Bad dreams.
“Don’t Hug Me”. “I’m Scared”. Striking sentiments in a 2020 context, as well as in the EGM & Co. personal story.
In overwhelming and uncertain circumstances, people tend to look for comfort and familiarity, a warm embrace, a favourite childhood TV show. The Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared sextet follows the story of Yellow Guy, Red Guy, and Duck Guy through a series of life lessons - creativity, time, love, technology, and food, culminating in the sixth finale episode - dreams. Using a mix of puppets, traditional/computer animation, and live action, the series juxtaposes a childlike world with surreal and sinister themes.
Yellow Guy, Red Guy, Duck Guy, respectively.
There are many interpretations, hours of Youtube essays attempting to unfurl the mysteries of DHMIS - but simply put, this soft and cuddly universe is a parable of the real world: where beneath a happy facade lies a cesspit of chaos, coercive voices, malevolence, brutality - occurring without rhyme or reason, and which can never be fully understood.
Watching all six films helps in comprehending the DHMIS cinematic universe and catching every easter egg. However, for the sake of Resonance, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 6 has particular relevance in our present bizarre saga of COVID-19.
Nightmare on Sesame Street.
Episode six, begins with Yellow Guy alone, missing his friends (Red and Duck), who have mysteriously disappeared, only found in picture frames. An anthropomorphic lamp starts to teach him about dreams, but things soon mutate into a night terror, Yellow Guy drowning in oil.
Things occur quickly, and without explanation. Viewers sympathise for the isolated, and clearly distressed Yellow Guy, stir-crazy locked (as we are) in his own house.
Red Guy, alienated in another dimension, tries to find light in an infinite bureaucratic monotony, but is shut down by co-workers and later booed off stage, naked and embarrassed. He is plagued by the past, friends and memories that no longer translate to the meaningless and mundane world he has woken up in.
Bird Guy is seen only in passing, a glitch. Eerily, Bird Guy is theorised to be the oldest - an unfortunate coincidence from a COVID viewpoint.
The colours of a new world.
Figures from previous episodes torment Yellow Guy, while Red Guy desperately tries to stop the madness. The torture is only ended with an entire reset of existence, the plug pulled from the wall and the three characters circling back to the very start of the series, completely wiped clean and changed in colour.
In ‘Rona terms, the world as we know it may never be the same either, re-imagined completely in sanitiser blue and virus green.
Puppet masters.
In a world that can be a constant nightmare, DHMIS validates our confusion and anguish. The Imagery of Sesame Street-esque puppets, conjures up watchers’ history: their nostalgic experiences of loveable characters teaching sharing, numbers, moral values. Feelings of affection and concern are heightened in the hyper-realistic responses of the three puppets - a talking lamp triggering genuine shock and terror, as opposed to mainstream television where sentient furniture is business-as-usual.
DHMIS in the context of Keller’s CBBE Pyramid.
The high quality production value, attached to graphic adult messages, has clearly evoked serious analysis of the series, the writers’ intentions behind DHMIS sparking vast intellectual Judgement.
Surrealism in which the viewer is left to try and placate the incongruence.
The surrealism of DHMIS is another powerful sticking - and potential selling - point. Where viewers are faced with nonsense, they fill in the gaps with theories. When confronted by images - such as children’s puppets filled with bloody, raw meat, the discordance is hard to forget.
Had the series been part of a wider brand campaign, consumers would have been subjectively and subconsciously stimulated. Deep examination of the content, plausibly could lead to vivid brand retention and recall (Hariraksapitak 2016).
Hug me goodbye.
The first video alone, also released on Youtube, now has almost 60 million views. Global resonance aside, the trajectory of DHMIS strikes to the heart of the EGM & Co. brand: grassroots beginnings, with a taste for the alternative. We have aimed to serve up polished thought, garnished with popular references, and a hint of reality.
Everything is not always as it seems.
For conspiracists like us, who have at the best of times been described as “the most cynical ten-year-old ever”, the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared community is a solace from normalcy.
An alternate plane in which strangeness occurs freely, with ambiguous characters question the dictated “rules” of life.
Where slogans like - “Let’s Get Creative” (DHMIS Ep. 1), “Unmistakably Ours” (EGM & Co. Blog Entry 3), and “Bad Dream” (DHMIS Ep. 6) - can be fully unravelled.
For now, this is set to be the last instalment of DHMIS, and the last entry on this blog.
As for the future…
References:
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 2014, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: 1, online video, viewed 20 May 2020, https://vimeo.com/83687791
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 2016, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: 6, online video, viewed 20 May 2020, https://vimeo.com/171385266
Hariraksapitak, N 2016, ‘Surrealism on Advertising’, Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, vol. 24, p. 141-158.
Keller, KL 2001, ‘Building customer-based brand equity’, Marketing Management, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 14-19