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Nightmare Fuel / Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

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"Oh! Looks like somebody's having a bad dream!"
Lamp, "Dreams"

Given its status as the Trope Codifier of both Disguised Horror Story and Surprisingly Creepy Moment as well as one of the most infamous and well-known examples of Surreal Horror on YouTube, with an unmatched ability to simultaneously confuse and discomfort, it comes as no surprise that the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series is ripe with Nightmare Fuel.


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    Web Series 
"Creativity"
  • The creativity explosion. The cake full of raw, bloody organs is probably the most disturbing part of it. It's quite possibly the most well-known scary scene in the series, especially as it was the first one. What makes the creativity explosion particularly disturbing compared to later entries and the TV series is that it's built off of Sensory Abuse. All these creepy things happen at such a frenetic pace that it's impossible to take it all in on a first viewing. "Computers" is the only other episode to use Sensory Abuse, but it's a slow burn up to that point, unlike "Creativity," where it bursts in out of the blue.
  • The scene where Sketchbook ruins Yellow Guy's painting (which also counts a funny moment). Even the eerie silence doesn't help.
    Yellow Guy: [sitting next to a clown panting] I might paint a picture of a clown!
    Sketchbook: Whoa there, friend! you might need to slow down! [black sludge slides down the painting as the music cuts out]

"Time"

"Love"

  • Do NOT watch this episode before or after eating. It is pure Nausea Fuel.
  • The episode starts with an animated butterfly getting swatted by Duck (it landed on their chicken picnic), complete with an all-too-realistic butterfly corpse and blood (also on their chicken).
  • Look closely at the crowd when Malcolm appears — you can see Roy standing next to the unicorn.
  • Tony's and Sketchbook's cameos when the cult reveals its true face. Tony's eyes are blank and his trim is white instead of black, while Sketchbook's eyes are googly. This seems to suggest that they were brainwashed... Also, Red Guy and Duck can be seen in the same crowd.
  • The aftermath of the raw chicken and bloody egg picnic, Duck reminding everyone that they've finished it, and then staring intently into the camera for an uncomfortably long time. It's just so... off. It becomes especially weird once you realize that he's practically staring into the viewer's soul.
  • At the end of the "dream sequence", starting from "And this is your chance to start anew, and all we're asking you to do...", Shrignold takes on a noticeably far more sinister appearance, due to the lighting and his glaring face as he slowly moves closer and closer to Yellow Guy.
  • Yellow Guy is forced to marry his "special one" against his will. Extra points goes to that hideous worm-like creature that pops out of the egg at the end of the video, which is also smashed to a bloody mess by Duck.
    Worm: Father!
    And said worm? If you look carefully, it's a caterpillar, with the same coloring and hair as Yellow Guy. Consider that the last moment of the "dream sequence" was Shrignold flying with a ring towards him, and... it's possible that Yellow Guy was raped. Not helping the fact that it used to be the page image for a very good reason!

"Computers"

  • Colin's digital mind: a sticky brain-like organ which makes splash sounds as he puts it out of his head.
  • The way Colin gets MONUMENTALLY PISSED so quickly.
    Colin: "DON'T TOUCH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
    He then makes a nightmarish face while screeching at Red Guy with... something leaking from his eyes and mouth. Not to mention his hands (usually supposed to be mouse cursors) are now sinewy tendrils of red wiring. Immediately after this, Red Guy, Duck, and Yellow Guy are transported into the digital world. Throughout the transition, a bizarre series of glitched, blurry 3D graphics representing the three are shown, and towards the end, screaming can be heard. At first, you'd think Colin was already killing everyone. Fortunately, he wasn't.
  • The characters in the digital world. The longer they stay in there, the more grotesque their avatars become, until they just cease to exist in the real world except as terrifying holograms. The best example of this is Duck, who slowly gets more realistic textures and a human-like model that just screeches.
  • Compare each of the puppets' heights when they enter the digital world and you'll quickly realize that Colin is much taller than Red Guy. Considering that Red Guy is the height of a full-grown man (about as tall as 5'8" - 6'0"), that would mean that Colin is 7 - 8 feet tall.
  • At one point, Colin brags that he can tell you the time, and Duck immediately looks at the camera and says "Time?!" in a very surprised voice. It sounds like he's remembering the trauma of what happened to them in "Time".
  • The clones are really, really scary. At one point, one of the "Digital Style" Duck clones is simply him bigger, then the next one lacks head features, meaning it only has a brain with eyes and a beak, and the last one turns into a realistic duck face on a realistic human body and suddenly caws at you. It's especially bad when it gets faster. At the faster points, everything goes absolutely insane, Colin turns into a floating, golden skeletal head, and the room is flooded with deformed clones of Yellow Guy and Duck (and a single disembodied Red Guy) and flashing with rapid, glitchy lights. You can also hear Colin droning "Digital dancing..." repeatedly in the background during all this. It's heavily implied that he ran his program so fast that he trapped himself in his own digital world.
  • During the scene where Red Guy is alone at the computer, two terrifying blocky avatars of Yellow Guy and Duck pop up at the table for a split second. In the same scene, Roy can be seen sitting quietly in the shadows to the far right.

"Health"

  • This episode warrants even more of a "Don't eat before or after" warning than "Love" did. It veers into Surreal Horror, with Duck disappearing halfway through while Yellow Guy is tormented by the insane Healthy-Food Band. Brr, reaching David Lynch levels of nightmare fuel.
  • Roy returns, hiding above the set, and you can see him at one point. On top of that, several things are "Roy's", like "Roy's Sauce".
  • In the beginning, Duck and Yellow Guy try to realize what's missing. They look at a drawing of the trio sitting in the living room, but when they look again, Red Guy has left and is visible in the window, Duck has "X"s for eyes, and Yellow Guy appears to have a Slasher Smile.
  • Duck is starting to realize that something's very wrong. Both he and Yellow Guy realize that something is missing, and that something is Red Guy. He seems well and truly terrified the entire video, never once feeling at ease or joining in unlike with Sketchbook, Tony, and Colin. Just before he gets his organs eaten, he seems so desperate to escape... But he can't do anything at all, whatsoever.
  • The phone ringing at random intervals, which brings the song to a halt.
  • The digestive model, which is apparently alive, getting crushed and mangled during the Health Band's demonstration. It also leaves a dark green, gross-looking liquid on the floor.
  • It's a bit hard to tell because it moves very fast, but when Duck pushes the camera down, it looks like the red thing that blurs across the screen isn't the lamb chop, it's Red Guy. In that same scene, there's a split-second shot of the microwave...and Red Guy's head is inside.
  • The delightful scene of a giant giggling yellow can eating Duck's organs, which are then force-fed to Yellow Guy until he's obese. Both Duck and Yellow Guy are completely aware of this and become helpless to stop it. And if you look closely, Duck's operating table has a blood transfusion apparatus - the teachers kept him alive as long as possible. Poor, poor Duck. By the end, he's reduced to nothing more than a bowl of blood, flesh, and feathers, with only his decaying beak still intact.
  • In an interview after the release of the video, the focus is mostly on the three main characters, and the silly answers they have for the interview questions. But then, the last question is if Roy has anything to add. His response?

"Dreams"

  • The episode has surrealism, Paranoia Fuel, and enough mindscrewing to cap the series off with a dark case of an Ambiguous Ending.
    • And when that scene comes up
  • Yellow Guy's immediate fear and distress upon being roped into another surreal song is pretty hard to watch.
    Lamp: And you could have a dream about riding a horse, or you could have a dream about drowning in oil!
    Yellow Guy: No, no, no! NO MORE SONGS!
  • As Yellow Guy actually drowns in oil, we can hear him gasping and gurgling for help. It isn't pretty.
  • One of the lamp's last song lyrics before being interrupted by Tony appearing — "And you can have a dream about losing your friends!" — suggests that, had that song been allowed to continue as planned, things would have gotten... pretty brutal.
    Lamp: And you could have a dream about burning your friends!
  • Highlights as Red Guy cycles through teachers include:
    • The return of Tony - much like Duck, Yellow Guy remembers what happened. It explicitly confirms that they experienced their rotting alive experience in "Time".
      Yellow Guy: You made me die!
    • Shrignold, accompanied by some very jarring choir music. And as a small added detail: When Tony and Colin reappear, Yellow Guy just gives a startled shout. When Shrignold reappears, he screams.
    • He briefly brings Duck back to life. Duck is understandably freaked out.
      Duck: —fish on my tray! WHAT?! WHERE AM I?!
    • The Solar System, whose size, movements and clearly human limbs come across as really off-putting, a feeling made worse by the discordant synth riffs.
    • A deranged-looking football surrounded by floating balls.
    • Going frame by frame through the set of teachers who pass by in rapid succession as Red Guy frantically presses buttons faster shortly before Roy grabs him reveals some real horrors: One is a floating version of Duck's head, only disconcertingly square shaped in every detail (actually the avatar of him from "Computers"). Another seems to be nothing more than a screaming cube of meat that looks like it had been recently flayed alive. Another is Red Guy himself.
  • Roy returns with all of his creepy mannerisms in tow, and now he has an unbelievably long arm to touch Red Guy with. And it's heavily, heavily implied that he was controlling all of the teachers the whole time.
  • There is one easily-missed detail near the end that has truly nightmarish implications: Take a close look at the last couple of shots of Yellow Guy as he's having his breakdown. It's subtle, but he appears to have dark circles forming under his eyes and blemishes on his nose. But more alarmingly, he's losing his hair, his eyes are bloodshot, and his nose is slightly crooked. Just like his "good ol' father"...
  • Everything about the credits, with the empty and dark background full of fog (as if it's still in the console room), how fast it is, the music (highly reminiscent of "Creativity"'s credit sequence), which midway turns into an extremely loud, off-key clarinet that sounds ominously like distorted, maniacal laughter, finally ending with a noise that sounds like a boat horn or a brass instrument, and the fact that you can see Roy just standing there in the darkness, still staring at you on the right.
  • During the animated sequence that represents Yellow Guy's dream, Roy is present in every single scene. Two in particular are highly unsettling: In the very first sequence, Roy is literally inside the theater in Yellow Guy's mind; when the camera zooms in, for a split second he turns around to look right at the viewer. And when his son is drowning in oil, he's in the window. Watching it happen. Without doing a thing to help. There's also a tiny Roy coming out of the clock on the wall. Make of that what you will.
  • The ending to the entire series:
    Sketchbook: What's your favorite idea? note 

    TV Series Pilot Episode 
  • The promo teases some scary stuff, such as a machine that resembles the Duck (surrounded by other machines with arms), a ramshacked Mayor's Office, a scene with Duck surrounded by darkness, the town of Clayhill ruined, and a weird purple bowling ball thing with a face. Also, there seems to be a new teacher in town.
  • Mayor Pigface has a weird nonsensical song about how his "new friends" out in the woods (a bunch of logs) "bite his eyelids and pull out his teeth while he sleeps", complete with an entirely too meaty shot of bloody toothless gums.

    TV Series 
General
  • In the web series, Red Guy was The Stoic who often complained about situations, but would never show outward emotion about it, save for a slightly higher inflection when telling Colin to shut up in Episode 4. However, in the TV series, he's much more prone to anger, and the times he shouts are unsettling due to how uncharacteristic it seems for him.
    "I don't work here! ...Okay! Fine! BYYYYYE!!! [slams phone]"
    "And we live in an actual nightMAAAAARRRE!!!"
    "Wh- I'M DEALING WITH IT! [smacks Yellow Guy with a glass bottle]"
    "We can't go back! I'm NOT going back into that house!"
  • Roy has an easily-missed appearance in the otherwise upbeat intro. You can find him peering through a hole in the wall next to the fridge right as the scene transitions.

"Jobs"

  • Yellow Guy states that he has a "job" on his shoulder, which the Suitcase states is actually a welt. Cue a shot of a disgusting living welt on Yellow Guy's skin.
  • At one point, Duck removes the safety helmet from Duncan's head, revealing a bloody, screaming head underneath.
  • Duck's attempt at making "bits and parts" ends badly when a part morphs into a shrieking face. The workers accelerate the conveyor belt, shredding it instantly.
  • The Carehound. It appears in the elevator after Duck attempts to register a complaint about being fired from his job, suddenly lunging at him and doing... something to him offscreen, before spitting Duck back out in a new work outfit, suddenly enthusiastic about working and acting almost like a different person. Whatever the Carehound did to him, brainwashing was involved.
  • Duck's reaction to the true nature of Bits & Parts Limited is played entirely seriously. You can see from his facial expressions and hear from the tone of his voice that he's immediately realized what's going on, and is desperately searching for a way to fix it, which leads to...
  • Duck throwing Yellow Guy's retirement card onto the conveyor belt. When Yellow Guy reaches for it, his hand gets mauled in a distressingly realistic fashion. The factory workers' cheerful reactions to this help elevate it to Black Comedy, but only slightly.
  • Before the credits, Briefcase flips a coin over to Duck. The coin lands edge-first into his right eye.

"Death"

  • A shot from the "We Gotta Get Things Ready" musical number offhandedly reveals that underneath his string, Red Guy has a lipless mouth with disturbingly realistic teeth that are disgusting to look at.
  • Though much of the episode is more played for laughs than the others, the scene in which Duck's body slowly starts rotting and becoming covered in maggots, all while he's been Buried Alive inside the Coffin, is viscerally disturbing.
  • The ending. After Yellow Guy digs up Duck and brings him back home, he finds that Red Guy has convinced Stain Edwards to take on the form of Duck. At first the tension between them is played for laughs, as the group abruptly decides to keep both Ducks and be a group of four from now on; the intro then plays again, with an additional Duck awkwardly shoved into each shot... until one of the Ducks abruptly decapitates the other with a shovel. And to make matters worse, we have no idea which Duck was which, meaning that it's entirely possible the Duck we've been watching was Killed Off for Real.
    • Supporting that possibility, if you look close at the dead Duck's corpse, you can see worms lying around his body.
  • The implication of the overall episode is that there is no such thing as "death" in the puppet world — even if you qualify as "dead", you are still conscious and aware of your body rotting away. Of course, the puppets always come back the next episode, but that doesn't change that no one can leave that world — not even through death.

"Family"

  • Duck's self-centered sociopathy gets cranked up to eleven when he toasts a young child slice of bread, essentially burning it alive as its mother, the loaf, screams in horror. All because Duck was bitter about not being immediately accepted as part of their "family".
  • The titular Family of creepy puppets who shanghai the gang into participating in their daily routine. Everything about them is utterly horrifying, from their deranged designs, to their creepily obsessive behavior towards the other puppets, to their singsong way of speaking... and that's even before they kidnap Yellow Guy and force him to play the role of their "mother". In any other show, they'd easily be the most horrifying thing in the episode. But then again, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared has never been just any other show...
    • Special mention goes to the twins Todney and Lilly. Everything about them-their wall-eyed stares, to their creepy, high-pitched voices (which sound somewhat like an evil version of Milo from Tweenies to their stilted movements-just make them look and sound off.
  • The family tree that lives in the Family's house also deserves a mention. His crooked appearance and creepy voice already sounds bad, but then he asks for a blood sample from Red Guy to figure out his family, and he just keeps sucking, and sucking, until Red Guy starts having hallucinations with the tree suddenly speaking in an even deeper voice, sounding absolutely terrifying.
  • Two words: Roy returns.
    • He does so in perhaps the most terrifying way possible — by suddenly barging in on the Family's dinner and devouring them alive. And this is him after having seemingly grown softer since the original series, since he technically rescues his son Yellow Guy in the process.
    • Yellow Guy's reaction to seeing his dad. He slowly gets more nervous until Roy shoves him aside, at which point Yellow seems to realize why he's there, slips out the door, and quietly says "bye" to the family, clearly knowing exactly what's going to happen to them. It seems Roy has done this before.
    • We hear Roy speak for the first time other than the text-only interview, although he only says one word: "Yum." He repeats this word in a progressively louder and more deranged tone as he comes closer to the family, and as he devours the family alive.

"Friendship"

  • While the trio (along with Colin) ruthlessly wound Warren emotionally by roasting him nonstop about his behavior and appearance, the latter can only tense up and have his eyes bulge before letting off an uneasy, creepy laugh. It's not farfetched for a viewer to assume that Warren is going to try and kill the trio at that point, yet he doesn't. Despite his claims that he's not affected by their insults, the audience can already tell that their mockery of him has made him lose it on the inside.
  • Yellow Guy's distorted, elongated face after getting his feelings hurt. At first it looks similar to the aged Yellow Guy from "Time," except it gets even worse as the episode progresses.
  • Whereas the other Brain Friends just leave Yellow Guy's mind via a set of stairs, Shy Imaginary Older Brother breaks open a window and slits his throat with one of the shards.
  • Warren's final form is as terrifying as it is disgusting. Special mention goes to the buildup before its reveal, as Yellow Guy frantically runs through a dark void, attempting to escape whatever is chasing him, all while Warren's voice echoes around him. The really fucked up rendition of "Brain Friends", doesn't help one bit.
    Warren: You only really need ONE... BEST... FRIEND!!!
  • The Stinger having what were once three True Companions getting into a violent brawl. The three smash each other in the face with glass, Red Guy uncharacteristically yells again, and even Yellow Guy gains Angry Eyebrows - and as it goes on in the credits, we can only hear how the rest goes down. It would be depressing if the exact sounds and circumstances weren't there to escalate it into Crosses the Line Twice levels.

"Transport"

  • The first scare comes early this time, in the opening. As Yellow Guy sings his part for the Couch Gag, it goes on longer than normal, the backdrop goes dark, the audio changes, and Yellow Guy's mood gets progressively more somber and almost frightened.
    Yellow Guy: I'm the one who had a dream where there was stuff like there was another me, and everything was lots of fun, and I went and saw the other ones, and there was a little, lumpy one, and another windy little one, and there were things that they had around that I knew what they were, but I don't know now, and then it went away...
    This turns out to foreshadow the events of the following episode, "Electricity". If the current, not-smart Yellow Guy can vaguely remember this as a dream, how many times has it happened to him before?
  • During the trip, Yellow Guy dozes off and has a dream of showing up in a town, a pleasant narrator (revealed as Lesley in the following episode) describing the setting fondly. One of his neighbors in this dream even gifts him a bird, which Yellow Guy plays with. He follows it to the road, with Lesley's voice telling him to be careful, until she suddenly screams in horror "CAREFUL!" as Yellow Guy is ran over by a car. This jostles Yellow Guy awake just in time to see that a bird has splatted against his window.
  • The climactic scene. The Old Train suddenly wakes back up and begins begging the trio to stop, saying that he's not supposed to go this far. The trio completely ignore this warning, with Red Guy force-feeding him raisins and cigarettes in a desperate attempt to shut him up, all while whatever façade of excitement he had falls away to reveal his true motive for the trip: a desperation to get away from the house and the horrors that happen inside it. And then, without warning, the environment outside begins to glitch and disappears... to reveal a barren live-action scrapyard — as in, filled with actual junked objects, without a trace of the usual felt aesthetic of the series. There's not a single trace of life anywhere in sight; as far as we can tell, the world outside the trio's house is a barren, possibly post-apocalyptic wasteland. What on earth happened here?!
  • In general, once the episode shifts to the trio on the road there is an incredibly foreboding tone to it all, as if the world itself is telling them that they shouldn't be heading off without a teacher.

"Electricity"

  • Red Guy and Duck finding all of the previous teachers lying dead throughout their house. What happened to them? Is this where they went after the episodes they starred in ended? We never find out. The only teacher we see alive in this scene is Lamb Chop from the Healthy Band, who suddenly runs across the screen (complete with Scare Chord) with one eyeball missing and an X over the other one, either begging for the puppets to help him or jabbering the word "healthy" over and over. What the hell was he running from? There's also the fact that when Tony's corpse is shown, Roy is lying in the background behind him. Granted, he doesn't seem to be dead, given the lack of X's over his eyes like Tony, but still, seeing the former Big Bad of the series lying motionless on the ground, surrounded by the corpses of his former underlings... it doesn't bode well for the trio's chances against whatever did this.
  • There's something off about the designs of Big Red Guy and Duck, especially the fact that their eyes are human like and are unsettling to look at.
  • Lesley.
    • Not only is she the only actual human in the series, not only is her encounter with Yellow Guy incredibly off-putting (what with her occasional forays into Suddenly Shouting), but it's implied that she, not Roy, is the true creator of the DHMIS universe and the ultimate force behind the teachers. Or alternatively (and equally frightening), it means that she usurped Roy from his position as director of the series in some way...
      Yellow Guy: You didn't build all this, did you?
      Lesley: That's a good question.
      Yellow Guy: What's the answer?
      [Lesley simply starts chuckling]
      Yellow Guy: What's going on? Why are you laughing?
      Lesley: Because it's so FUNNY!
    • The little poem she says as Yellow Guy enters the attic has some rather disturbing implications.
      Lesley: Batteries can be replaced, but some things stay the same. No matter how we twist and turn, we're still dancing in chains...
    • At one point Yellow Guy asks why he can't just stay there with Lesley. Her response is to suddenly scream at him that "[he's] not [her] real son", which has some disturbing implications considering the daydream Yellow Guy had in the previous episode where Lesley screamed at Yellow Guy to be careful as he got hit by a car.
    • Her appearance also deserves mention: she seems to have pieces of fabric sewn into her skin, and all of her smiles look rather fake.
  • There are more stairs in the attic. Is there someone or something above even Lesley in this universe? Like for example... us, their audience and their true creators? Without the audience, a puppet has no reason to exist. Maybe if Yellow Guy ever manages to read that book, he'll finally climb the last staircase...
  • The ending - from Yellow Guy's fresh batteries being replaced by his old ones, causing him to lose all his newfound knowledge as he lets out a Big "NO!", to him shredding the book Lesley gave him afterwards, possibly the three's only method of escaping the house. The trio are now possibly trapped there forever, with no other potential way out.

    Other 
  • The Kickstarter videos.
    • First, there's the entire premise of the puppets being kidnapped and held hostage, with the whole thing being shot like the setup of a Snuff Film.
    • In "HELP #1":
      • Red Guy being forced to read a message stating that if the campaign doesn't raise enough money, they will be killed off. Yes, he uses that exact wording.
      • Yellow Guy's reaction to being tied up: "Why are we in my dad's house?" It might just be Yellow Guy being Yellow Guy, but considering what we know about his father...
      • There's also a split-second shot of Sketchbook's face on the floor. Just their face, not the rest of them. They could be dead... or alternatively, they could be still alive, but faceless.
      • Upon closer inspection... They appear to be nailed to the wall. Body Horror, galore!
    • Then, in "HELP #2", there's Yellow Guy having a bag put on his head and yelling, "No, I don't want it!" It's very unsettling, especially since Yellow Guy is also crying while he's talking.
    • "HELP #3" has the Money Man gathering a collection of body parts (which may or may not come from our heroes) into a bag and writing 'YOU' on the bag with what's probably the puppets' blood. All while distorted cheery music plays in the background.
      • The Puppets Need YOU... OR DEAD?
      • The final countdown. The number of days left to save the puppets ticking away with a single tone intensifying in pitch and length is an easy way to get the anxiety rushing, but then once all days are gone...
  • Not in the series itself, but this Vocaloid song made as a tribute to the series is pretty creepy, acting as a mutual Villain Song for Sketchbook and Tony. Especially creepy is the following line, which sums up the "media conditioning children" theme perfectly:
    "Stop all of your thinking and start listening to me!"
  • This song, which is also based off of "Dreams" (which is made by the same musician above) is pretty damn creepy as it's sung from the perspective of a completely broken Yellow Guy after "Dreams".
    • The lyrics are unbelievably creepy, especially if you believe the theory that the Yellow Guy is a child and that his father, Roy, was the Big Bad the whole time. It sounds more like a really nasty song about a child being abused to impossible lengths. These lines are particularly chilling considering the events of this series... It's also weirdly catchy.
      They are dying
      I am drowning
      Please, help me
      Father, please
      I'll be a good boy
    • Another particularly unsettling set of lyrics, given how distressingly realistic it is to actual child abuse cases:
      Roy: Have you learned your lesson?
      Yellow Guy: Yes I have.
      Roy: Will you disobey me?
      Yellow Guy: No I won't.


Alternative Title(s): This Is It

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