Moral Orel was a series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It was a 15 minute claymation series that was sort of a parody of Davey and Goliath. Orel was a kid living in a Christian fundamentalist town who would try to do the right thing, but because he horribly misunderstood the bible and the moral lessons people tried to teach him, generally did some pretty horrible things. The show lasted three seasons, and starting in the middle of the second season and continuing through the third, it moved away from the formula of the first season (Orel misunderstands the bible, Orel does something horrible thinking it’s the right thing to do), and developed an overarching story.
Anyway, I’ve seen a bunch of episodes, and the show seems to me to be a very sad show about unhappy people who inevitably end up making self destructive choices, hurting themselves and those around them. However, I realize that I don’t have much of a sense of humor, so I guess my question is, is the show supposed to be funny? Am I just missing something here?
I’ve seen a few episodes here and there, and pretty much asked myself the same question. They were on so late at night, I often wondered what I would think about them if I watched them in daytime when more alert.
Anyway, I did look it up on IMDB and it lists it as a comedy and drama. I think it’s the type of comedy that can get so dark or tragic, that it skirts the line of being funny and evoking unsettledness.
I’m just wondering why you’re even watching Adult Swim if you’re so greatly lacking a sense of humor… Obviously it’s *supposed *to be funny, and as for me, the things you listed usually end up making a great comedy (what’s funny about seeing happy people succeed in goals?). “Destructive choices, hurting themselves and those around them”? You don’t work for the PTC by chance do you? I’ve seen a few episodes of it and thought it was enjoyable and would probably be rather offensive to religious folk. Nothing too spectacular.
I don’t know if it’s your sense of humor that’s missing it, but that’s pretty the premise of the whole show. They take 1 commandment, or something said in the bible, and put it in a preacher sermon.
Morale then takes up that 1 morale/passage, and tries to adhere to it 100%, which, ironically, always turns back around on him, and he winds up laying out for his drunken father’s belt beatings.
By him adhering to the teachings, I mean like him trying to bring back his dead grandfather through desecrating cemetaries, getting addicted to crack to get closer to jesus, or chasing the origins of his little brothers birth.
It’s not just a shot at Christianity, it’s a shot at religion in general, and I for one appreciate most of it’s subtle humor.
Like the episode the crazy old lady equivocates cooking eggs to human abortion, in order to outlaw eggs/omelets/quiche/etc.
I dunno about that. The episode with the pray-a-thon had Orel actually achieving transcendence, and getting in touch with his Buddha nature.
The fact that its importance all came down to Moralton winning a pack of money of the betting action made that sort of bittersweet. It struck me as taking a shot at the shallowness and materialism of small-minded American cultural shibboleths in general.
Which I’ve always found the show to be quite effective at doing.
There were a few episodes that I really liked–like when Orel became a hardcore BDSM freak as a direct result of the beatings his father administered. Or when Orel fell in love with the girl who gave him a piercing (I think). But there were a few episodes that were so stunningly depressing that I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to think. I mean, all of S3 is pretty bleak. But I found the the episode where we learn about Orel’s father’s parents to be too much. It was so unrelenting and depressing.