I really, really appreciate that you directly see what the show is about (how complex topics are explained to children) as opposed to what everyone thinks it's about (complicated lore). The creators of the show have continually stated in interviews that all theories about the show are true, mainly because that was never the most important part of the show. Also the box is clearly a metaphor for Stubagful's fear of how his short film might turn out, calling it now.
At the same time I will admit that it is cool that people have been so invested in decoding it. Any creator dreams of this kind of level of audience engagement
@CrpalStuck Its actually both and STILL so much fucking more. I literally can not understand why you and apparently quite a few other DHMIS fans think that its such a compliment. To force this incredibly creative and surreal show down into one tiny little box, say it means absolutely nothing, and shit on other fans who don’t believe any of that nonsense for one goddamn second. By the way asshole, the creators of this show have stated that all of the theories are true because they are wanting to do the exact fucking OPPOSITE of what you and Stubagful are doing. And that’s, rather than forcing this show down into being only about one specific thing and only that single thing alone. They instead want to encourage everybody TO MAKE THEIR OWN FUCKING MEANINGS and analysis of this show. RATHER than just saying that it “DoEsN’t MaKe AnY sEnSe” and acting like that could in any way ever possibly be a GOOD fucking thing. About such a wonderfully creative and well-written show as Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is.
I do think the theory about Leslie creating the puppets to cope with the grief of the death of her son holds some weight, but generally yeah I think people view it too much like FNaF lore rather than interpretive art
People on the internet tend to treat everything like a big mystery box filled with confusing lore but sometimes things just aren't like that. After FNAF everyone has just been conditioned to think that there is super deep lore behind everything when this is actually just a TV show with a simple message.
That's the joy of Baldi's Basics. It KNOWS people treat it like it's a big FNAF-style horror thing, even when it's basically loads of random imagery for no particular reason, and loves watching people try to figure it out, even though there's nothing there TO figure out.
I couldn't help but think while watching that "Don't be silly, you don't die for ages. You die in the lake. I think you drown." sounded like a Stu line.
Random fun fact: The creators of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared co-wrote an episode of The Amazing World of Gumball about puppets and it's basically the unofficial Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 7 (albeit a more kid-friendly version).
Another interesting fact to follow up: Originally, the official DHMIS show was much different and was going to originally involve a story that got referenced in Episode 5 of the TV show saying it doesnt exist. Said pilot, now known as "Wakey Wakey" originally had the following plot points: -Red Guy aka Joseph Pelling's character was searching for the original mayor who basically was kicked out of his town and now lives with the mud and leaves, leading up to him being found by Red Guy since...... -Duck becomes the mayor of the town. - A Key basically tells the main trio to keep all secrets locked up, which interests the trio to travel to said town (I cant remember it but again referenced in episode 5 of the official show). -Yellow Guy basically becomes a punk and works with another person similar to Walter White of Breaking Bad making milk like drugs The reasoning to why that pilot was canned was because the creators basically felt it was becoming too political and similar to South Park, which the DHMIS premise is to teach audiences "How NOT to teach people" in a more blunt comedic way, like how shows like Barney and Sesame Street did theirs towards the kids and adults (at least Sesame Street confronted alot of heavy topics like the Wicked Witch episode that got banned but later resurfaced). If you guys search "Wakey Wakey DHMIS" you will find alot of videos on it and its history since again said pilot never came out properly @Stubagful and I want you to check it out since its history is now considered lost media by today standards. If the creators ever showed said pilot, please help me since I would love to have seen it.
@@JojoMonReturns91 episode 6 proves the point of a joke on kids shows as each floor there big and bigger kids which are ages ranges and the wtf about them
Finally someone who understands that this stuff isn’t meant to have every single frame overanalysed for deep meanings! I loved your perspective of this, it’s actually I was hoping you’d review.
Really enjoyed this series. Was surprised how funny it was. Shy Slightly Older Brother is the most sympathetic character I've ever seen. Even though I saw the ending coming it still bugged me which I imagine was the intent and I hope s2 is happening.
This seemed like the sort of thing you'd definitely talk about, given your kind of short stories. I quite enjoyed the TV version of DHMIS, so interested to hear your thoughts on it.
I honestly haven't stopped thinking about this show since it came out. I don't watch very much TV anymore but this fully gripped me from episode 1. The way they translated the style of the shorts to 20 minute TV episodes is really seamless, it feels like a totally natural evolution. I like how you brought up how people tend to miss the forest for the trees when it comes to looking for a literal interpretations of the events of the show. I will admit, I love to theory craft about what it all means but ultimately the show's overall message is about how the lessons we teach children can be warped and misinterpreted or loaded with our own biases. Really good review.
One thing I noticed about DHMIS is there's this recurring theme of "normal, well-meaning" things gradually unravelling and making less and less sense. Like when the song starts spelling out family with words that begin with "F" and "A", but then it goes to "U", "L", "B", "C","H", "D" and "T". This seems to me to be a reflection of how a lot of kids' media can seem innocent and well meaning at first, but if you actually analyse it you realise no real effort has been put into it and it ends up going nowhere.
This is by far the best description of the show, I have ever seen. You're the first person I've seen that actually see it the same way I do. Maybe because like you, that's also how I saw the world. Heck, that's how I STILL see the world.
I’ve always viewed the original RU-vid series as a narrative about how bad specifically children’s television is at explaining things to children. Putting limitations on what’s considered creative, emphasizing the importance of time and how it might show up in your day to day life but without bothering to answer any of the more complex questions children are sure to ask about such an abstract concept, love being shown through a religious lens and there being a clear right and wrong way to love, nutritional information being intentionally incorrect because of who’s sponsoring the show, etc. How children’s television has been corrupted by all of that and thus fails children.
I really appreciate the fresh perspective you went for in this video. Everyone is so obsessed with what everything is meant to mean, when it just isn’t suppose to make sense, that’s the whole point. You’re well articulated and I loved the drawings you made to illustrate your points, all round great video!
I'm kind of amazed at this. I remember when the RU-vid shorts were just coming out, and I just assumed it was just another "dark creepy kids show with loads of gore in", a là Happy Tree Friends-meets-Those fake VHS early CGI Creepiness videos or something. I'm amazed to hear it's not like that at all, and never has been!
I think that the original series had some plot to follow. Red guy pitches a show, Roy picks up on it. Roy takes complete creative control over the show (changing stuff without even telling red) leading to the show teaching children what to think and not how to think. Red this, and that the show can exist without Roy's funding. He pulls the plug, and reboots the show on his own terms. The show on the other hand, yeah there's no plot in it.
Any plans at all to watch/potentially review The House, the stop-motion anthology on Netflix? That’s the only thing to properly rival Inside No.9 Series 7 and this in my affections when it comes to film/telly this years.
Couldn't have put it better myself. I also think the obscure nature of DHMIS is trying to encourage its audience to actively think about things, not just accept what they've been told about the world like they probably did when they were children. In a lot of kids media (not all, lots) it tells kids about the world without the kids having to actually think about it so they accept it blindly. Its the same with school and work. People just blindly accept that there are certain rules to things without actually understanding or questioning what they are, why they are, and why they even have rules in the first place. Even though DHMIS is kinda meant to be meaningless, that meaningless gets us thinking about the meaning we are assigned by others impressioning upon us rather than finding our own. Like how Yellow guys attempts at creativity are constantly quashed by the mentor figures. "Be as creative as you want, but remember green is not a creative colour." "You can be whatever you want, so long as its practical to society." This is why I like episode 6 of the TV show so much, because it takes this formula and flips it on its head when Yellow guy (actively seen as the youngest and most naive of the group) actively becomes intelligent, and supersedes the authority of the random singing objects that magically appear by actively making his own decisions and taking himself out of the equation. And through the use of the "big boys room" metaphor, shows how this rote, detached and simplified understanding of the world effects all facets of learning at all ages. As someone whose recently started university, seeing the Bigger boys room with two highly complex versions of Red guy and duck that seem so intelligent and observant randomly torture a creature they have no idea about because it may do something hit me in a way no other show really has.
While I may not agree with every interpretation you expressed in this video, I do think the point you were getting at throughout about the series being shown through a child's warped view of the world made me get Lesley's character a lot better. She's an adult as viewed by a child, specifically a dysfunctional parental figure. She's constantly present yet always distant, in control of the main characters' whole livelihoods, vague and sometimes nonsensical about her reasoning for things, and seems to change her feelings towards Yellow Guy on a dime. Honestly, I think the series is intentionally trying to set things up to make it seem like she has some sort of complex tragic backstory, but is intentionally leaving loose ends everywhere, because a kid would get that sort of spotty, ill-defined view of their parent(s) as a person if they weren't ever spoken to earnestly about things.
They way i see the fandom of dhmis is we are like children but the fun ones who chat and play with the show discuss details (tho the bad side can be annoying like gatekeeping THIS IS Season 2 AND NOT IS OWN THING BLAH BLAH) But I've knew a kid who liked fnaf and saw all these (not tv show just web series) and his theory's and decussions on fnaf i found interesting as he never took it serious but it was a fun chat with him without messing wth his perspective Which dhmis shows how without proper explaining of basics or complicated it can be literal and messing in a scary way The last ep was a good way of showing that is a joke on kids shows where 3 floors are age grades of "kids" shows Bottom is simple,basic and bright Middle is pre teens to teens where they "understand" more able to get two things at once and feel there are call for being the big boys "try to keep up mate" Top is more adult like which shows experimenting which can be good and bad like when they are experimenting on a creative sure is for science and research but on another perspective is kinda horrible for the smallest detail of research to get what could be the most pointless and useless awnsers for example them just tasering it for what? The person at the top i always saw as the hosts we see on cbbc and cheeses who try to be more reliable like a 2nd parent who still wants to teach us but is more down to earth and often controls these characters (the hand that controls the puppet or pulls the strings) which often is the human figure who teaches the puppets about the lessons but when these puppets who don't learn are left to there own devices they basically end up like children Take big bird from sesame street. You think he the one who gonna teach your kids but really he is a big kid who needs to learn stuff like death,divorce (sadly that was cut) and so much more the kids are big bird as the humans are to our real parents But when you have just the sesame street characters with no humans often they are being whacky, getting into trouble and more since they are image how a child would imagen there own creations I do thank you for the review and giving a very interesting perspective tbh i wasn't sure if you was gonna hate it for being a gory horror with a gimmick something (since there are reviewers who take the orginal and strange and just taken them....a bit too literal a knock knock joke where they just open the door)
The web series vs the show is interesting. The first two episodes of the web series were just edgy "kids show gets gorey" pieces, the third was a piece with a straight storyline and a clear message (cults bad), which is the tone the TV show took. The reason the second half of the web show became so "lore" heavy is because I think Becky and Joe felt unsatisfied with how straight-forward the cult episode was, and decided to turn the series into a parody of the concept of art, media, and messages in general. I'm not a FNAF lore weirdo who takes everything hyper-serious, but I do prefer the surreal, bleak nature of the web show towards the end. The TV show is too straightforward- it's hilarious, but it's a sitcom that I could have seen on late night Cartoon Network in 2012.
Rewatching this after watching season 1 of DHMIS. And I am noticing "Granny's" headstone. Is there a specific reason why "Granny" lived from 1926 to 2022? Did some real-life event inspire the fact that it's _Granny_ who dies in this example, and that she lived _during that period_ specifically? It's also noteworthy that a child that young would have a grandmother that old. I think it's more realistic for that child's father and red-headed uncle to have a grandmother that old.
6:45 I think you're the first youtuber to point this out. I've always thought that the tv series was purposefully making fun of the audience for over thinking the entire series. You can kind of see it in the interviews with the creators stating that all theories are correct. Now the only question I have is, did they purposefully make a straight forward series in order to make fun of lore theoriests or did they not even consider the audience? Chicken or the egg situation.
I honestly never got the mentality that a story needs to be more violent in order to be more mature. There are much more ways for a story to be mature for the audience than an increase in death and violence. Not every story needs to be as violent as Game of Thrones and Invincible. A story can't rely on violence and the threat of characters dying forever. It's stupid to see Doctor Who fans upset that main characters survive from not getting shot. A show meant for the whole family to watch is not going to show people dying and bleeding from gunshot wounds like Breaking Bad. The kids that grew up on the Netflix show Hilda are most likely going to still enjoy it for being a fantastic adventure instead of season 1 and 2 kill count going from 0 to 473.
@@carealoo744 Thanks! I am not enough into Dr. Who to watch anything besides some of Stu's regular videos on the topic. Possibly because I've never seen a single episode of it.
@@camelopardalis84 Loll, yeah you have to be in the right mood to enjoy those live streams, but they can be fun- but I do admit that it's probably best if you don't watch them if you haven't seen any episodes of Doctor who, because they make a lot of references and make jokes about what they should write into the script that would take off the fans the most, and those jokes I feel would be hard to get if you weren't a fan of the show yourself.
I’d be very interested to know what your thoughts are on this. Is the show a show created specifically for children or is it an adult show? It was made as a show for children. Thoughts?
i agree with most of what you said but i strongly disagree with the conclusion. if nothing else, it ignores the fact that the web series /does/ all fit together come the end. i dont think the point being about kids shows and the show having loooooooooooooooooooooooore are contradictary, like, at all, and i think most people who enjoy theorising about it would agree. then again, maybe ive just got too much faith in the internet haha (though i agree some people do have a tendancy to be extremely tedious and anal about it)
Why would a cake not be suitable for vegetarians? Because it has gelatine in it? Or did you mean "not suitable for vegans"? The more I think about it, the more possibilities I see.
Over analyzing a story with no deep lore or not caring about lore will create disappointment. Five night at Freddy's never had deep lore and it's making shit up as it goes along driving it's over analyzers crazy. I'm glad I stopped watching Rick and Morty at season 4 with season 5 bitter "fuck you for liking and being invested in lore and characters" attitude. Moffat mystery boxes manage to be an obnoxious hybrid of making shit up as it goes along and "fuck you for liking and being invested in lore and characters" attitude. Gravity Falls is able to be over analyzed without issues cause it had compelling mysteries and it didn't hate it's audience for being invested. Avatar: The last Airbender is able to be over analyzed without issues cause it has fantastic world building and deep lore.
How the hell did you even GET any enjoyment out of this show if you don’t think that it means anything?!! I found episode six to be a very emotional and moving episode precisely BECAUSE it meant so much for Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck. While also meaning a lot for the backstory of the franchise as well. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy ANYTHING about that episode, but genuinely. Once you start throwing out so fucking much about this episode (and all of the other ones of this show) that there is to love, down to all of its very MEANING. What the fuck is there even left about it or this show as a whole overall to actually enjoy watching??!!! (Let alone find genius!)
....where did I say it has no meaning? I said it's not supposed to make sense from an adult's perspective. That does not mean 'it has no meaning' You seem to be arguing with an opinion that I haven't expressed
I absolutely love the surreal humour of DHMIS. Things that seem to scare other people have me howling with laughter. It’s just genius, and so creative too. I wonder what the hardcore theorists will think of the new series, because from what I understand, it does seem to contradict some of the general agreed upon theories. But I suppose it’s more of a soft reboot, and the creators shouldn’t have to limit themselves to appeal to theories that they didn’t even come up with.
