Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Education Theory "The Truth"

A lot of theories for Don’t Hug Me I’m scared theories make sense. The Media theory, the Kids Show theory, the depression theory, ext. But I have another idea. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared might be criticizing School or Education systems. To start of, we have the three main characters living together. Red Guy, Yellow Guy, And Duck have nothing in common appearance wise. They also have completely different personalities. In school, kids from different backgrounds and life styles are brought together to “learn” about different concepts. This could be a symbol of thees 3 living together.

Plus, they also seem to be representing different age groups that could be found in school. Yellow Guy represents Elementary School. He is not dumb, just about as smart as a normal young child would be. He listens to the teachers the most and is easily fooled. He seems to really trust the teachers at first. He is also easily distracted. Him being the victim, could also represent how younger kids are being controlled, and brainwashed more often by our modern education system. We even have a whole episode dedicated to him. Duck, is most likely represented as Middle School. He is the second one to escape, He seems to be smarter than Yellow guy, but not as smart as red guy. He still trusts the teachers, but not as much as Yellow Guy. His voice could represent how a lot of kids in middle school are going through puberty and having there voices change and crack! He also is allays usually seen in the “middle” of Red and Yellow Guy. Red Guy is obviously high school. He is vary bored, back talks the teachers, and he seems to know the teachers are not trust worthy. There is also a picture in Yellow guy’s book of him with a diploma and cap after he escapes. He has a job in episode 6, because he grew up.

Now let’s get to the actual episodes. In episode one, The notebook tries to get our characters to be creative, but only in her way. Similar to how school’s encourage creativity, as long as it is in there guide lines. The notebooks seems to bash on Yellow Guy’s favorite color and destroy his painting. Similar to how school’s on let you use cretin colored ink or make younger kid’s only drawn a certain thing. Notice how The Notebook never tells Yellow Guy is painting is bad, she just tells him he may want to slow down. Schools often dumb things down and simplify things for Elementary kids, even if they can do more. Also when the Red Guy tells the Notebook her hair is boring. She says she uses her hair to express herself in a more firm voice. Schools seem to be more firm if students don’t agree with them.

In episode two, it is all about time. The Clock talks about how great time is and how vary important it is to everything. He gives a little bit of information about it, but not much. This whole episode is about how school’s are so scheduled and time based. When he tells our characters about the olden days, it is very quick and not very descriptive. This can be compared to how schools often distort history or don’t give the full story. When Red Guy tells the clock he dose not want to go on a journey because they are going to miss there show, the clock says “Don’t be stupid friends, come on it’s time to go!” He is basically telling Red Guy that it is stupid for him to want to spend time on something he likes and not time on what The Clock wants them to learn about. The Clock also says there is a time and a place for mucking around, when the other characters are trying to have fun. Showing, that there is not time for messing around in school. When the characters start asking questions the Clock seems really evasive and says stuff like, “Time is important and I am a clock!” When Duck finally figures out what time really is, The clock screams until the other characters be quite. Similar to how kids in school with questions or different beliefs often get quieted. When the characters get withered at the end, it is a representation of how spending a lot of time worrying about School can ware down on your physical heath.

In episode three, it is all about Love. Yellow guy is alone on this episode. This kind of represents how Older kids are told about stuff like Sex, well younger kids only know about Love and think that babies are born when two people love each other. Why else would Duck: Middle School and Red Guy: High School, not be with him. It makes sense because older kids already know the truth about this kind of stuff. They know that there is more to love than “Two people who love each other get married” That seems to be all the butterfly tells him. The story of Michel could be relating to the fact that love now a days, is really about looks. In school is it is also about looks. The popular kids won’t date anyone who is ugly “Michael” So those people end up being alone. When the beaver says “harder” when the Yellow guy is petting him, this could be attributed to the fact that a lot of kids feel like they need to be in a relationship. The Malcolm thing could also be a part of this. Malcolm could represent religion, but I think he actually represents relationships in school themselves. The butterfly tries to get Yellow guy to join Malcolm and worship him because a lot of kids feel like they need to be in a relationship to be happy. “But Yellow Guy is the youngest! Wouldn’t an episode about relationships be related to Red Guy, since he is in High School?” you may ask. No! More kids are starting to worry about dating ant a younger and younger age. In the end, Red Guy and Duck find Yellow Guy and give him the last boiled Egg, because the “love” him. Proving that you don’t need to be in a relationship to experience the felling of love.

On to Episode four. This episode is heavily focused on Red Guy. He escapes “graduates” in this episode. Yes, In this episode, I believe Red Guy is just about to graduate High School. So the episode starts off with everyone playing a question card game. Red Guy gets the question “What is the biggest thing in the world?” They all discuss the question for a bit, when a globe comes to life and is about to sing to them about the world. But before the globe can even open his mouth, A Computer comes to life and starts talking about how clever and smart he is. This is a parallel on how schools, never really use traditional ways of teaching anymore. Everything is all computerized in the age we live in. Red Guy is vary displeased with the computer and generally has a lot of animosity towards him. He keeps telling the computer to shut up and says sarcastic remarks. He eventually tries to shut The Computer off. This shows that since Red Guy is about to graduate, he is confused on why the younger characters are using computers, and not what he used to learn when he was there age. I know that might make Red Guy sound like an old geezer, but a lot of older teenagers are displeased with how much technology young kids are using in school now a days. He says things like “What can we do?” He thinks that computers are not anything special and are just a waste of time. The computer says that in the digital world there are only 3 things to do. Kids in schools are mostly restricted to using computers for homework and not much else. This is why the computer talks about how great he is, but can really only be used for 3 things. Red guy hates how the younger generation is getting sucked into the computer and tries to save them. However, he s not able to and soon graduates. He escapes into a much simpler looking version of the first episode. His mind than literally blows at how simpler school could have been. The line “Your not invited to the party” Could be a reference to how once you graduate school, there is no going back. Also, notice how the question “What is the digest thing in the world?” Is never answered.

In the fifth episode, Duck notices that the Red Guy is missing. While, Yellow Guy just seems distracted. Pretty soon. A can comes to life and asks them if they are hungry. Yellow Guy replies with “No” But The Can keeps singing. Yellow Guy told the teacher no… and she didn’t care… hmmm. A Steak than appears and tells Duck that hungry comes from his body. Duck says “Get off me” He feels like the teachers are getting to close. A lot of people say Middle School is the most stressful school year. It’s a big change from Elementary School, and it is when puberty hits the hardest. Duck seems to be really stressed out in this episode. He keeps saying things like “Something’s wrong” Or “I need to go” But when ever he tries to tell that to the teachers, they sing over him. This is similar to how teachers deal with so many kids, the problems of one is often ignored. Red Guy keeps calling Duck to try to warn him and Yellow Guy that school is harming them. Whenever Duck picks up the phone, he appears in a hospital. So he is really stressed out. Duck eventually drops out of school. He dose not graduate. He dose not leave like Red Guy, instead he yells “I don’t want to do this anymore” You can see Red Guy in the background, but I think that is just a memory of him. However, it is to late for Duck, he wakes up in the hospital and a can is eating his guts out. The stress of school has eaten him alive and taken a toll on his mental and physical health. I honestly believe he dies. He does have exes in his eyes on the drawing of the three that is on the wall. Now onto the teachers. There are 4 of them. I believe they represent lunch workers. The other half of this episode is about lunch. The Healthy Band keeps saying that plane foods are good for you, and complicated foods are not. Schools have decided to make there lunches more “healthy” in recent years. But the food has just ended up being more plain and boring. There is no “unnecessary detail” They keep changing there minds on what is good for you and what it not. In the end it all falls apart. It dose not even matter because everyone has there teeth go gray. Showing that Schools can’t decide on what is Healthy or not. Yellow guy eats cans with the Duck on him. Other people think Yellow Guy has eaten the Duck. But I think that Yellow Guy has consumed and gained Duck’s stress. This is proven in the next episode.

In the Final episode, Yellow guy is in bed looking at a scrap book. He than says “Good night guys, I miss you” Talking about Red Guy and Duck.” He tries to go to sleep, but a lamp comes to life and starts singing about dreams. This shows that even the stress of School can follow you into your dreams. Yellow Guy keeps telling the Lamp to please stop. He is begging. But once again, The Lamp dose not care. Yellow Guy than feels like he is drowning in oil. The stress of School is drowning him. It than cuts to Red Guy in the real world. His boss at work, who looks like him. Tells him to file some files. Red Guy than asks if it would be funny if a file came to life and started dancing. He is having good memories of school, even though it was bad. His boss than says, that sounds vary boring. Later at a bar Red Guy goes on stage and starts to sing the song from Episode One. He is remembering that School was fun sometimes and he misses his friends. The other Red Guys than tell him that his singing is not vary good. The real adult world is rejecting him for acting like a child who is still in School. Red Guy sees everyone as himself because he feels like he has become “vary boring” He than ends up in this weird room ware he sees a machine that shows Yellow Guy and the lamp on it. Red Guy than presses some buttons and all the past teachers “except for the notebook” appear. A bunch of new ones also appear to. The Duck appears for a quick second. Showing that the Duck’s stress had been passed onto Yellow Guy. All of the teachers appearing really fast is a comparison to how there is so many subjects and so much homework in school, that Yellow Guy’s young man can’t handle it.

Roy than reaches out to Red Guy. What? You thought I would never talk about him? I thought it would be more appropriate If I waited until now. Roy is NOT evil. IF he was evil, he would not be in the background so much. He would actually try to harm our characters. Roy represents parents. That’s why he is Yellow Guy’s dad. Roy never speaks and is forced to stay in the background, because HE KNOWS what school is doing to the kids. He just dose not have the power to stop school. He is not educated enough ,and he dose not have enough money to home school them, so he is forced to watch quietly, he breaths heavily and never smiles because he is angry at the school, he just can’t do anything about it. Even if he tries to tell the other people about the school, they would not believe him. Roy reaches out to Red Guy and basically says “I know how you feel, but we can’t stop them” Red Guy than pulls a plug and tries to stop the school.

He does. Everyone is in the first episode again. But this time, they are all there favorite colors. There is a door this time, showing that they can leave when ever they want. But the notebook appears, showing that schools will always be there. The characters are now being home schooled. That is why there is less stuff in the room. But the influence of Public Schools will always be there. June 19th also is a comparison to how when you are in school, it feels like Time is frozen. There are a few counter points to this theory… But I think there is just to much evidence for it not to make sense.