It has been virtually 20 years since Isaac Hayes left his voice function of Chef in “South Park.” And it has additionally been 17 years since Hayes died on the age of 65. Now, the legendary performer’s son Isaac Hayes III has addressed the long-held rumor as to why precisely his father Hayes left the favored Comedy Central collection.
It ought to first be famous that Hayes give up following the controversy concerning an episode that skewered Scientology entitled “Trapped within the Closet” (Season 9, Episode 12), by which Stan joins Scientology after recruiters say he’s the reincarnation of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology has lengthy tentacles within the leisure business, much more publicly so in 2005 when the episode aired. Well-known members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta have been despatched up within the episode. Years later, through the podcast “Primary!,” “South Park” co-creator Matt Stone defined why the writers selected to spoof Scientology.
“Everybody knew Scientology was so litigious,” Stone mentioned. “Folks in Hollywood have been terrified of Scientology on the time as a result of they’d simply sue you. I believe that obtained us going. The Tom Cruise episode was actually about getting sued. I imply, poking overtly litigious individuals and seeing the place the road is and what you’ll be able to say. They picked a struggle with us and we simply went with it.”
“South Park” voice actor Hayes, although, was a scientologist in actual life. The fallout from “Trapped within the Closet,” his son says, is certainly the rationale he give up “South Park”…but it surely was not his dad’s selection.
“For over 14 years, individuals have speculated about why my father left ‘South Park.’ I’m right here to set the document straight. My dad didn’t give up ‘South Park.’ Scientology did,” Isaac Hayes III wrote on X. “After the episode ‘Trapped within the Closet’ aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke only a few months later that left him unable to talk or make selections on his personal. He was not in any situation to resign from something. The reality is, another person inside his Scientology circle made that call and give up the present for him.”
In a 2016 THR piece, Hayes’ son — also referred to as Ike Soiled — mentioned, “On the time, all people round my father was concerned in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of individuals. So somebody give up South Park on Isaac Hayes’ behalf. We don’t know who.”
In his Twitter submit, Hayes III mentioned that his father “cherished being the voice of Chef” and that he tremendously loved assembly followers. “The narrative that he give up as a result of he was offended by the satire will not be true,” he wrote. “That was a canopy story created by others. My father by no means obtained to talk for himself as a result of his well being robbed him of that likelihood. So now I’m talking for him. He didn’t depart ‘South Park’ willingly. He was pressured out by sickness and by individuals who didn’t have his greatest curiosity at coronary heart. That is for anybody who cherished Chef. That is for anybody who admired my father’s work. That is the reality about what actually occurred.”