Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is all of a sudden back in fantastic, disorderly kind

Image: Carl Palmer/Channel 4

If you, like me, were terminally on the internet around the very early 2010s, you most likely recognize, like, and also have actually sorely missed out on Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.

Co-developed by animators Becky Sloan and also Joseph Pelling, the six-episode internet collection established a fire throughout the Internet when it was launched on YouTube in between 2011 and also 2015, with a unique mix of puppet-based shenanigans and also Lynchian shock wit. The computer animated shorts have actually because accumulated over 216 million cumulative sights on YouTube and also motivated whatever from elaborate fan theories involving Serbian war criminals to a little clothes line. Now, over 6 years because the last brief, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared has actually lastly returned as a half-hour tv collection, and also it’s like the program never ever left.

Image: Carl Palmer/Channel 4

The collection fixate a triad of weird, vivid personalities — a high male in a red morphsuit with 2 beady eyes atop a mop-top of scraggly hair called “Red Guy,” a yellow man-boy with a tuft of blue hair in blue overalls called “Yellow Guy,” and also a chatting eco-friendly duck in a grey coat called… “Duck.” This diverse team unwillingly takes place experiences when they’d rather simply kick back their home rather.

These experiences usually focus on a fourth-wall-breaking songs number sung by a chatting motionless things, like a note pad or a fridge, concerning a seemingly academic subject (e.g., creative thinking, healthy and balanced consuming, fantasizes) prior to undoubtedly breaking down right into a psychedelic fatality spiral of body scary and also constant apathy. It’s a great deal of enjoyable. In a great deal of methods, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared can be called the lunatic British half-cousin of Sesame Street and also the beneficiary noticeable to Wonder Showzen, albeit much less politically billed than the last and also extra concentrated on taking a sledgehammer to the criterion of kids’s academic tv established by the previous.

Image: Carl Palmer/Channel 4

The six-episode reboot, which premiered on Channel 4 in the U.K. on Monday, adheres to a lot of the exact same formula of the initial YouTube brief collection however with… well, even more of whatever: even more profane deadpan discussion, even more foolish jokes, even more fourth-wall-breaking intermissions, and also extra mystifying body scary. One may think this increasing down on the collection’ well-worn methods and also tropes would certainly run the risk of reducing returns, however Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared constantly in some way discovers a means to proceed overturning assumptions, also when the assumption itself is the subversion of assumptions.

The very first episode of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared opens up comparable to that of the initial shorts: with Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and also Duck relaxing and also minding their very own damn company, now preceded with a happily practical signature tune concerning exactly how there are, as a matter of fact, 3 of them and also they all cohabit. The triad have definitely nothing to do for the day, much to the consternation of Duck, that merely rejects to not be hectic. Next point they recognize, there’s a chatting brief-case holding a smaller sized, non-talking brief-case, resting at their table making a large hassle around simply exactly how hectic they are and also exactly how they need to reach their task, prior to bursting out right into a track and also mosaic proclaiming the merits of work and also labor.

You see, you can be anything: an individual that kinds at a computer system (e.g., me), a person that kicks a football sphere and also ratings an objective, or the man that flies to an area moon. Not these men though, no; they need to operate at “Peterson’s and Sons and Friends,” making assorted “bits” and also “parts” on a production line, addressing phones, and also developing an internet site that doesn’t function. Naturally, the episode takes a remarkable turn for the even worse, however as any type of follower of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared understands, the enjoyable remains in the shock of simply what goes belly-up and also exactly how.

Image: Carl Palmer/Channel 4

Like the initial brief collection, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is essentially a collection of self-supporting episodes, every one concentrating on one kind of “lesson” or an additional, be it concerning fatality and also death, the significance of household, or merely exactly how to be a far better close friend. The program is still ruthlessly innovative, including whatever from amorphous claymation bodysnatchers to psychedelic desire series that look like 2001: A Space Odyssey’s renowned “Stargate” series infiltrated a Boschian “DeepDream” generator.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is back, and also the collection hasn’t missed out on a solitary beat in its change from Internet shock wit du jour to a full-fledged computer animated collection. Fans of the collection will certainly be gladdened, and also beginners will certainly quickly sufficient find out simply exactly how amusing (and also horrible) life’s crucial lessons can be.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared broadcasts on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, and also can be streamed online in the U.K. on All 4.

 

Source: Polygon