# Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (TV series)

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is a 2022 British adult puppet comedy-horror television series created by Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan and Baker Terry, and produced by Blink Industries. It was released on All 4 and is based on the web series of the same name. Its six episodes are themed around surrealism and dark humour, and revolve around three characters—Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck.
After the release of the original YouTube web series from 2011 to 2016 and its resulting popularity, the creators planned a new television series and developed a pilot in 2018 which was eventually scrapped. A new series was announced in 2020 and released on All 4 on 23 September 2022. Episodes 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6 aired on 30 September, 7 October and 14 October respectively on Channel 4.
On 6 December 2024, the series was made available internationally through the official Don't Hug Me I'm Scared website for a one-time fee, granting viewers access for up to three years. As of that date, the creators confirmed that there are no plans for a second season of the TV series, but they remain open to producing more self-funded Don't Hug Me I'm Scared content in the future.

## Premise

The series revolves around the lives of Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck, whose names are not explicitly stated in the series. Each episode starts off with the three getting a lesson from a teacher about topics including jobs, death, family, friendship, transport and electronics. The teachers are usually manipulative and malicious, and as the episode goes on, it becomes more horrific. At the end, the teacher fails and usually dies, with the three shown to have not learned anything.

## Development
### Previous works

From 2011 to 2016, Joe Pelling and Becky Sloan, later along with Baker Terry, created Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, an art project and web series on YouTube. The series consists of six horror-themed puppet videos.
In 2018, a video titled "Wakey Wakey..." was uploaded to the official channel, and teased an upcoming television show, and the pilot premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. However, the series was later scrapped. In an interview, Terry stated that "we were going to have to actually write jokes that functioned as jokes without a prop in every single instance".

### Release

In July 2020, it was announced that the television series was picked up by Channel 4. In September 2021, Becky Sloan announced that production had finished. On 19 June 2022, a teaser trailer titled "FLY" was uploaded to the YouTube channel, announcing the release date of September. The video gained over 2 million views within 24 hours of release and reached No. 1 trending on YouTube.
The series was released on All 4 on 23 September 2022. It was originally scheduled to be released on 12 September 2022, but was postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Episodes 1 and 2 aired on 30 September, episodes 3 and 4 aired on 7 October, and episodes 5 and 6 aired on 14 October, all on Channel 4. The series also released on their official website for paid access alongside official merchandise on 6 December 2024.

## Episodes
### Pilot (2018)

A long-form TV pilot was produced in 2018 with Super Deluxe, Conaco and Blink Industries. The pilot premiered at 2019 Sundance Film Festival, appearing in the "Indie Episodic Program 1" alongside other short films. The idea, which involved "current affairs", was later scrapped, and the trailer was removed from the YouTube channel. The setting, which Sloan attributed some roots to South Park, did not have "the timelessness and claustrophobia of the originals". On May 13, 2024, it was announced that the unaired pilot would be screened at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in London during June 6th-9th. However on May 14, 2024, it was revealed that this announcement was a mistake. The screening would actually feature the first episode of the web series, not the unaired pilot. On September 19, 2024, during an In Motion Playgrounds panel, Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling revealed they were legally unable to release the full pilot. However, the creators showcased concept art from the episode and aired a majority of it sped up for about a minute.
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original release date |
| 7 | 1 | "Pilot" | Unaired |
| Roommates Red Guy, Yellow Guy, and Duck live simple and repetitive lives in the complacent colourful community of Clayhill. When the town's mayor disappears, everything descends into chaos. ||||

### Television series (2022)

| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original release date |
| 8 | 1 | "Jobs" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| Having nothing on their daily schedule, Duck and Yellow Guy try to find something to do, much to Red Guy's dismay. A talking briefcase informs them about the concept of jobs, suggesting several that they could do before transporting them to a "bits and parts" factory, where Red Guy stumbles into becoming upper management and Yellow Guy fits right in with his coworkers. Duck continually tries to leave, but is first fired by Red Guy and then brainwashed into loving his job by a monstrous dog called the Carehound. However, when he comes back to work, he finds that everyone is now 40 years older and having a retirement party for Yellow Guy. After Duck throws Yellow Guy's retirement card into a machine and inadvertently causes Yellow Guy's hand to be caught and crushed in the machine, the talking briefcase returns and finishes his song, transporting the three back to their house and restoring them to their old selves as they express confusion about everything that has happened. The briefcase rewards them for their work with a coin, which lands directly in Duck's eye. ||||
| 9 | 2 | "Death" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| Duck reads in the newspaper that he is dead because he forgot to drink water, and when his heart falls out of his body, it summons a talking coffin who helps the friends organise a funeral for him. However, Duck annoys the coffin while buried underground, and Red Guy attempts to build a new friend to replace him - a talking blob of clay, though Yellow Guy refuses to accept it. The talking blob of clay begins to grow into an independent and caring individual and names itself Stain Edwards, though Red Guy instead slowly begins to mould it into an exact replica of Duck. Yellow Guy then returns to the burial site and digs up the old Duck to bring him back - which kills the coffin. Yellow and the old Duck return home, only to find Stain Edwards has fully morphed into Duck. After the two Ducks ponder for a moment, they ultimately accept there being "four of us", and the group briefly tries to start a new show with the two Ducks. However, one of them abruptly kills the other with a shovel, stating that there being four of them "doesn't work". ||||
| 10 | 3 | "Family" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| The three friends have trouble opening a "family pack" of snacks, prompting a pair of twins to arrive and start teaching them about the concept of families. They bring the friends to their house, introducing them to their grotesquely misshapen father, brother, and grandmother, but when they reject Duck from their family, he falls back into the friends' original house. Red Guy meets the twins' "family tree", who takes most of his blood to help him find his family, but when Red Guy actually meets his family, they reject him for being too expressive. Yellow Guy is kidnapped and dressed as the twins' mother, who reveal they only wanted to complete their family to get a family discount on a food delivery. However, Yellow Guy's father Roy arrives, devouring the entire family while allowing Yellow Guy to escape. The three friends decide that blood relations are unimportant to being a family before realising there are only two snacks in the family pack. Red Guy suggests the trio share the two snacks, only for Duck to loudly exclaim that he wants both. ||||
| 11 | 4 | "Friendship" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| The three friends attempt to go online for their annual "computer day" with Colin, but Yellow Guy cannot remember the password, prompting his friends to insult him. A worm named Warren arrives to scold them and teach them about what true friendship is. After finally remembering the password, the trio check their emails, but Yellow Guy gets disappointed when he sees that he received none. Yellow Guy then retreats into his own mind to hang out with his "brain friends", but Warren enters his mind and bores Yellow Guy's imaginary friends into either leaving or killing themselves. In the real world, Yellow Guy is slowly melting as Red Guy and Duck find information online about their friend's affliction; when they realise that the problem could be caused by "a worm in his brain", Duck shoves a needle into Yellow Guy's ear, killing a grotesquely misshapen Warren. Colin happily bids the trio farewell before gifting them a futuristic-looking computer. The three friends make up and sing together before Yellow Guy breaks the computer, prompting a fight between them all that lasts throughout the episode credits. ||||
| 12 | 5 | "Transport" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| Red Guy is bored by Duck and Yellow Guy taking inventory of everything in the house and wants to go on a trip. An elderly Choo Choo Train arrives to teach the three about transport in an animated sequence, transforming into various vehicles, but dies while in the form of a car. Red Guy, desperate to leave, manages to get the car started, resuscitating the Choo Choo Train and crashing through the wall of their house. Yellow Guy, Duck, and even the car's satnav keep trying to direct Red Guy back home, but he only presses onward down the road. Later, the car begins to lose fuel, and the Choo Choo Train wakes up as the car's steering wheel. Sick and confused, he asks Red Guy to give him his "special drink" (which Yellow Guy already drunk) that helps with his "condition". Red Guy mishears him, and begins stuffing his mouth with raisins. As Red Guy continues onwards, the cheery and colourful world around them glitches into a junkyard, and the car breaks down. Now lost, the three friends sit around a fire made from the steering wheel - before Yellow Guy appears to hear a woman's voice claiming "...the journey always ends up back at home" and the episode abruptly cuts to a live-action person's hand gently pushing a model of the car back to a model of the friends' house. ||||
| 13 | 6 | "Electricity" | 23 September 2022 (2022-09-23) |
| Red Guy and Duck attempt to shred an electricity bill before a robot called Electracey climbs out of their electrical box to teach them about electricity. Yellow Guy reveals that, like her, he is powered by batteries, and Duck swaps Yellow Guy's old faulty batteries for Electracey's fresh ones, making her dim-witted and him both smart and self-aware. Yellow Guy leaves to go upstairs and investigate their teachers' appearance, first finding increasingly larger versions of Red Guy and Duck alongside several teachers, before finding an old live-action woman named Lesley surrounded by props from previous episodes and a diorama of the house. She gives Yellow Guy a book that supposedly contains all the answers he seeks. Meanwhile, Red Guy and Duck use too much electricity and cause a blackout, getting lost and finding dead versions of all of their previous teachers (including teachers from the web series and Yellow's father Roy), before Yellow Guy returns with the book. Before he can show them anything, Duck swaps his batteries back with Electracey's, restoring the power to the house, but causing Yellow Guy to lose his newfound intelligence and forget all that he found upstairs. He puts the book through Duck's shredder as Duck and Red Guy cheer him on, none the wiser. ||||

## Cast
### Sundance pilot cast

* Baker Terry as Yellow Guy, Duck, Key, Mayor Pigface, The Key, Policeman, Big Ian, and Fizzy Milk
* Joseph Pelling as Red Guy
* Becky Sloan as Mrs. Grenald, Mud Man, and Ladder

### Channel 4 series cast

* Baker Terry as Yellow Guy, Duck, Briefcase, Andy, Duncan, Bin, Lucky Mo, Family Tree, Roy Gribbleston, Warren The Eagle, Yumpherdinker, Dr. Bushman, Choo Choo Train, Tony the Talking Clock, Steak, Big Duck and Bigger Duck
* Joseph Pelling as Red Guy, Colin the Computer, Brain Friends Theme Singer, Brain Friends Announcer, Big Red Guy and Bigger Red Guy
* Becky Sloan as Unemployed Brendon, Stain Edwards, Grolton's Chicken Family Tub Discount Commercial Announcer, Brain Friends Theme Singer, First Tooth, The Lump and Electracey
* Vivienne Soan as Lesley
* Leila Navabi as Claire
* Amy Gledhill as Wet Floor Sign
* Kath Hughes as Printer
* Phil Wang as Vending Machine
* Jen Ives as Free Vending Machine
* Chris Cantrill as Safety Video Announcer
* Lolly Adefope as Lift and Mrs. Grelch
* Charlie Perkins as Jenny
* Kevin Eldon as Coffin
* Sue Eves as Brain Friends Theme Singer (uncredited)
* George Fouracres as Lamp, Grolton and Hovris
* Sam Campbell as ID Card and Apple
* Katy Wix as Tissue Box
* Freya Parker as Grandma and Bread
* James Stevenson Bretton as Lily and Todney
* Liam Williams as Market Man
* Emma Sidi as Bubble Bath Memory
* Kiell Smith-Bynoe as Saturdavid
* Johnny White Really-Really as Shy Imaginary Older Brother
* Charlie Pelling as Brain Friends Theme Singer
* Chris Hayward as Instructional Tape Announcer
* Katie Kvinge as GPS
* Jimmy Slim as Time Child
* Jamie Demetriou as Safe
* Michael Stranney as Mirror
* Beattie Hartley as Experimented Creature
* Jason Forbes as Boundary Hand
* Natasha Hodgson as Rock
* Nathan Foad as Toilet

## Reception

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared was commended by critics for its use of surreal humour and horror.
Lucy Mangan from The Guardian stated that the series is "clever, bleak, charming, grotesque and funny." Sean Mullins from Webster Journal called it a "wonderfully weird puppet show". Toussaint Egan from Polygon stated that "the series hasn't missed a single beat in its transition from Internet shock humor du jour to a full-fledged animated series". Nicholas Vidal from The Montclarion stated that "it is one of the most interesting and creative things to release this year". Brittney Bender from Bleeding Cool gave the series a 10/10, saying that it "perfectly encapsulates the absurdity and horror of the modern world through the lens of a multi-colored puppet nightmare of epic proportions".
Don't Hug Me I'm Scared has been named as one of the best TV shows of 2022 by several publications. The Telegraph ranked it at number 20, saying it was "unlucky not to be (in the top 10)". The Guardian ranked it at number 31, calling it "clever, bleak, charming, grotesque and funny". Radio Times ranked it at number 42, praising its "creepy and mysterious spin on vintage children's television, brought vividly to life through inventive crafts and puppetry".

### Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
| 2023 | British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Production Design | Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan | Won |
| 2023 | British Academy Television Craft Awards | Best Costume Design | Joe Pelling, Becky Sloan | Nominated |
| 2023 | Annecy International Animation Film Festival | Best TV Production | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (for "Family") | Nominated |
| 2023 | National Comedy Awards | Best Scripted Comedy Series | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared | Nominated |
| 2023 | Broadcast Awards | Best Original Programme | Don't Hug Me I'm Scared | Nominated |