Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a surreal musical horror comedy web series created by British filmmakers Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. It consists of six episodes, released from 29 July 2011 to 19 June 2016 through the artists' website, YouTube and Vimeo. The series combines segments in live action, puppetry, traditional animation, and computer animation.
Each episode starts like a typical children's series, consisting of anthropomorphic puppets akin to those featured in Sesame Street and other popular children's TV programmes. The series parodies these programmes by juxtaposing this childlike, colourful environment and its inhabitants against disturbing themes; each episode features a surreal plot twist in the climax, including psychedelic content and imagery involving gore and psychological horror. The six episodes explore and discuss the subjects of creativity, time, love, technology, diet, and dreams.
On 7 July 2020, it was announced by creator Becky Sloan that DHMIS will be airing on Channel 4 as a television series in the future.
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 each song progresses, it becomes apparent that its moral or message is nonsensical or self-contradicting, and that the "teacher" character has ulterior or sinister motives. The climax of each episode typically involves a shock element with use of graphic violence, and sometimes other coercive or warped themes. Later in the series, the characters begin questioning the nature of their reality and the bizarre messages of the teachers.Production
Sloan and Pelling met while studying Fine Art, and Animation respectively at Kingston University where they started THIS IS IT Collective with some friends. They produced 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 revisit that idea. Channel 4's Random Acts commissioned the second episode. The show soon attracted mainstream commissioners; however, Sloan and Pelling turned these offers down because they "wanted to keep it fairly odd" and "have the freedom to do exactly what we wanted."In May 2013, 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. 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. Their Kickstarter goal of £96,000 was reached on 19 June 2014, and in total £104,935 was raised. Youtuber Thomas "TomSka" Ridgewell became an executive producer on the series after donating £5,000 to the Kickstarter.
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.
Reception
The original short film became a viral hit and the series grew to become a cult phenomenon. The six episodes had amassed 143.4 million views on YouTube in July 2017. Scott Beggs listed the original short film as number 8 on his list of the 11 best short films of 2011. Carolina Mardones listed the first episode as number 7 in her top ten short films of 2011. It was also included in as part of a cinema event in Banksy's Dismaland. In April 2016, 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. All six episodes of DHMIS were included in the September 2016 festival XOXO.Drew Grant of the Observer wrote that the series episodes are "
Themes
In a faux interview, Becky and Joe jokingly described the plot as "three best friends who go on a journey to find a magic pirate ship and save the day."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." 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 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."
Creators
Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are British graphic designers, artists and animators. Their advertising runs through commercial productions. The duo have worked as part of the THIS IS IT Collective.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. They have won multiple awards, including the 2012 SXSW Midnight Shorts Award, and the 2016 ADC Young Guns award.
They have also co-written and did puppeteer work for Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball episode "The Puppets". Rebecca Sloan and Baker Terry provided voices of Grady, Frank, and Howdy. This episode features a song where the puppets sing about never ending fun to Darwin with toned down disturbing content similar to the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series in theme. A series of shorts based on the episode followed, titled Waiting For Gumball, made by the same team as the original TV episode.
Future
On 19 June 2017, a year after the release of episode 6, Sloan hinted towards additional work into the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series. On 13 September 2018, a teaser trailer titled "Wakey Wakey..." was released on the channel, teasing a new television show made in a collaboration between Blink Industries, Conaco, and Super Deluxe. The 30-second video gained over two million views within 24 hours of its release and peaked at No. 1 on YouTube's Trending list. On 3 December 2018, it was announced that the show's pilot episode would be shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and details of the plot were also released. The pilot episode would run at 23 minutes, and would appear in the "Indie Episodic Program 1" alongside other short films.On 20 December 2019. series director Joseph Pelling would confirm on his Twitter that it was still being worked on, and other co-creator Becky Sloan would announce the same thing on 24 December 2019, alongside a photo teaser featuring Duck Guy reading a newspaper.
On 7 July 2020, it was officially announced the series had been picked up by Channel 4.