Practically 20 years after Isaac Hayes, the enduring voice of Chef on South Park, left the present amid controversy, his son Isaac Hayes III is setting the file straight by inserting the blame squarely on Scientology, not his father.
Hayes’ departure got here in 2006, shortly after the present aired the now-infamous episode “Trapped within the Closet,” a brutal takedown of Scientology. On the time, the next assertion was issued in his identify: “There’s a place on this world when satire ends, and intolerance and bigotry in the direction of non secular beliefs of others start.”
However in response to Isaac Hayes III, his father by no means wrote these phrases — and by no means made that call. “My dad didn’t stop South Park. Scientology did,” Hayes III not too long ago wrote on social media. “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.”
Associated Video
Hayes III continued, “He was not in any situation to resign from something. The reality is, another person inside his Scientology circle made that call and stop the present for him.”
In a current interview with Cracked, Hayes III offered extra perception. “On the time, the folks that have been round him have been largely Scientologists — his publicists and administration,” he stated. “These selections about his involvement within the present, his leaving the present, have been made by these folks and never him. He would have by no means stop that present.
Hayes, who handed away in 2008, by no means returned to South Park earlier than his demise. Nonetheless, his son made certain to emphasise that he cherished voicing Chef and connecting with followers in regards to the character: “He would joke with individuals who acknowledged his voice and he actually loved being a part of the present.”
Isaac Hayes III isn’t any stranger to talking out on behalf of his father. In August 2024, he received an injunction in opposition to Donald Trump to forestall the now president from utilizing his father’s track, “Maintain On, I’m Coming,” at marketing campaign rallies with out permission.
South Park Season 27 will air on Wednesday, July twenty third, after being delayed for 2 weeks by Paramount+ because of its merger with Skydance.