Don't Hug Me I'm Scared - Short Film Analysis

 "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is a well-known short film by This is It. It begins looking like your average kid's show - puppets talk to a notepad who's teaching them how to be creative. However, it quickly turns dark, with said puppets covering hearts in glitter, making cakes out of gore, and spelling out death. This video has tons of dark, hidden meanings, mostly about children's media, and how it is too controlling.

The main characters sitting around the table

The first thing I want to discuss is the use of tropes generally used in children's media - the music was happy(until it turned dark), there were the characters learning about creativity, it was educational, teaching one how to be creative, everything any good children's program requires. This is part of the reason as to why I believe this is a criticism of children's media.

The infamous notepad's hair

A major sign of the control of children's media is when the notepad discusses its hair. It says that "I use my hair to express myself", but when Harry(the red guy) says that "that sounds really boring", the notepad just repeats itself, almost like Harry can't have his own opinion. In a similar vein, Manny, the human, paints a clown and says his favorite color is green, but is told he is wrong both times, when the notepad says "Woah there, friend, you might need to slow down," and that "Green is not a creative color". This is commentary on the way that children's media tells children to be creative, but controls their creativity.

The characters as adults

The final note I want to make is the part where the video become CGI for a moment, turns the camera around, and then returns to live-action/puppetry, but the characters are larger. This part represents the aging of the children. They no longer have someone there to tell them what to do, indicated by the disappearance of the notepad, but they are still being "creative". They are taking their new creative freedom too far, though, and it's turned creepy. This shows how the controlled creativity can be wrong, making the children sick and go almost crazy with power once they age and gain freedom.

Through a silly video, This Is It showed thousands of people how controlled creativity can damage our children. Please comment on what you think!