Isaac Hayes Departs South Park Over Depictions of Religions

Posted on | March 14, 2006

I am a majorly disappointed and a little annoyed with Isaac Hayes’ decision to quit South Park because of the sheer hypocrisy of it. Hayes cited the show’s tendency to ridicule religion as the reason for his departure. But what puzzles me is why did it take him so long to reach the breaking point? South Park has a history of poking fun at just about every religion. Kyle is constantly ripped on by the anti-semitic Cartman, an episode was created that trashed the Mormon branch of Christianity and calling it dumb, and one episode featured a song that told Shintoists the "God is going to kick your ass you infidelic pagan scum". Even the test episode was a martial arts battle between Jesus Christ and Santa Claus over Christmas. South Park has also turned Jesus Christ into a public access talk show host. They also criticized the Catholic Church in an episode called "Red Hot Catholic Love" satirizing the Catholic Church and its response to the pedophilia accusations being made and the priests in the episode care more about stopping people from coming forward instead of getting rid of the priests molesting children. There is also a two-part episode where Cartman starts his own church after catching the priest fornicating in the confession box and we discover that Mormons are the true faith and that Jews are going to hell. So after all that and more, what was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Isaac?

Could it be because of the episode that aired a few months ago entitled "Trapped in the Closet" which parodied R. Kelly’s R&B opera of the same name amidst a satire of the "religion" of Scientology and mocked some of its followers like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. The episode, which also drew criticism and legal muttering from the camp of Tom Cruise for the gay innuendos the episode made about it, portrays Scientology as a scam. Like Tom Cruise and many other celebrities, Isaac Hayes is a follower of Scientology. South Park co-creator Matt Stone pointed this hypocrisy out in a statement issued by Comedy Central. Matt is quoted in the statement as saying:

"In ten years and over 150 episodes of ‘South Park,’ Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim, Mormons or Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show."

Right on Matt.

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