Isaac Hayes, who died over the weekend, was famous as an R&B singer/songwriter, but was most familiar to TV fans as the voice of Chef on South Park. When Chef was killed off the show—after a famous falling out between Hayes and Parker-Stone for the show’s making fun of Scientology, of which he was an adherent—it was a big loss: a character like Stan or Kyle may be the heart of South Park, but Chef was its soul. Its hot buttered soul.
It may seem inappropriate to link to that killing-off episode as a tribute to Hayes, but Parker and Stone made that final episode not revenge against him but a tribute to him. OK, they turned Chef into a brainwashed pedophile, mocked Scientology one more time and killed him off graphically: it’s South Park, that’s what they do. But they also made the point, as Chef’s eulogy put plainly, of asking their fans to remember Hayes not for the last, ugly chapter in his association with the show, but for everything they loved about him and his character:
Hayes as Chef remains one of the most brilliant casting strokes in animation, and in TV in general. His character was a rare voice of adult reason in South Park’s world, and channeling him through Hayes’ lusty voice in that pudgy body—just imagining him saying “Children” brings a smile to my face—was genius, as was his delivery of the raunchiest recipe in musical history. Packed full of vitamins, and good for you.