South Park has seen a lot of characters come and go in its 20+ years of broadcast legend. Most of the time, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are just rotating characters that just weren't contributing much to the series. However, far from infallible, they lose a fan-favorite character in their crusade for animated comedy. One of the most missed additions to the series is Jerome McElroy, aka Chef.
He was South Park Elementary's trusted chef and the wise confidant for the boys whenever they had questions about the adult world. He'd sadly leave the series due to creative differences and would never get the chance to return due to his actor Isaac Hayes' untimely death. While he's sorely missed, he did leave quite a trail of great episodes to remember him by.
The New Terrance And Phillip Movie Trailer
Media hype was so much more inconvenient before the advent of the internet and YouTube videos. When a long-awaited movie was about to release a trailer, fans really had to move around their entire lives just to see it. This was at full display in "The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer" where the boys desperately tried to find a house in which to see the titular trailer.
One of their most hilarious attempts is with Chef who was more than willing to let the boys into his home but struggled to get his new, expensive TV working. Having to deal with the convoluted remotes of the early 2000s, Chef had an entire sci-fi adventure when he had to call tech support when he accidentally turned his TV into a killer robot.
You Got F'd In The A
Always ones to have their fingers on the pulse of America's hottest cultural trends, South Park created one of the most hilarious parodies of the mid-2000's break dancing trend and the sudden rise of dance movies such as Step Up.
When the boys were minding their own business on South Park's streets, they're surprisingly ambushed by a group of kids who challenged them to a dancing contest and wiped the floor with them with a variety of flashy and complicated moves. Seeing that the boys just got "served," Chef is the first one to treat the situation with the gravity that it deserves and takes the unenviable role of being South Park's dance coach when Stan accidentally launches a dance war.
Proper Condom Use
While it's healthy for a child to have a curious imagination, it's not always appropriate for an adult to answer every single question that comes out of a child's mouth. This is the great plight behind Chef's character as he happens to be the trusted mentor of a group of kids with increasingly complicated and naughty questions.
One of the greatest instances of this comes when Chef finds himself in the middle of a huge, sex education discussion. Initially leaving it to the school and parents to settle for themselves, the boys find themselves in a grand battle against the girls due to the fear mongering of their teachers. As always, it's up to Chef to clear things up for everybody on sex.
Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls
In one of his most iconic episodes, Chef takes his innuendo gimmick to its max when he decides to sell a new treat of his for a sudden wave of tourists in South Park. He even develops a catchy song to sell them. Here, the Sundance Film Festival apparently decided to set up shop in the small, Colorado town; and despite bringing some big eyes and economic prosperity with it, the event inadvertently led to an ecological disaster with South Park's sewage system.
Chef takes partial responsibility for this and helps out the boys when they try to defend Mr. Hankey, literally saving the Christmas Poo by feeding him his iconic, chocolate balls.
The Biggest Douche In The Universe
The long-running story involving Kenny's trapped spirit sees its rightful conclusion in "The Biggest Douche in the Universe." Here, Cartman finally gets sick and tired of being possessed by Kenny and gets Chef and his friends' help to get him exorcised.
Chef plays the most important part, as he leads an entire journey to Scotland so that his mother could personally take Kenny's spirit out of Cartman. At the other end of the story, Kyle struggles with the meaning of life when he and Stan come across the "psychic medium," John Edward.
Pinkeye
South Park has a long line of Halloween episodes, and the one to set all of them off is none other than "Pinkeye." Here, Kenny once again dies a tragic death but is revived as a zombie when one of his morticians drops some Worcestershire sauce in his body. This leads to Kenny going on a rampage to infect the entire town.
One of the first people to realize this is Chef who fights his way through the zombie hordes to warn the town. Upon getting infected himself, Chef initiates another, legendary South Park moment when he launches an impromptu dance sequence for Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
Chef Aid
Plagiarism is something that the music industry takes very seriously; and given that Chef is played by actual music artist, Isaac Hayes, this must've been a very personal episode to him if not, at least, really fun to do. When Alanis Morissette plagiarizes a song that Chef wrote, he tries to sue her but is then successfully countersued by her lawyer.
Left with an incredible amount of debt, Chef and the boys quickly try to raise the money. While Chef has his own plans, the boys decide to sell treats to all of the celebrities that Chef has helped over the years. Instead of just buying the treats, though, artists such as Elton John, Ozzy Osbourne, and Meat Loaf all rush to Chef's side to start a benefit concert, entitled Chef Aid.
Chef Goes Nanners
Today should know more than ever how tumultuous of a subject historical monuments are. While plenty of them may seem offensive for their depiction or glorification of outdated themes and heroes, many are quick to defend the statues or flags in the discussion as valuable, historical relics.
This is at full display in "Chef Goes Nanners" where Chef tries to get rid of South Park's flag which blatantly depicts a group of white characters hanging a black one. He and the rest of the town put the boys at the forefront of the discussion as a once simple school project becomes the very thesis of racial tensions.
The Succubus
It's no secret that Chef has a thing for the ladies. That's what makes an episode like "The Succubus" so strange and unnerving. Here, Chef gives up his bachelor lifestyle when he falls in love with a free-spirited woman.
Despite their connection, she completely overtakes his personality, taking away all of his edge and even changing the sound of his music. This upsets the boys who theorize that the woman in question is not, in fact, a spirited musician but a mythical succubus just trying to steal Chef's soul.
The Return Of Chef
Chef's most iconic episode to date, unfortunately, didn't involve the direct contributions of Isaac Hayes. Prior to "The Return of Chef," Isaac Hayes quit South Park Studios due to their controversial depiction of Scientology. Instead of backpedaling on this, Matt Stone and Trey Parker double down on their views of the religion and paint a thinly-veiled image of Chef joining a creepy cult that completely brainwashes him.
The episode takes full advantage of Isaac Hayes' absence by passing off Chef's disjointed dialogue as a symptom of the cult's brainwashing. Chef would sadly see his horrific demise at the end of the episode but was revived by the cult as, what the community calls it, "Dark Chef."