Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared

Though I do my best to stay on top of media trends and internet memes, I often still miss something great. So I was unfamiliar with artists Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling’s short video series, “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared,” until just today.

While the first episode is now about five years old (playing at Sundance in 2011), their sixth (and final) installment dropped just yesterday.

The shorts are in the style of children’s television programs – with singing, talking puppets as main characters, and each episode built around a single theme like ‘creativity’ or ‘dreams.’ But, increasingly shortly within each successive episode, things diverge from their happy start to far darker territory.

All six are pretty much amazing, and there’s a subtle through-line building across the entire set. I’d highly recommend blowing your lunch break by watching them all:

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

Episode 5

Episode 6

Green is not a creative color, indeed.