in the Closet’ aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few months later that left him unable to speak or make decisions on his own. He was not in any condition to resign from anything. The truth is, someone else within his Scientology circle made that decision and quit the show for him.”
Continuing, Hayes III revealed that his dad had loved playing the character and interacting with fans of it, with the role being one of his joys in life. He said, “He loved being the voice of Chef. He loved the character. He loved connecting with fans. He would joke with people who recognized his voice and he truly enjoyed being part of the show.”
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Continuing, he noted that the stroke prevented his dad from speaking for himself, but that it is not true he was offended by the satire in the show. He said, “The narrative that he quit because he was offended by the satire is not true. That was a cover story created by others. My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance.”
Concluding, he wrote, “So now I am speaking for him. He did not leave South Park willingly. He was forced out by illness and by people who did not have his best interest at heart. This is for anyone who loved Chef. This is for anyone who admired my father’s work. This is the truth about what really happened.”