Parker, Stone Respond to Pulling of 'South Park' Episode

Comedy Central was reportedly pressured by parent company Viacom to pull a repeat of the South Park episode "Trapped In The Closet". The suggestion has been made by Internet bloggers that Tom Cruise threatened to not promote Mission Impossible 3 if the offending episode ran. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, as is Paramount, which is putting out MI:3. The episode was pulled and 2 episodes which featured Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes) were aired in tribute. Hayes Quit South Park early this month (the2scoops).

In response, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, released this statement through their lawyer:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!

-- Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu

Yes, that is the legitimate statement. Seems like the appropriate stance to take, source

South Park returns in the United States on Wednesday March 22th with an episode called The Return of Chef!. Needless to say, Isaac Hayes is not involved:

The Return of Chef!
The citizens of South Park have been a bit down lately, but Chef's sudden return snaps them out of it. While Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman are excited that Chef's returned, something seems different about him. When Chef finds himself in trouble thanks to his new ways, the boys will stop at nothing to save him.

Apparently, South Park has a much quicker turnaround time from the writing of an episode to production, compared to animated series which tend to take a few months. Looking forward to this little scrap. The saga continues.