South Park is using Isaac Hayes' voice to say all kinds of rude things...!

[Up2Late]

...on the New episode of South Park!

I think their is a lesson here.

Warning: This show is not for Children!

[RB TexLa]

1. Good Mr. Hayes didn't have a problem cashing the checks when

they made fun of other religions.

[burythehatchet]

2. They killed CHEF

nice way to write him out.

[Bucky]

4. You BASTARDS!

hee hee. This reminds me of back when Paul Williams left South Park and they decided to kill off the Kenny character he voiced.

[Up2Late]

16. Paul Williams? On South Park?

Dude, I've seen every episode, and I don't think Paul Williams was ever on South Park.

[TNOE]

35. LOL

Classic response. I thought they did a great job with the controversey. By the way Bucky - you were almost voted off of American Idol last night. Close call dude!!!

[RB TexLa]

5. not so fast n/t

[Cleita]

18. I thought he got changed into Darth Chef, not killed.

Did I miss something?

[Up2Late]

20. Shhhhhhhhhhh!

That's near the end.

[MazeRat7]

3. So long Chef....

[misternormal]

6. This show has NEVER been for kids... n/t

[RB TexLa]

12. my friend's kids love it n/t

[Cleita]

19. I never thought so but have you noticed that the

commercials are for kid stuff?

[BushOut06]

7. dammit, dammit, dammit

I had my reminder set to watch this show, and I got wrapped up doing something else and forgot all about it :(

[Up2Late]

10. You want to know what happened at the beginning? Or would you...

...rather catch the replay after The Colbert Report?

[BushOut06]

13. I'll catch the repeat - thanks though

Thank god for repeats!

[johnfunk]

8. Oh. My. GOD!!! Darth Isaac!

ROTFLMAO -- merciless!

Methinks Trey and Matt are gonna have a LOT of fun at the expense of the Fake Church of Hubbardology...

[Redstone]

9. Good. Shows that they have guts.

Redstone

[Minnesota_Lib]

11. All I can say is...ROTFLMAO....chef's death was gruesome as hell

And they slipped in another big slam at Scientology to boot.

[Up2Late]

14. They had more than one back-handed slap at Scientology...

I think the whole show was one long (covert) slam at the Church of "We can't take a Joke."

[Minnesota_Lib]

15. Yes..The Big Adventure Club was clearly a "stand-in" for Scientology

I didn't say "one." I was referring to the entire episode. :)

[Up2Late]

17. Replay Kick!

starts after the commercials!
:kick:

[Drum]

21. this is cracking me UP! nt

[Rex]

22. LOL!

Super Adventure Club! My super chocolate salty balls for Xenu!

[Up2Late]

23. I wonder if Xenu will get ANGRY?

Are they really implying that Scientologists are Pedophiles, so they can transfer those thyon things?

[crispini]

24. THAT was pretty impressive.

It should really piss off the Scientologists without giving them a leg to stand on. :rofl:

[Up2Late]

27. Yes is was! It's been a while since they brought it that hard...

...at some wacky group or person.

They ripped into David Blaine pretty hard, and a few other religions too.

[Armstead]

25. They work quick

Didn't all this happen just last week? They already put a show together about it.

[ContraBass Black]

26. They use paper cutouts and stop motion.

[lithiumbomb]

29. not any longer

They did for the first few episodes, but it's been done on computers since the first season, though they've tried to retain the look of stop-action animation.

[ContraBass Black]

34. Well, that's several times faster.

[negativenihil]

39. Nope

The only episode that was done with paper cutouts was the pilot. Everything after that is with computers.

[Up2Late]

28. The creative mind works quickly when it's angry, I guess...

...They've done this before, I think they did the episode that showed how incompetent our government was during Katrina in about 2 weeks.

They said that they have all the characters digitized in the computer now, so all they have to do is come up with a new script and

SMACK!

:evilgrin:

[petronius]

40. I read an article about their work pattern a while ago

It's pretty impressive - basically they start from scratch about a week before the scheduled air date and finish up very shortly before the broadcast.

[Ignacio Upton]

30. Will "Darth Chef" appear in future episodes

I like how they poke fun at Scientology with the "Super Adventure Club," with also comparing Scientology to the Sith.

[Up2Late]

31. My guess is yes.

I bet only the kids will notice the change.

It could get interesting.:evilgrin:

[drbtg1]

38. From a legal stand point, not likely

There is a point where repeated parody becomes plagiarism.

Besides, if things change with Mr. Hayes, they could just bring back good ol' Chef.

After all, it's South Park. I mean, look at Kenny. He looks fine.

[Cleita]

46. They hinted at that when they did the

"Oh no, they killed Chef!"

[BushOut06]

47. How in the world could it be considered plagiarism?

Chef is a character created by Trey Parker & Matt Stone, and as such they can do whatever they want with him. Isaac Hayes has no rights to the character whatsoever. This would be like Sean Connery suing over depictions of James Bond.

[drbtg1]

48. From post #30, the character in question is Darth Chef, not Chef

I thought this was obvious. Darth Chef is unquestionably derivative of Darth Vader, the George Lucas character. As such, an isolated appearance of Darth Chef can be legally protected parody, but repeated appearances without permission of Lucasfilm would not enjoy the same protection.

Maybe a defense could be that Darth Vader (and most of Star Wars) could be easily considered derivative of Darkseid and the Fourth World as created by Jack Kirby, but that would be very weak.

BTW, unless Sean Connery signed it away, Mr. Connery could sue over depictions of James Bond if the depictions were of Mr. Connery. An actor maintains rights over his or her likeness unless rights are given. Bear in mind that George Wendt and John Ratzenberger sued Paramount over this issue.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/LAW/scotus/10/02/scotus.cheers.ap/

[BushOut06]

49. That's very interesting...

I can see what you mean about Darth Chef, I wasn't looking at it this way. It's funny, because just earlier today I was wondering if Isaac Hayes would have any recourse if they continued to use the "Chef" character.

I hadn't heard about the "Norm and Cliff" case, but that does set an interesting precedent. Does this mean that Harrison Ford or Mark Hamil could sue George Lucas for leasing out their likenesses from Star Wars? I'm surprised that the producers of Cheers didn't have some clause in the actor's contract that gave Paramount all rights to their characters.

[drbtg1]

54. It's all in the contracts

Lucas had a very interesting approach to Star Wars, financially speaking (creatively speaking, the approach was dubious, of course). Lucas waived his director fees from Fox in order to maintain rights to licensing. At the time, the licensing rights were considered worthless, but of course we now know those rights are worth billions (with a "B"). (Thank goodness Fox didn't have those rights to help finance their evil plans).

Lucas was very interested in the licensing, thus, while we aren't privy to the contracts of Ford and Hamill, chances are Lucas, with his licensing based mindset, locked up the likeness and voice rights with the then-relative unknowns.

Now comparing that to the Charles-Burrows-Charles production of a Paramount program, again licensing was considered close to worthless, but nobody thought otherwise like Lucas. Other than getting contractual agreement with the Bull & Finch Pub, CW said what was there to license? It's not like Paramount thought they could give a license to Mattel so that kids could have Barbie and Ken go to a Cheers playset. However, some years later, the airport bar idea came along, as well as the likeness rights problem.

You brought up the matter if Issac Hayes would have recourse. Actually, he might on last night's episode alone. Not on Chef's likeness, since that's a drawing with no similarity, but on the voice. Voice rights are owned just like likeness rights. If Parker and Stone didn't have the voice rights to allow their use, in that very unusual manner, they and Viacom could be screwed. But I assume Viacom's attorneys oversaw that (or at least, they damn well should have). It also might have been allowed as part of a contract release for Hayes.

[KurtNYC]

50. And just wait until Kirosawa finds out that Lucas made 6 films

based on "The Hidden Fortress" ;-)

And stole the robots from "Silent Running" etc.

[drbtg1]

56. I think Akira Kurosawa might be more concerned about being dead

but maybe I'm just being too picky ;)

[Up2Late]

51. I think it's definitely debatable, because nobody on South Park called him

"Darth Chef," we did here.

Even though the reference was very obvious to "Star Wars" fans, I think it would be very difficult to prove a Copyright violation in this case.

It would be like the producers of the T.V. Show "Ironside" suing any other television show that created a character who was a Wheelchair bound Lawyer. Yes, most 70's T.V. fans might remember that show, but to claim the exclusive use of all depictions of a Lawyer in a wheelchair would be, as they say these days, frivolous.

[drbtg1]

55. Ever see "The Terminator"?

It's not obvious to only Star Wars fans. It's obvious to nearly anyone. Star Wars is so ubiquitous, but that's not the standard.

Author Harlan Ellison is someone few have heard of (if they have, it's probably because of the best Star Trek episode ever), but is someone who is not to be trifled with (legend has it that he faced down Sinatra). IMO, the best living American story story writer who doesn't take himself seriously, but takes his work seriously. However, chances are you don't know him.

Well, one day he saw this Terminator movie. And he thought of his own story "Soldier" from The Outer Limits. And "Demon With a Glass Hand", also on The Outer Limits. Maybe he also thought of his other story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream".

And so Harlan Ellison sued James Cameron.

And even though, using your logic, there were no characters in Mr. Ellison's stories named Sarah Connor or Kyle Reese, Cameron had to cave. Now, when you see the movie, you will also see "Acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison".

Your conclusion is correct, but not the rationale. It's not a copyright violation, but only because it's a parody.

Robert Ironside was a detective, not a lawyer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061266/plotsummary

I assume you're confusing him with Perry Mason, creating a possible amalgamation since they were both played by Raymond Burr. I agree that someone else could have a wheelchair bound detective, if that's the only similarity. But if the detective sounded like Raymond Burr...

(Edited because I thought a line was too mean.)

[lies and propaganda]

32. i thought it was fantastic and right on par to what i imagined

the editing of lines he had already said was absolutely comedy gold.

[Mojambo]

33. Man, five years ago I would have been damn excited.

I'm sure it's still a good show, but I fell off long ago.

[Rocknrule]

36. I was sad when Chef died

It was almost as sad as when (Harry Potter 6 spoiler warning) Dumbledore died. Chef (along with Cartman) is the heart and soul of South Park. Of course, the Darth Chef part leaves an open-ended ending.

[Midnight Rambler]

41. Well thanks for ruining it for me

You should add a little space between the warning and the spoiler next time, or put the warning in your post title.

[Johonny]

37. The big question is

which washed up seventies singer do they get to replace Hayes?

[maveric]

42. Leon Redbone??

Ike Turner?
Sly Stone?

[mikeytherat]

44. ooooooh...Ike or Sly?

Given Sly's recent TV appearance, he gets the nod!

mikey_the_rat

[EOTE]

52. Ronny James Dio?

Just a suggestion of course.

[CBGLuthier]

43. Hayes is not a washed up anything

His contributions as a songwriter and producer, not to mention the 3rd African American to win an academy award put him far above that.

[AngryOldDem]

45. It takes a lot to genuinely shock me....

...but last night's South Park did.

Lesson: Don't cross them. Payback is a REAL bitch.

[Maine-ah]

53. the lesson:

it wasn't his fault, it was the people who brain-washed him.

[K-W]

57. They prey on desperate people and bored celebrities.

Its quite an impressive racquet.