“We designed them to be stock kids’ show characters to begin with,” explains Pelling. Along the way, the characters constantly question their reality and existence. Episode three, where the gang learn about the concept of family, has a cannibalistic denouement that’s darker than Liz Truss’ soul. In the first episode of the Channel 4 series, a benignly smiling briefcase teaches the three nameless main protagonists – known as Duck, Yellow Guy (both voiced by Terry) and Red Guy (Pelling) – about the wonders of employment via a cheerful ditty, before it descends into a psychological horror replete with a puppet getting his arm mangled in a workplace accident. It’s all deeply unsettling.”Ĭertainly, they lean into the horror aspect. “For every Oliver Postgate,” adds Terry, referring to the late creator of homespun stop-motion classics like Bagpuss and the Clangers, “there’s 10 similar things that are chilling because of the voices in them, the characters themselves, and the sheer shonkiness of the filmmaking involved – it’s all shot for pennies in people’s sheds and then voiced by Oxbridge graduates. “We were inspired by lots of British kids’ shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s that have this innately disturbing quality to them,” says Joseph Pelling, who created the show alongside fellow art school students Becky Sloan and Baker Terry. Aesthetically, it’s an eye-poppingly colourful world that brings to mind a cursed VHS of an old British children’s programme you might discover at a car boot sale. Along the way, it’s amassed a dedicated fan following and even spawned its own Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared Lazy Oaf clothing line. The six-episode Channel 4 series is based on the cult YouTube shorts of the same name, which have racked up over a quarter of a billion views since they debuted over a decade ago. It’s the kind of televisual fever-dream that might give Cookie Monster a coronary. ![]() Like Sesame Street filmed by David Lynch, each episode starts off as a pastiche of an educational kid’s TV show, before drifting into a nightmarish hellscape. It’s an understatement to describe comedy-horror show Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared as brilliantly crackers. His two friends – a red humanoid creature with a mop-like head and a yellow bozo Muppet-style character – sing a jaunty song about preparing for his funeral. A green duck puppet is being taught about death by a sentient grinning coffin.
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