Movie Article

Chef Jam

Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef, tells EW Online that the movie is just like childhood: full of bad influences

By Josh Wolk | Jul 08, 1999
Washington cracking down on Hollywood for presenting obscene images to kids, theaters forced to check IDs of young audience members... has there ever been a better time to release ''South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut,'' an R-rated cartoon so dirty it makes ''Fritz the Cat'' look like ''Hello Kitty''? Isaac Hayes doesn't think so. ''It's perfect timing,'' says the singer/actor/radio-talk-show host who supplies the voice of Chef and is boiling about conservatives urging prudishness as a cure for society's ills. ''If we give in to that and allow (entertainment) to become a scapegoat, you might wind up living in who-know's-what kind of state.... If you believe in (your artistic vision) and you've got a moral conviction, take it to 'em!''

Hayes is fed up with adults clamoring about saving children from bad influences. To him, bad influences are what make childhood great. ''What is 'South Park'? It's what we did when we were kids,'' Hayes says. ''We cursed, we used to smoke in the bathroom in the school. I used to walk down the hall in high school with vodka and orange juice, and teachers thought I was drinking a soda. Did I turn out to be a hoodlum? That's just a stage you go through. Now it's almost like laughing at your yearbook. 'Look how I looked then, man!'''

Originally posted Jul 08, 1999