In today’s market, one can find just as many dark parodies of kid’s shows as there are kids’ shows themselves. It has even become part of its genre through “mascot horror.” However, some works, such as the British Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, take this genre further. While the original series was a dark deconstruction of kid’s edutainment shows, the second season would evolve the genre further. In their latest appearance, Red, Yellow, and Duck Guy turn their surrealist horror into a masterpiece of dark humor. Here is a breakdown of how both seasons master the tropes of black comedy through several layers of irony.

The Setup of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

The internet has long since been a spawning ground for darkly comedic animations such as Happy Tree Friends and Llamas with Hats, and this series is no exception. The original 2011 short Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared by Joe Pelling and Becky Sloan became a viral sensation. It depicted three muppets visited by a singing notebook teaching them about creativity. It started fun before slowly going off into the rails into a fever dream.

Over the years, five more installments appeared. The series combined the brilliant puppetry of Sesame Street with the surprise psychological horror of Madoka Magica. Throughout each episode, the trio of three puppets would learn about a simple concept, such as eating healthy, only for the lesson to similarly descend into horror. Furthermore, each episode had tiny hints surrounding the larger mystery of their imprisonment and its masterminds. 

In the time since the first season, however, the meta changed. While the kid’s show turned horror genre has always been classic, by the 2020s, the genre had gotten stale. The slew of Five Nights at Freddy’s imitators and other mascot horror franchises had worn out most of the tropes. Furthermore, most viewers already knew the surprise of the show’s horror elements. Fortunately, Joe and Becky would adjust the series accordingly. Instead of being the same surreal horror as the original, the new series takes a relatively lighter tone. Six years and a lost pilot later, the second season of DHMIS arrived on Channel 4.  

The Show’s Surreal Humor  

While there are many dos and don’ts of writing black comedy, at its core, it’s about adding irony and absurdity to dark subject matters. In many ways, the modern Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is like a British puppet version of Zach Hadel’s Smiling Friends, with its lighthearted setup that quickly descends into cynical comedy. First and foremost, the series still has surreal horror as its central genre. The main arc, in which the three are trapped in a metaphysical prison, still surrounds an overarching mystery. 

The first and second seasons poke fun at the weirdness of many earlier kids’ shows. Everything from the bizarre character designs to the offputting puppetry and overly simplistic messages being taught. Whereas the first season used the surprise dark elements for horror, this series uses them for laughs. For example, when the electricity teacher sings a song about making everything electric, there is a brief shot of Yellow Guy sitting in an electric chair.