Saturday, April 18, 2015

Moral Orel: It's Pure Genius

A few days ago I was watching an episode of Moral Orel (specifically this one called "God's Chef"). I was reminded of its absolute genius & just how darn funny it was. Wrong, but funny. Lots of things I find funny fit into that category. My ex was also a fan, likely b/c he grew up with an uber-Catholic mother who taught his religion class. My mother was also uber-Baptist, which was much worse when we were growing up considering I went to a religious private school from 1st-3rd grade. Not to be confused with "Southern Baptist"; though we lived in the South, we didn't play that racist shit.

So as a child I was exposed to some creepy, religious programming. Those of you who were raised in the Baptist/Christian church will certainly know some of these programs but I'm doing this for the people who didn't grow up in the South or other "Christian" corners of the country or world.

There was Gospel Bill, which I remember first seeing when I went to my best friend's church one Wednesday evening. They just had us watching some of that on loop. There was also Quigley's Village, which my sister says her teacher had them watch in class one day at the religious private school. No way could you play that in public school since there was lots of God talk in there. They even reference God in the theme song! Atheist parents would have a collective heart attack if public school teachers were playing this one in class.

We also had The Gospel According to St. Bernard, which is the adventures of an angel who is sent to Earth as a St. Bernard dog to manage the spiritual health of a brother & sister. Young kids, not teenaged degenerates or even kids living in the ghetto with screwed up parents. That would probably be the parody version; these kids lived in Florida. I don't think they ever explained why this angel had to go on this mission; I believe it was one of those "God says you have to do it so you're doing it" situations. Much like real life in the church. There was also Gerbert, which I'm annoyed my link to no longer works. He was this orange puppet boy living in a world of humans and sometimes being a prick but often learning "life lessons." They also had segments of this singing children's choir, which you often wondered where Gerbert was at during all this. Sometimes Gerbert was watching the performance. Think of it as being like those breaks in shows from the '90s like In Living Color where there'd be some dance routine with the Fly Girls in between the comedy. Believe me, the Fly Girls dance routines were more interesting & probably far more controversial than what I'm talking about in Gerbert.

Moral Orel is a parody of the show Davey & Goliath, which it seems many non-religious people are familiar with. Just in case your parents were God hating heathens or you aren't familiar with it, here's some information on Davey & Goliath. If you know Davey & Goliath, think of Moral Orel as that world turned upside down with no talking dog.

Now if you are familiar with these shows & the world of Baptists in the South, you can appreciate why I would love Moral Orel. It directly attacks and spoofs religious hypocrisy. I don't want to give away too much of this show but the father is definitely NOT a paragon of virtue, the parents have no sex life & you can see that they hate each other but put on fronts for everyone else. Definitely happens in the Christian community in the South. The show's adult characters have bad secrets, which is definitely not far off from that world. In the first episode, Orel reawakens the dead. Now his father isn't upset with him for creating a zombie apocalypse in Moralton but is upset b/c Orel took people's clothes off to turn them into zombies so the town is all outraged at the NAKED zombies as opposed to the zombies.

In another episode, where Orel is told masturbation is wrong and he's going to hell if he "spills his seed" his father tells him babies come from God serving as a chef putting material into women's bodies. So Orel, who wants to masturbate without going to Hell, decides he's going to be God's chef & put his seed into women's bodies. He causes a spike in pregnancies from women whose husbands never touch them. When you think about it, Moralton is a very depressing place (at least, that's what I thought since I am not frigid on that sort of thing).

They touched a lot on the gleeful censorship along with the unhealthy attitudes on sex. Not sure if they touched as much on the demanding women to be frumps thing. Loved the alternative character Orel befriends later on named Stephanie who owns a sex shop. It turns out her father is the town's Reverend & despite their vast differences, they end up having a good relationship later on. There are Christians in the world who get along with their gay, alternative, non-believing kids. I get along much better with my conservative family though I'm not gay & probably less alternative than lots of people who came from this type of background. The authoritarian aspect of growing up in a conservative Baptist household was definitely captured in this show.

Sadly, they only put the first season out on DVD & I hadn't seen it since the economic & emotional abuse ensued. Still makes me laugh, though & it's worth watching. If you grew up in that atmosphere, saw through the bullshit and got out, you MUST see this show if you didn't already. In case you never did, here's a way to do so.

Does anybody else notice the sexism that permeates in the Christian church? It is a huge reason I consider myself undeclared. Plus, what model would go along with any religion that demands them to dress like a frump & be ashamed of their body? It seems contradictory to the entire modeling industry, especially if you are a woman.

Now I've got to go out in this nice sunny day. Why wouldn't I?