History WebVideo / DontHugMeImScared

** The Food Band's food chart claim cigarettes and gel are healthy food.
** The Steak claims the human body has a cat flap. At one point, they also claim oranges (and other "show off" foods) are bad for you.

* CriticalResearchFailure: There are several in-universe examples.
** The Food Band claim cigarettes and gel are healthy food. The Steak claims the human body has a cat flap.

--->'''Shrignold:''' You see? Everyone has a special one.
''(beat)''

** '''Shrignold:''' You see? Everyone has a special one.
-->''(Beat)''
-->'''Rabbit Boy:''' Even Michael! [[spoiler: Michael being "the ugliest boy in town" in a story told by Shrignold's friends. Michael is called a freak and lives alone in a cave.]]

''Don't Hug Me I'm Scared'' is a six-part horror PuppetShow created by Creator/ThisIsIt. The show details the lives of the plainly named Red Guy, Duck Guy and Yellow Guy as they find their routine interrupted by increasingly demented teachers. Initially, the draw of the show was the shock of the sudden switch from an {{Edutainment}} show to a {{Horror}} show that occurred at the end of the first episode, but later episodes were forced to rely less on that shock value.

* SadistShow

* SeasonalRot: In-universe. It's invoked and implied that this would happen had Red Guy not taken action in the sixth episode. The previous lessons had been Creativity, Time, Love, Technology, Nutrition, and Dreams, but it was shown [[spoiler: by the machine-generated Teachers]] that the lessons most likely would go on to include Space, Sports, Magnetism, Digging Holes, Canoe Buying, Files, Traffic, Gel, Smoking, and Music. This can be read as another criticism of childrens' media, focusing on topics that become more inane over time.

* TearOffYourFace: In the Kickstarter video, the page from the Sketchbook with her face on it is briefly shown on the ground. Given that she's a sketchbook, it could very well be the equivalent of this trope for her.
* TemptingFate: After Yellow Guy runs off in tears in episode 3, Red Guy mentions that he "wonder[s] what will happen"... and shortly afterward, Shrignold shows up.

* WantedPoster: For some reason, Yellow Guy has one in the Victorian scene.

-->'''[[spoiler:Sketchbook]]''': [[spoiler:[[HereWeGoAgain What's your]] [[GroundhogDayLoop favorite idea?]]]]

* WhatDoesThisButtonDo: Near the end of episode 6, Red Guy has a moment of this not with an actual button but instead with a plug [[spoiler:controlling the machine that is presenting teachers to Yellow Guy]], but has the same "oh, what would happen?" mindset.

* SapientEatsSapient: PlayedForDrama. [[spoiler:The ambiguously human Yellow Guy is forced to eat the remains of his aptly named friend, Duck Guy, in the fifth episode.]]

* KilledOffForReal:
** [[spoiler:Sketchbook]] has [[spoiler:their]] face ripped off in "HELP #3". They have not appeared since, apart from in [[spoiler:Yellow Guy's dream in the third]], though their death has also not been referenced, so whether this trope actually applies is unclear. [[spoiler: Sketchbook [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] this in Episode 6, as [[HereWeGoAgain the events begin all over again]].]]
** [[spoiler:Duck Guy]] is EatenAlive in the fifth video. [[spoiler:Given that Red Guy survived his head exploding, whether Duck Guy will remain dead is unknown, but the {{Foreshadowing}} picture at the start seems to suggest that he really is gone for good.]]

* GrossOutShow

* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler: Yellow Guy]] at the end of Episode 5.
** Well, it [[spoiler: wasn't a person, per se...]]

* HostageVideo: The Kickstarter video is done like this.

* HollywoodTorches: Episode 6's lamp acts as one. The room goes completely [[HollywoodDarkness dark blue]] when he's switched off, and the whole room gets illuminated when he comes back on to continue his horrible torture song

** In [=DHMIS2=], the picture on the wall reads 19/06/55. Also, every date during the time travel sequence is June 19th. Additionally, during the Victorian Time scene, you can see that there is a wanted poster for the Yellow Guy. His price, dead or alive? £1,906 ... 19/06, also known as ''June 19th'' (Since Europeans put day first then month)...

** Just before the Creativity Explosion in DHMIS 1, the characters and set briefly turn into poorly-rendered, crudely-built CGI.

** The second DHMIS features even more shifts, mostly with claymation/stop-motion animation, such as the "Victorian Time" scene, the rotting apple, and Yellow Guy's reflection.

** The strange creature that pops out of the egg in the third DHMIS is quickly smashed by the Duck Guy, leaving the cracked egg full of gore.

** The DHMIS world is almost entirely made out of soft felt and cloth and is modeled after typical children's edutainment shows like Sesame Street, but once the songs start it goes right downhill, from being mildly uncomfortable to full-blown horrifying.

* EyeScream: As the puppets rot in DHMIS 2, the Duck Guy's eye can be seen to have detached from its socket.

** Also in DHMIS 2, during the trio's journey through time with Tony, the Yellow Guy notices an old man died, to which Tony directs his attention toward a computer. In DHMIS 4, Colin is a computer, and the episode expands on the LuddWasRight themes that DHMIS 2 showed.

** In DHMIS 5, when Duck Guy knocks down the camera [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere trying to escape]], you can see Red Guy's head in the microwave, Roy sitting on top of the wall of the set, and a shot of Red Guy just standing as it falls down, when Red Guy has been absent for almost the entire episode.
** In DHMIS 6, during the end of the animated sequence, Roy can be seen in a phone booth in the background while Yellow Guy is riding a horse, as well as in a window while Yellow Guy is drowning in oil.

* HatesBeingTouched: Colin from DHMIS 4.

* HellIsThatNoise: The first video's background music dissolves into discordant screeching during the "get creative" scene. In the sequel, Tony's shrill, high-pitched screeching makes all the puppets cower and cover their ears.
** [[spoiler:Colin's shrieking when Red Guy hits him in DHMIS 4, and the strange noises during the glitchy segment.]]

* LighterAndSofter: The same team behind DHMIS actually worked on a [[https://vimeo.com/151896897 PSA video for St John Ambulance teaching about CPR]]. Unlike DHMIS, its taken more seriously and aimed at children and family members.

* LuddWasRight: A theme in DHMIS 2 is that all the puppets become complacent and indifferent to life, instead getting distracted by, and wasting their time on, the computer, or complaining about missing their programme.

** In the first DHMIS, Duck Guy writes "DEATH" on the table using potato stamps during the CREATIVITY EXPLOSION.

* SimilarSquad: The characters in ''Craig's Big Day'' almost all appear to be counterparts of the DHMIS universe, including a computer, a clock with a face, the show's creators (like the puppeteers in DHMIS 4), a fuming microwave, etc.

* TheStinger: After the credits roll for DHMIS, a man can be heard laughing about a "horrible sound".

** Red Guy stumbles upon a poorly made set for a DHMIS episode, featuring crude renditions of the characters and very little colour.

** [[invoked]]Takes on a new intensity with the [[spoiler: rapidly cycling]] teachers in Episode 6. We only hear snippets of their songs, but each sounds even more repetitive and less coherent than the Food Band’s and one of them claims [[CriticalResearchFailure “planets live inside the moon.”]]

* SubvertedKidsShow: Each episode of DHMIS starts off relatively saccharine and gradually become more depraved. By episode 5, though, things are pretty creepy right from the start, with Yellow Guy and Duck Guy already starting to realise that something's wrong.

** Halfway through DHMIS 5, Duck Guy wakes up in a mysterious dark room. Eventually, we see that [[spoiler:his body had been sliced open, and his organs are being processed into canned food product.]]

** In DHMIS 6, [[spoiler:Red Guy walking up to the machine and seeing Yellow Guy, still in his "lesson", on the monitor.]]

** In DHMIS 2, the characters constantly flub the use of "quarter to #". For example, when Tony says the time is "quarter to nine," Tony shows 9:15, as opposed to 8:45. Considering that they also at one point say that the time is "20 past day", this is probably intentional.

* FauxAffablyEvil: In all 6 "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" instalments:

** The six instalment ends with [[spoiler:the palette swapped puppets sitting around the table again as the Notebook starts to sing. Nothing has apparently changed, and whether the puppets will be able to escape the endless cycle of torment remains ambiguous.]]
** This is one interpretation of the finale, which goes as follows: [[spoiler: Roy has been in control of the whole series via a simulation machine that controls the Teachers to impose his views on the puppets. When Red Guy pulls the plug on the machine, the cycle starts over again, just on a different day and palette-swapped puppets.]]

* CreepilyLongArms: [[spoiler: Roy]] is given one in the final episode.

''Don't Hug Me I'm Scared'' is a six-part horror PuppetShow created by Creator/ThisIsIt. The show details the lifes of the plainly named Red Guy, Duck Guy and Yellow Guy as they find their routine interrupted by increasingly demented teachers. Initially, the draw of the show was the shock of the sudden switch from an {{Edutainment}} show to a {{Horror}} show that ocurred at the end of the first episode, but later episodes were forced to rely less on that shock value.

* CallBack: Yellow Guy's clown painting (Still ruined by black paint) appears in the sequel to the original video, and yet again in the fourth video.
** The craft that Yellow Guy made in the first video appears in the third.
** In ''4'', [[spoiler: When Colin mentions that he can tell the time, Duck Guy turns to the camera and says "time?", referencing the events of episode 2. Later on, the trio turn into approximations of their crude CGI models from the original short film.]]

** When [[spoiler:Red Guy]] does his little file song for his boss, the latter merely responds with "That sounds really boring", a line said by Red Guy back in the first episode. He also asks "I wonder what will happen?" (from Episode 3) before [[spoiler:pulling the plug on the machine and resetting the timeline]]. The song he sings in the karaoke bar is also Sketchbook's song on creativity.
** "Gel" and cigarettes are food groups featured in the Health Shape in episode 5. In the next episode, [[spoiler: two of the potential Teachers controlled by the machine are shown to be a can of gel and a cigarette.]]
** When [[spoiler:Red Guy messes with Roy's machine to make new teachers]] in the sixth, Yellow Guy yells "MAKE IT STOP!", which is the same thing he yelled when Tony made them rot alive in the second.
* TheCameo:
** The sketchbook from the first video makes a brief appearance in the second, behind Red Guy's radio. Roy, Sketchbook, and Tony can be briefly seen among the cultists worshiping Malcolm in the third video.
** In 4, Sketchbook is a box of oats with eyes, and Malcolm appears as a mantel decoration. The Yellow Guy's father can also be seen sitting in the shadows while Red Guy is on the computer.
** In 5, Colin reappears as a fridge magnet, and Roy can be briefly seen peering over the edge of the “set” when Duck Guy has his breakdown.
** In 6, All of the teachers except for Sketchbook appear briefly singing their respective songs from each episode. At the end of the episode Sketchbook reappears singing the first line of The Creativity Song.

* CatapultNightmare: Yellow Guy gets one in the finale after dreaming about drowning in oil.
* CentralTheme: Each installment features a theme that the episode revolves around.

* ComedicSociopathy: Tony is extremely pushy with the other puppets, insulting and shouting at them whenever they divert from his song. At the end, he even seems to smile evilly as [[spoiler:the other puppets begin to quickly rot away while still alive.]]
* ContemplateOurNavels: "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2" has everyone musing about time. As with every other video, it isn't long before things go [[SurpriseCreepy horribly wrong]].
* ContinuityCavalcade: The brief animated segment at the beginning of episode 6 is covered with items and characters from the previous episodes. Additionally, [[spoiler:all of the previous teachers make short cameos near the end, as Red Guy is messing with a machine that controls them.]] The episode also features Red Guy singing the "creative song" from episode 1.
* ContinuityNod: In the second video, there is a line that clearly sets up a rhyme in "green", but Tony uses "brown" instead. Why? Because, of course, green is not a creative colour.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The DHMIS world is almost entirely made out of soft felt and cloth and is modeled after typical children's edutainment shows like Sesame Street, but once the songs start it goes right downhill, from being mildly uncomfortable to full-blown horrifying.

* CreatorCameo: Becky and Joe appear at the end of ''Craig's Big Day''.
* {{Cult}}: The group that the Yellow Guy meets in episode 3 is pretty clearly shown to be one.

* ADayInTheLimelight: The Yellow Guy has the biggest role of the three main puppets in the third episode.
** Similarly, the fourth episode focuses moreso on Red Guy.
** Episode five features the Bird puppet more.

* DemotedToExtra: Red Guy and Duck Guy have much smaller roles in the third episode, which mostly focused on Yellow Guy
** Red Guy in the fifth episode only appears for a few seconds in the credits
** Duck Guy in the sixth episode [[spoiler: considering he was murdered the previous episode and only briefly appears during the teacher montage]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: In all 6 "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" installments:

** In the fourth and fifth episodes, the Teachers show up out of nowhere with no logical reason how they got there. [[spoiler: ''6'' reveals that they are controlled by a machine, which can place them in the scene at any time.]]

* IronicEcho: One of Red Guy's first lines is "That sounds really boring." Someone else gives him the exact same line in the 6th episode.

* BreatherEpisode: The third episode. The only gore comes from the food at the picnic and the scrubby of Yellow Guy's brain, and is relatively low-key, a much longer time is spent on things being perfectly fine and happy before it gets dark, [[spoiler:and it's AllJustADream, ending with a heartwarming GoldenMoment]]. However, the NEXT episode...
* BrickJoke: During episode 6, the Red Guy [[spoiler:(in an office of [[MesACrowd other Red Guys]])]] goofing around with a File singing the lines "I am a file and you put documents in me". When the Teachers keep swapping in and out due to [[spoiler: Red Guy messing with a machine that created them]], one of said Teachers is a file singing the same lines, in the same slipshod "melody".

** Bird is EatenAlive in the fifth episode, and his remains are seen all over a table.

The first episode was supposed to be stand-alone, but after going viral, a second episode was quickly produced. Past that, all the episodes were funded thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, which creatively advertised the project by literally holding the three main characters hostage. Ultimately, the sixth episode ended the series with its release on June 19th, 2016.

The series can be found on This Is It's Youtube channel [[https://www.youtube.com/user/thisisitcollective here]].

!!Tropes that apply to ''Don't Hug Me I'm Scared''
* ADayInTheLimelight: The Yellow Guy has the biggest role of the three main puppets in the third episode.
** Similarly, the fourth episode focuses moreso on Red Guy.
** Episode five features the Bird puppet more.
* ADeathInTheLimelight: [[spoiler: Duck Guy is featured the most in the 5th episode, which is also the episode in which he is brutally killed and eaten.]]

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Downplayed in 6. [[spoiler:Red Guy takes off his clothes and walks on a stage to sing the Creativity Song, but the other Red Things are more bothered by how bad the song is.]]