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25 Uproarious Jokes From the Best Stand-Up Comics in the Known Universe
Plus: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Hire Litigator as Paramount Lawsuit Looms

Welcome to the Cracked newsletter!
This issue is about Stephen Colbert, Isaac Hayes, funny jokes, Shane Gillis, and much more.
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In a shocking move that we all should have seen coming, Stephen Colbert was relieved of his Late Show duties yesterday. While CBS officials said the move was entirely about financials, most blamed parent company Paramount, which needs the approval of Donald Trump’s FTC to complete an $8 billion sale.
Colbert’s nightly comedy assaults on Trump weren’t helping matters, and he might have sealed his own fate when he joked about Paramount paying Trump $16 million over a controversial 60 Minutes story: “This kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s ‘big fat bribe.’”
In South Park’s early days, there was just one adult the boys would turn to when they were in trouble. And even if he was in the middle of making sweet love to a beautiful woman, Chef would always answer their call.
Chef, famously played by soul music legend Isaac Hayes, was a key part of the show’s formula when South Park debuted, and his songs — from “I’m Gonna Make Love to You, Woman” to “Chocolate Salty Balls” — provided the earliest examples of the show’s musicality. Hayes was also the biggest name involved at the start (no one knew who Trey Parker and Matt Stone were back then).
Given Chef’s critical contributions to the show’s early success and how beloved the character was by South Park fans, his death — and Hayes’ controversial departure from the show — were all the more upsetting.