Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a series that's been heavily interpreted. The main trope page takes a very literal interpretation of the series, but it's clear the series wasn't meant to be viewed entirely literally and is heavily open to interpretation. Most people agree that the series is about how the media conditions children. Each episode consists of a lesson being taught to the characters based on a certain subject, deconstructing ideas about that subject in the media which are confusing, misleading, oversimplified, incoherent, or outright false.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared
The theme for this episode is creativity.
- Everyone is sitting in silence at the start of the video; according to Word of God, this is due to a lack of creativity.
- Sketchbook explains that she likes to use her hair to express herself, and Red Guy says that he finds it boring. She repeats herself, but this time with anger in her voice. She wants Red Guy to listen to her idea of creativity.
- The puppets are staring at the clouds, trying to see pictures in them. They can't see anything until Sketchbook puts a monocle to her eye, at which point they see images. They're seeing what she wants them to see now.
- This is further reinforced by the fact that everyone sings in unison when describing what images they see. They're not allowed or able to think of ideas individually, they just have to go along with what Sketchbook sees.
- Yellow Guy creates something that is genuinely creative, a painting of a clown. But Sketchbook doesn't like it; she finds it too creative, or not her idea of creative, and pours black ink all over it, destroying the picture.
- The "green is not a creative colour!" scene, which has become a meme. Yellow Guy chooses green when all of the puppets are choosing colours, but Sketchbook says that green is wrong. Once again, she's enforcing her idea of creativity onto them, and even when you apparently have complete freedom of choice, some of the choices are wrong.
- Also, look at the colour wheel during the part where Sketchbook shows it to the others. Green isn't on it. You're only allowed to be creative within the parameters set for you, apparently.
- This is also Fridge Brilliance, as Green is associated with creativity and new possibilities in Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats. By eliminating Green, the Sketchbook is dismissing real creativity and capacity for change, and thus hinting that this isn't really about being creative at all.
- The camera flips around, to reveal that it is just a film being made by studio equipment with eyes. The equipment is meant to represent Hollywood, and reinforces the idea of how the media conditions children.
- The next scene shows them all sitting at a table, much bigger. Yellow Guy has changed the most, because Sketchbook forced most of her ideas onto him and because he embraced them. Duck is now bigger and wearing a suit, referencing growing up. And Red Guy, who was completely skeptical, has not changed at all; he represents a non-conformist who doesn't listen to the media.
- The puppets then go completely insane, screaming and making horrible images. In children's cartoons, there is a similar "dark beneath the light" - the conditioning beneath the innocent cartoon. Also, if you found this to be unexpectedly creepy (which you almost certainly did), then your emotions have been manipulated, the same way children's thoughts are.
- Duck spells out "DEATH" - this probably represents metaphorical death, the children being "killed" and replaced by what the media wants them to be.
- The puppets eating a cake made from hearts and brains represents the media collecting children's emotions and creativity and consuming them.
- The final line, "now let's all agree to never be creative again" should speak for itself.
- Which creates one massive bit of Fridge Brilliance: the media sees children as puppets, which is what children were represented by in the video.
Dont Hug Me I'm Scared 2: Time
- The characters want to catch their show on television, but Tony keeps wasting their time with his lesson.
- Tony attacks the characters when they question if time even exists.
- He also gives contradictory lessons, like first stating "the future doesn't exist" but later travelling to the future.
- As one keen observer pointed out, a Funny Background Event consists on the formula 卐=MC2. As you may know, this is a reference to one of Albert Einstein's most famous formulas. By looking at Einstein's timeline, it would be easy for a person who doesn't know about him to presume he was a Nazi, even though he was a Jewish man who escaped to the United States. Saying that Einstein was a Nazi is reducing a complex subject into something wrong yet easy.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 3
The theme for the third episode is love.
- The episode mocks the idea of love as a feeling through Shrignold's vapid explanation of what love is.
- It demonstrates the confusing of love with sexual desire with the pervert dog/beaver thing.
- It also lampshades the notion of romantic love being regarded as the highest form of loving by talking about how everyone has a special someone.
- It appears to nod to homophobia as well, with the aforementioned obsession with romantic love naturally only being about that between a man and a woman.
- It also seems to imply that marriage is the only way of true love, particularly christian marriage, what with the crosses everywhere and the "it's protected with a ring" line.
- It nods on arranged marriage, by forcing Yellow Guy to have his special one that they chose for him.
- The episode contrasts the empty love of the cult with the true love of the friends.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 4
The theme for the fourth episode is technology.
- The trio wanted to know what the biggest thing in the world was. While Colin proclaims that he is so smart, he is not able to answer their question and instead spouts meaningless information. If a real person were to google "what is the biggest thing in the world," they'd get lots of information but no concrete answer.
- The only things one can do on the Internet is looking at charts (aka learning, but seeins as how Yellow Guy doesn't seem to know what the charts are about, it relates to the above point), looking dapper (social media) and dancing (gaming). This are all things people tend to enjoy, yet the episode portrats it in a repetitive and boring way.
- Colin also asks the main characters way too personal questions, even irrelevant ones, like their choice of milk. This comes to show how the Internet trafficks with your data.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 5
The theme for the fifth is healthy eating.
- The episode parodies how what health means is taught to children by saying unhealthy food will turn your teeth grey, grey teeth being slang for death.
- The superficial idea of healthy food is juxtaposed with Duck dying on a hospital bed.
- The show uses several nonsensical models of how the body works and what unhealthy food does to it.
- A convoluted parody of the food pyramid is referred to as a "simple health shape".
- Methods for distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy foods are mocked with the distinction of plain versus show-offy foods, showing how the distinction between healthy and unhealthy is really more complex.
- The health band constantly contradicts itself, for example saying both pizza and white sauce are healthy early on, but later saying they will make your teeth go grey. This reflects the ever-changing knowledge on what food is considered healthy or not.
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 6
- The intro of the episode focuses on dreams, but no real deep deconstruction is done on the subject. This episode more focuses on the idea of the series in general.
- Red Guy is shown to be currently living in what is heavily implied to be the real world, working a boring repetitive job with other red guys. This is in stark contrast to how he wanted to leave the show in earlier episodes. It seems he also misses his friends.
