Becky and Joe - From Tame Impala to Don't Hug Me I'm Scared

Tame Impala is a band well known among college students, and probably their most well-known song is Feels Like We Only Go Backwards. Aside from having that classic indie music sound and lyrics that are easy to sing along to, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards has an amazing, colorful, engaging and trippy music video. It wasn’t until recently, however, that I found out that the makers of the music video are the same people behind the popular YouTube videos “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared”.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a five part video series that falls into the “WTF” category of YouTube videos. It’s nothing special in terms of animation, and is mostly just known for the dialogue/music in the videos. It was very surprising to me then that these same people were the brilliant animators behind the popular Tame Impala music video. Their website has this caption accompanying their upload of the music video: “Becky and Joe directed the new video for Tame Impala’s latest single ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’. The film is made up from over 100 separate plasticine collages all individually made by hand”. That’s what makes the music video so amazing - the fact that it wasn’t computer generated. They actually took the time to design all of this will plasticine clay - a process that is much more precise and time consuming than the computer-based alternative. Knowing what the animators at Becky and Joe are capable of makes me really wonder what made them decide to stick with the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared videos…

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared... But Actually

The Don't Hug Me I'm Scared series, created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling, started in 2011 with the first episode. It just came out with the fourth episode on Tuesday and will be coming out with more soon. It starts off imitating a children's show through the use of singing and talking puppets, but the themes quickly become dark and absurd through psychedelic content and disturbing images.

I love the juxtaposition of the simple, seemingly innocent intros with puppets and song with the uncomfortable and scary ending that makes you question pretty much everything in life.

(These videos are not for the faint of heart.)

The first episode focuses on creativity and prepares you for feelings you will be getting for the next ones:

The second episode focuses on time and is my personal favorite:

The third episode is about love:

And here is the newest one, centering about technology/computers:

Becky and Joseph have won three awards, attended 12 festivals, and many talks for their great work and impact they've had on viewers. 

Green Is Not A Creative Color

After a week of vomit and emergency room visits, I fear that this week's blog post is going to be a little shorter than usual.


I thought it would be neat to look at the practical and post effects in "Don't Hug me I'm Scared"

The use of puppets is really fun. No little to no effort is made to hide the rods and sometimes even the puppeteer's hand is visible. The mixed visual media is great too. The animation and even live actors in puppet costumes dispersed throughout makes for a rather twisted viewing experience.

The post effects are mostly limited to animation, but in the sequel there are a lot more.

Green screen and tracking are used a lot in this one, most notably on the clock. His mouth is done in post, and the rods making his arms moved are edited out. Art wise, I adore how everything is made of felt and the fully animated  bits.

Both videos are very popular, and we might see another one in the works. I think if Becky and Joe want to surprise people though, they're going to need to make a video where everything is completely normal and nothing out of the ordinary or disturbing happens.