The Return of Chef

"The Return of Chef", otherwise referred to as "Life Without Chef Part 2", is episode 140 of Comedy Central's animated series South Park and aired on March 22, 2006.^[1] It was advertised as the tenth season premiere^[2] and was #1 on the 10 South Parks That Changed The World list.

The episode was the first after the departure of Isaac Hayes, who voiced Chef. Hayes, a Scientologist, left after a falling out with the creators over their treatment of Scientology in the episode "Trapped in the Closet."^[2] Scientology has been accused of using brainwashing techniques, and the episode accordingly portrays Chef as having been brainwashed.^[3]^[4]

Plot

The episode begins with a fictitious "Previously on South Park", which explains that Chef left South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club" (SAC), hoping to add excitement and meaning to his life. For three months, he is gone, but, at the very beginning of this episode, he returns. The kids quickly notice that he is acting strangely: he begins to express a desire to have sex with the boys (all the time using dialogue made up of audio clips from previous episodes, intentionally spliced together poorly to underline his strange behaviour). He says such things as "I'm gunna make love to your asshole, children!", "Lets go home and ... make love!" and "I wanna ... stick my balls inside your rectum, Kyle."

The boys, wanting to find out what has caused all this, go to the Super Adventure Club headquarters and discover that the group is made up of explorers who travel worldwide, molesting children. When the explorers' leader, William Connelly, tries to hypnotize the boys, they realize that the club has brainwashed Chef.

The boys take Chef to see a psychiatrist, who determines he has been very heavily brainwashed; "the worst I've seen". His solution is to get Chef back to having sex with women, his previous classic pastime, so as to snap out of it.

The boys and the psychiatrist bring Chef to a strip club. After an initially cold reaction to the more svelte strippers, Chef is taken by a fat dancer and snaps back to his old self again. The agents of the Super Adventure Club, however, have been following him. One shoots Chef with tranquilizer darts, after which he is brought back to their headquarters. When the boys follow the kidnappers there and angrily demand Chef's release, the Super Adventure Club leader explains the history of their organization with the caption "This is what the Super Adventure Club actually believes" (a reference to the Xenu segment in "Trapped in the Closet" which provides the label, "This is what Scientologists actually believe").

Its founder was an explorer named William P. Phinehas who, after being beaten to every great and exotic discovery, decided instead to become the first person to have sex with the children in great and exotic places. He discovered that there are things in children's bodies called marlocs that enter the adults' bodies when they have sex with children and grant them immortality (so sayeth the ruler of Bethos). The founder was hit by a train in 1892, however, and died. Kyle calls this "retarded", but the Super Adventure Club leader asks him if it is any more retarded than the ideas of Christianity or Buddhism, to which Stan replies, "Way, way more retarded."

The boys are told that they have to leave, but they refuse to do so without Chef. They are then told, with exaggerated drama, that security will be called on them if they do not leave, but they still refuse. After security comes and escorts them away, Kyle hits them with a baseball bat. They run off to find Chef in a containment room, where he is being read the SAC manual by a SAC member. Cartman tells Kenny to use The Spin Blossom Nut Squash — Kenny launches himself at the member's testicles — to free Chef. They then escape with him across the Super Adventure Club's bridge. The club leader, however, standing on the other side, is able to convince Chef that he ought to rejoin the club, reminding him of how meaningless his life was before he did so. However, the bridge Chef is crossing collapses after being struck by lightning.

Chef catches on fire. Being hit by multiple rocks and so unable to hang onto the bridge, Chef falls down, bouncing off several rocks before being impaled on a jagged tree stump. He is then attacked by a mountain lion and a grizzly bear. One man from the Super Adventure Club, aiming for the mountain lion, accidentally shoots Chef three times before the animals dismember him. The skin on his face is torn off, while his right arm and leg are torn off and his body is ripped in half at the waist, leaving his organs hanging out. Stan and Kyle say a variation of their catchphrase: "Oh my God! They killed Chef! You bastards...YOU BASTARDS!"

Cartman suggests that Chef may not be dead because,"They say the last thing you do before you die is crap your—" At that instant, Chef's body empties his bowels, as well as the tree stump on which he was impaled. "Oh, never mind," says Cartman. The boys leave the scene, dismayed that their friend is dead.

A memorial service for Chef is held, with Kyle explaining that he did not agree with Chef's recent decision, but is not angry with him for leaving South Park and only wishes to remember him as the singing, jolly man he once was. Kyle explains that they shouldn't be mad at Chef; "We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains." (This is a strong reference to Scientology and its effect on Hayes.)^[5]^[6]

The scene then cuts to the SAC members putting Chef's dead body in a suit reminiscent of Darth Vader's, complete with a red-colored lightsaber-like spatula. They then test to find if he is alive and brainwashed by asking him a question, to which he responds, talking about sucking his "chocolate salty balls."

The SAC leader asks if he means a chocolate candy. "No!" exclaims Chef. "I mean my balls!", showing that he is once more a child molester.

Reception

The original television airing of the episode drew more than 3.5 million viewers, including 2.3 million aged between 17 and 49.^[2]^[7] This popularity made the episode Comedy Central's highest-rated season premiere since "Jared Has Aides" in 2002 according to a Comedy Central spokesman and Nielsen Media Research.^[2]^[8] The episode was also ranked fourth in video sales on iTunes.^[8]

The episode received fairly high review ratings. IGN, a multimedia news and reviews website, reviewed the episode and gave it an overall rating of 8.0.^[9]

References

^ Al Barger (2006-03-24). "TV Review: South Park "The Return of Adam Livshits"". blogcritics.org. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "'South Park' Premiere Draws Big Audience". cbsnews.com (2006-03-24). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
^ Allesandra Stanley (2006-03-24). "Chef Returns To South Park". "The parallel to Scientology could not have been more obvious. But it was the parallel between Viacom and Scientology that made this episode necessary in the first place."
^ Adam Finley (2006-03-23). "South Park: The Return Of Chef!". "Sure, the episode made him out to be a brainwashed freak who winds up having his face torn off by wild animals and turned into a Darth Vader-esque figure by the "fruity little club" he belongs to, but it was made clear that it was the club (read: Scientology) that did this to Chef."
^ Allesandra Stanley (2006-03-24). "Chef Returns To South Park". "The parallel to Scientology could not have been more obvious. But it was the parallel between Viacom and Scientology that made this episode necessary in the first place."
^ Adam Finley (2006-03-23). "South Park: The Return Of Chef!". "Sure, the episode made him out to be a brainwashed freak who winds up having his face torn off by wild animals and turned into a Darth Vader-esque figure by the "fruity little club" he belongs to, but it was made clear that it was the club (read: Scientology) that did this to Chef."
^ Reuters (2006-03-24). "Chef's grisly exit is a South Park hit". smh.com.au. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
^ ^a ^b Hibberd, James (April 3, 2006). ""South Park" Episode Lives; Scientology Story Line Thrives Online as Comedy Central Looks the Other Way", TelevisionWeek, pp. TV Currents.
^ Eric Goldman (2006-03-23). "South South Park: "The Return of Chef" Review". tv.ign.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
^ imdb (2007-10-29). "IMDB - Peter Serafinowicz". smh.com.au. Retrieved on 2007-10-29.