As many have pointed out, Isaac Hayes, who happens to be a Scientologist, quit his role as Chef on South Park last week, unhappy that the show had produced an episode that made fun of Scientology. Apparently, it's OK with him if South Park makes fun of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but say anything derogatory about his religion, and Hayes is suddenly not so open-minded.
Now, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have released this statement through their lawyer in response to Comedy Central's recent pulling of a repeat showing of the episode in question in response to pressure by Tom Cruise on Viacom (and perhaps to Hayes' departure as well):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!
-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu
Heh. I love it. Appropriately ridiculous, as it should be.
I worry about Thetans, given that their home world is a letter of the Greek alphabet...
Its interesting how Nancy Cartwright, aka the voice of Bart Simpson(and Rufus the Naked Mole Rat on Kim Possible), apparently has thicker skin than Hayes. The Movementarian episode of The Simpsons could be seen in part as a poke at Scientology yet she continues in the role. Cartwright is a member of the group, even appearing in Scientology infomercials.
I've long admired Trey and Matt for their no-BS style - thankfully, they haven't let fame and cash stand in the way of telling it like it is.
The funny thing is that I would have never downloaded and watched the episode without the uproar from the Scientologists.
When are people ever going to learn that if you don't want people to watch or listen to something, you need to KEEP QUIET about it!
If any of you haven't seen it, it's well worth the download. Like the Grateful Dead, Trey and Parker are cool on the idea of free sharing.
Dangit. Noticed the episode coming up on my DVR's TV guide, and set it to record. Now that I check, no, it wasn't that episode. And here I was hoping I'd be able to make bootlegs or something.
Clambake!
Here's the Torrent:
http://www.seedler.org/en/html/info/307360
The whole ep on youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SSj9gc36Bw8
Tom Cruise is a douche bag. That's all I want to say.
Religious nutties are offended by a cartoon and try to stop it from being seen. Who could have guessed.
Anybody interested in making a quick buck? Design and make flags of South Park for the rampaging scientologists to burn. They'll go loony as Cruise on Oprah and hit the streets soon demanding apology from anyone and everyone and needing flags to burn as there are no embassies of South Park to loot and torch.
What I don't get is why he's protesting the reruns instead of the original episode. I could understand if he's not in it, not knowing until it was aired, but why not just resign then? Did he think the network might bow to pressure over reruns (and fans might not notice) that they wouldn't for first-run episodes?
I don't get the timing.
Obviously Tom Cruise got to him. ;-)
I knew that Scientology was as weird as it gets, a giant con game, and a vengeful organization, but until I saw that episode of South Park, I didn't know about their space alien battle theology. Thank you, Matt and Trey, for enlightening me!
Tom Cruise is a douche bag. That's all I want to say.
Oh, come on. Douchebags are useful, and are more likely to have been near a hoo-hoo.