As if saying good-bye to one of the Original Kings of Comedy wasn’t hard enough over the weekend, Isaac Hayes died at the age of 65 yesterday, depriving us of one of the original kings of funk, R&B, and soul music. He collapsed on a treadmill and at this point, the cause of death is still unknown.

As someone too young to fully appreciate Isaac Hayes through memories of when he was first dropping cuts like the insanely popular (and Oscar-winning) theme song from Shaft, my musical sensibilities are developed enough to know that another perpetrator of old-school musical ingenue has passed. Someone who set the stage for so much of the music that is being reworked, re-sampled, mashed-up and re-spun as live performance by any Danger Mouse or Girl Talk wannabe with a Macbook.

Of course, I am intimately familiar with his work as Chef on South Park, and his decision to leave the show in 2006 after they skewered his religion of choice, Scientology.

When a cultural icon like Hayes passes away, however, there is no room for politicizing. Regardless of how you feel about Scientology or those who practice it, watch the video above and tell me that Hayes wasn’t a man who ushered in the modern era of cool.

Tags: birth of cool, chef, isaac hayes, rip, scientology, shaft, south park