Chef is back. Did I call it or what?

The new season of South Park starts tomorrow night and the first episode will focus on Chef. About five years ago, Trey Parker and Matt Stone became so proficient with producing episodes of the show, they were able to make fun of extremely topical stories. They produce episodes in about five days, sometimes finishing an episode mere hours before it is to air. So it comes as no surprise to me that they would play up last weeks decision by Issac Hayes to quit the show. So Chef will live on, but for now he will be voiced by someone else.

Since I have been out of the loop over the weekend, I was doing a little reading associated with this story and a more sinister angle has emerged. The episode that caused Issac Hayes to quit was to be re-run last week but was pulled at the last minute. (Watch the episode here.) Rumor has it that Tom Cruise threatened to boycott promotion of his upcoming Mission: Impossible 3. Viacom is the parent company that is releasing Mission: Impossible as well as the company that owns Comedy Central, home of South Park. Apparently, Viacom caved although one has to wonder what kind of clout Tom Cruise has these days after numerous manic episodes on talk shows last year.

On top of all that, an even more bizarre story appeared concerning what exactly happened with Issac Hayes. Issac Hayes suffered a mild stroke in January and has since made little to no statements on his own. Instead, he has a Scientology handler speaking for him and this article contends that is was the handler, not Hayes, who made the decision to quit the show. If this is true it is both scary and sad. I like to keep an open mind about things, but I just can't give Scientology the benefit of the doubt here. Too many weird things seem to be going on in stories about Scientologists. Unless they stop being so damned secretive, people aren't going to trust the organization or its motivations.