Chef (South Park)

Jerome Nigel McElroy, often referred to as "The Chef" or simply "Chef", is a recurring fictional character on the

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.^[1] Chef played a less prominent role as the series progressed beyond its earlier seasons, and the character was retired at the beginning of the tenth season in "The Return of Chef" following the controversial departure of Hayes.

Character

In tradition with the show's

Chef endearingly calls the boys "the children" or just "children" (even when addressing one individually), and, unless he is preoccupied with a female companion, is usually willing to assist them with whatever help they need. Chef is consistently the only adult in town whom the boys held in high regard, and they view him as their friend.[20] They are also visibly saddened if his presence in their lives is threatened.^[19][20] In addition to being fans of his food (especially his trademark Salisbury steak), the boys often heartily anticipate encountering Chef when waiting in the school lunch line, so that they can explain whatever dilemma is affecting them, usually 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 sometimes take it upon themselves to travel to Chef's house individually to seek his guidance on all manners of their problems, specifically relationships. Chef usually gives advice in the form of a soul song, which usually winds up being 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 initially inquire about. In earlier seasons, Chef is often approached by the children when they are unfamiliar with a term that pertains to adult matters, such as "

Parker and Stone originally planned to have Chef sing a song in every single episode but abandoned the idea after finding it too challenging and fearing writing too many songs would make them less funny, similar to their rationale for dispensing with Kenny's episodic deaths.^[23]

Departure of Isaac Hayes

On January 4, 2006, Hayes defended South Park's style of controversial humor to The A.V. 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 the Church of Scientology, of which he was a member, he "understood what Matt and Trey are doing." However, on March 13, 2006, nearly two months after suffering a stroke,^[24] Hayes was reported to have quit South Park over objections to the show's attitudes toward and depiction of the intolerance inherent in various religions, claiming that the show had crossed the line from satire into intolerance.

Despite the content of the official press release, there remains considerable speculation about the motivations behind his departure. Parker and Stone assert that he quit due to the controversial episode "

Nine days after Hayes's departure from production, the controversy 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 to form new dialogue to support the plot,^[28] which involves Chef's leaving South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club", which eventually brainwashes Chef until he has the mindset of a child molester. The organization combines outdoor activities with child molestation, an act they perceive as justified because of their beliefs.

After the boys restore Chef to his original mindset, but are unable to convince him to come back to South Park, a rope bridge Chef is walking across is struck by lightning. He falls to a violent death, culminating with his mutilation at the hands of a grizzly bear and a mountain lion and finally discharged fecal matter (a reference to the episode "Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes", in which Cartman claims that the relaxation of the bowel muscles confirms that a person is really dead).^[29]

South Park holds a memorial service for him (Canadian comedians

Mimicking a scene from the finale of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Chef's body is secretly collected by the Super Adventure Club, who managed to revive him as a cyborg — identified on the show's official website as "Darth Chef" (a parody of Star Wars' Darth Vader). He is fitted with a suit and mask like those of Vader, except with the helmet taking on the appearance of Chef's trademark hat, and wields a red, glowing spatula, parodying Vader's red 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 he has appeared with other characters in the background of the South Park opening sequence, and he is mentioned in the episode "Stunning and Brave", when PC Principal says the kids drove him to kill himself, which is not true.^[20]

Chef is alluded to after his death in the season 10 episode "

Chef makes an appearance in the 2014 video game South Park: The Stick of Truth as the reanimated Nazi Zombie penultimate boss later in the game. Once again, voice clips of Isaac Hayes as Chef are recycled from past episodes with the exception of recorded speech clips from Adolf Hitler. During his battle with the player and the other boys, Chef will express remorse by saying things like "I'm sorry, boys" and "what have I done?" While there were vague references to the Super Adventure Club and his death, there were no references to the Darth Chef suit. After being defeated, Chef regains control over his mind and tries to tell the boys, but he is then killed by Clyde and the New Kid.^{[citation needed]}

In a sketch from the