UNPACKING JUST A BIT OF HORRID HENRY'S TRAUMA 

HENRY AND HIS FAMILY AT THERAPY (ending song) ON SPOTIFY NOW spotify.link/EPDh5tM8EJb

I want Horrid Henry’s parents and Caillou’s parents to do a swap. They keep calling Henry Horrid but wait til Caillou is LITERALLY ripping out Peter’s hair with his bare hands.

Henry: is a little distracted from his homework Henry’s mom: you’ll never achieve your dreams

Context for Henry marrying Margret being brought up so much! In the uk we have this really toxic culture of "well if they're bullying you, it's because they have a crush on you!", and because of that, margret and henry get paired together in schoolwork as a way of the adults basically shipping the kids

Fun fact: physical punishment was banned in Britain in 1989, the books were written in the 1990s, and Miss Battle-Axe is around 50, it makes a lot of sense

Ah, "Child Abuse: the series".

My initial exposure to this series was that clip where the parents said "This is your fault, Henry!" over the bad traffic when the kid wasn't even in the car

Another thing in the books I noticed; in the story about Henry and Peter as babies, it describes baby Henry as “screaming in the morning, screaming in the evening, and soiling his nappy.”(from what I can remember) Like dude, that’s just a normal fvckin baby 💀 I’d be more concerned if my newborn child appeared to not be pooping like Peter 😅

The horrid Henry movie is basically a dyslexic child finally writing a word correctly.

Childhood is when you are idolizing Peter, but maturity is when you realize that the parents are unfair to both Henry and Peter in opposite extremes

why is most british children’s literature just about horrific child abuse? 😭

But is Perfect Peter actually a goody two-shoes, or does he performatively act “well behaved” as a fawn response towards his abusive family so they don’t treat him like Horrid Henry?

Henry and Peter in the books: straight up bullying Henry and Peter in the show: iconic duo

Show!Henry screams ADHD kid surrounded by incompetent and straight-up malicious adults to me and I feel for him so bad.

I remember a tweet that described the difference between show and book Henry like: TV: “I just want to hang out with my friends and play pranks!” Book: “Okay Ralph now hit the second tower” And the whole time I can’t help but think about it when listening to her talk

I always thought that Henry’s parents were absolutely terrible. The episode where a teacher says they’re too strict and should allow Henry to eat some sweets was weirdly validating to young me.

Greg Heffley and Henry are a perfect example of the difference between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil. Greg tries to game the system to get what he wants, Henry just does whatever he can to express his endless rage.

The fact that Henry’s mom actually wanted him to DISAPPEAR in one of the episodes, even Margaret (his own ENEMY) was angry at Henry’s mom for wanting him to disappear Edit: I do not know what episode it’s from, I saw it either in a compilation or a video about how horrible Henry’s parents are. One of the replies said it came from Peter’s birthday episode tho

this reminded me that when my sibling was a toddler they couldn’t pronounce the word horrid so they called this show “whore henry” 💀💀

I took a class in highacool called "psych in media" and we basically used the DSM to diagnose characters in movies and TV with respective disorders. We diagnosed Bart Simpson with ADHD (that's literally a plot point but it's the best example everyone knows and it was our warmup character) and it was actually pretty cool. We talked as a class about the criteria we observed and how it all qualifies, we debated comorbidity and symptom overlap, it was honestly a lot of fun. Your opening lines reminded me of that class lol

Both Henry and Peter need therapy like it’s obvious how abusive they are to Henry and how much they put high expectations to Peter like he‘s only 6 years old

Literally Horrid Henry’s parents are emotionally abusive😭

Horrid henry? More like henry needs expensive therepy

Book Henry is chaotic evil, series Henry is chaotic neutral, and movie henry is chaotic good

Fun fact, in Hebrew localizations of the franchise, peter is called mel. This is because the Hebrew word for perfect is "mooshlam".

Horrid Henry is like Craig of the Creek but if he had an unhealthy home life.

the parents being rlly nice followed by fits of anger/disgust/whatever for henry is actually very accurate to many child abuse cases. most parents don't know/understand that they are abusive while the kids are forever questioning if they are/not so they don't tell anyone they're being abused and nothing gets done abt it. also the earthquake joke is bc earthquakes occur on fault lines where tectonic plates meet/shift against each other, very cool joke imo

She should explore the little princess cartoon. That world is nuts. The king and queen wear normal attire and their defense people are essentially men children. And when the princess was asked what she wanted to be when she'll grow up, the whole tone literally shifted for a moment (like don't hug me I'm scared).

Great video! Some notes though: - While Battle-Axe thinks about hitting Henry with a ruler, their mum actually hits both Henry and Peter in one of the Christmas stories. - The movie is canon to the show, to some extent. There's a season 4 episode called "Movie Moments" where Henry and Al react to it, and Henry explains some missing scenes, presenting it as more of a documentary. Truly bizarre

You might think Peter's better off, but he's in for a tragically short life of anxiety and imposter syndrome. They're an abusive family, and an abuser's favorite is a dangerous thing to be. The places where tectonic plates overlap are called fault lines. The plates rubbing against each other is what causes earthquakes.

hi, hello, british person here (we ACTUALLY exist) WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS HALLOWE'EN??

Big problem with constantly giving attention to misbehaving children is that well behaved children like Peter are treated as if they can handle themselves

30:16 sorry but when your own child’s arch nemesis looks at you shocked you know you’re a bad parent

"Baby's first ragebait" I can't- 😭😭💀

Why do they gotta emphasize peters ‘perfection’ compared to Henry’s? It just makes him lash out more!

TV henry: "i just want to learn karate" Book Henry: "i just want to start ww3"

I’m late to the video but I went to a talk by Francesca Simon, the author, pre-pandemic and she talked briefly about the Horrid Henry books. She doesn’t really like them, she always wanted to be a YA author, but her agent got her to write a children’s story, she wrote Horrid Henry the rest is history. She said she appreciates the money they’ve made her, but she can’t get much else published nowadays. I 100% recommend her only YA book, The Monstrous Child.

I always found Henry and Peter's friendship really sweet. I watched the show when I was a kid, and I'd always feel so happy when they teamed up

Ain't it kinda odd how the parents LITERALLY have their kids named PERFECT Peter and HORRID Henry.... it's like the parents WANTED to hate him

They made the babysitter story into an episode as well and lemme tell you if you think she was bad in the book- my god. It gets so bad Henry hides with Peter in a closet and he calls the cops to tell them theres a monster in the house. They show up, the babysitter talks to them until they go away, the parents come home to her picking Henry up by his shirt collar while making the same threats as in the book. It’s the only time Henrys parents were actually decent to him.

28:05 Dad: Henry no! Henry: I didn’t do it! Dad: Sorry, force of habit. Peter no!

*Horrid Henry* 🤝 *Dennis the Menace* Both troublemaking British kids who used their wits and mischiefs to wreak havoc towards everyone and everything surrounded them just for kicks.

Peter is the Golden Child to Henry's scapegoat

1:52 as a British guy, I agree; what the shit is a “Hallowe’en”

Please I beg of you, do a video on Roy. It was such a weird show, the premise was basically this cartoon boy called Roy lived with his real human family as he try’s to fit in with everyone else. It also had a spin off of when Roy was little.

“Rude Ralph, who he’s friends with in every universe.” Is so true, like even in my little AU where the kids are in high school (where the pranks are a bit higher on the scale), RR and HH are still *besties* . I just love how he always has someone he can rely on in literally any life. Edit; WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY LIKES!? Thank you? Oh and I’m sorry to disappoint but I haven’t written anything, and I hate writing so I most likely won’t ever.

The true lesson of Horrid Henry is don't grow up to be like Henry and Peter's parents.

dr phil segment was iconic "we'll send your child to a place where he'll get MORE trauma" yup thats dr phil alright lmao

I had ADHD and didn’t know while I was growing up. My house was very much like Henry’s with me being like Henry and my sibling as Peter. It was almost comforting to me to see that in a show and know it wasn’t just me dealing with that unfairness. I knew it was unfair growing up but i didn’t know why. And it didn’t seem like Henry knew why he acted out either.

Just a thought on why Henry thought he’d marry Margret. We all know older generations tend to trash talk and complain about their spouses (Not all, just a generalization). And perhaps Henry has been surrounded by this type of marital relationship growing up (Possibly from his own parents in private). So he’s been lead to believe that whoever your worst enemy is (For heteronormative reasons in this case your worst enemy of the opposite gender) that is the person you have to marry when you grow up. Just a thought 🤷

I ultimately think the big difference between the books and the show is the message. In the show, they want you to sympathise with Henry, so he’s not as bad, while in the books he’s an absolute demon because he’s meant to be teaching kids how not to act. At least that’s what I remember from when I was a kid anyway.

I grew up with the Horrid Henry tv show (I'm not British, very American) and being an older child there were times where I could relate to Henry. Being neglected, ignored, etc. As I've grown up I know a huge difference between abuse and discipline now. As a child, what I thought was discipline, was abuse. I fully believe that Henry's parents were not only neglectful but refusing to get him help. He screams ADHD child or something around the lines of that, and without the proper help or education can affect how a child acts.

Henry and Peter actually have a sibling dynamic thats very common in the real world, that being the ADHD kid who is disproportionately punished and neglected by their parents, and the Autistic kid who is completely coddled and sheltered. Or at least thats how i read the series, either way both of these kids are gonna be VERY screwed up adults.

Horrid Henry really REALLY reminds me of how teacher’s classmates ect treated me before I was diagnosed with ADHD. So yeah, I think I know what’s really going on with Henry.

This show was my childhood and i literally grew up IN the shows environment 😭 literally my comfort show though

in hindsight, he DEFINITELY has ADHD and was punished for exhibiting behaviours associated with ADHD. all it did was cause him to lash out. he probably has something else too, but it’s weird that we were all made to believe that he was evil as kids

Here are two examples of really fucked stories in the books. In horrid henry gets rich quick, he sets up a yard sale for his old toys because he's obsessed with money. Perfect peter comes along and Henry decides he wants to somehow get rid of peter as well. So, he proposes to peter that they sell him as a slave. He gets sold to moody Margaret, with henry even saying: "now, run along with your new owner." Later, when he gets yelled at by his parents to get him back, he's mad that he has to waste his money buying his brother back. Peter is being treated horribly by Margaret, doing her bidding and being yelled at on the way. Henry manipulates peter into giving him all his saved pocket money for Henry to get him out of the situation. The second story is horrid Henry's underpants, where there's a School trend of randomly pulling someone's trousers down. Henry gets given a gift by his rich aunt, who believes he's a girl, which is a pair of frilly pink underwear with hearts, bows and lace. After having a dream about having peter executed, he wakes up being late for school and is too sleepy to notice the underwear he picks out from the drawers, putting on the frilly pants. He finds out later in school, being sexist and therefore embarrassed about the idea of having his trousers pulled down and people seeing it. So, he takes peter into a bathroom stall and tries manipulating him into swapping pants with him, even mocking Peter's choice in underwear. Peter refuses, causing henry to scream at him to give him his pants. They interrupted though, and peter ran off. There's also a story where he gets a teacher to believe peter fell from a building and died, even having peter pretend to be dead on the ground below.

"This is the happiest he's been in ANY medium" Jesus Christ 😭

If they went the route of Matilda where Henry was a troubled kid who got vengeance on the mean adults of his life, this show would've been awesome.

the song's overlapping lines? "I'm doctor Phil"? the melodies? masterwork. This is a movie theater.

In short. Tv Henry: Troubled, misunderstood kid, with social issues. Book Henry: Psycho Kid! Btw as a British person, I’ve never understood the ‘ in Halloween. 👻

Athena's general hatred of anything British is just too funny, because it's literally just the way they talk and spell things that gets on her nerves. I mean, obviously it's a joke, but it's funny that this is the second time to happen in a row.

Horrid Henry’s parents make Buck Cluck look like a good parent.

Fun Fact: The original book author (Francesca Simon) doesn’t like the show or the movie because it doesn't feel like "Horrid Henry" to her. With how watered-down some of the episode adaptations are in comparison to the books, I can't say that I blame her for feeling this way. I actually liked the show as a kid. But even I found parts of it weird, and I definitely didn't like Peter, or the parents back then either.

Those terrifying game show hosts in the movie are played by Dick and Dom, who were a real kids show host duo. Dick and Dom's Bungalow was a trip, let me tell you! Unhinged is an excellent word for it.

The TV show, I feel like they coded Henry as though he's supposed to have undiagnosed ADHD and the parents are supposed to be at their "wits end" with the boy because they don't know what to do with him because he's undiagnosed/unmedicated. It doesn't excuse their behaviour, but it certainly explains some of it.

30:17 Ever Margaret and Ralph were like “Girl, what the hell?”.

27:00 As a geologist, this is a joke about Fault lines. Essentialy, faults are large cracks in the earth, formed from tectonic movements, which is what causes earthquakes

I grew up with the mum and was always so confused when people expressed hate of her cause I was just like ‘but isn’t that just how mums are??’

I would like to know why there are there is so much British media about children being absolute gremlins and their parents being abusive/neglectful? Like, its genuinely concerning at this point.

Athena fighting for her life to get this video out, despite everything going wrong it still worked out. iconic.

When I was a kid, people would always compare me to Horrid Henry and my sister to Perfect Peter, and now that we are older we both have diagnosed ASD and I also have diagnosed ADHD lol, what an eye opener. In a lot of ways that comparison was insanely accurate looking back, since my sister was the 'golden child' and I was the 'scapegoat'

There are times where I'm like the parents are just awful cause when Henry doesn't do anything and still gets blamed. The worst example of this is when Peter wanted to be horrid like Henry he sprays Henry with the hose and what happens? The dad blames Henry and even when Henry says he didn't do anything and peter admits it, the dad says Henry should have gotten out of the way of the spraying with no punishment on Peter at all

All of the kids except for Henry, Peter and that kid who couldn’t stop crying look like middle aged adults in the books.

I think the earthquake joke is referencing fault lines. I recently finished watching Horrid Henry, and in one episode Peter says Henry is a dinosaur, and in the 1 hour special Linda says sometimes Henry is a dinosaur, so it sounds like he actually transforms. The animals also show a higher level of intelligence, like when Fluffy watches a show on the Ipad and Fang is seen reading a miniature comic book.

I feel like the episode with the letter from the rock star is actually like, *perfect.* Even abusive parents, neglectful *can* care and often do

Horrid Henry was my favourite show as a child. When I was about 8-9 my parents banned me from watching it because it was “a bad influence” (I was a ‘difficult’ child and apparently the show was making my behaviour worse). Now in my early 20’s I’ve been going through therapy for anxiety, trust issues, low self esteem, and it’s clear to me why horrid Henry was my favourite show. My parents were always very negative towards me as a child, lots of shouting and blaming. When I was in trouble my parents would smack me and scream in my face, when my older sister was in trouble she’d get a stern talking to at most. In addition to this, I’ve been told that I likely have adhd/add. It’s weird how I related so much to this show without knowing that that was the reason why I liked it so much.

Baby boy, baby: Tv show Henry Evil: Henry in the books

I remember a friend of mine and I watched this show on RU-vid for the laughs, thinking it was going to an annoying kid's show that aired in the UK . . . We were so wrong. I can't tell you how we went from laughing at an innocent kid's show to basically screaming about how horrid (pun intended) Henry's parents are to him, how Peter is an annoying know-it-all who can't do anything wrong, and if Henry so much as sneezes, he gets yelled at for being horrid. 😂😂

The movie exists in the TV show, Henry and Al are at Henry's house, and at some point, Al teases Henry by talking about how Henry held hands with a girl after Henry said he never had, and he then turns the TV and you hear moody Margaret repeating a line from the movie saying "you can let go of my hand now Henry". Henry then explains what happens at the all girls school in the movie and even adds in extra context and scenes that weren't there in the movie. It even reveals that the headteacher is Miss Battle axe's twin sister.

fun fact: those game show hosts are beloved kids comedy duo Dick and Dom. They are, honest to god, some of the most unhinged people to ever grace British screens. Dick and Dom in da Bungalow, if you’re willing to cover kids game shows, has some INSANE lore and recurring characters and trying to reckon with the universe it takes place in I think would be hysterical. Though it may only be a lore lite since I think a lot of the episodes are lost media :(((

I seem to remember thinking that Henry's parents preferred Peter either because he's blonde or Henry's adopted.

It’s sucks that you didn’t mention the episode where Henry’s dad ditched him to take care of his sick mom while he went to a Company Paintball Tournament WITH PETER. The only good part abt it was the companion episode where it shows them having a terrible time.

i swear that bit with peter on henry's birthday reminds me of this one scene from red dwarf. "you would risk your life to save mine? is this the human concept of... Friendship?" " Kryten it's to early for this star trek crap"

PURPLE HAND GANG FOR LIFE

I grew up with both the Horrid Henry TV show, the movie and the books, and even as an 8 year old I realised "This kids parents suck"

Halloweh-ehn lives rent free in my head now.

jesus christ this explains a lot why this was my favourite show when i was younger and living in an abusive household.

There was this one episode where Peter was excited that he found a cool bug and called his mum about it and when she came into the backyard she immediately said DONT BE HORRID HENRY. and then talked sadly to “perfect” Peter.

For what it’s worth know, margaret and henry disliked each other cos well yeah boy girl things at their age , but in the books they where actually friends and Margaret came over to his house a lot, so yeah, they sure disliked eachother but did care about eachother

Henry and Ralph must be really good friends if there portrayed as best friends in most adaptation

Its weird that the author is American living in the UK, also why British people doing American accents are more accurate then American doing British accents

I feel so bad for Henry. Not just because of how his parents treat him but the fact he has to British on top of everything else

26:53 the joke is that earthquakes make faults in the ground. A fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock which has been displaced.

Hi! As a token brit that grew up with the horrid henry books, I have not clue why it's spelt "Hallowe'en"...I fucking hate being British, why are we like this.

His dad is so bad omg. There’s a scene in the show where Henry came to his dad (who almost completely ignored him) to talk to him ask for pocket money and he was like “yeah in a second” to then go right back to ignoring him but as soon as Peter came over crying he instantly paid attention to Peter, I felt so bad

38:10 This is actually a reference to Banksy's girl with balloon. Banksy is a anonymous famous British graffiti artist. Girl with Balloon is probably one of his most famous works, a painting of Girl with Balloons was being auction off and as soon as it was sold the frame started shredding it. Banksy has admitted it was his doing. I probably explained that poorly, i definitely recommend anyone reading this comment to research about Banksy.

I clicked on the video thinking “hey I read a few of those books growing up” but then was confused why I didn’t remember any of the plots or titles. Turns out I read “Horrible Harry” growing up 😭 which surprisingly is not a knock off and came out 6 whole years before Horrid Henry. The video is starting to compute now.

I am british and have never in my life seen halloween spelt like that apart from in Horrid Henry. the way you said it each time it popped up cracked me up though

As a bri'ish person, I can confirm that Henry is the most sane bri'ish child