Moral Orel/YMMV

• Acceptable Targets: White, conservative, Middle American fundamentalist Christians. It's like an orgy of target acceptability -- but when the whole point is to deconstruct these targets, it makes a little more sense.
  • In fairness, Orel himself qualifies as the above, as does Christina -- and Reverend Putty's love for his daughter shows that he's not to be considered a strawman. For that matter, Clay Puppington -- for all his monstrous actions -- had such a thoroughly miserable life that he literally doesn't know how good he could have it if he just tried.
  • In light of that, let's be specific and go for white, conservative, hypocritical Middle American fundamentalist Christians.
    • And while the show pokes fun at some of the hypocrisy of said Fundamentalist, it actually goes out of it's way to show the positive side of faith as well.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: The announcement on Halloween 2011 that a new Moral Orel special was coming "sometime in the near future".
  • Adult Swim confirmed Beforel Orel at its May 2012 upfront. Hallelujah!
• Angst? What Angst?: Orel takes getting shot surprisingly well. Sure, he starts spiting his father, but he's as sweet as ever to everyone else.
• Anvilicious: This is not done in regards to Christianity itself, surprisingly enough; the show is actually more of a critique of those who don't practice what they preach.
  • Many episodes provide dark parodies of this trope, thanks to Clay's "study" speeches.
• Ass Pull: The ending, though this is mostly due to Executive Meddling denying the writers their chance to wrap things up properly.
• Continuity Porn: It's got a surprising amount, considering it's an 11-minutes-per-episode Refuge in Audacity comedy show.
• Ear Worm: "Turn the Other Cheek" will never leave you.
  • And let's not forget "I Hate You Jesus". Especially in universe.
• Freud Was Right: "Nesting" reveals that Clay has a lot of... interesting womb-related fantasies.
• Gone Horribly Right: Adult Swim wanted Season 3 to go down the same dark road as the Season 2 finale, "Nature". The episode "Alone" went down that dark road -- then it got on the highway, swerved into oncoming traffic, and caused a multi-car pileup akin to Final Destination 2. After that episode was screened for Adult Swim executives, said executives cancelled the show and cut its final season down to 13 episodes despite getting exactly what they asked for in the first place.
• Ho Yay: Daniel and Clay. That is all.
• I Am Not Shazam: The episode synopses on adultswim.com repeatedly refer to Orel as "Moral".
  • Funnily enough? So did Doughy once during Orel's movie.
• Magnificent Bastard: Clay, in some respects. He is the mayor of Moralton, and he manipulates Shapey using reverse psychology and Doughy by using his want for a parental figure. Note that his drunk persona may or may not count.
  • Also note that we only see him in his drunk persona most of the time.
• Moral Event Horizon: In "Nature", Clay is pushed over the Moral Event Horizon and then some; he shoots Orel in the leg, ruins Orel's lucky shirt to make a tourniquet, drinks the medical alcohol which could have prevented infection, and then falls into a drunken coma for nearly twenty-four hours -- only to wake up, disavow all responsibility for shooting Orel (since he doesn't remember doing it), then care only about the possibility of Orel having killed a big bear (which Orel denies doing, if only to spite his father). While the writers do try and bring him back over the line in Season 3 with flashback episodes showing how Bloberta tricked him into marrying him/turned him into a drunk by giving him his first drink -- as well as his emotionally abusive childhood -- they completely negate any regained sympathy in the final two episodes, with Clay telling Orel that he was happy that he shot his own son -- flaunting "Honor thy mother and father" as a way to emotionally break Orel's spirit -- and, in his final scene, cursing out Coach Stopframe for believing Orel's stories about Clay's cruelty and being more concerned about keeping Stopframe rejecting him than he is about how he's fucked up Orel's life.
  • Amazingly, Coach Stopframe's taking Orel to a Satanic ritual to use the boy as a Virgin Sacrifice somehow does not manage to be this. Perhaps it's because Daniel seems ashamed of what he's doing, and eventually steps out of it. (Or because the Satanists are so goofy.)
• Signature Scene: Clay shooting Orel in the leg in "Nature: Part 2," the precise moment when the show turned from dark to pitch black.
• Squick: The close-up of Ms. Censordoll sucking down "under-fried, extra-slithery" eggs.
  • Also Clay's "dream" sequence showing his Oedipus Complex; it's so digusting that it becomes Nightmare Fuel.
  • Reverend Putty being romantically interested in his daughter (before he knew), Doctor Potterswheel's fetish for wounds and diseases, the closeups of eggs being laid...
• True Art Is Angsty: Season 3 is considered by numerous critics and fans to be a masterpiece of animation. It's also unfathomably bleak and depressing, moreso than anything Adult Swim had ever produced before (or has since).
• The Woobie: Orel, Florence, Nurse Bendy, Bloberta, young Clay...really, damn near everyone in Moralton falls into this category at one point or another.
  • Iron Woobie: Considering everything he's gone through, the fact that the ending shows Orel to be a loving father and husband proves him to be one of these.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Adult Clay. There is a distinction.