Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (often abbreviated to DHMIS) is a British series of shorts, created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling since 2011. It was originally released through the artists' website, later being uploaded on other platforms like YouTube.^[1]

Each episode is made to appear like a typical children's television program, consisting of singing and talking puppets similar to those of Sesame Street, but eventually takes a dark turn, usually involving gore. The series is a parody of children's television shows by ironically juxtaposing puppetry and musical numbers against psychedelic content and disturbing imagery. Five episodes have so far been released on the subjects of creativity, time, love, technology and nutrition. A sixth episode is planned to be produced.^[2]

In May 2014, Sloan and Pelling announced that they would start a Kickstarter campaign to make four more episodes, one every three months, starting in September 2014. They uploaded low-quality camera footage of the characters being taken hostage and held for ransom. Their Kickstarter goal of £96,000 was reached on 19 June 2014.^[2]

Plot

Each episode revolves around Yellow Guy, Red Guy, and Duck Guy meeting one or several anthropomorphic characters, who begin a musical number related to a basic concept of day-to-day life with an upbeat melody similar to that of a nursery rhyme. As the song progresses, it becomes more and more apparent that the episode's "teacher" character is subtly trying to condition the main characters to share their own opinions and beliefs about the subject, to humorous effect. The climax of each episode usually involves a shock element with heavy use of gore imagery.

The first episode features a sketchbook teaching the main characters about creativity. The sketchbook tells the puppets to do childlike activities such as writing out colours using sticks, cloudspotting and to "listen to your heart and brain". This results in a violent and exaggerated depiction of creativity by the puppets, who begin dancing frantically and doing intense things such as writing the word DEATH in glitter and covering it in potatoes and skulls, and making cakes and collages out of blood and organs. The video ends with everything seemingly restored to normal and the sketchbook asking everyone to "never be creative again".^[3]

The second video features Tony the Talking Clock who sings about the concept of time and how it relates to daily life. Tony explains how time is used to "measure the day" and how all things change over time.^[4] This message is exaggerated near the end of the episode with the rate of time increased dramatically while the puppets bodies are shown to degrade rapidly before their eyes. Red guy's hair starts to grow long, duck guy's "feathers" start falling off and yellow guy starts to bleed from his ear, he then looks up and his face starts "deflating" along with the other puppets. The events are revealed to be simply a television program being watched by the three friends.^[5] It has been revealed that the show the puppets were watching was an episode of the series Craigs Big Day which is a series also made by Becky and Joe.

The third episode features Shrignold, a butterfly that sings about the concept of love. He takes Yellow Guy to a cult that he belongs to, as the song lights upon who is an acceptable partner for love. He introduces him to Malcolm, the 'King of Love', as the leader of the cult. The video ends with the yellow puppet waking up, implying that it was all a dream.^[6]

The fourth episode features Colin, a singing computer who introduces the puppets to concepts around personal computing. The main characters are sucked into the 'Digital World' and while Duck Guy and Yellow Guy enjoy this world, Red Guy attempts to escape it. The climax of the episode results in grotesquely animated models of Duck Guy and Yellow Guy in a glitchy room. As Red Guy tries to escape by going into another room, both a camera and two film-makers in spandex suits are seen filming a poorly constructed version of the three friends' meetings, and then the confused Red Guy's head explodes, showing that he escaped the 'Digital World'.^[7]

The fifth episode features a can, a human-sized Steak, a loaf of bread, and a refrigerator, all singing about the concept of healthy food. As the song progresses, typical knowledge of what constitutes a balanced diet is forgone as the song becomes increasingly nonsensical. Throughout the episode a telephone rings and Duck Guy answers the phone which serves as a transition from the song into an operating room in which Duck Guy is being operated on. Yellow Guy continuing with the song near the end becomes fat and bloated from eating cans of meat which are apparently from Duck Guy's body. The end credits show Red Guy dressed in a coat and scarf, walking away from a phone booth carrying a suitcase, suggesting that he was the one responsible for the series of phone calls. The number 07494795709 is seen in the video twice.^[8] It should also be noted that episode 5 breaks from the show's typical formula by having uncomfortable undertones from the moment the teachers appear, and only featuring two of the three main characters in the actual musical number, aside from a fraction-of-a-second cameo at about four minutes into the video.

Characters

• Yellow Guy - One of the three main characters. He seems to be the least intelligent, often making grammatical errors in his dialogue. He is most likely the youngest, as he seems to be only a fraction of his father's height. He is commonly referred to as "Manny" by fans of the series.
• Red Guy - One of the three main characters, who's portrayed by a person in a costume, rather than with the use of a puppet. He is most likely the oldest, because he seems most mature. He seems most intelligent of the three, because he is the first to question the "teachers". He speaks in a very monotonous voice and shows very little emotion to the odd occurrences he and his friends experience. He's commonly referred to as "Harry" or "Hairy" by fans of the series.
• Duck Guy^[9] - One of the three main characters. He is a green bird whose voice seems to be auto tuned. He seems to be one of the most intelligent of the three, or at least a realist, challenging Yellow Guy's imagination, rejecting metaphors and questioning the existence of time. He died in episode 5 from being eaten by Yellow Guy. He is commonly referred to as "Robin" by fans.
• Sketchbook - Educates the puppets in creativity. She seems to be the most stoic of the teachers, as her tone of voice barely changes to fit her stern actions of authority. Voiced by series co-creator Becky Sloan. Commonly referred to as "Paige" by fans.

• Tony the Talking Clock - Educates the puppets about time. His tone of voice shows anger and annoyance with the puppets when they start to have a discussion about when time began, when it will end, and even if it actually exists at all.

• Shrignold - A talking "Love Bug" who teaches the Yellow Guy about love in the third installment. He's by far the least aggressive teacher, which is befitting to the theme of his episode. So far, he's the first and only teacher who is based on an animal, rather than an anthropomorphic household object or a food object.

• Colin - A talking computer who teaches the puppets about technology in the fourth episode. He is by far the most invasive and easily angered teacher, as shown when he violently flails his arms and screams when the Red Guy touches him. He seems to be the least mature teacher, and often makes grammatical errors in a similar manner to Yellow Guy. This could possibly represent how new technology is compared to the concepts of creativity, time and love. Voiced by series co-writer Baker Terry.

• Roy - Yellow Guy's father. He first appears in the second episode and makes cameos in the following episodes.

• Malcolm - The "king of love" who Shrignold and his friends worship and feed gravel. He later makes a cameo as a small ornament on the puppets' mantle in the fourth episode.

• Gilbert the Globe - A globe who was teased by Becky Sloan as the teacher of episode 4, a role which was taken by Colin.

• Fridge - Introduced in episode 5. So far, this character has no given name.

• Steak - Introduced in episode 5, this character has no given name as well. He is one of the main teachers in episode 5. He seems to be one of the most awkward teachers, as he nervously laughs throughout the episode.

• Can - The Can appears to be the Steak's assistant, and, like the Steak, appeared in episode 5 without a given name. She has a green label on her body, with green "leaves" sticking out of her lid and mouth. They are also theorized to be the feathers of Duck Guy, as a similar can is seen stuffing Duck Guy's guts inside of itself.

• Bread Boy - First appears in the fifth episode. He provides musical accompaniment to Steak and Can by "drumming" on jars of peanut butter and jelly with eating utensils.

Creators

Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are British graphic designers, artists and animators. Their advertising runs through commercial productions.^[10] The duo have worked as part of the THIS IS IT Collective.^[11]

Their content consists of videos, graphic design art, animation, music, and working with real-life materials to resemble things in the real world as art.^[12] They have won multiple awards, including the 2012 SXSW Midnight Shorts Award. ^[13][14]

Meaning

Pelling, when asked about how the film came about, said that the purpose was "how not to teach something" and "how an abstract concept like creativity is kind of stupid when people try to teach it in a limited way that [they] do". In addition, he comments on how the video is open for interpretation, and how, when different people reach different conclusions about the video, they may all be valid in their own right.^[15]

References