As South Park’s future on the 2025 TV schedule becomes increasingly more unclear in the controversial shadow of Skydance Media’s impending Paramount Global acquisition, one of the animated comedy’s biggest scandals from years past has returned to the limelight. Isaac Hayes III, son of the iconic musician who voiced fan-favorite character Chef for nine seasons, is now sharing what he says is the truth behind the actor’s highly publicized exit that came months after one of South Park’s most outrageous eps, the Scientology-skewering “Trapped in the Closet.”
The episode first aired in November 2005 to minimal backlash, and with Hayes having purposefully been left out of the creative process, as he’d been part of the Scientology community since the 1990s. A few months later, the icon behind Shaft’s theme suffered a stroke, which was itself soon followed by his statement-buttressed South Park resignation that essentially accused the show of religious bigotry. But Hayes III doesn’t buy that those were actually his father’s words.
