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Chef (South Park)
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Jerome "Chef" McElroy is a former recurring character on the Comedy Central series South Park. Voiced by the late Isaac Hayes, Chef, as his nickname implied, worked as an elementary school cafeteria worker in the fictional town of South Park, Colorado. Often portrayed as more level-headed than the other adult residents of the town, Chef's guidance was often sought by the show's core group of child protagonists – Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick – as he was usually the only adult they consistenty trusted.
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Jerome "Chef" McElroy is a former recurring character on the Comedy Central series South Park. Voiced by the late Isaac Hayes, Chef, as his nickname implied, worked as an elementary school cafeteria worker in the fictional town of South Park, Colorado. Often portrayed as more level-headed than the other adult residents of the town, Chef's guidance was often sought by the show's core group of child protagonists – Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick – as he was usually the only adult they consistenty trusted. To an inadvertent fault, he would frequently give inappropriate advice, usually in the non sequitur form of a lascivious soul song.
Chef was inspired by Hayes and other popular soul singers of the 1970s, as well as an actual dining hall worker encountered by series co-creator Trey Parker while he attended the University of Colorado. Chef played a less prominent role as the series progressed beyond its earlier seasons, and the character was killed off in the beginning of the tenth season in "The Return of Chef", in response to public controversy with Hayes, who left the show after the controversial episode "Trapped in the Closet", which satirized Scientology.
Character
In tradition with the show's animation style, Chef is composed of simple geometrical shapes, and is animated to give the impression of being a construction paper cutout composition, as he originally was for the show's original episode. Chef is an overweight African-American who commonly wears blue pants and a red shirt. He wears a beard, and frequently dons a traditional chef's hat, even when he is not at work.
Until Token Black and his family had a more notable role starting in the show's fourth season, Chef was portrayed as the only black resident in all of South Park. Parker and co-creator Matt Stone initially planned to have one of themselves voice the character, fearing that their ideal candidates of Hayes, Lou Rawls, and Barry White would never agree to voice the character because the duo had admittedly and purposely created him as a "stereotype" to reflect what they felt was the perception most inhabitants of less-diverse mountainous Colorado towns had of black people. However, Hayes agreed to voice the character due in part to the audaciousness of some of the show's early scripts. Chef (usually kindheartedly, though not always) referred to most people in town with the racial slur "crackas", including the children.
Chef, after abandoning his musical aspirations, moved to South Park with plans to open his own restaurant. Before this, he had befriended several famous recording artists in the music industry, including Elton John and Meat Loaf, helping them to launch their successful careers. In addition to dispensing advice to the children and a few of the adult townsfolk, Chef spoke out against what he felt were outrageous ideas, such as opposing the rampant prescription of Ritalin, and objecting to the town's acceptance of Mr. Garrison committing purposely flamboyant sadomasochistic acts in front of schoolchildren. Chef once briefly converted to Islam and adopted the name Abdul Mohammed Jabar Rauf Kareem Ali when he demanded that South Park change its official flag because the flag depicted the town's racist past. On several other occasions, Chef has helped save South Park (and in a few other instances, the entire world) from potential disasters.
Chef is also known for frequently engaging in casual sex, of which he often expressed his habit through song. He drove a 1980s "woodie" station wagon with a vanity plate that read "LUV CHEF". He was often seen accompanied by numerous young women when at home or on vacation, and was even revealed to have had a one-night stand with Kathie Lee Gifford. He once resorted to male prostitution in an effort to raise money to pay legal fees, and had sex with nearly every woman in South Park before having to stop due to exhaustion. Chef briefly became an office worker and took up monogamy after meeting a woman named Veronica. The two were engaged to be married until it was revealed that Veronica was actually a succubus.
Chef's parents, Nellie and Thomas McElroy, live in Edinburgh, Scotland, where they claim they are constantly pestered by the Loch Ness Monster in its attempts to swindle them out of $3.50 ("tree-fitty"). The couple have made two major appearances in the episodes "The Succubus" and "The Biggest Douche in the Universe".
Relationship with the children
Chef endearingly called the boys "the children" (even when referring to one individually), and, unless he was preoccupied with a female companion, was always willing to assist them with whatever help they needed. He was consistently the only adult in town who the boys held in high regard, and they viewed him as their friend. They were also visibly saddened when having to confront the possibility of not having Chef in their lives. In addition to being fans of his food, the boys would often heartily anticipate encountering Chef where he would serve them in the school lunchline so that they could explain whatever dilemma was affecting them, usually only after their traditional greeting:
Chef: Hello there, children!
The boys [in unison]: Hey Chef!
Chef: How's it goin'?
The boys [one or in unison]: Bad.
Chef: Why "bad"?
The boys would sometimes take it upon themselves to travel to Chef's house individually, to seek his advice on all manners of their problems, specifically relationships. He would agree to give the boys explanations or advice in the form of a soul song, which usually wound up being solely about sex, whether or not sex was relevant to the topic at hand. Hearing the songs would often leave the boys even more confused and with no further understanding of what they were initially inquiring about. In earlier seasons, Chef was often approached by the children when they were unfamiliar with a sexual term or practice. This happened so often that it eventually aggravated Chef, who pleaded with them to stop asking questions he felt were not appropriate for him to answer. An absent-minded Chef would sometimes answer anyway, only realizing his lapse until the damage had been done. Chef would later acknowledge that doing this had repeatedly gotten him in trouble with his boss, Principal Victoria.
Music
In addition to singing in an effort to explain something to the children, Chef would also sing about things relevant to what had transpired in the plot. These songs were original compositions written by Parker, and performed by Hayes in the same sexually suggestive R&B style he had utilized during his own music career. Within the show, Chef was the original composer of these songs, including "Stinky Britches", which was depicted as having been covered by Alanis Morissette without proper credit being given to Chef. When Chef was left with legal debt after losing a court case to have himself credited as the song's original writer, several bands and artists (guest starring as themselves) held a concert dubbed "Chef Aid" to raise the funds. The episode inspired an album which includes many of the full-length versions of the songs Chef had performed in the show's first two seasons. As the series progressed and Chef's role became more intermittent, his spontaneous outbursts into song became less of a show standard.
Hayes quits South Park
As recently as January 4, 2006, Hayes defended South Park's style of controversial humor to AV Club and XM's Opie and Anthony Show, going so far as to note that although he was not pleased with the show's depiction of Scientology, he "understand[s] what [Matt and Trey] are doing." However, on March 13, 2006, nearly two months after suffering a stroke, Hayes was reported to have quit South Park over objections to the show's attitudes toward and depiction of various religions, claiming that the show had crossed the line from satire into intolerance. Despite the content of the official press release, however, there remains considerable speculation about the motivations behind his departure. Parker and Stone assert that he quit due to the controversial episode "Trapped in the Closet", and its treatment of Scientology, as Hayes was a member. Stone commented in a manner that suggested that Hayes practiced a double standard regarding the treatment of religion on South Park: "[We] never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we [lampooned] Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin." Fox News suggested that, because he was still suffering from the effects of his stroke, Hayes was hospitalized and not in a position to make a rational decision to leave the show. Fox also reported that Hayes left the show because of the external pressure forced by his fellow Scientologists and that the decision was not voluntary, and the original press release announcing his departure was put out by someone who was not authorized to represent him.
On August 10, 2008, Hayes suffered another stroke and died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
Death of Chef
Nine days after it occurred, Hayes's departure from the production was satirized in the show's season 10 premiere "The Return of Chef". For the episode, voice clips of Chef were taken from previous episodes and linked together in a purposely obvious fashion to form new dialogue to support the plot, which involved Chef leaving South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club", which eventually brainwashed Chef until he had the mindset of a pedophile. The organization combines outdoor activities with child molestation, an act they perceive as justified because of their bizarre religious beliefs.
As the boys attempt to rescue Chef from the club's headquarters, he falls off a rope bridge and suffers a violent death, culminating with his mutilation at the hands of a grizzly bear and mountain lion.
The town held a moving service for him, in which Kyle gave a eulogy stating, "We shouldn't be mad at Chef for leaving us, we should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains".
Mimicking a scene from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Chef's body was secretly revived by the Super Adventure Club, who managed to make him a cyborg — identified on the show's official website as "Darth Chef". He is fitted with a Darth Vader-esque suit with a helmet similar to a chef's hat and was given a red spatula-shaped lightsaber. Darth Chef's voice was provided by British comedian and filmmaker Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Darth Chef has not made an appearance in subsequent episodes, but has appeared with other characters in the background of the South Park opening sequence.
See also
South Park songs
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