Few, if any, TV shows have millions of fans before they even start filming. But the puppet-based mania of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared has never been conventional.
Starting life in 2011 as a DIY web series, the original episodes appeared sporadically over five years, making each new release a major event for its booming fanbase. Mystery permeates the show, which initially feels like classic children’s TV until the action takes a creepier turn. It is never clear whether the characters are caught in a dream or a nightmare. It has hints of dark comedies such as Monkey Dust and Jam, and juxtaposes kids’ TV tropes with folk horror. Think Sesame Street with existential dread and the incredibly disturbing use of raw meat.
Creators Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling, who met at university, conceived the series together. “We were doing jobs we hated and wanted to make something fun with puppets, something musical,” Sloan says of the show centred on three felt creations: Red Guy (whose head is seemingly made of two eyes on a crimson-dyed mop), Yellow Guy (like Sesame Street’s Ernie with a blue mohawk) and Duck (a duck). “I’d never made a puppet before – you can see the first ones have too many fingers.”
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