Chef Aid

"Chef Aid"
[[File:File:ChefAid03.gif|250px]]
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 14
Guest stars	Joe Strummer Rancid Ozzy Osbourne Ween Primus Elton John Meat Loaf Rick James DMX
Production no.	214
Original airdate	October 7, 1998
Episode chronology Previous Next "Cow Days" "Spookyfish"
List of all South Park episodes

"Chef Aid" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of South Park. An album was released in tandem with this episode, as well as a TV special, which aired on Comedy Central.

Spoiler warning! Plot details follow.

Synopsis

Chef tries to claim that Alanis Morissette's new song is a song he wrote called "Stinky Britches". The record company executive decides to sue Chef for this.

Plot

Cartman has become obsessed with Alanis Morissette's new song "Stinky Britches" that he can't get out of his head. WhenChef hears the song he tells the boys that he wrote that song 20 years ago, and that someone must have stole it.

The boys and Chef go to the major record company and try to explain, the executive of the company becomes frustrated and decides to sue Chef with his lawyer, Johnnie Cochran.

In court, Cochran uses the "Chewbacca Defense" which works on the jury causing Chef to lose the case. Chef now has 24 hours to come up with the money or face prison, Chef decides to make the money but to use it hire Cochran and sue the record company.

Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison can't find Mr. Twig, and after discovering him in a saucepan of boiling water, he realizes someone is out to get Mr. Twig.

Garrison sets up a camera after a few more attempts to kill Mr. Twig and discovers the culprit - Mr. Hat. Hat then shows up in his wardrobe. A near naked Mr. Garrison then throws Mr. Hat out his door shouting. This results in Mr. Garrison being arrested by Officer Barbrady.

Chef is showing the boys his photo album which shows that he knew many famous people. The boys then decide to sell sweets to them in order to make the money.

All the musicians remember Chef and do their bit to help him, all explaining how they met Chef and how he helped them to become what they are today.

After whoring himself to all the women in town, Chef still fails to produce enough money. The boys raised nowhere near the target price either, and Chef is arrested while the money is taken by the record producer.

In prison, Chef meets Mr. Garrison but they are promptly rescued by a vehicle smashing through the wall, driven by Mr. Hat.

In the town square, the boys decide to hold "Chef Aid". This involves Cartman on a stage doing the "German Dance" and getting people to play. The event doesn't manage to attract many, but suddenly all the musicians who bought the sweets and remember Chef turn up.

Soon a huge gig is in full swing and Chef turns up with Mr. Garrison, having escaped prison. Johnnie Cochran sees the event and takes up the case against the record company for free, the result is Chef getting his name on "Stinky Britches".

Mr. Twig asks Mr. Garrison if he still has feelings for Mr. Hat. Garrison reluctantly says yes but explains he's going to stick with Mr. Twig. Mr. Twig tells him to go to Mr. Hat since he loves him. Garrison thanks Twig for the advice and returns to using Mr. Hat.

Kenny's death

Kenny's head is bitten off by Ozzy Osbourne at the Chef Aid concert, to which Stan yells "Oh my god, Ozzy Osbourne bit Kenny's head off!" followed by Kyle's "You Bastard!".

Trivia

• Last appearance of Mr. Twig.
• If you look carefully at the person at the front of the crowd, you can see that he appears to be a person who was part of Skyler's band in "Timmy 2000".
• This episode was a plug for the album Chef Aid: The South Park Album which featured many of the songs featured in this episode it was released in 1998

References

• This episode parodies many different benefit concerts that usually end with "Aid" at the end of it. Some of the most prominent ones have been organized by Boomtown Rats member Bob Geldof who put together such events as Live Aid, Band Aid and the Live 8 series. They were all for charitably causes such as bringing famine relief to Ethiopia.

• The episode also makes a commentary on the often convoluted and complicated legal issues in dealing with ownership of intellectual property in the music industry.

• According to the boys "Stinky Britches" is big on MTV is a specialty television network that caters to music related programming.

• Mr. Big Record Producer acts as though he is above the law, he looks somewhat like a parody of the late Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. He uses a tube of hair gel called "Spooge", which is a slang term for semen.

• The "Stinky Britches" music video that Mr. Garrison is watching is a parody of the Alannis Morrissette music video for her song Ironic which was featured in her 1996 album Jagged Little Pill.

• The lawyer representing Mr. Big Record Producer is Johnny Cochran (1937–2005). Cochran is best known for representing O. J. Simpson during the O. J. Simpson murder case. Thanks in part to Cochran's defense O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges on October 3, 1995.

• The "Chewbacca defense" in the world of South Park is what got O.J. Simpson cleared of murder charges. This is in parody of Johnny Cochran's closing argument during the O.J. Simpson murder trail. The exact statement that they are parodying is: "Where is all that blood trail they've been banting about in this mountain of evidence? You will see it's little more than a river or a stream. They don't have any mountain or ocean of evidence. It's not so because they say so. That's just rhetoric. We this afternoon are talking about the facts. And so it doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't fit. If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

• The "logic" behind the Chewbacca defense is based on the fact that Chewbacca of the Star Wars franchise is a member of the Wookie race. Wookies come from the planet Kashyyyk. The argument of the defense is that Wookies do not live on the moon of Endor; it is the home of the Ewoks. This entire argument gets its origins from the embarrassingly terrible Star Wars Christmas Special, wherein Chewbacca and his family are depicted as living in a tree hut on the planet Endor.

• When Cartman is doing the "German Dance" his is dancing in the Polka dance method common in Central Europe. It has its origins in the 19th Century in the Czech lands.

• Chef has photos of the following icons in his rock 'n' roll album: The late Janis Joplin (1943–1970), The Beatles, Elton John, and The Sex Pistols. Famous places he's been are the The Great Wall of China, and world-famous disco club Studio 54.

• When the boys go to England to sell candy to Elton John, he corrects them by saying he is "Sir Elton John". Elton John was knighted by Queen Elizabeth the II in 1998.

• In the world of South Park, Chef would introduce Elton John to Bernie Taupin. Bernie Taupin is a song writer known for his long standing collaboration with Elton John. In reality, Taupin ended up working with Elton John in 1967 after answering an answered an advertisement for talent placed in the New Musical Express by Liberty records A&R man Ray Williams.

• In the flashback showing Elton John's encounter with Chef, Elton is depicted as a piano player in a bar. This would be historically accurate as Elton John was a pub pianist from 1962-1969.

• The boys next meet with Meat Loaf, born Michael Lee Aday, he is a musician best known for his Bat out of Hell trilogy.

• According to the world of South Park, Michael Lee Aday was a scrawny musician who called himself Cous-Cous until Chef suggested he take on a "beefier" name and recommended that he try his meatloaf. Meatloaf has given many contradictory stories as to the origins of his stage name. This fictional encounter is likely a nod to the fact that Meatloaf was a vegetarian for over 11 years. Couscous is a popular Eastern food commonly eaten by vegetarians.

• The boys also visit musician Rick James (1948–2004), who is best known for his hit Super Freak.

• The first band to play on the Chef Aid stage is the punk group Rancid. They were formed in 1991, and are credited as one of the groups that revived punk rock in the 1990s. They are well known for their album Let's Go release in 1994. The song they play in this episode is called "Brad Logan", which is track number 4 on the Chef Aid album. The song is in honor of Brad Logan, who was once a roady for Rancid and other punk acts.

• The second act on Chef Aid is Rick James, the episode plays the ending segment of his rendition of Love Gravy, a song originally composed by Issac Hayes for South Park. Chef sang this song in the season 1 episode "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig". It is track number 15 on the Chef Aid album, and is performed along side Ike Turner.

• The next act is Primus and their lead singer Les Claypool thanks Chef. Primus was formed in 1984. The have a history with South Park; it is their band that composed the opening theme song for the series. The song they begin to play is called "Mephisto and Kevin", which is track number 20 on the Chef Aid album.

• The stage is next visited by Punk rock icon Joe Strummer (1952–2002). Strummer is best known for being the front man of the punk rock group The Clash, who were together from 1976-1986. He sings the song "It's a Rockin' World" which is track number 19 on the Chef Aid album.

• When Chef arrives at Chef Aid, the crowd welcomes him by saying "Welcome to Chef Aid, Chef!" They say it in a similar tone as the Peanuts gang wishes Charlie Brown a merry Christmas near the end of the Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

• Next on stage is legendary heavy metal musician Ozzy Osbourne, known for being the original front man for the band Black Sabbath and his own solo career. He's announced as "TV's Ozzy Osborne" although during the time this episode aired, Ozzy was not on any regular TV series.

• Ozzy relates to a story wherein Chef suggests that he put on a "pompadour hat" and confuses it for "bite the head off a bat", he later goes on to bite the head off of Kenny. In real life, one of Ozzy's most infamous stage performances that occurred on 20 January 1982 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. A member of the audience threw live bat on stage, and Ozzy bit its head off. Although this is disputed by some, Ozzy has stated in a 2004 Rolling Stones interview, and in his memoirs that the bat was indeed alive and he had to go to get a rabies shot after the show.

• The song that Ozzy performs is "Nowhere to Run", it is track number 1 on Chef Aid album. It is a collaboration between him and musicians DMX, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Crystal Method.

• The next band up is Ween an alternative rock band formed in 1984. Lead singer Dean Ween suggests the idea that Chef told them to do a country album before being corrected by Gene Ween that it was "Steve". The country album they are referring to is their 1996 record 12 Golden Country Greats. Who "Steve" could be is anyone's guess. The song they play is "The Rainbow" which is track 17 of the Chef Aid album.

• Elton John sings the song "Wake Up Wendy", which is track 12 of the Chef Aid album.

• When Johnny Cochran's heart grows enough to take on Chef's case for free, it is a direct parody of the 1966 Christmas special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV special) based on the Dr. Seuss children's story of the same name.

Goofs

• Just after Chef threatens to sue the record company for stealing his song, Mr. Garrison is talking to Mr. Twig. Mr. Twig's shirt is clean at the start of the scene, but once zoomed in, there is a large stain on his shirt. When Garrison asks Mr. Twig if he is okay, the stain is gone.
• When Rancid performs the song "Brad Logan," the lead vocals are animated with Tim Armstrong singing, but the vocals were recorded by Lars Frederiksen.

• While in prison Mr. Garrison wasn't wearing any clothes (apart from a pair of boxer shorts) however once Mr. Garrison arrives at chef aid in the jeep he can be seen wearing his shirt and trousers.

"[[Cow Days]]"

"Chef Aid"

"[[Spookyfish]]"