NEW YORK - Isaac Hayes' Chef character got a
true "South Park" send-off Wednesday night - seemingly killed off but mourned as
a jolly old guy whose brains were scrambled by the "Super Adventure
Club."
The thinly disguised satire
continued the show's feud with Scientologists in its 10th season premiere on
Comedy
Central.
The soul singer has voiced
the Chef character in "South Park" since 1997, but left recently because of what
he called the animated show's religious "intolerance and bigotry." Founders
Matt
Stone and
Trey
Parker said
Hayes, a Scientologist, was mad that "South Park" mocked the religion in an
episode last November.
A rerun of
that Scientology episode was mysteriously pulled off the air last week amid
published reports that actor Tom
Cruise, another Scientologist, had used his clout
to bury it. A Cruise spokesman denied that.
Hayes didn't participate in
making Wednesday's episode; the character's lines appeared to be patched
together through tapes of past dialogue.
Chef repeatedly said he
wanted to "make sweet love" to the "South Park" elementary school kids - it
seems the "Super Adventure Club" turns its members into child
molesters.
The children try to rescue
Chef, but in the end he turns to head back to the "Super Adventure Club" - until
he falls off a bridge onto rocks, is burned, stabbed and mauled by a mountain
lion and bear.
Then he apparently
dies.
"A lot of us don't agree
with the choices the Chef has made in the last few days," one of the children
eulogizes him at a funeral. "Some of us feel hurt and confused that he seemed to
turn his back on us. But we can't let the events of the past few weeks take away
the memories of how Chef made us smile.
"We shouldn't be mad at Chef
for leaving us," the eulogy concludes. "We should be mad at that fruity little
club for scrambling his brains."
The door for Hayes' return
wasn't completely closed. In the show's final scene, members of the "Super
Adventure Club" try to revive Chef, and it's not clear he's really
dead.
