South Park vs Tom Cruise

[Ash]

Most of you probably have heard the news about Tom Cruise threatening not to do any PR for the upcoming Mission Impossible 3 because of the recent South Park episode, (quote)
"unless Viacom, the parent company of both Paramount and Comedy Central, nixed a planned rerun of a South Park episode that mocks Scientology."

GO HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

Isaac Hayes also quit the show because he's a Scientologist.
WTF?

Anyway, you can still watch this episode

HERE	Small | Large

Enjoy!

[Mr_Vindictive]

Oh No!

Ash has fallen under Plan9SuperFan's spell.  Damn you and your VS threads!

:o)

All kidding aside, I think the whole uproar about the Scientology thing is retarded.  Isaac Hayes never had a problem when the guys were making fun of Jesus or Allah.  Now, they make fun of Scientology and he freaks out.  Screw that.

[plan9superfan]

This is EXACTLY what I'm sating: "South Park" made fun of everyone from the Bladwin Brothers to God Himself, why should Tom Cruise be any different?


And what about "The SimpsonS" and "Family Guy", that made a career out of making fun of celebrities?

[AndyC]

That was the funniest episode I've seen in a long time.

"Tom Cruise won't come out of the closet."

p**ses me off that he can, through the corporate machinery that connects his movie with this show, pressure the network into not showing it again. He doesn't even challenge critics directly (which was what this episode demanded), just whines and coerces until they're silenced.

And Isaac Hayes is a Scientologist? Crap. I liked him. Now, as with Cruise and Travolta, I'm just going to think "nutty cultist" every time I see him in something. Oh, for the old days, when celebrities kept their private lives private. I don't want to know what kind of crazy s**t they're into.

[daveblackeye15]

I'll miss Hayes, it's hard to believe he's leaving. And I thought he had a sense of humor!

[raj]

I'm disappointed in Hayes.  Chef was hilarious, and South Park has depicted God as a giant rat -- who's a Buddhist.  

Unrelated question:
Why, exactly, is Tom Cruise such a big star?  He's not a really good actor and there are plenty of other "action hero actors" out there.

[The Conqueroo]

"Scientology.Helping Gay Actors Get Married Since 1980."

[trekgeezer]

I read an interview with Hayes shortly after that episode aired and he didn't say anything about quitting. I think he got pressured into it.

[Mofo Rising]

I doubt the veracity of pretty much any showbiz story that comes down the pike.  Something of a publicity coup for South Park, eh?  But you know what?  f**k Tom Cruise.  WAR OF THE WORLDS was a success despite Tom Cruise, not because of him.

If I was Viacom, and thank God I'm not, I would have called Cruise's bluff.  Let's see, we have an increasingly erratic actor who is alienating half the country by professing his nutty beliefs on national television and continues to jump around life a manic-depressive homosexual in denial.  What kind of work would be coming his way if he refused to promote a two hunded million dollar movie?  I've seen MAGNOLIA.  Cruise can't act.

Perhaps Viacom can't call his bluff because they are bluffing themselves.  We've just dropped $200 million dollars on a s**tty movie with pretty explosions and a dumb-ass movie star called MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III (the Roman numerals give it gravitas).  If everybody plays along with our big circle jerk of delusion, maybe we will recoup our money.

Time to shake the cancer that is Scientology off your ever so humpable leg, Hollywood.

EDIT: To further muddy things up.

[trekgeezer]

Cruise did okay in WOTW because the character was written as a jack-ass.  

[loyal1]

So all the satires and stereotypes and offensive material was OK with Isaac Hayes, but whoa and behold if Scientology and Tom Cruise's gaydom attacked?

So strange!   Oh and I watched the episode, thanks for the link, it was hilarious!

As for Tom Cruise, I always thought he was a whiny little baby and couldn't stand him much.  I actually heard a story from my mom's friend a while back who waitressed at some upscale place in NY I think.  He was having dinner with his family and they usually bring the pasta sauce seperate.  His mother says "Oh I know how he likes it" and began to pour the sauce on and got some on his pants.  He had a hissy fit and said to his mother "I can't take you people any where!" then left leaving his mother in tears.

Ever since then he went from a shakey maybe thumbs up to a two tthumbs way down in my book.  

[nobody]

I couldn't even sit through the entire South Park Scientology episode. I thought it was one of the worst episodes to date. The whole script was everyone asking Tom to "come out of the closet." After a while I was just hoping they'd move on to the next joke... "Okay, we get it. You're making fun of Tom's rumored sexuality. It was funny the first few times, but now it's just tiresome. Can we get back to making fun of Scientology, or maybe offer up an entertaining side-story."

As for Isaac leaving the show, Matt's and Trey's responses to the media were dead-on. They made Isaac look like a complete fool, which wasn't hard to do. I'm looking forward to seeing how they axe Chef from the show. There's a lot of potential here for a fantastic episode at Isaac's expense.  

[plan9superfan]

You still didn't answe my question: "South Park" made fun of everyone and everything, why they would censor it if it made fun of Tom Cruise?

[raj]

New episode of South Park tomorrow night, the episode is "The Return of Chef!"

But apparently Hayes was recovering from a stroke and didn't quit; somebody (scientology) quit for him:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188463,00.html

This situation is getting more and more bizarrer.

[The Conqueroo]

I Agree With You On That un'Chollie!!