Children’s Entertainment in Poppy Playtime and DHMIS
Finally someone said it, and finally I saw it. Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, or DHMIS was not something that ever interested me because I never knew what it was about. As with most internet content, I am introduced to it by someone else, and become obsessed with it. This post is about something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a long time, but wasn’t quite sure how to say it.
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a YouTube channel and series created by Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling, and later in the series, Baker Terry. There are a lot of pieces to fit together throughout the series, but once you do, you see it is a commentary on children’s entertainment being corrupted by the desire for profit.
The reason I connect this idea to Poppy Playtime is because Playtime Co., the company within the game, seems to go through something similar. We get a relatively clear picture of Playtime Co.’s beginnings, with Elliot Ludwig starting the company with the intention of bringing joy to children through toys. His means are unconventional, but it gets the job done. At some point, Ludwig no longer has control over the company, which is taken over by scientists using orphan children to experiment on. They do this to make the children into living toys.
At some point in Playtime Co.’s reign, the focus stops being on children and shifts to innovation and science, much like in Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared where the show within the series shifts its focus from creativity and education to consumerism and profit. When Poppy Playtime Chapter 1 (Here is a walkthrough on YouTube by creator NatureViking) came out, my original theory was that Playtime Co. was a metaphor for Mob Entertainment, formerly known as Mob Games, for their shady practices behind closed doors. Why would they dig their own grave like this?
Well, it’s not exactly the executives at Mob Entertainment creating the games–it’s the creators and designers the executives hired. These creators would be well aware of how Mob Entertainment treats their employees, with one creator, Ekrcoaster, even coming out and saying Mob Entertainment may have plaigiarized his game Venge. Here is a link to a YouTube video by Sheeprampage with more information on that.
I think it the way Playtime Co. treats their employees is a subtle nod to what goes on within Mob Entertainment; a classic example of art emulating the real world. Well done.
But back to the matter at hand. Wouldn’t it be nice if kids television and entertainment were truly educational? Shouldn’t we encourage children to think openly? You might be thinking back to when you were a kid and saw so much as black and white, but it turns out, asking kids to think critically, especially when they’re very young, has positive effects on their intelligence and self-esteem.
There is more to teaching children about the world around them than saying what foods are good and which are bad for them. As an adult in America, I wish I didn’t eat so many bad foods, but that is a) what is available to me, and b) what I can afford based on the budget I made for myself.
Children need to be taught to understand it’s okay if their parents buy them McDonald’s because sometimes that’s all parents can afford for their children and would rather them eat “bad” foods than nothing at all, but that’s just one example.
Another issue Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared brings up is the twisting of truths in order to advertise. Children are seen as easy targets of advertising, so if you show them something they want on the screen, the next thing you know, they’re asking their caretakers “Can we get that?” It is sad to see how children are taken advantage of so much by consumer culture. I can deal with advertisements, but showing them on children’s programs and games should be illegal.
This is why watching the “commercials” that aired within the Poppy Playtime universe bothers me so much. It isn’t the creepy imagery of Mommy Long Legs or the inverted images of children playing, it’s the advertisement itself (Here is the video “ad” I’m talking about). It is easy to convince kids that if they buy something, they will be happier or have so much fun, but that turns a lot of people into consumer-driven adults who buy things without thinking twice.
I have a lot of hope for my generation (and I know I say this a lot), but it’s true because we seem to have self-awareness about the fact that we are consumer-driven. I admit, sometimes I buy things for myself (usually a Dairy Queen Blizzard, if I’m being honest) that makes me happy in the moment, but ultimately I go back to feeling as empty inside as I did before buying it, which makes me feel even worse. Subjected to Capitalism again! These advertisements and products are all just distractions from our true life’s journey of finding ourselves and the people we love.
Kids need the space to make discoveries about the world around them, themselves, and who they can trust. Most of the “education” they receive is learning to place value judgements on what is right and wrong when most of the topics children’s shows cover are gray areas, as most things in life are. I digress.