Dont Hug Me, I'm Scared

Anyone else obsessed with this little youtube series? Its absolutely fascinating, a brilliantly scathing deconstruction of kids show and the people that make them. Theres a lot to unpack from all 6 episodes.

If you havent seen them, theyre on Youtube and total up to be about 20 or so minutes, with only 6 episodes. Its basically a kids show, with puppets and lessons, but every episode takes a dark turn as they try to unravel what exactly each "lesson" is about. Every episode has a "teacher" of sorts, but the lesson they give is often an aggressive and perverted take on something simple like "creativity" or "time". Episode 1 deals with creativity and how, according to the teacher, some forms of creativity are wrong and should be destroyed. Episode 2 deals with time and how important it is, but the teacher (in this case, a clock) explains time very poorly and in an impossible way for children to understand. Episode 3 deals with love, but its more a scathing commentary on religion and cults and how theres only one real way to love. Episode 4 deals with technology and computers, but it goes into how distractionary the internet can be and how bad it is. Episode 5 deals with healthy eating, but goes at length to promote name brand foods that are plain and dismissing actual healthy foods. Episode 6 is the finale, it loosely deals with dreams as in the kind you have when youre sleeping, but it quickly evolves into being about dreams as in aspirations, and answers a lot of the mysteries about the show.

I'd suggest watching all 6 episodes, its a quick binge, and then watching this

It goes deep into the overarching themes and references between episodes. While I'm not the biggest MatPat/Theory fan, he does a very good job of dissecting this brilliant little indie youtube show.

 

My absolute favorite videos ever.

 

In college we used to get super high and lock ourselves in a room with the original vid. It gets to you after a while.

I love these, though.

 

I often find myself singing "green is not a creative color" whenever someone mentions the color green and just hoping someone knows what I'm referencing.

They never do.

 

I love them so much. The creators are super cool and did a great job with the show. Not to mention all the tertiary videos like the Kickstarter vid and the phone booth number video, or the It's Not That interview where the characters themselves were interviewed.

i hum that a lot, and the computers song. Every time someone touches me I always go "DONT TOUCH MEEEEEEEEEEEEE" like how the computer does.

 

The ending of episode 6 where the characters are all their favorite colors made me go "Ohhhhhhhhhh now I get it"

 

Time is my favorite one, with Computers and Dreams tied for second.

This Film Theory is fantastic, and his explanation for June 19th is ridiculous.

 

Yeah the whole Father's Day thing was a weird twist I didn't see coming, but it makes sense. Roy being as heartless to his son as possible is so sad. But it makes sense, yellow guy is typically the victim in every episode.

The time one is also my favorite. It's such a brilliant critique of children show lessons. Like, how do you teach time to kids? They can't grasp it. They can't comprehend something that massive at such a young age. And when the duck, who is perceived as being much older than the others, explains it scientifically the clock gets angry. The moment when they all start falling apart from age is terrifying. Yellow guys cry of "make it stoooooop" haunts me

 

I used to really like the idea that all 3 characters were in purgatory, but occums razor dictates that they're just in a kids show and are representing not only the different types of characters (humanoid characters, talking animal characters, and strange looking monsters) but also different age groups (yellow guy is very young, red guy is either a teen or twenty something, and duck is clearly an old man). It also gives context to the reused props since ofc a kids show production would just use the props it had available over and over.

 

My favorite exchange from the whole video is:
Clock: "Now you can see the importance of time. It helps us make pizza and keeps things in line."
Duck: "But when did it start?"
Yellow Guy: "And when will it stop?"
Clock: "Time is important and I am a clock."

The way the clock says that last line is hysterical. I also want to know the significance of the fish.

Also, the way the clock appears on the computer screen as Roy is watching porn and screams "LOOK AT THE TIME" never fails to make me laugh.

 

Yeah the clock is so shifty and dodgy when he's talking to them. He gives these weird, evasive answers and then gets mad at them for answering it. Yeah Roy and the porn is so funny