Isaac Hayes' departure was the voice of
Chef on
South Park. On March 13, 2006, a statement credited to Hayes, a Scientologist himself, announced that he was quitting the show because of the series' treatment of religion, saying, "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. As a civil rights activist of the past 40 years, I cannot support a show that disrespects those beliefs and practices."
The Guardian observed that the show had mocked most other religions, but that he drew the line at Scientology. Later in an interview on
CNN's
Showbiz Tonight, Hayes added he did not see the episode itself, but was told about it. In a separate interview, he reportedly said regarding
Trey Parker and
Matt Stone, "Guys, you have it all wrong. We're not like that. I know that's your thing, but get your information correct, because somebody might believe that shit, you know? But I understand what they're doing. I told them to take a couple of Scientology courses, and understand what we do." Responding to Hayes' departure, Stone asserted that "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." According to Stone, neither he nor Parker had "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." Stone commented that "In 10 years and over 150 episodes of
South Park, Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews. He got a sudden case of religious sensitivity when it was his religion featured on the show. To bring the civil rights struggle into this is just a
non sequitur. Of course we will release Isaac from his contract and we wish him well." According to a later commentary by Stone, prior to the episode's screening Hayes had asked the
South Park creators to have Comedy Central pull the episode before it aired and not include it in the series DVD, which they refused. There were several different stories about Hayes' departure. Ten months after Hayes' departure he said, "They didn't pay me enough", and "They weren't that nice". In late 2007, a journalist reported that Hayes was in no condition to stay, because of a
stroke he suffered in January. According to a Fox News article, Hayes' agent Christina Kimball, herself a practicing Scientologist, was the source of the statements that Hayes quit
South Park. Stone lent support to this view in a 2007 interview with
Rolling Stone, commenting that "There are reports that Isaac had a stroke and Scientology quit the show for him, and I believe it... It was a brutal, up-close, personal thing with Isaac. If you look at the timeline, something doesn't add up." In a 2016 interview with
The Hollywood Reporter alongside Stone and Parker, Hayes's son
Isaac Hayes III confirmed that his father was disabled at the time of his resignation and that the decision must have come from one of his assistants, all of whom were Scientologists. Due to the absence of Hayes, Chef was voiced in "
The Return of Chef" using pre-recorded snippets of dialog from previous episodes. The character was written out of the series by a scene near the end of that episode in which he is struck by lightning, burned, impaled, and mauled to death by a mountain lion and a grizzly bear, before being resurrected as a Darth Vader-type being by that episode's villains.
Tom Cruise parody The creators used the ambiguity of "
coming out of the closet", having Tom Cruise literally refusing to come out of Stan's closet, in a
parody of rumors that Cruise was homosexual. Concerns over possible litigation were raised in other countries where
South Park is syndicated. The episode's planned screening on the UK's
Paramount Comedy 1 channel was canceled for fear that Cruise would sue. In Australia,
SBS TV screened the episode in late February, a spokesman telling Australian
The Daily Telegraph that "We haven't received any legal threats so we're going to publish and be damned."
Closetgate , one of the co-creators of
South Park This episode was scheduled to rebroadcast on March 15, 2006, on Comedy Central, but the broadcast was canceled without prior notice, and was replaced with "
Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls". Representatives of Comedy Central insist that the episode was changed as a tribute to Isaac Hayes following his departure from the show two days earlier. The following day, the Hollywoodinterrupted.com blog alleged that Comedy Central parent Viacom canceled the rebroadcast due to threats of Cruise to boycott the publicity tour of his upcoming film
Mission: Impossible III. These assertions were soon also reported by
E! News and
American Morning.
Fox News attributed threats from Tom Cruise, stating, "to back out of his
Mission: Impossible III promotional duties if Viacom didn't pull a repeat of the episode", as evidence of "bad blood" between Cruise and Viacom (which also owns
Paramount Pictures, the distributor of
MI:III).
CNN's
The Situation Room with
Wolf Blitzer also cited "industry sources" who believed the episode was pulled "because the network and Tom Cruise's current movie studio are both owned by the same corporation." Melissa McNamara of
CBS News later questioned whether this boycott hurt the
Mission: Impossible III box office debut. The
South Park creators did not comment directly on Comedy Central's decision to pull the episode, reportedly because they had been told not to discuss the matter to avoid embarrassing Cruise. The
Los Angeles Times dubbed the controversy surrounding the episode's rebroadcast "
Closetgate".
The Independent later cited the
Los Angeles Times, noting that the controversy generated positive publicity for the show's creators: "For Stone and Parker, Closetgate will be the gift that keeps on giving." "Closetgate" has since been used to refer to the "brouhaha" surrounding Isaac Hayes' departure and rebroadcasts of the episode, by other sources including
Yahoo! Movies,
BBC,
Turner Classic Movies, the
Herald-Sun, Thoralf Fagertun of the
University of Tromsø, and the
Chicago Sun-Times. Cruise's representative responded to the controversy shortly after it broke, telling the
Associated Press that the allegations of Cruise's involvement were "not true" and that "he never said that". According to
The Washington Post, Cruise's publicist asserted that "Tom had nothing to do with this matter. He's been promoting 'Mission: Impossible III' for the last six months. We have no clue where this came from." In April 2006,
TelevisionWeek reported that fans had posted the episode in multiple locations on the internet. At that time, the episode had been viewed over 700,000 times on
YouTube, and an online petition to re-air the episode had garnered 5,000 signatures. In May 2006, "Trapped in the Closet" was shown in London, at the
National Film Theatre. The free screening was followed by a discussion with Parker and Stone, who said the screening was a "display of free speech". Free copies of the episode were given out to attendees after the screening. and did so again on July 23 at 11:00pm Eastern Time and on September 24 at 10:00pm Eastern time. Stone stated "If they hadn't put this episode back on the air, we'd have had serious issues, and we wouldn't be doing anything else with them." After the episode was scheduled to be rebroadcast, Parker and Stone were interviewed on
CNN's
Showbiz Tonight, where they stated that all of the controversy increased publicity for the episode. Parker was quoted: "But it's really like a publicist couldn't have orchestrated this any better for us. You know what I mean? It's like it's been phenomenal. Tom Cruise has done more for
South Park than anyone I think in the world." in contradiction with an alleged request by either the Church of Scientology or Cruise to never put the episode on DVD format. The full episode is also available for viewing on the web site of South Park Digital Studios, along with Parker and Stone's "mini-commentary" on it. A few references have been made by the show and Comedy Central to Scientology as an aftermath of the controversy. On August 1, 2006, Comedy Central placed an advertisement in
Variety showing the
South Park stars against a background of
L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology Celebrity Center, with the headline, "C'mon Jews, show them who
really runs Hollywood." Although often misunderstood by the public to parody the
Mel Gibson DUI incident, the advertisement actually congratulates
South Park on gaining an Emmy nomination for "Trapped in the Closet" and satirizes the cancellation of the episode's rebroadcast in March. The
Rolling Stone cover article "Still Sick, Still Wrong", celebrating the show's anniversary, also referred to the controversy. The article depicted Stone and Parker spray painting graffiti on the church's
Los Angeles organization sign, adding "Is dum" to the Scientology logo and a "Hi Tom" message with an accompanying depiction of Cartman's head. == Reception ==