Here's Where You Can Stream Don't Hug Me I'm Scared Online
If you found yourself horrified and weirdly transfixed by "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" when it first started to weave through the darker corners of the internet in the early 2010s, you weren't alone. Composed of six short episodes released online over five years starting in 2011, the British series took the simple innocence of children's educational programming — think "H.R. Pufnstuf" or "Sesame Street" — and threw it into a blender of surreal violence and existential terror. In a media landscape that was suddenly punctuated by odd and twisted televised cultural phenomena like "Too Many Cooks," the series caught on. By the time its final episode was released in 2016, "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" had been viewed on YouTube over 120 million times.
There's no surprise that a full television series went into the works. It took a while, but starting in September of 2022, new episodes, clocking in at about 25 minutes each, were aired on UK public broadcast station Channel 4. This is good news for fans of the three doomed, Muppet-esque lead characters — commonly referred to as Yellow Guy, Red Guy, and Duck — as well as those who might be looking to initiate themselves into their twisted universe. Channel 4's streaming service, All4, has all episodes of "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" Season 2 available to those who register.
There's a wrinkle in this, however. All4 does not work for viewers outside of the United Kingdom. Even those who go through the process of getting registered — including providing a fake UK address — will find that the service simply won't stream for them.
The new series sees the trio staring further into the abyss
Luckily, if it exists on television, there's a very good chance it exists in many places on the internet. All six original shorts comprising Season 1 are still available on the "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" YouTube channel. There are also, for those daring enough to do a bit of exploring, places on YouTube where you can find all of the Season 2 episodes streaming. There's also always the option of using a VPN.
The first six short episodes saw Duck, Yellow Guy, and Red Guy curiously exploring the basic concepts we might see in children's programming — creativity, love, time, and technology — only to be drawn into terrifying and often gruesome realities. Season 2 is much of the same, though with longer run times. The trio gets jobs, only to be prematurely aged and mutilated. They learn about friends from a friendly worm, which reveals itself to be a grotesque parasite. They learn about transportation from a sentient train that transports them to a bleak wasteland. And, as happened with the first six episodes, there is already speculation about what, if anything, Season 2 means.
There don't seem to be any current plans to bring "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" to streamers outside the UK. Likewise, there's no word on whether the series will be getting a third season. Given how long it took for Season 2 to come to fruition, it may be some time before we find out either way. That said, there's a good chance that dissecting this demented world will be keeping us busy in the meantime.