Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

2011

Date: 29 July 2011 · Place: YouTube, produced in London · Figures: Becky Sloan, co-creator · Joseph Pelling, co-creator · Baker Terry, co-creator · Tags: Web Series, Surrealist Horror, Childrens TV Parody 01. Notebook Sings A Song On 29 July 2011 the London-based filmmakers Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling upload Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, a four-minute pastiche of children's television in which three felt puppets are taught a creativity lesson by a sentient notebook. The lesson dissolves into graphic body horror. Five further episodes are released between 2014 and 2016, each addressing a different educational topic: time, love, technology, food, dreams. A six-part Channel 4 series follows in September 2022. 02. The Education Of The Internet Child Don't Hug Me I'm Scared is the canonical short-form work of internet surrealist horror. Its imagery, the singing flesh, the green tongue, the smiling clock, becomes a permanent reference set for analog-horror creators on YouTube and TikTok for the next decade. It is also a critique of educational media as ideological apparatus, a sharper cousin to Wonder Showzen. The series is funded by Kickstarter in 2014 for its episodes two through six, making it an early proof of the patron-funded online auteur. Sources • Don't Hug Me I'm Scared YouTube channel archive (2011-2016) • The Guardian, 'Don't Hug Me I'm Scared and the New Surrealist Horror' (12 June 2016) • Channel 4 press release (September 2022)