South Park had a big 1998. For starters, the show received its first Emmy nomination for the episode “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride.” On top of that, the first video game based on the series was released for Nintendo 64. The end of the year also saw the release of Chef Aid: The South Park Album, featuring original songs from a long list of musicians, including Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, and Master P.
The album was recorded concert-style and based on a benefit show put together for Chef in the Season 2 South Park episode “Chef Aid.” In it, Chef gets sued after claiming that Alanis Morissette stole one of his old songs. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny then set out to raise money to cover Chef’s legal fees by reaching out to different artists who knew him when he was a musician. They all agree to come to the benefit show and perform some of the album’s songs.
To promote the CD, Comedy Central aired a half-hour mockumentary called Chef Aid: Behind the Menu. Sex Pistols singer John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten) narrated the show, which was presented as a parody of the popular VH1 series Behind the Music. A number of the stars featured on the Chef Aid album make appearances, while others have no involvement at all, like Twister Sister singer Dee Snyder, Jermaine Dupri, and actual chef Emeril Lagasse. As for why all these celebrities agreed to be interviewed about a side character from an animated TV show, Lydon said in the show that Chef apparently “touched the lives of some of rock’s biggest stars.”
From there, Lydon and the interviewees get into the story of Chef’s largely undocumented music career. Despite never recording an album, Chef had a significant impact on the work of many others, or so we’re told. Meat Loaf, for example, says that it was Chef who gave him his stage name while he was cooking his famous meatloaf for him one night. And according to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, everything he’s ever done “has pretty much been a direct theft of Chef’s genius.”
Snyder was also supposedly heavily influenced by Chef before he disappeared from the scene without explanation. Chef himself then pops up to blame Twisted Sister for making him quit the music business in the 1980s. Ozzy Osbourne, for one, was happy he gave it up because, as he sees it, it gave everybody else a chance to succeed.
Lydon then recounts the events of the “Chef Aid” episode and the ensuing benefit concert. After that, they delve into Chef’s flair for cooking and picking up women. Lydon finally brings things to a close by introducing the music video for Master P’s song from the Chef Aid album, “Kenny’s Dead,” featuring the South Park kids.
Check out the full show below.
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