Moral Orel, I’d like to say, is one of the greatest TV shows ever created. In exploring the town of Moralton, the show perfectly balances its comedy with its narrative depth. The story’s confusion and hurt are a perfect critique and reflection of our own broken world. Needless to say, Moral Orel is definitely a show you should take the time to watch. But today isn’t about the show, not in its entirety. Today, we are going to discuss one of its most complicated and polarizing characters: Clay Puppington.
Who is Clay Puppington?
The show introduces Clay Puppington as Orel’s father. It presents Clay Puppington as a role model to Orel. He lectures Orel at the end of every episode, and Orel hangs on to Clay’s every last word. It is clear from the start that Orel not only loves his father, but idolizes him. And so, throughout most of the first season, Clay poses himself as the “proper” Christian father and husband.
However, that soon begins to change. As the show progresses, it increasingly reveals Clay’s brokenness. You can no longer write off his treatment of Orel as a joke—they are serious and abusive, reflecting this “perfect” family structure at large. But to fully understand Clay’s character, you have to start at the beginning.
Childhood
Clay’s childhood, like that of most of the show’s characters, was far from perfect. Clay grew up with an irresponsible mother, Angela, who spoiled Clay. Her parenting style was incredibly permissive, never criticizing or disciplining Clay. However, Angela was irresponsible for more reasons than her parenting. She had around ten or more miscarriages throughout her lifetime, all self-inflicted. She was incredibly irresponsible during her pregnancies; every picture of her past ones shows her smoking and drinking. In fact, the only reason Clay survived was that Angela’s stress made her forget to drink and smoke. And so, from Clay’s birth, she treated him as if he were an angel sent from heaven rather than a normal child.
As you can imagine, this had an immense effect on Clay’s self-perception. Angela’s parenting led Clay to develop an inflated ego, a common symptom among children of permissive parents. So when Angela revealed that Clay was not her “one and only” and that there had been many before him, Clay became incredibly jealous. He decided to “teach his mother a lesson” by pretending to shoot himself with a ketchup bottle as his blood. This plan backfired, and seeing her miracle child supposedly dead, Angela fell into cardiac arrest and died.
Clay’s Father
Now, Clay was left with no one but his father, Arthur. Until then, the family completely ignored Arthur. As Angela focused all her energy on Clay, she treated Arthur as nothing more than a pest. He could only even eat Clay’s leftovers. And even though he loves Angela, Arthur resented her parenting of Clay. However, he does try to be a good father to Clay. The first scene we see Arthur giving Clay Ol’ Gunny, the gun that was so special to the family.
However, everything changed after Angela’s death. Seeing that the love of his life died because of Clay’s prank, Arthur began blaming Clay for it. He didn’t try to care for Clay like his own child anymore—he hated him. The most influential moment, though, is when Clay disrespects his father. Arthur raises his hand to hit him, but then hesitates; he says, “You’re not even worth it.”
This really hits Clay. Not once in his life has he been told that he’s “not worth it”; in fact, his mother constantly told him he was worth more. So now, when his father thinks he is not even worth a beating, Clay starts to do anything to “deserve” that attention. He does even more disrespectful and punishable things just to get his dad to hit him, because when he does, that means he was worth it. He was worth his father’s attention.
Effects on His Adulthood
As you can imagine, this childhood had detrimental effects on Clay in his adulthood. His mother’s permissiveness, for example, could be a cause for his alcohol addiction. Studies show that children of permissive parents are more likely to fall into substance-abuse disorders due to the lack of structure and discipline in the home. They are not taught consequences and are hence likely to engage in risky behaviors. While Bloberta plays a major role in Clay becoming addicted to alcohol, his lack of understanding of consequences (from Angela’s permissive parenting) would aid in the addiction.
The most prominent effect would be that of Arthur’s parenting, particularly affecting Clay’s relationship with Orel. Clay learnt that beatings and abuse were care and attention from his father because his father wasn’t willing even to give him that. Added to the already normalized abuse in Bible Belt households, Clay felt not only justified in abusing Orel, but that he was caring for doing so. Because he thought abuse was attention, Clay abused Orel to show him that he cared.
Love Life
Clay’s love life is incredibly complicated. He is in a loveless marriage with Bloberta while he is falling for another man, Dannielle. But before we talk about Clay’s experience with Bloberta, let’s first understand Bloberta’s perspective.
Bloberta grew up feeling left out and ignored. Her family never paid attention to her because she was not special enough for them. Her father was the only person who cared for her, and he was also an alcoholic. As Bloberta entered adulthood, all of her friends started getting engaged and married, making her feel even more alone. And so, it was Bloberta’s mission to find someone so that she wouldn’t be isolated anymore. That is when she met Clay, and funnily enough, it was at her friend’s wedding.
The First Meeting
Bloberta and Clay go to get drinks at the reception bar, but instead of ordering actual drinks, Clay orders them apple juice. This embarrasses Bloberta, who probably didn’t want to be seen drinking apple juice instead of alcohol as an adult. As she and Clay converse, she asks Clay why he doesn’t drink. She explains to him that Jesus drank (a reference to him turning water to wine) and that she believes alcohol brings out the good in people. This is obviously not true, but she most likely thought so because the only person who cared for her, her father, also was an alcoholic.
Convinced, Clay starts to drink, and he and Bloberta have a good time. However, Clay ends up drinking too much, and at the dance, he starts dancing with other women. Angered to see him, Bloberta slaps Clay, and he passes out. He then wakes up to Bloberta caring for him and doesn’t remember how he ended up in this state. After some back-and-forth, Clay says it had been a long time since someone had cared for him as Bloberta did. Bloberta takes this as a proposal, and they get married.
The Marriage
The marriage between Bloberta and Clay is incredibly dysfunctional. As soon as the two got married, they both realized that this was not what they wanted. After conceiving Orel, they placed a lust guard in between them, which is just a thick wall to separate them in bed. They hardly acknowledge each other, and when they do, it’s either superficial or negative.
Bloberta ends up having an affair with Dannielle (yes, the man whom Clay loves as well), which results in Shapey. Throughout the series, Clay also does not acknowledge Shapey at all, most likely because he knows Shapey is not his child. Shapey is also the reason Bloberta and Clay got into a fight in the final episode of season one, an argument which ended in their temporary separation.
The “Nature” Monologue
Clay’s monologue in the “Nature” episode (part 1) was the most revealing of his problems in his marriage. Let’s take a look at the whole thing:
“I hate myself… WHY DO YOU QUIT WORKING ON ME?! She always fools me, Orel. “I’ll make things better, dear! Drink me! Put me inside you! I’m great!” And she chokes me just like every other whore out there! They’re all worthless, kid. Every woman. Don’t let ’em get ya! All of ’em wanna get ya! They just grab you and pull you into ’em! And you’re forced to stay in, pull out, stay in, pull out! And then they cut ya and they grip ya by the… right where it counts! And then they start squeezing things out, things that are like weights around your head! You’re stuck there for the rest of your life with nowhere to go and no one to be!”
Analysis
At first, Clay is talking to the drink. When he says, “why do you quit working on me”, he’s asking why alcohol isn’t making him feel good anymore. When an addict consumes their drugs for an extended period of time, they become desensitized to it and no longer receive the same amount of pleasure as they once did. That’s what was happening with Clay.
However, what Clay says isn’t only about alcohol. It’s about Bloberta as well. When Clay talks about how “she fools” him, he’s not just talking about alcohol (because alcohol makes you feel good short-term but bad long-term). When they first met, Bloberta repeatedly emphasized that she had helped Clay and made him feel good, even if only in the short term. She said this because of her own desire to feel needed, even if it was unsustainable. Bloberta “fooled” Clay into a marriage and “fooled” him again with the conception of Shapey.
With that said, the rest of the monologue follows that similar thread of resentment. However, from ehre, Clay generalizes his hatred for Bloberta to his hatred for women in general. This is where Angela comes into play. In Clay’s head, his mother also manipulated him into thinking he was her “one and only” when she had numerous pregnancies prior. Her death turned his life upside-down, leaving him “stuck” with his father. Similarly, Clay is “stuck” in a marriage with Bloberta and doesn’t know how to get out.
Danielle
This is when Danielle comes in. Throughout the series, it is heavily implied that Clay and Danielle are having a sort of a love affair. That is the only real love Clay even has throughout the entire series. However, what it reveals more is the complicated relation Clay has with his sexuality and masculinity.
When Clay first met Bloberta, he repeatedly insinuated that he had no interest in love. He was only at the wedding because he thought it was a normal service and got whipped up in the “joy” he didn’t like. However, this dislike for love might not be because he is averse to it—it might be due to his homosexuality. He is unable to appreciate the heteronormative style of love because that is not what he personally desires. Clay takes this as him just being a negative and loveless person, but he does love someone. That someone just happens to not be his wife.
While Clay doesn’t directly battle his homosexuality, it also doesn’t seem as though he is accepting of it. Instead, Clay does not seem to think he is gay. It is almost as if it never truly occurred to him. He loves Danielle but doesn’t consciously know it. He never acknowledges it even when his sexuality is very obvious because it makes it easier for him to keep the “masculine” persona he’s built for himself. That is something we will get into soon.
Orel
Now, let’s talk about the star of the show. Orel and Clay’s relationship is quite complicated (as are most in this show) and quite sad as well. In the start, Orel sees Clay as a role model. He loves his father and adores him and wants to be just like him. Clay however, does not reciprocate those feelings. Not really.
You see, for Clay, fatherhood is almost a role. It’s an acting part that you just have to play out. He isn’t personally invested in it, because he isn’t personally invested in anything to do with his family. He is only personally invested in Danielle. He plays the role of the father, beating his child as it was commonplace, lecturing him, and teaching him “life lessons.” To Clay, that is what being a father is and he has no desire to be more than that.
Arthur
The thing is, Clay wasn’t even willing to put in that little effort before. In an extra episode from outside the series, we see Orel go back to his grandfather’s place (grandfather being Clay’s father). Arthur loves Orel and cares for him very well, something Clay never did. Clay hardly even interacted with Orel prior, treating him as he does Shapey now. It’s only with Bloberta’s pressure and seeing his own father push him that he attempts a relationship with Orel.
It almost feels as if his relationship with Orel is only formed out of spite for Arthur. He only started playing the role of the “proper Christian father” when he saw that Arthur could possibly parent Orel better. Clay hated Arthur for not caring for him yet having so much love for Orel. On top of that, Arthur was no longer Christian and had deconstructed the toxic relationship with religion in the Bible Belt. If let around Orel long enough, he most likely would have helped Orel deconstruct the community as well and that would make him a lot harder to manipulate. And so, to keep his father away and Orel subservient, Clay started trying to be a father. Unfortunately, fatherhood did not come from a place of love, only resentment and vengeance.
Masculinity and Misogyny
Clay’s relationship with masculinity is a focal point of his character. Clay always tries to act as manly as possible. Raised in a very conservative Christian community, gender roles were always ingrained into his upbringing. However, Clay does seem to overcompensate when it comes to masculinity. If we go back to the “Nature” episode (part 1, of course), Clay gets mad at Orel for whining like a sissy lady in a flowery skirt. He equates femininity to weakness, a weakness he sees in Orel because Orel doesn’t want to hunt.
Clay hunts and drinks because it makes him feel manly, and that feeling of masculinity makes him feel like he’s in control. That’s the reason he abuses Orel and is so hung up on being masculine—he wants control in a life he feels he has no control over. Anything that isn’t the rugged masculinity he desires is weak and powerless, something he desperately doesn’t want to be seen as.
This is an expansion on the misogyny we already see in Clay. He generalizes his hate for women because of his hate for Bloberta and Angela, the two women in his life who did him dirty. However, his misogyny isn’t just limited to resentment. He hates anything feminine because his environment taught him to do so, and because femininity represents vulnerability. Femininity forces you to feel instead of hiding behind a tough exterior. It forces you to appear “weaker” and more vulnerable. That is something Clay practically dreads, so any form of femininity is something repulsive to him.
The Irony
Funnily enough, it is his more desperate attempts to be masculine that reveal the fragility in that masculinity. The “Nature” episode (yes, part 1 again) is this revelation at its most obvious. Again, what Clay desires is to be powerful and in control. However, as he chugs down every bottle of liquor, it is very obvious that he is not in control. He is stumbling around, slurring his words, and unfocused. At one point, he sprawls on the ground, struggling to pull up his pants. It’s pathetic to watch, yet it is also when he pushes himself hardest to be masculine.
Conclusion
This is Clay’s true nature. He is not the rational, proper Christian man he wants to be. He is broken, fragile, and confused, struggling to grab the reins of his own chariot. Make no mistake—Clay is not someone who should be forgiven. His treatment of Orel, an innocent child with nothing but love for his father, is beyond irredeemable. However, it is important to understand that no one is bad because they simply are. That vile character is the result of their material reality. It is not an excuse, but a recognition. And if we want to change anything, break the cycle of violence and abuse perpetuated in every society, that recognition is the first step we all must take.
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