DVD: Faith-Based Funny
Despite the fact that Moral Orel makes no attempt to mock faiths of the Jewish or Muslim variety, the claim is that its target is not Christianity, specifically, but the twisting of religion, generally, being a spoof of the 1960s stop-motion Christian show, Davey and Goliath, this is a hard claim to support. Unlike animated satires like The Simpsons or South Park, this show is not an equal opportunity offender, and if creating a controversial show is your goal, aim for the biggest target. The first season of Moral Orel, now on DVD, introduces you to Orel, a naive, young born-again who lives and worships in the town of Moralton, an entire community of book burnings, judgmental glares and self-righteous Protestant rhetoric. No one makes themselves a bigger target than the evangelicals.
Every episode begins with Orel learning about a new aspect of his faiths already strict moral code, and ends with his honest attempt to do-the-right-thing going horribly wronglike an after-school job leading to a crack addiction or talk of the perils of masturbation inspiring him to artificially inseminate sleeping townswomen with a pastry bag. But no matter how devastating the effects of his bungle, its nothing that the spare the rod, spoil the child mentality of his father cant fix. On paper, the commentary of devout Christians as emotionally repressed and inherently selfish is pretty pedestrian, but your typical anti-Christian fare of broken marriages and latent homosexuality is used to craft character relatability without notice. Its the sort of thing every modern variety show is hoping to establish with their returning characters and, considering show creator, Dino Stamatopoulos impressive resume of stellar alt-sketch comedy writing like The Ben Stiller Show, TV Funhouse and Mr. Show, this comes as no surprise.
Mea culpas over debatable production decisions and deplorable anti-social behavior accompany the controversial Christmas episode and footage of an awkward Adult Swim Comic-Con panel, proving that the creators probably arent entirely filled with the anti-Christian vitriol that you might expect. I guess the road to hell really is paved with good intentions.