Nightmare Fuel / Fraggle Rock

Dancing our cares away and saving our worries for another day would be easier without these moments...

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• The Terrible Tunnel, from the episode of the same name, is a frequently cited case among those who watched the show when they were younger. In ancient times, once Fraggles entered the tunnel, their souls were trapped, and when Sir Blunderbrain freed them, he himself got trapped. Ages later, Wembley ends up finding the tunnel again while being It in the Marco Polo-like game Hidey-Ho, and he answers the calls of the tunnel's creepy ghostly voice instead of the voices of the other Fraggles. When Wembley finds it again with Gobo and Red, they nearly get sucked in, and while Wembley saves them in an unexplained manner, they come back to Fraggle Rock noticeably far worse for wear.
  Wembley: Hidey!
  The Terrible Tunnel: HOOOOOO-oooo!
• The Gorgs, to many a younger viewer. It doesn't help that Junior grabs Gobo in the opening theme. Then there's the Nightmare Sequence in "The New Trash Heap in Town", where all the Fraggles have been having a recurring nightmare since Gobo got his leg thumped after a particularly violent encounter in the Gorgs' garden. The sequence shows Junior sledgehammering his way into the Rock, crawling in amidst screams of terrified Fraggles, and beginning, on all fours, to chase them... showcased with bizarre and almost ghostly visuals.
  Junior: [laughing maniacally] Okay, you Fraggles! I've busted in here, and now I'm gonna thump all your legs!
• In "Marooned", Boober and Red get trapped by a cave-in. As the ceiling is slowly collapsing and threatening to crush them, the terrified Fraggles try to imagine what happens after they die. Not a good episode for the claustrophobic. Add to that the Fridge Horror involving both of them recognizing the symptoms of running out of oxygen, and the fact that the spot where they were trapped gave off a hellish vibe. Aaaaaaand this all happened on Boober's birthday. A Birthday, Not a Break indeed.
  • The episode is so upsetting that in 2023, it appears that The Jim Henson Company randomly sent the episode back to the British Board Of Film Classification for re-rating, seemingly out of concern for its dark content, though it ultimately remained rated U due to the "reassuring and positive messages around the upsetting themes."
• "Boober Rock": The amnesia-inducing flowers in the Caves of Boredom, and seeing Boober and Wembley fall victim to them. Victims of the flowers forget all they know until they are mindless enough for the plants to strangle them in their vines. When Boober and Wembley want to leave the Caves of Boredom but can't remember the way out, Wembley suggests that, to keep up their spirits, they sing the "Remembering Song". But as they sing, their memories get progressively worse, until most of the lyrics have been reduced to "something" and "nah-nah-nah-nah-nah". And on top of that, they don't notice the plants trying to grab them.
• "Wembley and the Mean Genie": The sequence in the Genie's Rotten Rock & Roll song, "Do You Want It?", where the Genie hypnotizes all the Fraggles but Wembley, turns them into a mindless army wearing identical clothes and standing with arms directed to the sides (which resembles a totalitarian regime), and slow-mo destroys an entire Doozer construct, with sparks flying.
• The Nightmare Sequence in "Playing Till It Hurts". We see disturbingly distorted visuals of Rock Hockey Hannah as she pleads for Red, whose room has turned into a jail cell, to play rock hockey despite her injuries. By the end of it, the other four members of the Fraggle Five join her and it becomes a borderline Madness Mantra.
  Rock Hockey Hannah and the Fraggle Four: When it hurts real bad, you gotta play real good! When it hurts real bad, you gotta play real good!
• Begoony's treatment of Mokey in "The Incredible Shrinking Mokey" will ring true to anyone who's ever been in an abusive relationship.

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