South Park’s ‘Chef’ quits, citing religious bigotry
“Obviously, Matt and Trey are disappointed that he’s not going to be part of the show, but they’re not going to make him do something he doesn’t want to do,” the spokesman, Tony Fox, told Reuters.
This DUMB@$$ AWARD was originally going to go to Pierce Bush, Our Glorious Leader’s nephew, who wrote a letter to the editor of the Houston Chronicle regarding the Dubai Ports World controversy, knew full well that his last name would get him all sorts of attention and special treatment. Then along came Isaac Hayes, who makes Pierce Bush look like Albert Einstein. Maybe next time, kid….
After a decade or so of being part of making fun of virtually every religion and ideology known to mankind, Hayes has suddenly decided that making fun of religion is bad form. I guess it was all good until Trey Parker and Matt Stone trampled on Hayes’ bailiwick, Scientology. Where I come from, we call that hypocrisy.
It’s one thing to take part in ridiculing the beliefs and ideologies of others, I suppose, but when the ridicule hits home…well, just how much can one man take? After all, if a man doesn’t stand up for something, won’t he fall for anything? If a man can’t stand up for his artificial science fiction religion, is he really a man? Or is he just a miserable excuse for a human being willing to make a buck any way he can? Or is he just a DUMB@$$??
“There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry toward religious beliefs and others begins,” Hayes said in a statement issued through his spokesman in New York.
Hayes, 63, a follower of the Church of Scientology, did not mention a South Park episode that aired last fall poking fun at Scientology and some of its celebrity adherents, including actor Tom Cruise.
Rather, the statement said the show’s parody of religion is part of what Hayes sees as a “growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs” in the media generally, including the recent controversy over a Danish cartoon depiction of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed.
The soul singer, who became the first black composer to win an Academy Award for best song with his theme to the film Shaft, said he formally asked to be released from his contract with South Park.
I suppose there’s nothing wrong with realizing that respecting the beliefs of others is a good thing. I find it interesting, though, that Hayes finally “saw the light” after Parker and Stone lampooned Scientology. Coincidence? Unlikely, to say the least.
The crudely animated cartoon, heading into its 10th season next week, centres on the antics of four foul-mouthed grade-four children in the town of South Park, Colorado.
In one episode first aired last Autumn (in the US), one of the gang, Stan, scores so highly on a test conducted by the Scientologists that they think he is the next L Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded the religion.
In an interview with Reuters late last year, Hayes talked about a foundation he formed to bring Scientology-based study techniques to under performing inner-city schools in America, in partnership with fellow devotee Lisa Marie Presley.
“But it’s not religious,” he said then.
“It’s just something that people need.”
Uh…yeah…and you certainly wouldn’t want to be making fun of it, would you?
Oh, and have I mentioned that hypocrisy is an almost sure-fire way to win a DUMB@$$ AWARD?
