Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Official poster
Genre Horror
Black comedy
Satire
Musical
Surreal comedy
Horror comedy
Created by Becky Sloan
Joseph Pelling
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of episodes 5
Production company(s) Blink Industries
Release
Original release 29 July 2011 – present
External links
Website

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (often abbreviated to DHMIS) is a British web 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 parodies 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 released.[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". Through out the episode the sketchbook makes the puppets believe his opinion like telling them "Green is not a creative colour". 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 apparently revealed to be a television programme 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 where he started, 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. 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.[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 red telephone rings which Duck Guy answers and briefly wakes up an operating room. He then goes back to sleep and the scene transitions back to the song. Duck Guy begins to sense that there is something wrong and fully wakes up in the operating room and finds a large can harvesting his organs. Yellow Guy continues following the song and 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.[8] A mobile phone number is seen in the video. The creators claim that this number was ringing within seconds of the episode's released, which at first they would answer and pretend to be different characters from the show.[9]

The sixth episode is planned to air on 19 June 2016.[9]

Characters

Production

Becky and Pelling met while studying at college and worked on the first episode of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared in their free time with no budget. When they started on the project they imagined making it into a series, but initially dropped the idea after finishing the first episode. After the short film gained popularity, they decided to expand it into a series.[11] Channel 4's Random Acts commissioned the second episode. The show soon attracted mainstream commissioners, but Becky and Pelling turned them down because they "wanted to keep it fairly odd" and "have the freedom to do exactly what we wanted."[9]

In May 2014, Sloan and Pelling announced that they would start a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to make four or more additional 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.[2] A 12-year-old American boy tried to use hacked credit card information to donate £35,000 to the campaign, but he was caught and those funds were thrown out.[12] Their Kickstarter goal of £96,000 was reached on 19 June 2014.[2]

In January 2016, Sloan and Pelling collaborated with Lazy Oaf to release a line of clothing based on the characters and themes of the show.[13] In April, the main characters of the series were featured on the cover of the magazine Printed Pages, along with an "interview" of the three main characters written by the magazine's editor.[14][15]

Reception

The original short film became a viral hit and the series grew to become a cult phenomenon. The first five episodes have amassed over 73 million views on YouTube.[16] Scott Beggs listed the original short film as number 8 on his list of the 11 best short films of 2011.[17] Carolina Mardones listed the first episode as number 7 in her top ten short films of 2011.[18] It was also included in as part of a cinema event in Banksy's Dismaland.[19][20]

Drew Grant of the Observer wrote that the series episodes are "horrifying nightmarish absolutely beautiful" and "mind-melting".[21] Freelance writer Benjamin Hiorns observed that "it's not the subject matter that makes these films so strangely alluring, it's the strikingly imaginative set and character design and the underlying Britishness of it all."[22]

Themes

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.[23]

A student writer for Nouse compared the appeal of the first episode to themes in Gothic literature, arguing that they are both "tapping into the same cultural fear of a violent subconscious hiding beneath the facade of normality."[24] In The Wesleyan Argus another student writer called the series a "fine example of the era of esotericism" and noted that, "There is a building meta-commentary on the relationships between viewer, perception, creator, participant, and art (and perhaps death) that began with the first episode, but what that commentary is trying to say is not yet entirely clear. However, there is an absolute sense that the series is building toward a culmination."[25]

Creators

Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are British graphic designers, artists and animators. Their advertising runs through commercial productions.[16] The duo have worked as part of the THIS IS IT Collective.[26]

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.[27] They have won multiple awards, including the 2012 SXSW Midnight Shorts Award.[28][29]

References

  1. ↑ Sloan, Becky; Pelling, Joseph (3 March 2014). "Awards. Festivals. Talks.". Becky & Joe's Art..
  2. 1 2 3 "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared : The Series by Becky and Joe — Kickstarter". Kickstarter. 20 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  3. ↑ "Don't Hug me I'm Scared". 29 July 2011. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Becky&Joe are this week's Dazed Visionaries". Dazed. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014. The sequel introduces a character called Tony The Talking Clock who teaches the puppets the subject of Time.
  5. ↑ "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2 - TIME". 8 January 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  6. ↑ "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 3". 31 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 4". 31 March 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  8. ↑ "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 5". 14 October 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Coldwell, Will (27 January 2016). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: the puppets who sing, dance and eat raw meat". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  10. ↑ "CGI designer Jack Sachs via Instagram". 1 April 2015. my brief silver screen debut as duck guy in Don't Hug me I'm scared 4
  11. ↑ Boult, Adam (26 October 2015). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Interview with creators Becky & Joe". Metro News. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  12. ↑ DiGangi, Christine (25 June 2014). "12-Year-Old Used Stolen Credit Cards to Fund Puppet Show". Credit.com. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  13. ↑ Shin, Nara (18 January 2016). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared + Lazy Oaf". Cool Hunting. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Printed Pages, s/s 2016". magCulture. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  15. ↑ Pritchard, Owen (3 May 2016). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared - an exclusive interview with Duck, Red Guy and Yellow Guy". It's Nice That. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  16. 1 2 "Becky & Joe". Blinkink. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  17. ↑ Beggs, Scott (30 December 2011). "Year In Review: The 11 Best Short Films of 2011". Film School Rejects. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  18. ↑ Mardones, Carolina (3 March 2012). "Seleccionan los 10 mejores cortometrajes de 2011". biobiochile.cl (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  19. ↑ Jobson, Christopher (20 August 2015). "Welcome to Dismaland: A First Look at Banksy's New Art Exhibition Housed Inside a Dystopian Theme Park [Updated 8/22]". Colossal. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  20. ↑ "Watch: Banksy Dismaland Preview & Short Film Program". Slashfilm. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  21. ↑ Grant, Drew (3 February 2015). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: This Series Will Break Your Brain and It Will Be Magic". Observer. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  22. ↑ Hiorns, Benjamin (16 October 2015). "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared by Becky & Joe launches to solve world problems". Creativepool. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  23. ↑ Gilbert, Jan (1 May 2012). "Directors of Short Films at Sundance London". Sundance London. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  24. ↑ Licht, Jordan (22 October 2013). "When YouTube gets dark". Nouse. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  25. ↑ McGhee, Will (22 October 2015). "'Don't Hug Me I'm Scared' Melds Comedy with Horror". The Wesleyan Argus. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  26. ↑ "About - This Is It Collective". cargocollective.com. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "Project Focus: Becky & Joe for Tame Impala". YCN. Archived from the original on 13 February 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2016.
  28. ↑ "FAME". BECKY AND JOE'S ART. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  29. ↑ "SXSW Film 2012 Award Winners". Retrieved 25 June 2015.
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