Latest news with #TrappedintheCloset
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Isaac Hayes Was Forced by Scientology Leaders to Quit ‘South Park,' Says Son
It has been almost 20 years since Isaac Hayes left his voice role of Chef in 'South Park.' And it has also been 17 years since Hayes died at the age of 65. Now, the legendary performer's son Isaac Hayes III has addressed the long-held rumor as to why exactly his father Hayes left the popular Comedy Central series. It should first be noted that Hayes quit following the controversy regarding an episode that skewered Scientology entitled 'Trapped in the Closet' (Season 9, Episode 12), in which Stan joins Scientology after recruiters say he is the reincarnation of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology has long tentacles in the entertainment industry, even more publicly so in 2005 when the episode aired. Famous members like Tom Cruise and John Travolta were sent up in the episode. Years later, during the podcast 'Basic!,' 'South Park' co-creator Matt Stone explained why the writers chose to spoof Scientology. More from IndieWire Remembering Ozzy Osbourne, Rock's Prince of Darkness Who Also Created Reality TV as We Know It Judd Apatow Praises Viral 'Girls' Scene Amid 'Too Much' Buzz: Andrew Rannells Is a 'Remarkable' Actor 'Everyone knew Scientology was so litigious,' Stone said. 'People in Hollywood were scared of Scientology at the time because they would just sue you. I think that got us going. The Tom Cruise episode was really about getting sued. I mean, poking openly litigious people and seeing where the line is and what you can say. They picked a fight with us and we just went with it.' 'South Park' voice actor Hayes, though, was a scientologist in real life. The fallout from 'Trapped in the Closet,' his son says, is indeed the reason he quit 'South Park'…but it was not his dad's choice. 'For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father left 'South Park.' I'm here to set the record straight. My dad did not quit 'South Park.' Scientology did,' Isaac Hayes III wrote on X. 'After the episode 'Trapped in the Closet' aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few months later that left him unable to speak or make decisions on his own. He was not in any condition to resign from anything. The truth is, someone else within his Scientology circle made that decision and quit the show for him.' In a 2016 THR piece, Hayes' son — also known as Ike Dirty — said, 'At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes' behalf. We don't know who.' In his Twitter post, Hayes III said that his father 'loved being the voice of Chef' and that he greatly enjoyed meeting fans. 'The narrative that he quit because he was offended by the satire is not true,' he wrote. 'That was a cover story created by others. My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance. So now I am speaking for him. He did not leave 'South Park' willingly. He was forced out by illness and by people who did not have his best interest at heart. This is for anyone who loved Chef. This is for anyone who admired my father's work. This is the truth about what really happened.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘My Dad Would Have Never Quit That Show': Isaac Hayes III on what ‘South Park' Meant to His Father
In South Park's early days, there was just one adult the boys would turn to when they were in trouble. And even if he was in the middle of making sweet love to a beautiful woman, Chef would always answer their call. Chef, famously played by soul music legend Isaac Hayes, was a key part of the show's formula when South Park debuted, and his songs — from 'I'm Gonna Make Love to You, Woman' to 'Chocolate Salty Balls' — provided the earliest examples of the show's musicality. Hayes was also the biggest name involved at the start (no one knew who Trey Parker and Matt Stone were back then). Given Chef's critical contributions to the show's early success and how beloved the character was by South Park fans, his death — and Hayes' controversial departure from the show — were all the more upsetting. The story behind Hayes' exit from South Park begins with the Season Nine episode 'Trapped in the Closet,' which aired in November 2005. It mercilessly skewered Scientology and exposed some of the religion's more science-fiction-like lore that few members of the public — and even some of the church's own members — knew much about. Hayes, however, was a Scientologist (he joined the church in the early 1990s). As such, Chef doesn't appear in the episode, and Hayes wasn't informed of the episode's content ahead of time. According to Stone and Parker, this was intended to give Hayes plausible deniability. The episode wasn't out of the norm for the series. Two seasons earlier, South Park did an equally vicious skewering of Mormonism, and the show mocked Christianity and Judaism — the childhood religions of Parker and Stone — since its inception. But just four months after 'Trapped in the Closet' aired, Hayes quit the series. His statement read, in part, 'There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends, and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.' Little more than a week later, Parker and Stone ran the episode 'The Return of Chef.' To voice Chef, they used clips of Hayes that had very clearly been edited from older South Park episodes. The episode concludes with Chef's death — he's set on fire, falls from a bridge and is mauled by mountain lions. While a 'Let's remember Chef how he was' speech follows his on-screen demise, the gruesome death came off as petty and upsetting — even to South Park fans. Still, the door seemed open for Hayes' return, as Chef was resurrected at the end as 'Darth Chef,' a teaser for a story Parker and Stone would never explore, as Hayes didn't return to South Park before passing away in August 2008 from a stroke. A full decade after Hayes quit South Park, his son, Isaac Hayes III, told The Hollywood Reporter that Hayes had suffered a stroke in January 2006 before he quit, and that he didn't leave the show. 'Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him,' Hayes III maintained. He explained that the initial stroke took away his father's ability to speak as well as some cognitive comprehension. 'He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge,' Hayes III continued. 'At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes' behalf. We don't know who.' With South Park about to return for its 27th season next week, I recently reached out to Hayes III to talk more in-depth about his father's controversial exit from the show as well as what the animated series meant to his dad and to the soul legend's legacy. Do you know how your father came to play Chef? It was such a random thing for him at that point in his career. I know Matt and Trey had thought about who they could ask to play Chef, and they just reached out. They didn't think he would accept it, but he was like, 'Okay, I'll do it.' It was pretty simple. I thought it was cool because, what typically happens with great success stories is, you're just trying things. You don't know what's going to work, and before you know it, you put together something that's amazing and then it becomes this part of the cultural zeitgeist and everybody thinks it's this big master plan, but no. From your perspective, I'm curious what you think this meant to him, to have this revival in an area completely different from his music. It gave him a second fan base. He's known primarily for his music and that's extremely important, but it's funny because, the older you get, you realize that most people always have different chapters — like a first, second, third act or whatever. Like John Travolta, he was hot, he wasn't, and he was hot again. Or like Jason Bateman in the 1980s, and then he was gone and in the 2000s he came back and he is bigger than ever. There are those highs and lows, and, for my dad, this was definitely an American pop-culture high that he was a part of that was really powerful. South Park was pretty much an overnight phenomenon, and Chef was one of the very few sane, positive characters on the show. But how did your father feel about the show and its material? He tended to be the moral compass of the show, always helping the kids out. That's what I really liked about his character. They'd always come and ask him questions, and he'd always have the answers to these really uncomfortable things about masturbation and all kinds of stuff. My dad was comfortable with that, as opposed to sometimes being the gigolo of the town with all the ladies or whatever, which is also hilarious. That fit more into his persona of who he was as an artist, so he understood that as part of his character. But my father was an educator and a very smart guy, so I think, a lot of the stuff he would talk about, he probably knew or even had a deeper understanding of than what was conveyed in the script. But did he find the material funny? Offensive? Weird? Did it match his sensibility? It absolutely matched him. My father had an amazing sense of humor; he was a very cool guy. He was serious, but didn't take himself too seriously. He was never personally bothered by the material at all. Again, it gave him a new legion of fans, and it helped connect those people with his music. Just in watching the shows, I don't ever think there was anything out of bounds. They definitely pushed barriers, don't get me twisted, but he understood that you're not supposed to take it so seriously. It's serious commentary not to be taken seriously, which is interesting. Did you watch the show at the time? Yeah, I watched the show. I was Chef for Halloween one year, and I won a costume party. It was great because your dad's part of this cool show that everybody's talking about. I don't think people understand how powerful animation is to people. I did voiceover myself. I've done voiceovers for shows on Cartoon Network. Were you inspired by your dad's voice work? Someone just said, 'You got a great voice, so you should do voiceover.' So I was like, 'All right, I'm going to try it,' and it worked out pretty good. I was this character called The Broodwich on Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and even that small character — I think I was on three episodes — there was a real connection that people have to shows that they love in animation. Chef had a lot of songs on South Park. Did your dad have a favorite? 'Chocolate Salty Balls' was the hit. He was doing that in concert. He'd do that on the road. During a concert, out of nowhere he'd go, 'Hey everybody, have you seen my balls? They're big and salty and brown!' Getting to your dad's departure from the show, what was his reaction to 'Trapped in the Closet?' So, initially, the episode came out in November, and there was no reaction. There wasn't any upswell about that episode at all. It really wasn't a big deal at the time. That January, in 2006, my dad had a stroke, and during the course of his recovery, I think that March, they re-aired the episode. When it re-aired, that's when Scientology got upset. At that time, my father was recovering from a stroke — literally learning how to talk, learning how to function. I visited my father. He was really struggling sometimes to even speak and say words. At the time, the people that were around him were largely Scientologists — his publicists and management. Those decisions about his involvement in the show, his leaving the show, were made by those people and not him. He would have never quit that show. He loved that show, and he was making a lot of money doing that show. So, I take issue with the way those decisions were made on his behalf because it put him in a position to actually have to go on the road and tour before he was ready to tour. When did he start touring again? Probably less than a year afterwards. Because South Park was such a breadwinner. It was a great show, and he was making money. So now that you don't have this income stream anymore, you have to find other ways to make income. Touring is a way to do that. Imagine you walk away from a gig and all you got to do is sit in front of a mic and talk. And to go back on the road and start learning how to play and sing and perform and travel and stay up late and flights and all that kind of stuff. I took issue with that. My dad loved Matt and Trey. He loved that character. He loved the show. He loved what it meant. He would have stayed involved all the way until right now. To this day, he would still be on the show. That's the part that frustrates me. I don't think Matt and Trey knew that at the time, because, even his own family, we were not always allowed to be in that inner circle. Anybody that has a celebrity parent, sometimes the core team around them, Scientology or not, can be a barrier to their family and personal relationships. My father was married at the time, so his wife was there. We entrusted her, and she was fine. She was involved in Scientology, I think. I can't say that she was all the way — I won't say that she was involved — but I know that she was just there for him. So I felt comfortable that his wife was around. At least somebody that has his best interest in mind was around. But, by no means those decisions were made on his own. He died in August 2008. Do you think him getting back on the road so quickly is what accelerated— Yes. 100 percent. And part of what I recall from Scientology is, they weren't big on modern medicine. They were more into holistic things. So even the medication that he was probably supposed to be taking, he probably wasn't taking. All of those factors, you know what I'm saying? Which is why you have to be the biggest advocate for your health. My father was very big on holistic medicine and things like that, but at the same time, you have to be real and understand the science of what's going on — whether it could be your blood pressure, your heart, your kidneys. To this day, I think this had a major effect on me and how I view my health. Did he ever talk to you about leaving South Park? No, we never had conversations about it. Never. What did you think about Matt and Trey's reaction? Even as a fan, the episode where Chef dies is very upsetting, so I'm curious how you feel about it. Emotions were high at the time, and I think the way they handled it had to do more with Scientology than my dad. That was more of a big 'F you' to those guys as opposed to my father. But he was caught in that, and it wasn't a great way to end the character. You could tell a lot of thought wasn't put into it. It didn't really make sense. Even if the character was going to exit, it didn't make sense how the character exited. What made you not talk about this until The Hollywood Reporter piece, and what made you want to talk about it then? Because, after my dad's passing, you're learning more and more. But again, these people that are always around him all the time, were very guarded. It was weird. At the same time, I'm young, and I'm just concerned about my dad. Once I knew that he would be okay, I just let the course do what it does. My dad was still a person who acted and still performed outside of South Park. He still was doing movies, he still was doing other things. So, I didn't really talk about it. Plus, it's not my business, it's my father's business and that's how he was handling his business. What made you want to tell The Hollywood Reporter at that time in 2016? Because it's important for my dad's legacy — for people to understand what that show meant to him and what the fans of that show meant to him. That was more important than whatever the reason was for him leaving the show or people quitting on his behalf. I just felt it was important for people to know that he would never do that. Just setting the record straight. Because, why would he do that? It doesn't make sense. They make fun of everybody on the show. Why would he, all of a sudden, get offended about something that has nothing to do with his character and then quit? That didn't make no sense. After that interview, did anybody from the church reach out to you? No. I haven't had any connection with anybody from Scientology since before my father passed away. Did Matt and Trey ever reach out to you about what you said? No. I think they made a statement about how, once they heard what I said, they were like, 'Okay, I think that makes a little bit of sense,' and they understand it better. With the dust of that time now having settled, what do you think about Chef as a part of his legacy today? It's still a huge part. I mean, people still talk about that to this day. I saw this Reddit thread the other day where people were saying that they miss Chef and his parents. I miss this family. byu/TylerSpicknell insouthpark Reading the thread, it says you should come on as Chef's son. Would you want to do something like that? I'm always open to that for sure. I mean, I'm a voice actor, and my father and I have similar voices. Anything's possible. I'm open to the idea, but I would think even more along the lines of, with technology, with A.I., that Chef himself could come back. Get more Cracked directly to your inbox. Sign up for Cracked newsletters at Cracked News Letters Signup. Solve the daily Crossword
Metro
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
The ‘truth' behind South Park star's controversial exit 17 years after his death
The son of a South Park star who left the show after an episode criticised Scientology has finally 'set the record straight'. After rising to fame as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s, Isaac Hayes was part of the cast of the animated sitcom during its debut in 1997. He voiced the character of Chef, the lunchroom cook at South Park Elementary, the school where lead characters Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny attended. However, nine seasons later, in 2006, a statement was issued in his name following the airing of the episode Trapped in the Closet – which took aim at the Church of Scientology, of which he was a member. At the time many were puzzled by the move, however Hayes never clarified any more beyond that initial statement. He died two years later following complications from a stroke he'd suffered in 2006. Nearly 20 years on his son has now made explosive claims, revealing the 'truth about what really happened'. Hayes began his music career in the early 1960s as a session musician for acts recorded by the Memphis-based Stax Records, later going on to co-write a string of hits including You Don't Know Like I Know, Soul Man and Hold On, I'm Comin. He went on to release his debut album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1968. Although it was a commercial flop, he found success with future releases. The American singer and his song-writing partner David Porter were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005, while he was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Throughout his career Hayes won three Grammy Awards. In 2006 Hayes revealed he'd suffered a stroke and died two years later, aged 65, after being found unresponsive in his home near Memphis. Part of the original cast of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's series South Park, Hayes voiced Chef Jerome McElroy for nearly a decade. The character was regularly turned to as a source for advice from the children, with Chef also inspired by a dining hall worker Parker met while attending college. Although the show was known for pushing the boundaries with its storylines, a 2006 episode that poked fun at Scientology reportedly didn't sit well with the actor, whose character did not feature in the episode. The episode followed Stan joining Scientology after recruiters became convinced he was the reincarnation of church founder L. Ron Hubbard. Soon after the episode aired, a statement was released in Hayes' name, in which he requested to be released from his contract with Comedy Central and calling out South Park for satirising religious beliefs. 'There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins. As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices,' it read, but did not directly mention Scientology. Responding to the statement, Stone said the actor had never previously expressed concerns about similar storylines. 'He has no problem –and he's cashed plenty of checks– with our show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons, or Jews,' he said. Soon after reports started emerging that Hayes had not requested to leave the show and had instead been pushed to do so by fellow members of his church. Over the years claims have been made that Hayes did not have a say in his South Park exit and was instead influenced by others. Last year his son, Isaac Hayes III, said the stroke left the musician and actor 'in no position to resign under his own knowledge'. He also spoke about his belief that members of the Church of Scientology had stepped in and taken it upon themselves to remove Hayes from the show after the controversial episode. His comments came after Stone told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016: 'We knew in our hearts there was something way more going on. Isaac's a really sweet guy. We're still like, 'Isaac, you've got to come out of it'. But he's just brainwashed.' For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father @isaachayes left South Park. I'm here to set the record dad did not quit South Park. Scientology the episode 'Trapped in the Closet' aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few… — Isaac Hayes III (@IsaacHayes3) July 18, 2025 This week he went on to release a lengthy statement about how he wanted to now 'set the record straight'. 'For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father @isaachayes left South Park. I'm here to set the record straight. My dad did not quit South Park. Scientology did,' he began the post, which was shared on X. 'After the episode Trapped in the Closet aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few months later that left him unable to speak or make decisions on his own. He was not in any condition to resign from anything. The truth is, someone else within his Scientology circle made that decision and quit the show for him. 'He loved being the voice of Chef. He loved the character. He loved connecting with fans. He would joke with people who recognized his voice, and he truly enjoyed being part of the show. 'The narrative that he quit because he was offended by the satire is not true. That was a cover story created by others. My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance.' He went on: 'So now I am speaking for him. He did not leave South Park willingly. He was forced out by illness and by people who did not have his best interest at heart. More Trending This is for anyone who loved Chef. This is for anyone who admired my father's work. This is the truth about what really happened.' Although the Church of Scientology has never publicly responded to the claims, Hayes told Cracked this week: 'I haven't had any connection with anybody from Scientology since before my father passed away.' Metro has contacted the Church of Scientology for comment. View More » South Park season 27 will stream on Comedy Central on July 23 . Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Netflix quietly adds 8 episodes of 'outrageous' thriller – and fans are devouring it MORE: TV soap legend Eileen Fulton died aged 91 MORE: TNA Slammiversary sees WWE icon, 48, return to calls for 'one more match'
Winnipeg Free Press
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Singer R. Kelly alleges mistreatment after hospitalization and prison ‘murder plot'
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly collapsed in prison and was hospitalized, attorneys said in court filings this week, adding the details to the singer's extraordinary allegations of a murder plot by prison officials that he argues require temporary release on home detention. Government lawyers have dismissed the claims as a 'fanciful conspiracy.' Kelly, 58, is serving time at a Butner, North Carolina federal facility related to separate convictions for child sex crimes and racketeering. In a series of filings that started last week, Kelly's attorneys claim prison officials sought out leaders of a white supremacist gang to kill him and prevent the release of damaging information on prison officials. After that filing, Kelly was moved to solitary confinement, his attorneys say. They also allege he was purposely given a medication overdose and required hospitalization and surgery for blood clots, but he was sent back to solitary. 'These people did overdose him. They did leave him with blood clots in his lungs and remove him from a hospital that sought to do surgery to remove them,' Kelly's attorney Beau B. Brindley wrote in a filing Tuesday. 'And they did it within days of his exposure of a plan to kill him set forth by Bureau of Prisons officials.' Attorneys cite a declaration from a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood as among their evidence. Government attorneys rejected the allegations as 'repugnant' and questioned whether a Chicago judge has jurisdiction to alter Kelly's sentence for separate convictions in Illinois and New York. Kelly has a Friday hearing at Chicago's federal court. 'Kelly has never taken responsibility for his years of sexually abusing children, and he probably never will,' government attorneys wrote. 'Undeterred, Kelly now asks this Court to release him from incarceration indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.' The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment Tuesday, saying it does not discuss conditions of confinement or comment on pending legal matters. The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in Chicago in 2022 of three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex. In 2021, he was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking in New York. His attempts to appeal have been unsuccessful, including to the U.S. Supreme Court. Kelly has also sought President Donald Trump's help. He is serving most of his 20-year Chicago sentence and 30-year New York sentence simultaneously. Kelly is known for work including the 1996 hit 'I Believe I Can Fly' and the cult classic 'Trapped in the Closet,' a multipart tale of sexual betrayal and intrigue. Kelly sold millions of albums and remained in demand even after allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating publicly in the 1990s. A 2008 trial in Chicago on child sexual abuse image charges ended in acquittal. Widespread outrage over Kelly's sexual misconduct did not emerge until the #MeToo reckoning, reaching a crescendo after the release of the documentary 'Surviving R. Kelly.'
SBS Australia
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
South Park is rude, crude, gleefully offensive… and brilliantly written
'South Park'. Credit: Comedy Partners When critical ink gets spilled about South Park , Matt Stone and Trey Parker's 30-year animated opus about… well, whatever sparks their interest any given week, it's more often than not due to whatever the latest controversy is. Since its humble birth as a crude animated short way back in 1992, South Park has delighted in the slaughter of countless sacred cows, and the series' refusal to treat any subject as untouchable has upset just about every demographic at one point of another. That's part of South Park 's appeal, and the chief reason for its frequent condemnation – as a viewer, sooner or later some tenet you hold as untouchable is in for a kicking. Even cast members aren't immune – the late Isaac Hayes, who voiced fan fave character Chef, infamously quit the show after the 2005 season nine episode 'Trapped in the Closet' mercilessly lampooned Scientology, Hayes' religion (Hayes' son, Isaac Hayes III, denies this). Undeterred, Parker and Stone doubled down in the season 10 premiere, 'The Return of Chef', brutally killing off the character and employing snippets of dialogue Hayes had already recorded to bring the character to (temporary) life. But what's particularly impressive about South Park is that it's incredibly well-written, despite the show's extremely fast turnaround. Episodes are typically smashed out in a week, and sometimes as quickly as four days – a speed of production at least in part due to not being hampered by studio approval. Even now, 26 seasons deep, South Park remains an auteur piece, although Parker shoulders the bulk of the creative duties while Stone focuses on business matters. Working with a small team of staff writers, the pair work to insanely tight deadlines in order to keep the show fresh, which means that South Park is often satirising an event or phenomenon before the cultural consensus has had time to firm up. The final episode of season seven, "It's Christmas in Canada", nodded to the capture of Saddam Hussein a mere three days after the dictator was pulled from his spider-hole. Season 12's "About Last Night..." deals with Barack Obama's election victory, airing less than a day after he was declared the winner. The only time the team have ever missed a production deadline was due to a power failure . Nonetheless, the nut and bolts writing of South Park cleaves to an impressively high standard. With its endless wilfully offensive jokes and trademark lowbrow surrealism, to the casual viewer South Park might seem like a scattershot blast of puerile profanity, concerned only with tearing through the boundaries of good taste, but in terms of structure it's quietly brilliant. Each scene works as a self-contained comedy sketch, but it's what happens in the margins that makes the whole thing keep rolling. Parker and Stone adhere to a structural practice they call 'Therefore or but' and the deceptively simple rule is that either of those words must logically fit in between each scene. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many writers drop the ball in this regard. As Stone noted when the pair addressed a New York University film class in 2011 , 'If the words 'and then…' belong between those beats, you're f***ed.' It's all about causality. This happens, therefore this happens next. Or this happens, but this happens next, changing the outcome. It's a writing fundamental that stops any given episode from just being a collection of loosely connected vignettes; each scene flows from what has gone before. Cartman is humiliated by Scott, therefore he tries to train a pony to bite off Scott's penis. But this proves to be a difficult task and Cartman is frustrated. But he is advised to uncover Scott's weaknesses and exploit them. Therefore , he tries to use Scott's fandom of Radiohead to publicly shame him. But Scott turns the tables on Cartman by releasing an embarrassing video of him. Therefore … well, it gets more complicated from there, and in deference to anyone who hasn't seen the episode, I'll just say that it goes to some wild and deeply disturbing places. But 'wild and deeply disturbing' is par for the course when it comes to South Park – what makes it work is its structural underpinnings. For a series often criticised for being loud, obnoxious, and offensive, it's quietly brilliant. Seasons 1-15 of South Park are streaming at SBS On demand, but don't delay, they're only there until 30 June. Share this with family and friends SBS's award winning companion podcast. Join host Yumi Stynes for Seen, a new SBS podcast about cultural creatives who have risen to excellence despite a role-model vacuum.
