Oh, fer cryin' out loud...

Okay. I was bored and yesterday I posted the South Park character generator. What?!

Stargate: SG1 meets South Park. Super-sweet!

Sweet!

Go here. You can make yourself into a South Park character.

And play lots of other cool games.

South Park vs Sceintology: South Park Strikes Back

Last night saw the premiere of Season 10 of South Park, with the episode to answer the question: how exactly are Matt and Trey going to handle the loss of Isaac Hayes?

The answer is: brilliantly.

South Park vs Scientology: Update

Tom Cruise, who was "in the closet" in the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet" (the episode which caused Isaac Hayes to quit) has reportedly forced Comedy Central to refain from showing that episode again with threats of boycotting publicity events for the upcoming Mission Impossible III. For the record, a "spokesperson" for Cruise denies it, but Cruise is known to be one of Hollywood's most litigious actors.

UK audiences may never see the episode.

Okay, so now I have another reason not to watch MI III. The first two, for those interested, are that (a) the first two MI movies were crap, and (b) Tom Cruise is one of my least favourite actors.

Anyway, in a move which proves why Matt Stone and Trey Parker are awesome, they issued a statment to Daily Variety magazine which read:

"So, 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 now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu."

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants to the dark lord Xenu.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

Well boo hoo waah

It seems that Isaac Hayes. who plays Chef in South Park, has quit over the hilarious scientology episode, "Trapped in the Closet."

Hayes, a scientologist himself, said "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."

"Religious beliefs are sacred to people, and at all times should be respected and honored," he continued. "As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."

But I think Matt Stone said it best; ""This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem — and he's cashed plenty of checks — with our show making fun of Christians" and that he and Trey "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."

See, this is typical. Hayes was bang onboard when South Park was bashing christians, jews, moslems, in fact, every religion except scientology. But when it's his beliefs under fire, suddenly it's time for "respect and honour".

Here's a hint: when religious folk talk about respecting beliefs, they almost always mean respecting their beliefs. When they talk about tolerance, they almost always mean you tolerating them.

I cannot wait to see how they deal with this in the show. Maybe Chef will be killed off in some horriffic accident? Maybe they'll keep the character on with some sort of Mr/Mrs Garrisonesque sexchange op? Maybe Parker and Stone will just find someone who can do a reasonable Chef impersonation and hire them to do the voice? Whatever it is, this ain't over.

Here's a little postscript/edit:

It's gratifying to see that the christians have somehow managed to find away to turn this whole thing - South Park vs scientology - into, and I quote, "Catholic bashing."

I shit you not.