Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (often shortened to DHMIS) is a British surrealist web and television series created by Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling, and Baker Terry, launched in 2011. It began as a six-episode YouTube series before expanding into a full television run on Channel 4's All 4 in 2022. Musically, it belongs less to a conventional genre scene and more to a tradition of parody children's-show songwriting, using bright, sing-song pop and electronic melodies borrowed from puppet shows like Sesame Street.

Each episode centers on a deceptively cheerful original song — covering themes like time, creativity, love, computers, health, and dreams — performed by puppet characters in a colorful set. The songs start as catchy, simple educational jingles before twisting into unsettling, psychedelic territory, pairing childlike melodies with dark, existential, and horror-tinged lyrics and imagery.

This contrast between innocent musical form and disturbing content is the project's signature, and it has made songs like «The Time Song» and «The Computer Song» into cult favorites, referenced widely across internet culture well beyond the show's original web-series roots.