Musical horror comedy Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (DHMIS) is one of the most surreal and terrifying series available on the web, created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. It boasts a number of catchy songs and hilariously absurd gags, making for one of the most unique and creative adventures the Internet has to offer. Whoever commanded such mastery of puppets and thematic madness with a pinch of surreal terror must have been seasoned masters of filmmaking; certainly not green. It’s like The Muppets gone very wrong.
With rumors of new episodes to come in the future, now is a good time to look back on the series. The show has some absolutely disturbing moments in its short run, made up of 6 main episodes. Here are some of the most baffling and stomach-churning ones.
The Story Of Michael
In Episode 3, the trio of friends known as Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck Guy are having a lovely picnic, when a butterfly swoops away Yellow Guy when he is separated from his friends.
In each episode, a seemingly helpful “teacher” comes along to give the trio a nonsensical and hypocritical lesson that soon turns into a nasty psychedelic horror show. In this case, the butterfly attempts to get Yellow Guy a lover, a “special one,” and tries to convince him there’s someone special for everyone, so he tells the short and 2-D animated “story of Michael,” the loneliest and ugliest boy in town who decides to live underground. What does that have to do with finding a “special one?” Nothing.
Angering The Clock
In Episode 2, the trio comes across a clock that springs to life as they wait for their TV show to come on the air. The clock is, to say the least, not the most chilled out guy. He has no patience and berates the trio right off the bat.
As he tries to (poorly) teach the trio about the concept of time, they naturally have questions. As they begin to ask the clock, then ask amongst themselves, questions about time, the clock is furious. He sets off an alarm and begins to holler at the trio, each beep and scream louder than the last until poor Yellow Guy’s ears bleed.
The Marriage Cult
As Episode 3 progressively gets more disorienting and bizarre in the attempt to convince Yellow Guy to find love, they introduce him to a giant stone head king named “Malcolm,” who must be fed gravel. As this happens, the demand for Yellow Guy to marry his “special one” gets more intense, and he is strapped into a chair.
Then, a gathering of characters appears, comprised of various random assistants, Red Guy, Duck Guy, Yellow Guy’s dad, the notebook teacher, and the clock teacher. The group chants “our king” as they essentially threaten to brainwash Yellow Guy. Thankfully, he wakes up… but was it a dream?
Father
On the heels of Yellow Guy waking up, Episode 3 gets its third outing of a disturbing moment, despite being (arguably) the funniest episode. This moment is both hilarious and gross.
As the trio was having a picnic earlier, they happen to have brought some eggs. The Duck Guy and Red Guy present an egg to Yellow Guy as a sort of gift, which he happily accepts. Suddenly, the egg cracks open to reveal a terrifying fetus-like insect that proclaims “Father!” Then, Duck Guy swats it on the spot.
Rapid Aging
Episode 2’s clock villain really is the cruelest of the antagonists. Immediately following the eardrum bursting screaming, he decides to punish the trio for their line of questions even further and begins to age the group horribly and rapidly, Last Crusade style.
Their skin wrinkles, then it begins to peel off, and soon, it decomposes. All the friends beg the clock to stop and scream horrible cries as they age to the point of death. Then the camera pans out to show that the trio is watching themselves on the T.V. as they age on the screen.
Sucked Into The Computer
Episode 4 finally takes the trio into the very place the show originated, the internet. In this episode, the trio seems to be expecting a teacher to pop up at any minute and when they think a globe is about to step up to the plate, their computer bursts to life instead.
It immediately begins spewing out facts and talks over everyone while asking questions, annoying Red Guy. Red Guy yells “shut up!” and tries to turn off the computer, but the enraged teacher screams “Don’t touch me!” The trio is then sucked into the computer in what appears to be a horrifying (and pixelated) mess of screams and chaos.
The Endless Cycle
The 6th and final episode of the show (thus far) is a fond farewell to the show. Or so it seems. Red Guy, having returned to the series after leaving following his annoyance with the computer in Episode 4, attempts to save his friends from the constant intruders that pop into their lives.
Apparently, the trio lives on, or is forced to work on, some kind of production set and as Red Guy tampers with the control system, almost every teacher from the past re-appears and sings a verse from their educating songs. At last, Red Guy seems to save the day, and the trio is back to sitting in their home together, though in different color schemes and designs. On top of that, the date finally changes from June 19th (shown as the date in each episode) to June 20th. All seems well…
And then that blasted notebook teacher from Episode 1 appears on the table and begins to sing, and the scene ends abruptly.
“I Don’t Want To Do This Anymore!”
Finally, in Episode 5, the trio begins to fight back more actively. Or rather, the duo, as the Red Guy has already left.
On the production set, the Duck Guy and Yellow Guy try to resist their new teacher, a lamb chop in a chef uniform. As he drones on about what foods to eat, the Duck keeps answering a mysterious ringing phone and the scene refuses to show who is on the other side, cutting to another scene instead.
With each cut, Duck guy is visibly confused and begins answering questions. Eventually, he physically fends off the teacher and runs off the set, knocking over a camera, briefly revealing Yellow Guy’s dad at the top of the set’s wall, staring at them (and Red Guy, apparently in the room).
Forced To Eat A Friend
It seems that fighting back ended with punishment, as Yellow Guy realizes he was eating Duck Guy once Duck Guy was booted from the set.
As the teacher and his assistant force-feed Yellow Guy, the scene cuts back and forth from Yellow Guy eating cans of… something, to Duck Guy being eaten by a giant can, laughing maniacally. Then, the teacher and assistant begin to scream at Yellow Guy, and the song ends abruptly; cutting to Yellow Guy sitting in the dark, his mouth full of Duck Guy’s green feathers. At last, the caller on the phone is also revealed to have been Red Guy at a telephone booth, but he was too late.
Getting Creative
There’s nothing like the first time. Episode 1’s sudden twist to nastiness is what put the show on people’s radars. As the trio sits in a lovely Pee-wee’s Playhouse looking house set, a cute notebook appears and begins to sing about creativity. The trio seems happy to play along and sing with the notebook, but truly out of nowhere, the scene goes awry and is filled with unsettling dancing, a change from puppets to humans in costumes, off-beat music, twisted arts and crafts, and as always, haunting screams.
This change from “odd” to “what on earth was that?” is what makes DHMIS so popular on the internet. The high production level, attention to detail, intriguing storyline, and simultaneous use of comedy and horror gives it a truly unique essence, and the first time that door to insanity is cracked really is the defining moment. It either intrigued people to see more or scarred them for life and had them make sure to avoid seeing anything remotely like it ever again.
