10 Most Controversial South Park Moments

An episode incendiary enough to lead to the departure of longtime voice artist Isaac Hayes, Trapped In The Closet puts South Park’s scattershot comedy to the best possible use, managing to simultaneously offend scientologists, Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and for no particular reason R Kelly in one fell swoop.

In one of the earliest high profile swipes against scientology, Parker and Stone pull no punches, taking aim at the church’s induction practises, paywall, and faith system (a sequence illustrating the foundations of the religion is captioned “This is what scientologists actually believe”).

With scientology particularly prevalent in Hollywood, the episode was always going to ruffle feathers, and rumours that Tom Cruise had threatened to pull out of Mission: Impossible 3 promotional duties led to South Park fans boycotting the film.

Worse still, Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef and a scientologist, left the show shortly after the episode aired. In a reference to the religion’s litigiousness, all credits for the episode are given to Jane or John Smith. They escaped without a lawsuit this time, but as far as South Park maulings go, it’s one of their most ruthless.