On top of the simple presentation and clean horror, this also works as a good metaphor for childhood trauma from parental expectations. A parent "buying" a happy child, expecting them to be happy at all times no matter how little effort they put in, only to be greeted with a monster of their own runaway design once they grow up, exacting a vengeance with more attention than their parents ever gave them.
No. In that way child is horribly tramatised, hates their parents. But is not a monster. Telling that someone is monster because of their terrible parents is not good.
@@ferrarighostlypograjmercia9467 People shouldn’t call them a monster, but you’ve heard: The abused usually become the abuser And this wheel of cruelty will keep going on, and won’t stop till someone does.
@@ferrarighostlypograjmercia9467 i think it is a metaphor. it's not meant to be taken seriously and literally. in my opinion, the word here resembles their awful behavior, like that of a monster.
@@sa_jaya no. Even if it is a metaphor - it is wrong. I dont know how to say it but a child like this is not monster, it is more like sad, it feels bad and unwanted. It doesnt do bad things.
A lot of people have kids for the same reasons they get dogs, to fill a void and have a new friend. They’re mentally unprepared often to handle the mighty responsibility of taking care of a life and nurturing it into a logically thinking, rational person with real emotional responses. Nice video.
this is unfortunately true. i asked my mother, "why were we born? answering by your perspective of course." she simply said that it fills up the emptiness between her and father. i frowned man, is that it? there is so much more responsibility to a parent than just having someone to accompany you in the future. i think parenthood should start with a clear and strong purpose. personally i wouldnt want to have dogs or cats or little humans though
Things (well, thing) to note: Looks like when something happens to an HC that makes them unhappy (e.g. them losing a balloon), they become... that thing. Strange unknown company at 0:11-0:15 This is criminally underrated! You just earned a new sub!
The lore of happy child: I think that "HC" is possibly a murderer who built a robot who actually has feelings and is programed so whenever they feel a negative emotion, they become a killer thing. There isn't much else to find and really much that's all there is.
I think apparently, the H.C is could be what u said, however if u apparently don’t take care of that said child then they would transformed. So apparently, he not a robot, but rather a shapeformed creature created by that unknown commeny.
y'know, at first I thought this was some deep profound statement on those people who view parenthood as something you only do for yourself. Those parents who want their children to be passive little dolls that can be forced into whatever roles they want, become frustrated when they inevitably start forming their own opinions, preferences, identities and points of interest, which don't perfectly align with what is expected of them, and take those frustrations out on the children in question. Then I saw the monster, and I was like... "Oh ok, this wasn't meant to have any of those profound meanings, I was just reading too deep into it." But now I'm wondering if maybe you actually did mean it like that, and my bias against monster-based horror obscured that.
it might be a reference to bad parents not showing affection and kindness to their child and then they become big spaghetti monsters and than the real life fnaf franchise starts
My theory is that "Happy Child" is a rejected series of military robots that are then sold to the general population. They are made to looks like children as a disguise for infiltration mission into enemy territory; in particular pretending to be war orphans hiding among the war refugees. The tall lanky figure is HC's combat mode that it activates to assassinates its target, however perhaps of a defect the HC is very emotional and can went into combat mode when it's unhappy.
i think the HC robot is a sentient being that once abandoned grows vengeful and hateful. I think that if you were to give it love and care, it would never become a monster. the meaning of this video could be that children have delicate feelings, and without parental love, they don't grow into good people. The distorted monster is just an exaggeration. also instead of being scared i kinda feel bad for the HC like it got abandoned i mean if someone ditched me id be pretty mad at them (maybe not become spaghetti boi and guillotine them) but yeah
Everybody is so into a HC being super hostile and I don't think this video intended to have lore but this puts this video in a whole new perspective, I did not think of it that way.. Thanks for showing everyone what they have to do 👍
I think analog horror truly scares us by making feel like we can’t trust anyone. Like the mandela catalogue gives us alternates. And skinwalkers. When you watch them it brings out feelings of not knowing if people’s identities are just a facade or real. That terrifies me the most.
Had seem a lot people like me with a bigger nose so its kinda unsettling but funny at the same time but after i watched mandela catalogue i absolutely gone full panic mode at night if i remember it
Same with Monument Mythos. It's one of the few pieces of horror that have stuck with me, since it shows you stuff like the trees and crowns, and that's not mentioning stuff like Freedom and the Canal Crab.
this series its great so far but i feel like im gonna be jumpscared at any moment idk if this good or bad its building tension so thats good and making me scared i think ill follow this series for a little bit
I was watching this and then the slender figure appeared and it got quiet, I was begging for it to now show me some scary image cuz I’m laying in bed in the dark
As Orange_tangie said, the best analog horror is meant to give you that building tension and then never release it! In most tapes considered creepy there's not really a big jumpscare or thing that relieves tension like knowing you and the character are completely out of danger. It's intended to keep you on your toes, watching for an unknown threat even when you think you're safe Sorry for the rant lmao, I just really like analog horror-
This gives me that sad and grateful feeling that I have lovely parents who will never do this but sometimes listening to these audios just gives your heart that melting feeling. ;(
You have been given that which I am forever denied. Treasure your time with them, please. You've no idea how precious such a gift is until you've felt it's absence.
I interpreted this as emotional neglect. Having love and belonging and esteem (represented by the 123 instructions) are part of the hierarchy of needs. I think that the Happy Child letting go of the balloon represents having lost something, like the love of a parent. In the end the child becomes a monster and destroys the person who took away so much from its life.
it's an analog horror. these "tapes" r supposed to be gory and terrible. possibly rly symbolizes Slenderman. this prob doesn't have nothing at all with emotional negligence.
I like the meaning, many people want a happy child but can't even pay attention to it, only want a low maintenance kid, tbh this happens so many times in real life that I have to wonder how many parents actually want a mini human, not a new decor.
I’m so glad this version of horror is now popular. Analog horror is very underrated and I’m glad it’s getting the love it deserves. Before this, there’s always been that mediocre jumpscare formula just to get a quick scare from us, but now jumpscares are very predictable. But this type of horror will be in your head for the whole day or at least an hour, while a jumpscare takes mere seconds.
My opinion: This repersents an abusive relationship, Happy child is expected to be happy and obedient and is punished and beaten when they aren't. Eventually, The Happy child grows into a teenager, And is filled with emotion and rage for being mercilessly abused, So they become a "monster" and they turn on their parent and kill them.
The silhouettes of these human-like figures, while faceless and without any eyes whatsoever, feels like they're staring right at me through the screen and that feeling is just so unnerving. Whatever they do, they're constantly facing you looking at you, like they're planning to do something.
All I can think about is being such a good parent that when the HC turns into that noodle man, they actively fight against their own programming cuz they don’t wanna hurt their parent
my theory is that; the happy child is like a metaphor to children in foster care or orphans taken into families where they're not paid attention to even then. They're bound to snap in some way or another if that continues. How it plays out is up to interpretation.
I like analog horror that doesn't answer all the questions. Stuff like this where it's just "If you don't pay attention to the happy child, THIS happens, we don't know why." is one of my favorite ways of storytelling
I saw the title and thumbnail and immediately thought of the parents having a regular child, but then them seeing the brand “Happy child” and throwing their child in a dumpster while yelling “THIS IS NOT A HAPPY CHILD!”
this was the first analog horror video i ever watched. this got me into the whole analog horror genre. thank you for making this video and getting me to discover the whole analog horror stuff.
Cool, there's Surrendering to Despair (Sweet and Low) by the Caretaker playing in the background. Pretty subtle, considering how the original track is a lullaby but is linked to dementia-induced despair in Caretaker's work. 😮
I feel like the message of this video is like, society is telling you that you need to have children in order to have a happy life, and not needing parenting skills to have children. And at the end, the you seee the child grew up to be a menace to society, because of not being well taken care of properly. Then the parent faces the blame, like "you should've been a good parent!" There's a reason why child abuse is so high Edit: people are going to give me cr@p about it, and say I'm "projecting", when in reality, I'm not projecting at all. This is the absolute truth of society's standards. Alot of adults today have extreme anxiety and depression, most of it is rooted in childhood. And we have very young children developing anxiety and depression in early childhood, because of parents not acting like parents. These "parents" were fear mongered by society that "if you don't make a family, you'll end up alone", however, there are people who made families ends up dying alone anyways. We have elders in nursing homes who had childs, but they don't visit them anymore because they are ether too busy with their own kids, or because their parents were so horrible that they finally cut contact from them. Children aren't you're stress toys or trophies that you can play with, they are living, breathing, human beings. The effects of an abusive parent(s) on a child will really show in their adulthood. Also, we are not gonna go extinct. we are far from going extinct. There are still alot of other people in this world who have the right skills to parent children. So please don't worry about "the end of the world" that would never happen.
@@Ryuusubliminals222 The typos, the crappy synthesised voice, all the little nuances which one would think were mistakes... all of it's gotta be intentional. You just get a feeling...
I feel like it's like mandela catalogue if you see someone that is uncharacteristic is not a human but I think we need another one to expand the lore here
i must say, while the execution isn't entirely the best (couple of writing/spelling mistakes, doesn't really give much room to be all that scared of it), the premise seems nice. and you're definitely making everyone wonder what the happy child is or what it's purpose is, perhaps adding to the mystery, which i'd say is great. my personal interpretation is that maybe they are sentient and alive and that this company is basically delegating the resposibility of making sure they are happy (so they don't uh mess everyone up) to the uninformed public, under the guise that they're just robots you can take care of to not be broed and lonely. because, obviously, if they knew it could become whatever the fuck THAT is, no one would actually take the responsibility. i see you have a few other videos. i'm curious to see what they're like :)
This is analog horror But what is really important of this video is the instructions to keep a "happy child" You need to take care of them, listen to tthem, pay attention, talk to them ,play with them, fulfill their emotional needs they have Because they are children
I have a theory. Not really a theory,but.. Im guessing that the happy child is supposed to represent serial killers. Happy children have a lot of serial killer traits,and they could be almost “Killers in the making”. And the guardian might represent the victims of serial killers.if the happy child isn’t given or has what it desires,it takes it out on the guardian,Which might be a representation of how some serial killers act toward their victims.
If you think about it, this is a perfect symbolism for child neglect. Like some parents expect their child to have a happy facade despite the trauma they give to them. It’s actually really sad
when I first saw this it reminds me of how I'm heavily neglected emotionally. Especially at the part where the child (I'm assuming) is grown, it grew to hate it's parent (owner?), and they're dead to the child now? I don't know, but this video is very interesting, and I love reading the interpretations on the comments!
This is what I picked up from “the happy child” This add is probably targeted to people with anxiety or depression and is looking for something to cheer them up. Or is could possibly be by mothers than have lost their child from any events. As from the video if you stop paying attention to your child or even @busing / neglecting it, it morphs into a distorted “thing” I’ll update this comment if I see to find anything more (I’m lazy rn sorry! :’c)
Now , that I’m a fan of horror , I’m still scared but I find someway entertaining. If you showed this me me like 9 years ago , I would have been absolutely *traumatized*
