I’ve recently discovered the stop-motion animated show “Moral Orel” on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. It’s the story of a very devout 11-year-old boy, Orel, who lives in the fictional town of Moralton in the fictional state of Statesota (located between Kansas and Missouri). Orel loves church, but frequently misunderstands the religious moral principles he’s being taught, leading to horrifying situations that have to be cleaned up by the end of each episode. For example, in the episode “Waste,” his mother tells him to clean up his plate, because God hates waste. When on a camping trip, a Scout leader tells the troop that if they get lost in the woods and have no other source of water, they can drink their own urine. Orel concludes that not drinking his own urine is a form of waste… In another episode, “God Fearing,” Orel is concerned that he doesn’t fear God, and so decides to violate all of the Ten Commandments in order to be appropriately afraid. In “The Lord’s Greatest Gift,” Orel checks out the Necronomicon from the library and starts resurrecting the dead, creating zombies, so that they can continue to enjoy God’s gift of life. An episode guide may be found at Wikipedia.

It’s not a show for the easily offended. It looks very much like the old show “Davey and Goliath,” but its creator, Dino Stamatopoulos, says he was inspired by the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials and didn’t set out to create a parody of “Davey and Goliath.”

If you like “South Park” or the Mad TV parody “Raging Rudolph” (Rankin/Bass meets Scorsese), you’ll probably like “Moral Orel.”