THE SOUNDS OF SCIENTOLOGY

Now, that was the best episode in quite some time. Trey Parker and Matt Stone dared Scientology to sue them — literally. If you're too impatient to wait either for the repeat or the torrent to finish downloading, Radar Online has a bit of the back story.

Radar also raises the point that Chef is voiced by Isaac Hayes, noted Scientologist. Chef hasn't really been an integral character for a few seasons now, but are they trying to give him a reason to walk?

For another worthwhile Scientology takedown, see Mark Ebner in Spy Magazine's Feb. 1992 issue. It begins:

I am an ex-drug addict who has solicited prostitutes in my day. I've also masturbated and inhaled at the same time, and I have been arrested more than once in my life. I dropped out of high school, and I've been under psychiatric care. Oh yeah, and I owe the IRS roughly six thousand dollars that they are well aware of.

In the language of Scientologists, the above information reflects what they include in their "Dead Agent Packs" — dossiers of all the dirt they dig up on people critical of their "religion." Often they disseminate damaging information like this to the friends, family, landlords, and employers of anyone who dares speak of — or worse, publish — anything derogatory about the "church." So what I'm doing here is Dead Agenting myself before we begin, beating them to the punch.

How can you not want to read an article that begins like that?

Anyway, Steve Fishman may have already inoculated Comedy Central/Paramount/Viacom from a lawsuit, but they still deserve credit for letting this episode air.

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posted by WWB at 12:12 PM |