Don't Hug Me I'm Eldritch

 

 

"And we live in an actual nightMAAAAARE!!!"

 "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" began as a series of YouTube videos created eleven years ago by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling, two British artists who in 2011 started a short, impressive series of short videos, using abundant stop motion, puppets and other forms of animation. The series follows the three protagonists, usually known as Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck (although Yellow Guy’s true name seems to be confirmed as Doi; so his full name seems to be Doi Rateyes… or perhaps Roy Rateyes-Gibbleston? (“don’t forget the hyphen!”) Red Guy once started to say his own name, and it began with “Dre-“; and much later, Duck’s name is indicated to be a single letter… or rather, a sigil, as we’ll soon see -I mentioned all these uncertain aspects just to show how much has been gathered from various obscure details and sources by dedicated fans). The stories show these three puppets living in a single home, with a strong Sesame Street vibe; their lives, however, are usually interrupted by whacky characters who sometimes take the role of “teachers” and, through songs and various activities, lead the three puppets into increasingly disturbing situations that make DHMIS most definitely not for young children.

Things would escalate enormously in later episodes. 

The original short episodes were followed by a kickstarter that would bring a resolution; this led eventually to the announcement of an upcoming TV series, produced in collaboration between Blink Industries, Conaco, and Super Deluxe (not surprising that Super Deluxe produced three lengthy livestreams with Poppy back in the day, including the mysterious “Where is Poppy?” which showed her actually performing a ritual of some sort). The pilot, “Wakey Wakey”, was screened at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, but the series was cancelled. I was surprised to find out that the pilot episode is currently considered “lost media”, since way back when, I watched it online! Strangely enough, you can only find a crappy clip seemingly filmed at the festival where it was presented.

This insightful video shows the depth of Becky and Joseph's behind-the-scenes work. Or not. 

A couple of weeks ago, Season Two of the series was presented in Channel 4 of British TV, available only over there. Fortunately for us in the rest of the world, the episodes have reached us one way or another.

Some fans seem to be disappointed that the show does not follow the now-legendary “Wakey Wakey” pilot; but I have to say, I’m personally glad for this. The current series follows directly on the footsteps of the original video series, only with a lengthier format which allows for more cohesive narrative. In the now-lost pilot, the characters were shown as living in a town, Clayhill, and the storyline revolved around the disappearance of the mayor, and Duck briefly becoming a sudden tyrant ruler. The pilot had a more straightforward storyline, the weird and disturbing elements were randomly interspersed and far less intrusive, and it felt closer to a Lazytown-type scenario without human characters. The new series, on the other hand, are isolated in their home (mostly… whenever they manage to go beyond their hardly-safe space, things become even more sinister for them). The longer format allows us to sympathize with the characters, and there is a good share of great humor in the dialogue and situations; I found myself laughing aloud quite often –but then, that’s what gets us to lower our guard, to become invested in the characters; I also was hooked into shouting “No!” at Duck in the final minutes of episode 6! The essence of the first series is delved into; we are watching three innocent puppets trapped in an endless nightmare. Sometimes they start becoming aware of this, but there seems to be no escape; whenever they rebel against the horrendous hidden forces controlling their lives, things become hopelessly loathsome, and they are then returned to their loop of silliness and suffering.  

Worth mentioning that episode 5 does allude to Clayhill, the town from the lost pilot, perhaps as a strange posible scenario that never was (also, Yellow Guy’s “imaginary brother” in episode 4 is one of the background characters from the lost pilot episode). The ending of episode 4 does imply a dark possibility that the pilot might have occurred at some point, and why the characters don’t recall it.

All through the new series, certain strange sigils are shown, subtly, in the background or set on various props, until Yellow Guy finally traces most of them on a sheet of paper (I’m trying to be as subtle with spoilers as possible here) and later, we’ll see the full set of sigils, forming a design on the cover of a certain book.

Groups and message boards are, as usual with such web series, filled with threads debating theories on the hidden storyline and easter eggs. I noticed that some fans proposed that these sigils (usually labeled “symbols” or runes”) were related to the themes of the episodes (debunked since some appear in several episodes); also, that they somewhat resembled letters. Somebody pointed out that the most ubiquitous sigil apparently is Duck’s true name! This I find particularly unsettling.

Because I believe I found the source of the sigils.

These are the sigils drawn by Yellow Guy.

A second take showing another sigil. 

Typing Duck's name; a single key. 

The book.

Now compare with these: 

Does this similarity hold the key for Duck's name?

They are not exactly alike, of course; and I haven’t found all of them. But then, students of grimoire magick often créate their own variants and adaptations of original symbols, and the other sigils may well be based on others, yet to be found in obscure grimoires; but as you will see, two are recognizable as variants of two sigils found in this book in adjacent pages, which goes way beyond mere coincidence. 

Other sigils that show great similarity, although are admittedly not the same, are the following: 

We are dealing, of course, with Simon's version of the forbidden Necronomicon: 

We know, from various fragmentary editions that have surfaced, that different versions of the Book contain variant versions of some sigils; as well as additional sigils clearly derived from the same system. It may yet happen that closer sources for these and other DHMIS sigils eventually surface among the Necronomicon corpus. 

And these, that come from the recently-surfaced chapter Fragments From the Tome Nergak (said to be apocryphal by some; something that gains several layers of confusion when applied to Necronomicon materials!) 

We might also find influence from the following sigil, found in yet another rare grimoire: 

The sigils in DHMIS are clearly based on the sigil system of the Necronomicon. The book of the dead. That which –in its fabled complete edition- has an entire section dedicated to necromancy. When you watch –or rewatch- season 2, take a close look at Leslie. The nature of the forces at play appears to be even more sinister than everybody assumed.