Episode 66 - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut/The Chef Aid Album
On the penultimate episode of Series 5, we bring Kit back onto the show, to discuss two exemplars from the early years of South Park (Comedy Central, 1997-present). After a bit of chat about Kit's new horror short story podcast, we firstly delve into the movie South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (Trey Parker, 1999) - and how our thoughts on it in 2024 might differ from our teenage ones. We then have a discussion of Isaac Hayes, his relationship with the show, and, specifically, the end of said relationship, leading to the infamous episode The Return of Chef. In the second half, we set out on a gloriously enjoyable track-by-track journey through the better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be tie-in album Chef Aid (1998) - which, amongst many things, turns into an extended clebration of Hayes the man, the myth and the legend. We hope you enjoy it! Way back in 2020, me, Matt and Olivia talked about South Park Season 5 (2001) at some length - you can listen to that here. 0.00 Intro 0.05 The Ultimate Horror Anthology 0.31 South Park in general 0.46 South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut 1.38 Isaac Hayes and his departure from South Park 1.52 The Chef Aid Album: tracks 1-10 2.49 The Chef Aid Album: tracks 11-21 3.45 Closing thoughts You can find the show on X at @EGoat_pod (or post at me on @D_Faggiani - I'm on Bluesky too) and email us with any feedback on escapegoatpod@gmail.com. All our episodes so far are on Spotify, our YouTube channel, and Apple Podcasts. Do spread the word! We also have a Patreon - any amount of money will get you early access to episodes, and help support the show! Kit Power lives in Milton Keynes and writes horror and dark crime fiction, with occasional forays into dystopian science fiction. His fiction work includes a novel, ‘GodBomb!’, and a novella collection ‘Breaking Point’, two short story collections (‘A Warning About Your Future Enslavement That You Will Dismiss As A Collection Of Short Fiction And Essays By Kit Power’ and ‘Voices’) and novellas ‘The Finite’ and ‘A Song For The End’. He also writes non-fiction (https://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/my-life-in-horror.html with Volume 1 and 2 also available in book format) and has a limited hardback available on the subject of Ken Russell’s movie Tommy. In his increasingly inaccurately labelled spare time, he podcasts - on his own show, Watching Robocop With Kit Power, on What The Hell Is Wrong With Us? with George Lea - and, as mentioned in the show, he has recently launched the new podcast series The Ultimate Horror Anthology with fellow horror author Jasper Bark. For weekly early access to his fiction, non-fiction, and podcasting work, visit www.patreon.com/kitpower. He has also been on six (!) previous episodes of The EscapeGoat Podcast, discussing each part of the original UK House of Cards Trilogy in turn, the Stephen King short story collection Skeleton Crew, his essay collection My Life In Horror Volume II, and the classic British gangster movie The Long Good Friday. Check them out! Also get him on Twitter and Bluesky. NOTES Chef Aid is on Spotify! Which is very cool. So much I could include here, but....here is the Glastonbury performance (from 2002) of Hayes performing Chocolate Salty Balls. Fantastic. And my brother Matt interviewing the superbly entertaining Toddy Walters (voice actor on much early South Park - and voice actor AND animator wrangler on the movie) can be listened to here. Also... here is Chef Aid: Behind The Menu (as mentioned in the episode, narrated by John Lydon!) and featuring several of the artists from the album. And here's a Pitchfork piece from 2010 where they talk to Matt Stone about South Park and music, including working with Perry Farrell, and a Chef Aid retrospective in 2022 from Matt Mills at Metal Hammer.
