The Return of Chef
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| South Park episode | |
| "The Return of Chef" | |
 Chef, moments before his demise. |
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| Episode no. | 140 |
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| Prod. code | 1001 |
| Airdate | March 22, 2006 |
| South Park - Season 10 March 22, 2006 – November 15, 2006 |
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| List of all South Park episodes | |
"The Return of Chef" episode 1001 (#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] This episode was played on the DVD Recorder with "A Collection of Funny Episodes." It was #1 on the "10 South Parks That Changed The World" list.
The episode heavily satires Scientology and is notable for its timing after the sudden departure of Isaac Hayes,[1] who had voiced Chef on the series since its inception.[2] Due to the absence of Hayes, Chef was voiced using pre-recorded snippets of dialog culled from previous episodes.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The episode begins with a fake "Previously on South Park", which explains that Chef left South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club" 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, however, and soon, he begins to express a desire to have sex with all the boys (all the time using dialog made up of audio clips from previous episodes, intentionally spliced together poorly to underline his strange behavior). He says things such as "I wanna make love up your butt!", and "I want to make love to your asshole, children", and "I want to stick my balls inside your rectum, Kyle." The boys, wanting to find out what caused this, go to the Super Adventure Club headquarters, and soon discover that the group is made up of explorers who travel worldwide, molesting children. When the explorers try to hypnotize the boys, they realize that this "fruity little club" has brainwashed Chef.
The boys take Chef to see a psychiatrist, who determines he has been very heavily brainwashed. His solution is to help him get back to having sex with women, his classic pastime, to snap out of it. The boys and the psychiatrist bring Chef to a strip club, and after an initial cold reaction to the more comely, svelte strippers, Chef is taken by a big boned, voluptuous dancer, snapping back to his old self again. However, agents of the Super Adventure Club have been following him. They shoot Chef with tranquilizer darts, and bring him back to their headquarters. When the boys follow the kidnappers back to their headquarters and angrily demand Chef's release, the Super Adventure Club leader explains the history of their organization; its founder was an explorer who, after being beaten to every great discovery, decided to be the first person to have sex with children in exotic places, and that there are things in children's bodies called marlocks that enter the adult's bodies when they have anal sex with children and grants them immortality, even though the founder was hit and killed by a train in 1892.[I] Kyle then calls this "retarded". The Super Adventure Club leader asks Kyle if it is any more retarded than the ideas of Christianity or Buddhism, to which Stan answers "way, way more retarded" (in a reference to Scientology).
The boys are then told that they have to leave, but they refuse to leave without Chef. They are told that security will be called on them if they will not leave, but they still refuse to leave. When security comes, Kyle hits them with a baseball bat. They find and free Chef, escaping with him across a bridge. A club member is able to convince Chef that he should rejoin the club. However, the bridge Chef is crossing then collapses after being struck by lightning.
Chef catches on fire. 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 later a grizzly bear. One man from the Super Adventure Club, aiming for the mountain lion, shoots Chef three times before the animals dismember him. He gets the skin on his face ripped off, and then he gets ripped in half at the waist, and his organs are hanging out. Stan and Kyle then say their catchphrase: "Oh my God! They killed Chef!" "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 its bowels, and the boys leave the scene, dismayed that their friend is apparently dead.
A memorial service for Chef then occurs, with Kyle explaining that he didn't agree with Chef's recent decision, but is not angry at him for leaving South Park, and wishes only to remember him as the singing, jolly man he was. Kyle explains "We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains" and not Chef himself (perhaps a shot at Isaac Hayes quitting over the scientology episode due to him being a scientologist). He then adds that Chef is still alive in their hearts.
The scene then turns to the SAC members, who are shown with Chef's body, putting it in a suit reminiscent of Darth Vader's in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, complete with a red-colored lightsaber-like spatula. It is unknown if the new "Darth Chef" will play a part in future episodes, although he, in the following episodes, replaces Chef in the opening credits. Credits are then shown without any theme music playing in the background.
[edit] Reception
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.[3] The episode also shows a user average of 9.0 at TV.com,[4] a weighted average of 7.7 at IMDb,[5] and a reader average of 8.9 at IGN.[3]
The original television airing of the episode drew more than 3.5 million viewers, including 2.3 million viewers aged between 18 and 49.[2][6] This popularity made the episode Comedy Central's highest-rated season premiere since the year 2002 according to a Comedy Central spokesman.[2]
[edit] Notes
- I^ : This scene makes a reference to a similar scene in Trapped in the Closet, which used the same superimposed titles on the screen while making a parody of Scientology beliefs.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Al Barger (2006-03-24). TV Review: South Park "The Return of Adam Livshits". blogcritics.org. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
- ^ a b c d 'South Park' Premiere Draws Big Audience. cbsnews.com (2006-03-24). Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
- ^ a b c Eric Goldman (2006-03-23). South South Park: "The Return of Chef" Review. tv.ign.com. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
- ^ The Return of Chef!. tv.com. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
- ^ "South Park" The Return of Chef (2006). imdb.com. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
- ^ Reuters (2006-03-24). Chef's grisly exit is a South Park hit. smh.com.au. Retrieved on November 28, 2006.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "Bloody Mary" |
South Park episodes | Followed by "Smug Alert!" |
