History Characters / DontHugMeImScared

* BalloonBelly: [[spoiler:A non-comedic example at the end of 5, he gets fattened up after being fed the Duck's organs. Then at the beginning of 6, he's skinny again.]]

The three main characters of the series. In the TV series, they are collectively referred to as "The Guys".

The three main characters of the series. In the TV series, the trio are collectively referred to as "The Guys".

A talking sketchbook with the voice of a young woman (or maybe a little boy). They teach the trio about creativity, only for things to spiral out of control.

A clock that teaches the trio about the concept and importance of time, and he does this rather forcefully.

* CanonName: His name, Tony The Talking Clock, was confirmed in an [[http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/18301/1/beckyjoe-are-this-weeks-dazed-visionaries interview for Dazed Magazine.]]

A group of puppets, mostly woodland creatures, led by a talking butterfly, who teaches the Yellow Guy about love. They include Shrignold the butterfly, Rabbit Boy, a unicorn, a tree, Frog Boy, some flowers and a gopher.

A talking computer that is supposed to teach the puppet trio about the world.

A group of talking food that sings about being healthy. The members include a human-sized lamb chop made to resemble a chef, a can of spinach, and a loaf of bread who drums. Later on, a refrigerator also joins.

Appears briefly in the sixth instalment to teach Yellow Guy about dreams. This time, Yellow Guy [[GenreSavvy refuses to listen.]] He reappears in the TV series and [[TookALevelInKindness is subsequently much kinder there]].

The main character of a story told to Yellow Guy in order to convince him that everybody has a special one. Problem is, his life goes completely against that message.

Malcolm is the God of the Love Cult. He is a giant stone head who can only move his jaw.

A Globe that wants to tell the puppets about the World. Presumably.

* EarlyBirdCameo - Can be seen on top of the shelf at the start of ''"Don't Hug Me I'm Scared II - TIME."''

The googly-eyed studio crew that makes brief appearances throughout the series. Later accompanied by two puppeteers, one in a white body suit and one in a black body suit.

A Giant Can with a yellow face and an open mouth. They appear in Episode 5, where they are eating the guts of the Duck.

* TheButcher: The giant meat can that rips out Duck's organs and cans them so that they can be forced upon Yellow Guy. It's last seen trundling away, full of organs, as a similar can takes its place.
* TheDragon: To the food band, who feed the cans to Yellow Guy after they eat Duck's guts.
* EvilLaugh: The giant meat can constantly giggles as he rips out Duck's organs.
* HeroKiller: They eat Duck's guts and then bake a cake out of his face.

A talking wooden coffin that prepares Duck for his eternal rest.

A pair of human-like twins, Todney and Lilly, that tries to educate the trio about what a real family is. Though they may have ulterior motives.

A totally real eagle (and not a worm) that is trying to help improve the trio's friendship. However, his own insecurities and general annoying personality gets in the way.

An elderly locomotive who teaches the trio about the many ways one can be transported. He has the ability to change his body. Unfortunately, he dies early, leaving the trio to continue the lesson on their own.

An electric-powered robot that tells the trio about the true value of electricity.

A talking briefcase that teaches the trio the wonders of finding a job.

* FurryConfusion: A variation. As with standard suburban workers, he carries around a briefcase, despite being a sentient briefcase himself. Yellow Guy describes him as, "one of those guys who has one of himself."
* {{Hypocrite}}: His song is all about how you can follow any career you want. And yet he sends the puppets to a place where they have no choice but to slave away in an office job their entire lives, and looks down on his brother Brendon for having no success with his own dreams.

* KarmaHoudini: He traps the puppets in a bizarre factory world for 40 years before traumatically pulling them back, is a condescending jerk to his "older" brother, and [[spoiler:flips a coin into Duck's eye]], yet just leaves without a care. [[spoiler:Seemingly subverted by episode 6, though.]]

* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Implied. Brendon is unemployed and has aspirations to be a writer, something Briefcase disproves. Briefcase also tricks the trio into working a stable, yet passionless job for 40 years.

* UnreliableExpositor: Brendon claims to be the older brother of Briefcase but is clearly younger because Brendon is obviously a child who has aspirations of being a writer. It seems that Briefcase forces him to sing the same song over and over again and Brendon is sick of belittling himself to stroke Briefcase's ego. The fact that Briefcase traps the main trio in a job for over 40 years shows that he's more sinister than he lets on.

* BigBrotherBully: Inverted; his brother, Brendon, claims to be older than Briefcase and Briefcase treats him poorly for being unemployed.
* BigLittleBrother: He seems to be about twice the size of his older brother, Brendon. He also has a much deeper voice.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: He seems nice compared to most teachers, but he also abandoned the trio to their fates in the factory and clearly doesn't treat his own brother so well.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Implied. Briefcase champions himself as a respectable and working man and uses Brendon, his brother, to feed his ego by stating how pathetic he is for being unemployed while his younger brother, Briefcase, is more successful than him.
* StealthInsult: He compliments his brother for his performance, but it's littered with passive aggression, as Brendon is doing a performance about how pathetic he is for being unemployed, and Briefcase {{insist|ent appellation}}s on referring to him as Unemployed Brendon, which Brendon does not take kindly to.
* UnreliableExpositor: Brendon claims to be the older brother of Briefcase but is clearly younger because Brendon is obviously a child who has aspirations of being a writer. It seems that Briefcase forces him to sing the same song over and over again and Brendon is sick of belittling himself to stroke Briefcase's ego. The fact that Briefcase traps the trio in a job for over 40 years shows that he's more sinister than he lets on.

Briefcase's unemployed brother, who he often drags along to sing about the perils of being unemployed.

* DontYouDarePityMe: To the point that he gets angry when Red Guy simply asks him if he’s okay after he hurts his hand. Given that his brother comes off as more than a bit condescending towards him, this is understandable.

* {{Manchild}}: He's unemployed, talks and acts like a child, and is apparently older than Briefcase. What else would he be?
* OlderThanTheyLook: Though he looks and sounds like a child, he's actually older than Briefcase.

* SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome: He's very much not happy about how successful his younger(?) brother is compared to him. Especially since Briefcase ''constantly'' rubs it in at every oppertunity.
* StarvingArtist: Is implied that he is an aspiring writer but without much success.
* WritersSuck: His novel, The Ultimate Forgiveness, remains unpublished, and you can spot it in the bin in the fourth episode. That he's unemployed doesn't help matters.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler: Somewhat kicks in during the TV series, where - despite being a wandering problem - he has seemingly all lost control of the simulation to Lesley - which him seemingly also being trapped in the simulation with the students he once tortured. He even attempts to escape with the trio in "Transport", only for them to not recognise it's him and throw him out of the car.]]

* KilledOffScreen: In "Electricity", he's lying lifeless with crosses on both eyes in the large control room area.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Sure Red Guy pulled the plug of the machine, which possibly means the show was cancelled as well, but he didn't receive any known comeuppance for putting his son through hell and indirectly killing Duck. KarmaHoudiniWarranty kicks in slightly in the TV series, where he's lost control of the world to Lesley. Even so, he's still a wandering problem.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: During the [[spoiler: blackout]] in "Electricity", [[spoiler: he quietly admits to Duck that, with the power out, he'll miss looking at the house... and Duck himself. Duck then admits he also likes looking at him too. However, Yellow returns with Lesley's book before more can happen.]] It's worth noting that [[WordOfGod both Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are a fan of the ship and want to see more of it]].

* AmbiguouslyGay: During the [[spoiler: blackout]] in "Electricity", [[spoiler: Red Guy admits to him that, because of the power outage, he'll miss looking at the house as well as Duck himself. Duck appears to be very surprised by this, before quietly admitting that he likes looking at him too.However, Yellow returns with Lesley's book, leaving him to be more pre-occupied with taking Yellow's batteries from him than doing anything more with Red.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: During the [[spoiler: blackout]] in "Electricity, [[spoiler: he quietly admits to Duck that, with the power out, he'll miss looking at the house... and Duck himself. Duck then admits he also likes looking at him too. However, Yellow returns with Lesley's book before more can happen.]] It's worth noting that [[WordOfGod both Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling are a fan of the ship and want to see more of it]].
* AmbiguousSituation: In ''Transport'', it's not clear if Red Guy is fully aware of the nightmarish situation he's found himself in or if he's just tired of the stagnation and repetition of his life by staying in the house all the time.

* AffablyEvil: Each teacher is bright and cheery, at least a first. Sketchbook's attitude seems to be genuine, whilst for Tony, Colin and the Healthy Band [[FauxAffablyEvil it's just a thin façade]]. Shrignold is debatable, and the lamp [[WeHardlyKnewYe hardly gets any screen time]], so it could be either or.

* ArtificialHuman: Or rather ''Artificial Inanimate Object'', the final episode shows [[spoiler:(except maybe Sketchbook and the Globe)]] that they are summoned by a machine that projects them into the world. Confirming that, unlike the students, they are not actual inhabitants of their world.

** The Sketchbook appears in the second video behind the Red Guy's radio.

* {{Flanderization}}: While the Sketchbook was a hypocritical jerkass like the rest, they were at least somewhat polite and shoked when things got out of hand. The following teachers become only worse with each episode.

* StepfordSmiler: Each teacher is nearly constantly cheerfully smiling. Naturally, they're all deranged and unstable, which only makes them more terrifying...

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Unlike Roy, who is a puppet with an off-putting demeanor and is Yellow Guy's father, Lesley is a live-action human with a kindly demeanor and seems to position herself as a mother figure to Yellow Guy. She also seems genuinely interested in ''teaching'' Yellow Guy, as opposed to Roy who just wanted to punish him.

* HumansAreCthulhu: While she appears to be just a normal elderly lady, there is just something ''off'' about her considering she is the only live-action human with a major role and doesn't bother to hide away.

* ComicTrio: The Duck is TheSmartGuy, the Red Guy is the OnlySaneMan, and the Yellow Guy is the KindheartedSimpleton.

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Always present, but becomes more pronounced in the television series: Yellow Guy (Nice) is a classic GoodIsDumb; Duck (Mean) is rude and demeaning, and even ''murders'' multiple characters; Red Guy (In-between) is apathetic and abrasive, but is rarely if ever as directly cruel as Duck.
* NoNameGiven: The students aren't named throughout the entire series, although Red Guy almost says his real name in Episode 4, before being interrupted. Whenever one of them speaks about another, they tend to use terms such as "the Other Guy(s)". In episode 4 of the TV series, when the puppets try to log onto their computer and they don't remember the password, Yellow Guy suggests using his name, which the Red Guy then [[OverlyLongName spends a full 15 seconds typing it out]], and Yellow Guy tells him to not forget the hyphen, while Duck's takes only a single character to type. All we know is that Duck's real name isn't David and that "Rat-Eyes" is apparently Yellow Guy's Maiden Name... somehow.

* NiceMeanAndInbetween: Always present but becomes more pronounced in the television series: Yellow Guy is a classic GoodIsDumb; Duck is rude and demeaning and even ''murders'' multiple characters; Red Guy is apathetic and abrasive but is rarely if ever as directly cruel as Duck.

* AdaptationalBadass: Downplayed. In the original web series, they were merely prisoners who were often tortured by their teachers. In the TV Series, the trio actually manage to kill or outsmart their teachers (albeit accidentally). Yellow Guy manages to kill Coffin while digging up Duck, [[spoiler:Duck kills Warren the Eagle with tweezers, Red Guy manages to get the three out of the house while Yellow Guy accidentally kills Choo Choo by drinking his "special drink", and Duck steals the batteries from Electracey the Meter]]. The downplayed part is that they weren't particularly intimidating; Coffin was made of wood, [[spoiler:Warren was just a small worm when Duck killed him, Choo Choo died of old age because the flask was the only thing keeping him alive, and Electracey was just caught off-guard and not really a threat to begin with]].

* AdaptationalBadass: Downplayed. In the original web series, they were still prisoners and were often tortured by their teachers. [[spoiler: In the TV Series, the trio actually manages to kill or outsmart their teachers (albeit accidentally), Yellow Guy manages to kill Coffin while digging up Duck, Duck kills Warren the Eagle with tweezers, Red Guy manages to get the 3 out of the house while Yellow Guy accidentally kills Choo Choo by drinking his "special drink", and Duck steals the batteries from Electracey the Meter. The downplayed part is that they weren't particularly intimidating; Coffin was made of wood, Warren was just a small worm when Duck killed him, Choo Choo died of old age because the flask was the only thing keeping him alive, and Electracey was just caught off-guard and not really a threat to begin with.]]

* NonHumanNonBinary: An AnimateInimate object whose gender is paper.

* DawsonCasting: [[InUniverse In-Universe]]; in the teaser for the series pilot, Yellow Guy was said to be ''38'' and he's portrayed as the audience surrogate who learns with the audience. This would make sense for the series, as some teen characters are actually played by young adults so their personal lives wouldn't clash with filming. It's also likely that he just didn't know how old he was or he lied about his age for the pilot.

* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: Tries to pull this off at the end of his story, but it falls flat since everyone could already tell he was talking about himself. When even ''[[TheDitz Yellow Guy]]'' can look right through your bullshit, you know you have made things beyond blatant.

!!Monster Cans
Giant Cans with yellow faces and open mouths. They appear in Episode 5, where they are eating the guts of the Duck.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_20230611_034756_youtube.jpg]]
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* TheSmurfettePrinciple: The only girls in the cult are the Flower and Yellow Guy's "Special One".

* ClippedWingAngel: For the most part, he looks like a giant, anthropomorphic worm who's about as tall as Red Guy's chest. Then, he goes OneWingedAngel and becomes a giant, sloppy, deformed monster that towers over Yellow Guy. However, once Duck [[spoiler:stabs him with a needle and kills him]], he's reduced to the size of a tapeworm that isn't even as big as Duck's fingers.