Don't Hug Me I'm Scared | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy horror |
Created by |
|
Based on | |
Written by |
|
Directed by |
|
Starring |
|
Composers |
|
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Executive producer | James Stevenson Bretton |
Producers |
|
Cinematography | Edward Tucker |
Editor | Nick Armstrong |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 23–24 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | Channel 4 |
Release | 23 September 2022 |
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a 2022 British comedy-horror television series created by Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan and Baker Terry, and produced by Blink Industries. It was released on All 4 and is based on the web series of the same name. [2] Its six episodes are themed around surrealism and dark humour, and revolve around three characters—Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck.
After the release of the original YouTube web series from 2011 to 2016 and its resulting popularity, the creators planned a new television series and developed a pilot in 2018 which was eventually scrapped. A new series was announced in 2020 and released on All 4 on 23 September 2022. Episodes 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6 aired on 30 September, 7 October and 14 October respectively on Channel 4. [3]
The series revolves around the lives of Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck, whose names are not explicitly stated in the series. Each episode starts off with the three getting a lesson from a teacher about topics including jobs, death, family, friendship, transport and electronics. The teachers are usually manipulative and malicious, and as the episode goes on, it becomes more horrific. At the end, the teacher fails and usually dies, with the three shown to have not learned anything. [4] [5]
From 2011 to 2016, Joe Pelling and Becky Sloan, later along with Baker Terry, created Don't Hug Me I'm Scared , an art project and web series on YouTube. [6] The series consists of six horror-themed puppet videos. [7]
In 2018, a video titled "Wakey Wakey..." was uploaded to the official channel, and teased an upcoming television show, and the pilot premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. [8] [9] However, the series was later scrapped. [10] In an interview, Terry stated that "we were going to have to actually write jokes that functioned as jokes without a prop in every single instance". [11]
In July 2020, it was announced that the television series was picked up by Channel 4. [10] [12] In September 2021, Becky Sloan announced that production had finished. [13] [14] On 19 June 2022, a teaser trailer titled "FLY" was uploaded to the YouTube channel, announcing the release date of September. [15] [16] [17] The video gained over 2 million views within 24 hours of release and reached No. 1 trending on YouTube. [18] [19]
The series was released on All 4 on 23 September 2022. It was originally scheduled to be released on 12 September 2022, but was postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. [16] Episodes 1 and 2 aired on 30 September, episodes 3 and 4 aired on 7 October, and episodes 5 and 6 aired on 14 October, all on Channel 4. [20] As of 2024, there has been no confirmation of a second series. [21]
A long-form TV pilot was produced in 2018 with Super Deluxe, Conaco and Blink Industries. [22] The pilot premiered at 2019 Sundance Film Festival, appearing in the "Indie Episodic Program 1" alongside other short films. [23] [24] The idea, which involved "current affairs", was later scrapped, [25] and the trailer was removed from the YouTube channel. [26] [27] The setting, which Sloan attributed some roots to South Park , did not have "the timelessness and claustrophobia of the originals". [25] On May 13, 2024, it was announced that the unaired pilot would be screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in London during June 6th-9th. [28] However on May 14, 2024, it was revealed that this announcement was a mistake. The screening will actually feature the first episode of the web series, not the unaired pilot. [29] [30] On September 19, 2024, during an In Motion Playgrounds panel, Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling revealed they were legally unable to release the full pilot. However, the creators showcased concept art from the episode and aired a majority of it sped up for about a minute. [31] [32]
No. overall | No. in series | Title [33] | Original release date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
7 | 1 | "Pilot" | Unaired | |
Roommates Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck live simple and repetitive lives in the complacent colourful community of Clayhill. When the town's mayor disappears, everything descends into chaos. |
No. overall | No. in series | Title [34] | Original release date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
8 | 1 | "Jobs" | 23 September 2022 | |
Having nothing on their daily schedule, Duck and Yellow Guy try to find something to do, much to Red Guy's dismay. A talking briefcase informs them about the concept of jobs, suggesting several that they could do before transporting them to a "bits and parts" factory, where Red Guy stumbles into becoming upper management and Yellow Guy fits right in with his coworkers. Duck continually tries to leave, but is first fired by Red Guy and then brainwashed into loving his job by a monstrous dog called the Carehound. However, when he comes back to work, he finds that everyone is now 40 years older and having a retirement party for Yellow Guy. After Duck throws Yellow Guy's retirement card into a machine and inadvertently causes Yellow Guy's hand to be caught and crushed in the machine, the talking briefcase returns and finishes his song, transporting the three back to their house and restoring them to their old selves as they express confusion about everything that has happened. The briefcase rewards them for their work with a coin, which lands directly in Duck's eye. | ||||
9 | 2 | "Death" | 23 September 2022 | |
Duck reads in the newspaper that he is dead because he forgot to drink water, and when his heart falls out of his body, it summons a talking coffin who helps the friends organise a funeral for him. However, Duck annoys the coffin while buried underground, and Red Guy attempts to build a new friend to replace him - a talking blob of clay, though Yellow Guy refuses to accept it. The talking blob of clay begins to grow into an independent and caring individual and names itself Stain Edwards, though Red Guy instead slowly begins to mould it into an exact replica of Duck. Yellow Guy then returns to the burial site and digs up the old Duck to bring him back - which kills the coffin. Yellow and the old Duck return home, only to find Stain Edwards has fully morphed into Duck. After the two Ducks ponder for a moment, they ultimately accept there being "four of us", and the group briefly tries to start a new show with the two Ducks. However, one of them abruptly kills the other with a shovel, stating that there being four of them "doesn't work". | ||||
10 | 3 | "Family" | 23 September 2022 | |
The three friends have trouble opening a "family pack" of snacks, prompting a pair of twins to arrive and start teaching them about the concept of families. They bring the friends to their house, introducing them to their grotesquely misshapen father, brother, and grandmother, but when they reject Duck from their family, he falls back into the friends' original house. Red Guy meets the twins' "family tree", who takes most of his blood to help him find his family, but when Red Guy actually meets his family, they reject him for being too expressive. Yellow Guy is kidnapped and dressed as the twins' mother, who reveal they only wanted to complete their family to get a family discount on a food delivery. However, Yellow Guy's father Roy arrives, devouring the entire family while allowing Yellow Guy to escape. The three friends decide that blood relations are unimportant to being a family before realising there are only two snacks in the family pack. Red Guy suggests the trio share the two snacks, only for Duck to loudly exclaim that he wants both. | ||||
11 | 4 | "Friendship" | 23 September 2022 | |
The three friends attempt to go online for their annual "computer day" with Colin, but Yellow Guy cannot remember the password, prompting his friends to insult him. A worm named Warren arrives to scold them and teach them about what true friendship is. After finally remembering the password, the trio check their emails, but Yellow Guy gets disappointed when he sees that he received none. Yellow Guy then retreats into his own mind to hang out with his "brain friends", but Warren enters his mind and bores Yellow Guy's imaginary friends into either leaving or killing themselves. In the real world, Yellow Guy is slowly melting as Red Guy and Duck find information online about their friend's affliction; when they realise that the problem could be caused by "a worm in his brain", Duck shoves a needle into Yellow Guy's ear, killing a grotesquely misshapen Warren. Colin happily bids the trio farewell before gifting them a futuristic-looking computer. The three friends make up and sing together before Yellow Guy breaks the computer, prompting a fight between them all that lasts throughout the episode credits. | ||||
12 | 5 | "Transport" | 23 September 2022 | |
Red Guy is bored by Duck and Yellow Guy taking inventory of everything in the house and wants to go on a trip. An elderly Choo Choo Train arrives to teach the three about transport in an animated sequence, transforming into various vehicles, but dies while in the form of a car. Red Guy, desperate to leave, manages to get the car started, resuscitating the Choo Choo Train and crashing through the wall of their house. Yellow Guy, Duck, and even the car's satnav keep trying to direct Red Guy back home, but he only presses onward down the road. Later, the car begins to lose fuel, and the Choo Choo Train wakes up as the car's steering wheel. Sick and confused, he asks Red Guy to give him his "special drink" (which Yellow Guy already drunk) that helps with his "condition". Red Guy mishears him, and begins stuffing his mouth with raisins. As Red Guy continues onwards, the cheery and colourful world around them glitches into a junkyard, and the car breaks down. Now lost, the three friends sit around a fire made from the steering wheel - before Yellow Guy appears to hear a woman's voice claiming "...the journey always ends up back at home" and the episode abruptly cuts to a live-action person's hand gently pushing a model of the car back to a model of the friends' house. | ||||
13 | 6 | "Electricity" | 23 September 2022 | |
Red Guy and Duck attempt to shred an electricity bill before a robot called Electracey climbs out of their electrical box to teach them about electricity. Yellow Guy reveals that, like her, he is powered by batteries, and Duck swaps Yellow Guy's old faulty batteries for Electracey's fresh ones, making her dim-witted and him both smart and self-aware. Yellow Guy leaves to go upstairs and investigate their teachers' appearance, first finding increasingly larger versions of Red Guy and Duck alongside several teachers, before finding an old live-action woman named Lesley surrounded by props from previous episodes and a diorama of the house. She gives Yellow Guy a book that supposedly contains all the answers he seeks. Meanwhile, Red Guy and Duck use too much electricity and cause a blackout, getting lost and finding dead versions of all of their previous teachers (including teachers from the web series and Yellow's father Roy), before Yellow Guy returns with the book. Before he can show them anything, Duck swaps his batteries back with Electracey's, restoring the power to the house, but causing Yellow Guy to lose his newfound intelligence and forget all that he found upstairs. He puts the book through Duck's shredder as Duck and Red Guy cheer him on, none the wiser. |
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was commended by critics for its use of surreal humour and horror.
Lucy Mangan from The Guardian stated that the series is "clever, bleak, charming, grotesque and funny." [35] Sean Mullins from Webster Journal called it a "wonderfully weird puppet show". [12] Toussaint Egan from Polygon stated that "the series hasn't missed a single beat in its transition from Internet shock humor du jour to a full-fledged animated series". [36] Nicholas Vidal from The Montclarion stated that "it is one of the most interesting and creative things to release this year". [37] Brittney Bender from Bleeding Cool gave the series a 10/10, saying that it "perfectly encapsulates the absurdity and horror of the modern world through the lens of a multi-colored puppet nightmare of epic proportions". [38]
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared has been named as one of the best TV shows of 2022 by several publications. The Telegraph ranked it at number 20, saying it was "unlucky not to be (in the top 10)". [39] The Guardian ranked it at number 31, calling it "clever, bleak, charming, grotesque and funny". [40] Radio Times ranked it at number 42, praising its "creepy and mysterious spin on vintage children's television, brought vividly to life through inventive crafts and puppetry". [41]
Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023 | British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Production Design | Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan | Won | [42] |
Best Costume Design | Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan | Nominated | [42] | ||
Annecy International Animation Film Festival | Best TV Production | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (for "Family") | Nominated | [43] | |
National Comedy Awards | Best Scripted Comedy Series | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared | Nominated | [44] | |
Broadcast Awards | Best Original Programme | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared | Nominated | [45] |
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American comedian, actor, director, and screenwriter. He is known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. He came to prominence with his stand-up specials An Evening with Bobcat Goldthwait—Share the Warmth and Bob Goldthwait—Is He Like That All the Time? and his acting roles, including Zed in the Police Academy franchise and Eliot Loudermilk in Scrooged. Since 2012, he has been a regular panelist on the radio-quiz show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.
Salad Fingers is a British adult animated web series created by David Firth in 2004. It revolves around the eponymous Salad Fingers; a thin, green, mentally troubled man who inhabits a desolate world. As of September 2023, thirteen episodes have been published on YouTube and Newgrounds. Since its debut, Salad Fingers has amassed a cult following and has been described as a viral phenomenon.
Conaco, LLC is the television production firm owned by entertainer Conan O'Brien. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Conan" and "Co", an abbreviation of company. The name is also a parody of the petroleum oil company Conoco. It has produced programs primarily for NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, including O'Brien's Late Night,Tonight Show, and Conan. David Kissinger, former NBCU executive and the son of Henry Kissinger, has been president since 2005.
Super Deluxe was an entertainment company owned by Turner Broadcasting. Founded by Wolfgang Hammer in 2007, the company's main output was in online video, television series, and documentaries.
John Carney is an Irish film director, producer, screenwriter and lyricist who specialises in musical drama films. He is best known as the showrunner and executive producer of Modern Love on Amazon Prime Video, for his films Once, Begin Again, and Sing Street. He is also a co-creator of the Irish TV drama series Bachelors Walk.
James Rash is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and filmmaker. He played Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012.
Robert Pickering "Bo" Burnham is an American stand-up comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with music, sketch, and stand-up comedy, commonly with a dramatic or tragic twist that is often left open to interpretation.
Robert Michael Moynihan Jr. is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2017.
Marianna Bronislawa Barbara Palka is a Scottish actress, producer, director, and writer. She is the writer, director and star of the film Good Dick, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Gabourey Sidibe is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 2009 film Precious, a role that earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, in addition to nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film roles include Tower Heist (2011), White Bird in a Blizzard (2014), Grimsby (2016), and Antebellum (2020).
Benjamin Joseph Schwartz is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his recurring role as Jean-Ralphio Saperstein on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, his starring role as Clyde Oberholt on the Showtime series House of Lies, and his voice roles as Randy Cunningham in Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Dewey Duck in DuckTales, and Leonardo in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also appeared many times in the CollegeHumor web series Jake and Amir.
Blink is a British development studio and production company. They make TV series, commercials, music videos, short films, branded content and video games. The company structure comprises Blink Industries, Blinkink, Blink Productions and Blink Games. The group operates from 3 studio locations in London.
Mondo Media, Inc. is an American multimedia company that mainly produces online animation aimed at teens and young adults. It was founded in 1988 by John Evershed and Deirdre O'Malley in San Francisco, California.
"Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" is a song by Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala. It is the seventh track on their 2012 album Lonerism, and was released as its second single on 1 October 2012. The single features artwork from Australian artist Leif Podhajsky, who also created the artwork for their first album, Innerspeaker. In an interview with Rick Rubin on the podcast Broken Record, Kevin Parker said he wrote "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards" after being inspired by "Walk in the Park" by Beach House.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (DHMIS) is a British musical horror comedy web series created by Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling. The series is notable for its blending of surrealism and morbid humour with horror and musical elements. Its production is diverse, combining puppetry, live action, and styles of animation including stop motion, traditional animation, flash animation, clay animation, and computer animation. The original series consisted of 6 short episodes released from 29 July 2011 to 19 June 2016 on YouTube. A follow-up television series was released in 2022 on All 4 and Channel 4.
Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou. Their work spans numerous live shows, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a studio album, the Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, the ABC Australia series Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and the picture book Always Room for Christmas Pud. They have frequently collaborated with other comedians, including Michelle Brasier and Demi Lardner.
Guy Montgomery is a comedian from New Zealand. He is known for his panel game show Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling Bee, which he began as a web series before becoming a TV series, for +HR=E in New Zealand, and later, adapted to a slightly higher budget Australian version for the ABC. He won the Fred Award in 2023.
I'm Poppy is a surreal comedy pilot starring American singer and YouTube personality Poppy. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2018, and is available exclusively on YouTube Premium. At the time, the producer expected further episodes.
Quarter Life Poetry is a project written and created by Samantha Jayne. It began in January 2015 as an Instagram account. where Samantha would write quatrains and draw doodles about her quarter life crisis. Grand Central published her humor book titled Quarter Life Poetry: Poems For The Young, Broke & Hangry in April 2016. The book was later translated into French, German and Chinese and also released in the UK
Aaron Chen is an Australian comedian and actor from Sydney.