Although South Park’s Chef exit was unexpected, the satirical series still somehow managed to foreshadow the event a decade earlier with an unrelated episode. The Simpsons might be famous for predicting the future, but one of its earliest competitors also has a claim to this unlikely achievement. Although South Park famously said “The Simpsons already did it” about seemingly every storyline under the sun, the long-running satirical animated comedy has also has its fair share of strange future predictions. From the media’s mistreatment of Miley Cyrus to Mel Gibson’s fall from grace, the series made plenty of correct guesses over the decades.

While South Park season 27 may see the series continue this unlikely streak, one of the show’s most notable predictions was a more meta moment. Throughout the first decade of its existence, South Park’s Chef was a pivotal member of the show’s cast. Singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes proved he had a stellar sense of humor with his role as the South Park gang’s smooth-voiced, comically inappropriate school chef and source of homespun wisdom. However, Hayes left the series when South Park killed off Chef, and the show itself predicted how this would happen over a decade earlier.

South Park’s “The Succubus” Saw Chef Get Brainwashed

Chef Was Under A Succubus Spell In Season 3 Episode 3

In season 3, episode 3, “The Succubus,” Kenny, Kyle, Stan, and Cartman are dismayed when they attend school and find Chef is missing. Chef has left behind his job at the cafeteria to impress his new love interest, Veronica. Chef’s suspicious new girlfriend rapidly deprives him of his joie de vivre and soul, but, unfortunately, Chef insists he is happy with her and the boys can’t convince him to dump his girlfriend and return to his old job. Most classic South Park episodes with no political focus are filler, but “The Succubus” comes from the show’s messier early seasons.

As such, it is no surprise that the episode’s storyline only grows weirder and more absurd as it continues. Veronica is revealed to be a soul-sucking demonic succubus who is using the theme song from The Poseidon Adventure to conceal her true form. Kenny is killed by Veronica, the boys defeat her by singing the song backwards, and amidst all this chaos, a teacher named “Mr. Derp” gets into all manner of tiresome slapstick situations. Eventually, Chef narrowly escapes being brainwashed and killed in “The Succubus,” prompting him to thank the South Park boys for looking out for him.

South Park Killed Off Chef Via Brainwashing A Decade Later

Isaac Hayes Left The Series Due To A Feud With South Park’s Creators

This zany plot isn’t particularly unusual for South Park’s first three seasons, which are infamously chaotic and surreal. However, the storyline does gain an unexpected layer of poignancy when contrasted with Chef’s eventual fate later in the series. After South Park mocked Tom Cruise’s conversion to Scientology, Hayes left the series in a decision that was mired by controversy. Hayes was recovering from a stroke around the time and, according to his son in a 2016 article for The Hollywood Reporter, the choice to leave and condemn the show’s depiction of Scientology was not directly made by the actor himself.

Since South Park’s satire has always been risky, the show’s co-creators didn’t respond positively to the choice. In season 10, episode 1, “The Return of Chef,” Chef was killed off in the most humiliating manner possible. Much like “The Succubus,” “The Return of Chef” reveals that Chef has been brainwashed by a shadowy villain with ulterior motives. This time it is the Super Adventure Club, a group of child predators who want Chef among their number. Although the boys are initially successful in deprogramming Chef by bringing him to a strip club, he is then kidnapped by the club again.

After his second kidnapping, Chef loses an opportunity to be redeemed when the rope bridge he is standing on is struck by lightning. Chef dies by falling from a great height, being mauled by a grizzly bear, and finally being attacked by a mountain lion. Although the members of Super Adventure Club turned him into “Darth Chef” in the episode’s closing moments, he was never seen in South Park again. While this controversial South Park episode left the door open for the actor’s return, Hayes died two years after the episode aired.

Chef’s South Park Fate Weirdly Mirrored His Eventual Death

Both Episodes Saw South Park’s Heroes Try To Save Chef

In both “The Succubus” and “The Return of Chef,” South Park had to undo Chef’s brainwashing to spare him from a grave fate at the hands of evil villains. However, their attempts failed the second time around. What makes this particularly striking is the fact that, of all the things for the series to predict, South Park’s own production issues seem like the least likely. In its first three outings, South Park focused much more on random violence, boundary-pushing obscenity, and gross-out humor than social commentary and political satire.

As a result, South Park’s creators couldn’t have guessed that they would end up embroiled in a public feud with one of their stars over the Church of Scientology under a decade later. The similarities between “The Succubus” and “The Return of Chef” are tragic since, while the former episode offered the main characters a happy ending, the latter was a bitter conclusion to a beloved character’s tenure on the series. Hayes’s contentious exit remains a regrettable piece of South Park history, and one that the show uncannily predicted years earlier.