How the Church of Scientology Attempted to Take Down South Park
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For virtually the entirety of South Park’s almost three-decade existence, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never been afraid to court controversy. Debates rage to this day about whether their “take no prisoners” approach to comedy is incendiary and incisive, or just mean-spirited and nihilistic, but there’s no denying the longevity they’ve gotten from it. From such a long time on the air, during which they’ve offended seemingly every demographic under the sun, it’s a daunting task to determine their single most controversial episode.
Yet maybe Parker and Stone’s most high-profile conflict came in 2006, as a result of the episode “Trapped in the Closet.” In the episode, Stan Marsh joins the Church of Scientology after higher-ups become convinced he’s the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. Simultaneously, Tom Cruise locks himself in Stan’s closet, while all the characters try and convince him to “come out of the closet.” Despite massive critical acclaim, the episode generated considerable controversy, almost leading to a legal response from the Church, and ultimately resulting in Isaac Hayes, the voice of the beloved supporting character Chef, quitting the series.
On November 17, 2005, the day after “Trapped in the Closet” aired, Scientology higher-up executive Mike Rinder (who’s since left the organization), wrote a memo to the Church’s leader, David Miscavige. The memo read, “They did not contact the Church or give any forewarning on the show, not even to Isaac. The program is a total J&D (joking and degrading) of Scientology, Tom Cruise and John Travolta and contains upper-level data.”
The upper-level data referred to a scene in the episode, in which one of the Church members tells Stan about a core Scientology belief, that Xenu, a galactic warlord, created life on Earth 75 million years ago after bringing the victims of a universal genocide to an uninhabited planet. The scene includes a caption at the bottom of the screen that reads, “This is what Scientologists actually believe.” In the Church, this information is reserved for members at an “OT 3” (Operating Thetan) level, so it obviously rankled the higher-ups that Parker and Stone found a way to get it into the public eye, and it’s believed that the episode proved highly influential in turning many against the organization.
Moreover, where they got this information only further angered the Church. To consult on the episode, Parker and Stone brought on journalist Mark Ebner, who had gotten in trouble with the Church in the past, most notably after writing a 1996 expose on them for Spy magazine called “Do You Want to Build a Bridge?” To write the article, Ebner had joined Scientology for several weeks to get a feel for its inner workings, and he later became a vocal critic of the organization, even taking part in pickets against them.
Shortly after “Trapped in the Closet” aired, Scientology higher-ups planned to respond to a CNN segment about the episode and to potentially sue Parker and Stone for their criticism of the Church. However, they quickly decided against it, because they knew their legal case was weak. Instead, they accused Ebner of using the show as a way to further his personal vendetta against Scientology and attempted to launch an investigation into him. But even this bore little fruit, as Ebner continued to consult on Comedy Central shows without any pushback, most notably The Daily Show.
Content retrieved from: https://movieweb.com/south-park-scientology-controversy-explained/.
