Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel, The Venture Bros., Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Hello, people who like Adult Swim. Here's some news and random coolness for you:

First of all, Adult Swim has updated its schedule, and as you can see, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is on the schedule for April 1, which is most likely a gag, considering it's not even scheduled for theatrical release until April 13.

Speaking of Aqua Teen, check out some more alternate endings to the movie here.

Continue reading Adult Swim news: New shows, old shows return, more stuff happening

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Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E10) Well, Moral Orel fans, that's it for new episodes until the show comes back to conclude the season in March. So far, this season has delved much deeper into the lives of the citizens of Moralton, and it might be the only series on Adult Swim that's not afraid to add a layer of emotion to the comedy. Granted, that wouldn't really work for something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but it does help Moral Orel to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Continue reading Moral Orel: Be Fruitful and Multiply

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Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Celebrities, Moral Orel

If you read my reviews of Moral Orel, you know I've been a fan since the first episode. It's often misunderstood as being nothing more than an eleven-minute joke at the expense of Christians, but its real target is not Christians or Christianity, it's how people will twist and contort their religion until it jives with their own selfish needs. The stop-animated residents of Moralton aren't seeking any kind of Divine Truth, they just want a religion of convenience.

Granted, Moral Orel can sometimes be quite vicious in its satire, but that's comedy. Aside from knock-knock jokes and preschool riddles, it's rare that comedy, and especially satire, doesn't offend on some level. Another "truth" about comedy is that you shouldn't analyze it too closely. The more you tear into it to see what makes it work, the more the magic seeps out of it.

Continue reading Dino explains it all (about Moral Orel)

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Filed under: Animation, Adult Swim, Celebrities, Moral Orel

(S02E09) The Adult Swim schedule grid has this episode listed as "Holy Image," but the opening credits had it as "Holy Visage," so that's what I'm calling it. At the start of this season I received an e-mail from creator Dino Stamatopoulos that said the title of the episode may change from "Holy Image" to something else. I assume it was changed so viewers wouldn't confuse it with "God's Image," an earlier episode. [Note: Dino e-mailed me and confirmed this after I posted this review].

Continue reading Moral Orel: Holy Visage

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E08) This episode, written and directed by Scott Adsit, reminded me of an old Emo Philips joke that you can read here. The gist of the joke is that two people share almost identical religious beliefs, but one insignificant difference is enough to make them enemies. In this episode, a new family, the Posabules, moves in next door to Orel's family. They seem like the perfect neighbors: their kids get along famously, both the men enjoy the album "Non-threatening Negro Comedy Volume 6," and the wives find common ground in their love of organizing detergents. Even when Bloberta goes monkey-crazy because one of her cleaning products is out of place, it's all quickly smoothed over.

Continue reading Moral Orel: The Lord's Prayer

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E07) The first thing I noticed about this episode was the opening. As far as I know, this is the first time creator Dino Stamatopoulos wasn't credited with writing the episode. Instead, that credit went to Mark Rivers, who composes the music for the series.

At this point, I think fans of Moral Orel have come down off the high of the first season and have settled in to simply enjoying the show. We're more familiar with it now, but it's still smart and funny, and manages to go places you don't expect. When this latest episode began, it had a very "first season" feel to it: Orel hears Reverend Putty's sermon and takes the lesson to heart. I settled in for an enjoyable if not familiar episode, but by the end of it I was laughing so hard I had to take anti-laughing pills to stop.

Continue reading Moral Orel: Pleasure

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E06) This episode dealt with the line between faith and reason, which may be why I wasn't as drawn to it as other episodes. I thought it was a good episode, but the way in which the citizens of Moralton use fractured reasoning to explain their religious beliefs has been a major component of the show since it began. This episode merely brought that idea to the forefront, and while it was still funny, there wasn't much to surprise a fan like myself. I laughed several times, but was ultimately left with a feeling of "oh yeah, I knew they were gonna say that." That being said, this wouldn't be a bad episode to introduce someone to the show, as I think it's a great overview of the show and what it's trying to say.

Continue reading Moral Orel: God's Blunders

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E05) You can never predict what might offend some people. I've expressed opinions on this blog and elsewhere, convinced my views would raise the ire of certain readers, and been greeted by the Web equivalent of chirping crickets. In contrast, it's usually the stuff that seems completely innocuous that manages to stimulate some section of a person's brain dedicated to making everything sound offensive.

Continue reading Moral Orel: Offensiveness

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Festivus, Moral Orel, Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Venture Bros., Aqua Teen Hunger Force

. . . eleven Adult Swim moments.

Gather around the fireplace, kids, and let us reminisce about all the joy Adult Swim has brought us in the past year:

Continue reading On the 11th day of festivus, TV gave to me

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Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel

(S02E04) Sadness is nature's spankings. - Clay Puppington

Those of us who have been watching Moral Orel since the beginning know that the show is more complex than it appears on the surface. The inner tensions within his own family and the other grown ups in Moralton were hinted at in the first season and have come more into focus this season. I'm not a television writer, but I imagine trying to meld the funny and the emotional into an eleven-minute amalgam can't be easy, which is why I think the "slow reveal" approach has worked so well for Moral Orel. In this episode, when Orel finds out his mother might have another family, the scene doesn't feel like it was suddenly sprung on us out of nowhere, because Bloberta's unhappiness and detachment has been part of the show's subtext since it first aired a year ago.

Continue reading Moral Orel: Elemental Orel

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