IDK What suit your talking about. Isaac Hayes suffered a stroke after the episode aired, and the Church of Scientology released a statement on his behalf. Hayes' son set the record straight over a decade after his dad died. Here's the tweet.

For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father @isaachayes left South Park. I’m here to set the record straight. My dad did not quit South Park. Scientology did.

After the episode Trapped in the Closet aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few months later that left him unable to speak or make decisions on his own. He was not in any condition to resign from anything. The truth is, someone else within his Scientology circle made that decision and quit the show for him.

He loved being the voice of Chef. He loved the character. He loved connecting with fans. He would joke with people who recognized his voice, and he truly enjoyed being part of the show.

The narrative that he quit because he was offended by the satire is not true. That was a cover story created by others. My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance.

So now I am speaking for him. He did not leave South Park willingly. He was forced out by illness and by people who did not have his best interest at heart.

This is for anyone who loved Chef. This is for anyone who admired my father’s work. This is the truth about what really happened.

Here is the original tweet. Hayes son has also said this in an interview.

Hayes previously stated that although he didn't like those jokes, he got them and still liked being a part of the show. I'm pretty sure South Park made jokes about Scientology before this episode. So why wouldn't he have left earlier if that was what he had a problem with?

Here is even more info about it.

So we can all stop down voting OP for being correct.

I think you're forgetting two key factors here: one is that he suffered a stroke in 2006 and didn't really do much of ANY work after that. According to one of his ~~11 sons~~ 3 sons (out of 11 kids, holy shit my dude), Isaac Hayes III:

Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him. What happened was that in January 2006 my dad had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. He really didn’t have that much comprehension, and he had to relearn to play the piano and a lot of different things. He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge. At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes’ behalf. We don’t know who. ... My father was not that big of a hypocrite to be part of a show that would constantly poke fun at African-American people, Jewish people, gay people — and only quit when it comes to Scientology. He wouldn’t be that hypocritical.

Now whether you choose to believe all that or not is up to you, but the other key factor you forgot to consider is that Scientology IS a cult. From the limited amount of data we've been able to gleam from their internal workings, they have a habit of forcing their members to constantly push themselves beyond their limits, regardless of what any medical doctor would advise; because in their warped worldview, all faults or shortcomings, mental and physical, are all just the result of Thetans and can be overcome, regardless of the health of the individual. We have some anecdotes of people who have left with claims that the 'Chirch' would use typical cult behaviors that all amounted to increased control over their victims: borderline starvation, massive amounts of physical exercise to promote exhaustion, recontextualizing their worldview to make all this horseshit more acceptable, etc.

Anyway, my point is, Hayes died at the age of 65 after a recurrence of the previously mentioned stroke and was found lying on the floor next to a still-running treadmill. In my (unprofessional) opinion, Scientology killed him, simple as that. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was deliberate, nor that Hayes was ENTIRELY guilt-free (he did still join them initially), but the fact is that the last several years of his life were almost completely controlled for him and the people behind those decisions clearly put the CoS first and Hayes at a very distant second

Edit: I originally misspoke and said Hayes had 11 sons. He had 11 children, but only 3 were sons

I think preventing people from playong around with accemts and voices from other cultures is fascist, kills play, and blocks some pathways to empathy.

i guess we could do genetic testing before casting paid roles so all intended accemts will be allowed.

not so much; the topic had kind of become a whole thing within the comedy/entertainment circuit on account of Hari Kondabolu making a documentary about it.

It was a detailed and nuanced discussion about the wider nature of invisible racism, and therefore attracted a ton of kneejerk reactions from people who hadn't watched it but sure as hell had opinions (edit: oh look, after I wrote that, one of them showed up in the comments lol). In the end it was just easier to let it lie than get tied up in an intractable discussion on whether an Indian person playing up an Indian stereotype for the entertainment of a mainstream audience is still harmful or not

I did watch the docco, and unfortunately it doesn't really make it's case coherently or entertainingly. That's pretty bad because the creator is meant to be a comedian, and he really should have been able to ruin Shearer's career but he's just not all that great.

As for Apu, the reason he sucks is that he started as a caricature but somehow ended up a main character, and the creators have kind of painted themselves in a corner. Is he meant to be a wacky stereotype like the Italian chef, or are we meant to have pathos, like Skinner? Add that to the fact that there just aren't many Indians on screen, and you have Apu as mostly the only Indian representation on TV.

It's anachronistic, orientalist, and just a bit lame to do jokes like that. Heck, it was lame when they created the character, that's why the specific note was not to make him Indian, but Shearer did it anyway.

For anybody not familiar, he was a Loony Tune. His gimmick was he would fall helplessly in love with any black cat who happened to get white paint on her (or possibly his, not here to judge) back.

Pepé was very...self-imposing. To put it mildly. He would not last long in a "No means no" world.

But I'd never thought it'd be 1am, and I'd be a 41 year old man proactively explaining horny skunks to kids on the internet who have never experienced it first hand.