Soul singer Isaac Hayes quits South Park

[OMEN]

LAST ORDERS: Soul singer Isaac Hayes, who provides the voice for South Park character Chef, has quit the show citing its 'inappropriate ridicule' of religion.
LOS ANGELES: Soul music veteran Isaac Hayes, the voice of the character Chef on the satirical TV cartoon South Park, is leaving the show, citing its "inappropriate ridicule" of religion.

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards 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 towards personal spiritual beliefs" in the media generally, including the recent controversy over a Danish cartoon depiction of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.

The show courted controversy in New Zealand over an episode that screened in February depicting a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding. The episode, which the Catholic Church protested against, has been banned in Australia and Britain.

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, on the Comedy Central cable channel.

A spokesman for the Viacom-owned network said producers of the show and its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, had agreed to not to "enforce" Hayes' contract.

"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.

However, he said Stone and Parker "feel that it's a bit disingenuous (for Hayes) to cite religious intolerance as a reason for him pulling out of the show" because the series has lampooned religion since the start, dating back to the short film, The Spirit of Christmas, on which the series is based.

"Their premise is as long as you can make fun of everybody, then everybody is a potential target," Fox said. "The minute you start pulling punches, then the show's reason for being sort of gets compromised."

The crudely animated cartoon, heading into its 10th season next week as one of Comedy Central's biggest hits, centres on the antics of four foul-mouthed fourth graders in the town of South Park, Colorado.

In one episode last fall, one of the gang, Stan, scores so high 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.


LOS ANGELES: Soul music veteran Isaac Hayes, the voice of the character Chef on the satirical TV cartoon South Park, is leaving the show, citing its "inappropriate ridicule" of religion.

"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards 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 towards personal spiritual beliefs" in the media generally, including the recent controversy over a Danish cartoon depiction of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad.

The show courted controversy in New Zealand over an episode that screened in February depicting a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding. The episode, which the Catholic Church protested against, has been banned in Australia and Britain.

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, on the Comedy Central cable channel.

A spokesman for the Viacom-owned network said producers of the show and its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, had agreed to not to "enforce" Hayes' contract.

"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.

However, he said Stone and Parker "feel that it's a bit disingenuous (for Hayes) to cite religious intolerance as a reason for him pulling out of the show" because the series has lampooned religion since the start, dating back to the short film, The Spirit of Christmas, on which the series is based.

"Their premise is as long as you can make fun of everybody, then everybody is a potential target," Fox said. "The minute you start pulling punches, then the show's reason for being sort of gets compromised."

The crudely animated cartoon, heading into its 10th season next week as one of Comedy Central's biggest hits, centres on the antics of four foul-mouthed fourth graders in the town of South Park, Colorado.

In one episode last fall, one of the gang, Stan, scores so high 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.
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In an interview with Reuters late last year, Hayes talked about a foundation he formed to bring Scientology-based study techniques to underperforming 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." Hayes described himself as a Baptist by birth who has spent 14 years as a follower of Scientology.

[shakie]

No!!!!!!! Not Chef!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!

[Kellie]

I dont watch South Park that often but I know him leaving would be a huge loss

[Mr. 2.0]

NO more Salty Black Balls NOooooooooo we need Chef