C&C - Morel Orel - "The Lord's Greatest Gift" [1/20]

[livingfruitvirus]

If you like clay penises (http://www.adultswim.com/fridaynightfix/tools/vids/clip2.asx), you'll like this Moral Orel.

[Tienshin]

I’m on board for this, despite the last outing.

You should be too.

[Zyzzybalubah]

Not as good as the first episode but by no means bad.

[Daffy Dork]

That was good!

The thing that I found I really liked was the mood of it. All of these serious things going on and the world in danger and Orel is just so carefree and innocent. Which is what the Christmas episode lacked because it had a dark mood.

4 out of 5 naked clay zombies.

[Duke]

"You know you're not supposed to think about God and faith!"

I liked that line.

Cleaniness is overrated. Everybody knows Cosbiness is really next to Godliness!

Overall, it was interesting, and certainly better than Perfect Hair Forever and OZMO, but it just didn't really grab me.

[Chrono1995]

I think I'm going to really like this show, even though the part with the townspeople giggling and laughing at zombies eating them just because they had clothes on scared me.

[Scorpio_G]

That was good!

The thing that I found I really liked was the mood of it. All of these serious things going on and the world in danger and Orel is just so carefree and innocent. Which is what the Christmas episode lacked because it had a dark mood.

4 out of 5 naked clay zombies.
Sweetie if zombies destroying a small town doesnt qualafy-q-Qualfy-q damn it! I cant spell for #$@! today--as dark I dont wanna know what's dark in your mind. :p

Anyway, I'm feeling this epp more than the last one. And I liked the earlier one too. I throw in 4 burning books out of five too including Animal Farm.

[TheMecca]

This is the new awesome show. Dino Step-Stamp-Stoomp- Whatever his last name is is a great writer- if I recall correctly he wrote all of the songs for Mr. Show.

All of the songs from Mr. Show.
The songs from Mr. Show.
If that isn't a reason to watch then I don't know what reasons are.

I like how the grave for Doughy's Dead Grandpa had... Doughy's Dead Grandpa written on it. Subtle.

[v1cious]

uhh... wow. i can see some letters coming their way.


after that horrible Christmas episode i wasn't expecting much out of this show... but damn.

[Freedom Fighter]

First off, this was definitely more potentially offensive than the Christmas special, with this talk of necromancy and zombies and nudity. Still, it came off a whole lot funnier than that episode. Honestly, who would've thought a preaching about how only living people don't sin would be so funny? Especially when put in the context of how Oral absorbs that.

It's still obvious Williams Street and Adult Swim rely on shock humor more than anything to keep their series afloat, but at least tapping into religion gives them new ground to penetrate, so to speak. Even if, yeah, this'll definitely get some people riled up.

6.5 out of 10 for "The Lord's Greatest Gift."

[Juu-kuchi]

That was pretty damn good. Much better than the Christmas one.

Sometimes even I'm convinced that reason is the greatest enemy of faith. I also enjoyed the stop-motion play that Orel did at the credits where it had Jesus resurrect all of the contemporary Christian figures from the dead.

We're all laughing at this?

Does that mean we're bad people?

[Strollymonster]

That blew me away...after the Christmas episode, I was expecting the series to be more mundane and reality-based...but this episode rocked that expectation with the necromancy.

Definitely a huge improvement, and something that's bound to get at least some controversy. I'll be looking foreward to this show now...I'd say it's the best original since Robot Chicken.

[Karl Olson]

"No god, you're a weirdo, your gift is boring."

Definitely a lot more comedic than the season finally. Seriously has potential.

[Nin-Nin69]

The first half was meh, but it got better once the zombies ran loose. So nudity with clay figures is ok on CN, but every other show with nudity isn't?

[Daikun]

BUUUUUUUUUURN in Heaven!

[Kino]

This is gonna be fun....:evil:

[livingfruitvirus]

200% improvement over the Christmas episode. Maybe that episode was meant to be shown tenth and that was why Dino Stamatopoulos seemed pissed about it. I don't know why MTV just didn't give the new Celebrity Deathmatch episodes to Shadowmachine Films, since these guys all know stop-motion animation very well.

Dad: Their clothes didn't stink, Orel. It was their bodies. Their filthy, disgusting, naked bodies.

Speaking of Shadowmachine, they now have a website. http://www.shadowmachine.com

[PeppeRaskell1]

Orel is shaping up to be one of the few AS comedy shows that seems to go down easy with me (Robot Chicken is the other one). I was around back in the days of Davey and Goliath (which Orel is definitely spoofing!) and my older brothers and me got such a big kick making fun of the characters (particularly a character called Nat, who kinda talked like this: "Day-vey, yer dawg's gawt FLEAS!")

The Lutherans will probably be keeping an eye on this one, particularly because Orel bears a little-too-uncanny-for-the Lutherans-tastes resemblance to the Davey character. But then again, these are the same guys that let Mountain Dew do that TV commercial starring the D&G characters ("Tommy, we've been hosed...")

[Kagetsu]

:sad: umm, So Davy and Goliath,,, this ain't? I never paid much attention to this shows ads thinking it was a one off Christmas special. I was wondering what it was doing on AS Sunday,,, and now I know why. Not a clue from the ads, that's just creepy.

[Delthayre]

The apathetic skepticism I had formed after the Christmas episode is dispelled. This was really rather funny. The satirical component, however simple it may be, is handled in concert with some funny stuff and the comedy stays prudently at the fore. The preacher's bizarre sermon cracked me up, and the way the zombie angle played out was funny.

The thematic element of reason being antithetical to religion did occasion me to some thought. Mercifully, I don't think that the idea was some athiest claptrap that reason would lead to realizing that Christianity was wrong, rather that reason strengthens faith by providing humanity with an additional resource to understand and apply the tenets of a religion. Moral Orel seems squarely aimed at boorish and small-minded protestant communities and the variety of protestant religion that seems most interested in the religion as club to keep people in line and beat down inconvenient challenges to the status quo and 'tradition'.

[Shnay]

I dug the Christmas episode, but I'll agree that this was a lot better overall. Actually, I think I would have enjoyed the Christmas episode a lot more if it was aired later on, as originally intended.

Anyway, I thought the jokes were biting, but not so venomous as to be off-putting (those who hold the subject of the jokes a bit closer may feel differently, however). The characters are already well established, and they exchange some good dialogue here that I hope continues throughout the series. Provided the jabs don't get too repetitive, and they limit the easy targets (like the censoring librarian), this should be good.

[Master Moron]

Freakin' hilarious. As someone already said, this is the funniest Adult Swim show since Robot Chicken. I hope they can keep up the comedy. And I hope that awful Christmas special didn't scare away too many viewers.

[Temple Fugate]

The only thing I would have removed from this episode were the odd moments where Morel's dad's pants fell down. Everything else was hilarious close-minded religious commentary. Mindless, it ain't.

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Hilarious. I enjoyed the Christmas show, but this one was a lot better. Very funny stuff.

The Christmas episode probably would've worked better if they hadn't aired it first(why the hell did they do that?).

Looks like a show with a lot of potential.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

That was delightfully twisted. It was MUCH better than the Christmas episode.

This show has potential for sure.

[dawnyoshi]

The Christmas episode was just morbid. This episode was morbid AND hilarious. XD

[KojiroTakenashi]

Hallowed ahre The Ori...

[Classic Speedy]

"....Didn't he do this same sermon four years ago?"

"I'm only going to burn the Jewish parts." (violently rips out the Old Testament and throws it in the fire)

"I saw you talking during the sermon. Somebody bored?"
"Nah, just boning up on my ventriloquism."

"Those words don't sound very Protestant."
"Hey, atleast they're not Catholic."
(frightened)"Catholic?"

Those were probably the biggest laughs from the episode for me. I never saw that apparently awful Christmas episode, but this is a good start anyway. It was like a mix of Leave it to Beaver with Davey and Goliath, mixed in with South Park, and the results were pretty decent. It's not really a LOL show, but a smile was definitely on my face when the plot unraveled and the youngsters' screwed-up kid logic unknowingly caused mayhem.

Good stop-motion too, which nicely recreates the Davey & Goliath style. And I'm not usually a stop motion fan.

Moral Orel hasn't sold me just yet, but I'll be keeping any eye on it. Clearly has potential to rip on everything religion and come up with all sorts of crazy logic to chaos moments.

[Inkan1969]

Moral Orel seems squarely aimed at boorish and small-minded protestant communities and the variety of protestant religion that seems most interested in the religion as club to keep people in line and beat down inconvenient challenges to the status quo and 'tradition'.

I'd like to think that this really is the point that Dino is trying to get across. But I don't think that point is conveyed too well. The show feels like it's generalizing too much. It's showing the small-minded fundie version of Protestant Christianity, but the show acts like that's the only kind of Chritianity around. That everyone who calls themselves a Christian is like that. There's no hint that there's a religious perspective that's not like Moralsville's ugly version. Me, I'm Catholic. But I think it's gravely evil to hold any contempt for anyone with a religion other than mine or for anyone with an athiest opinion. ( I also disagree with the Church on gay rights, abortion and other matters but that's a tangent. ) I do think Moralsville's intolerance and anti-reason are injustices, like I think about Pat Robertson or the Catholic League. But I feel lumped in with the Moralsville people by the TV show. That the TV show thinks anyone who's religious is the same as these rotten people, because there's nothing in the show to indicate otherwise.

And Orel's characterization turns me off. Orel seems sincere in wanting to do good and be faithful. But the show's tone towards him is really contemptuous. The makers seem to want us to really hate Orel for being the way he is. I don't think that's fair, the idea that anyone who's faithful is an idiot.

( I also thought they were plot inconsistencies. Orel didn't seem to realize he was using a magic book. I would've thought he'd immediately stop as soon as he started reading it. And the nudity plotpoint was convoluted. Orel didn't need to strip the bodies for any reason other than as a plot device. )

The show does have a good idea: All through the Terry Schiavo disgrace, I was thinking, "If preserving life is all important above everything else then if you could bring back the dead even in zombie form would you have to do it because we got to keep people alive no matter what." I think if the preacher had mentioned Schiavo Orel's motivations would've made more sense.

[peacebyanymeans]

"Oh yeah. Those lost Commandments always throw me off."

:D

[Shnay]

The show feels like it's generalizing too much. It's showing the small-minded fundie version of Protestant Christianity, but the show acts like that's the only kind of Chritianity around. That everyone who calls themselves a Christian is like that. There's no hint that there's a religious perspective that's not like Moralsville's ugly version.Generally speaking, I don't think comedy should be expected to present multiple angles of a given issue. The sensible members of a group (be it religious, political, what have you) simply aren't very funny. The extremists, the fringe groups, the most obnoxious, the most ignorant, are far better subjects for jokes. I wouldn't be shocked if Dino had some qualms with organized religion in any form, but I think the extent the commentary is taken to in Moral Orel suggests what Del said. Furthermore, from a story standpoint, it would make sense that this type of town has a pretty uniform view of religion.


And Orel's characterization turns me off. Orel seems sincere in wanting to do good and be faithful. But the show's tone towards him is really contemptuous. The makers seem to want us to really hate Orel for being the way he is. I don't think that's fair, the idea that anyone who's faithful is an idiot.This was brought up after the Christmas episode, as well. I can see how one could make this case, but, at this point, I disagree with it. I think Orel is more of a Tom Peters type character: one who has done absolutely nothing wrong, but still meets with hardship, failure, and disappointment. In real life, it would be a tragedy. On a goofy TV show, it's funny.

[Bunai]

i agree. this one is better then the Christmas ep.
Orel is so innocent and...well, not exactly stupid, but sort of on the dense side.
i watched Davey and Goliath on Sunday, so seeing this got an even bigger laugh from me :anime: Orel is definetly a copied clay image of him.
"i love you dad"
"well thats why they call me dad and not...mom"
*laughs*
"i love you just enough"
"i love you just enough too dad!"

i love the commercials for this series...they are SOooo misleading XD

anyway, that Sunday DnG ep was about Davey and this little girl who jumped too hard on an old bridge and it collapsed, so the little girl got stuck on this little bar of land and dirt wall, and the river was raising. so Davey prayed to god for himself to think...pulled out his trusty, pocket knife (cause i guess it was common to give little boys knifes at that era) and starts cutting and tying ropes to reach the girl, push her up the wall, and dig out foot holds (with da knife) to get himself out. moral of the story? umm don't trust little girls who ask you to jump on a bridge.

[livingfruitvirus]

Dino Stamatopoulos has been posting over on A Special Thing about the show. Turns out only 6 episodes will air right now because 3 have been shelved due to content reasons.

[shoujoaifan]

Dino Stamatopoulos has been posting over on A Special Thing about the show. Turns out only 6 episodes will air right now because 3 have been shelved due to content reasons.Dang, the FCC is really getting to things early. Remember the times when WS was forced to edit something that was fine with the FCC until just a few days before it would air, and then comment that in the b&w cards? (Ironic that technically the FCC doesn't have any power over cable, but usually its in AS's best interest to listen to avoid busybody groups suing them. As Harvey would say: "Sigh".)

So what, are the controversial parts such a big part of the episode that they can't be edited down for air? If its just a few curse words or something, then those are easily bleeped out, and can be uncut on DVD if its popular enough. ALTHOUGH, if the censoring is severe, like 90's dubbed anime severe, then it would understandable to just let them sit for DVD, if it gets that.

Although I can just imagine, barely, what some of their most controversial stuff has to be, if something like "We'll-use-the-Necronomicon-to-resurrect-dead-people-because-they-aren't-celebrating-God's-gift-of-life-and-thus-are-spitting-in-his-face,-and-also-we'll-strip-them-since-they-stink" ranks as passable but other ones are even more controversial.

[Delthayre]

A minor note of correction, ShoujoFan, the FCC has no regulatory authority over a cable network such as CN (not that they aren't keen to have it), the interference comes from the network's own BS&P (Bureau of Standards and Practices), an internal regulatory body, which mostly acts in order to avoid lawsuits and to keep advertisers from being alienated. They can be rather overzealous and annoying at times.

I must wonder what has so bunched BS&P's panties. Moral Orel could have something really nasty or outrageous, I suppose, but I almost find that feeling hard to really sense since the series itself is remarkably, I suppose, good-natured about its material. It lacks, at least, South Park's tendency toward mean-spiritedness and lazy directness.