"Chef" (né Jerome McElroy) is a former recurring character on the Comedy Central series South Park. He was voiced by the late Isaac Hayes. The character was killed off in the beginning of the tenth season in "The Return of Chef", following public controversy with Hayes, who left the show after the controversial episode "Trapped in the Closet", which satirized Scientology.

About Chef

Chef, as his nickname implies, was the school chef at South Park Elementary School. He was usually the only adult that the main characters on the show (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick) consistently asked for advice.

While most of the inhabitants of South Park are white, Chef was one of the very few residents in town who was black; in fact the only other black people to consistently live in South Park are Token and his parents, who were not prominent characters until the fourth season. As a result, Chef (usually kindheartedly, though not always) referred to most people in town with the racial slur "crackas", including the children.

Aside from cooking, Chef was passionate about singing ? he wrote the song "Stinky Britches" which was later covered by Alanis Morissette. He was based on such 1970s African American singers as Isaac Hayes (who voiced him) and Barry White. Often, he agreed to give the boys advice in the form of songs, but wound up singing about having sex. Over time, however, like many earlier characters on the show, his role, especially as a singer, diminished, and in later seasons he did not sing much even when he did appear. Chef was generally one of the few level-headed adults in South Park. In addition to dispensing advice to "the children", Chef spoke out against outrageous ideas, and helped save South Park/the world in general from several disasters. However, Chef was not above performing nonsensical acts, such as buying a fancy TV that he couldn't even program (and that eventually turned into a combat robot). In earlier seasons, Chef was often approached by the children when they were unfamiliar with a sexual term or practice. This happened so often that it eventually got on Chef's nerves, leading him to say, "Goddammit, children, why do I always have to be the one to teach you these things?", or "Dag nabit, children, how come every time you come in here, you gotta be asking questions that I shouldn't be answering?" but went on to explain to them whatever they wanted to know anyway. Chef's last name suggests he could be at least partially of some Celtic descent, and indeed his parents live in Edinburgh, Scotland. In the episode "Chef Goes Nanners" he briefly converted to Islam and adopted the name Abdul Mohammed Jabar Rauf Kareem Ali (which was a mixture of the names adopted by some famous African Americans who converted to Islam), but converted back to Christianity by the end of the episode. In the episode "Chef Aid", Chef briefly becomes a gigolo in efforts to raise enough money to sue a record company. He proceeds to have sex with nearly every woman in town before passing out from exhaustion. In the episode "The Return of Chef", he died after joining the Super Adventure Club, but was later resurrected in that same episode as a "Darth Chef". Even so, the Darth Chef has not reappeared (and is unlikely to after Isaac Hayes' death) since except in the title sequence of every episode produced after "The Return of Chef".

Parents

Chef's parents

Chef's parents refer to each other as Thomas and Nelly. The couple first appeared in the episode, "The Succubus", when they came over from Scotland for Chef's wedding. They told the boys of their many alleged encounters with the Loch Ness Monster, and his attempts to swindle $3.50 ("tree-fiddy") out of them by dressing up as a Girl Scout and an alien, and even using young Chef by posing as his imaginary friend.

Chef's folks also made another appearance in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", where they tried to give Cartman "more time" by extracting Kenny's soul from inside him. Chef's mother also offered "tree-fiddy" to Kenny's soul to try and persuade it to go out the window. Chef's mother didn't want the soul to get on the curtains or into the pot roast (which Kenny ended up getting trapped in). After Chef's mother offered the soul money Chef's father replied, "Now don't go offerin' the soul no tree-fiddy, woman!" The two succeeded in resurrecting Kenny, but he did not return as we remember him.

The two were not seen among those who attended their son's funeral.

Hayes quits South Park

On March 13, 2006, Isaac Hayes was reported to have quit South Park over objections to the show's attitudes toward and depiction of various religions, claiming that the show had crossed the line from satire into intolerance. Despite the content of the official press release, however, there remains considerable speculation about the motivations behind his departure. Parker and Stone assert that he quit due to the controversial episode "Trapped in the Closet", and its treatment of Scientology, as Hayes was a member. Series co-creator and writer Matt Stone commented in a manner that suggested that Hayes practiced a double standard regarding the treatment of religion on South Park: "[We] never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin." ^[1] Others have suggested that Hayes left the show because of the external pressure forced by his fellow Scientologists and that the decision was not voluntary. It was eventually reported, however, that Hayes did not quit the show, but that the original press release announcing his departure was put out by someone who was not authorized to represent him. As recently as January 4, 2006, Hayes defended South Park's style of controversial humor to The Onion's AV Club and XM's Opie and Anthony Show, going so far as to note that although he was not pleased with the show's depiction of Scientology, he "understand[s] what [Matt and Trey] are doing." It has also been reported that Hayes suffered a stroke in the middle of January 2006 and may not have been in a position to make major decisions for himself. The author or authors of the original press release remain unclear.

On August 10, 2008, Hayes died of a stroke at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, ending any possibility of Chef's return to the show.^[2][3][4]

Death

Chef, after being torn to pieces.

At the end of the episode, Chef was burned, battered, impaled, shot, his face (including one eye-ball) was torn off, his limbs were mutilated by a grizzly bear and a mountain lion, his body was nearly bifurcated by the two creatures (mountain lions in particular have previously served in South Park as agents of purification, most notably in the episode "Woodland Critter Christmas"), and finally he defecated as he died.

The town held a moving memorial service for him, in which Kyle gave a eulogy stating, "We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us, we should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains" - a not-so-subtle jab at Scientology.

Darth Chef

"Darth" Chef

Chef's body was secretly revived by the Super Adventure Club, who managed to make him a cyborg -- identified on the official website as "Darth Chef" -- mimicking the ending to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. He was revived by the Super Adventure Club in a Darth Vader-esque suit with a helmet similar to a chef's hat and was given a red spatula lightsaber.

Darth Chef's voice was provided by Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In subsequent episodes Darth Chef appears with other characters in the background of the South Park opening sequence.

See also

• Chef Aid
• Chewbacca defense
• Chocolate Salty Balls
• South Park songs

References

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