I finally caved and started watching "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" on YouTube, and something struck me as being very peculiar about this series. Specifically how similar it is to "Wonder Shozen". I mean, you can say that a parody of a kids puppet show is kind of easy, so it could all be a coincidence. Okay, there, I said it first. Admittedly, I have no solid, concrete evidence of this. Really, I should post this on the subreddit to ruffle some feathers, but I'll do it here.
Okay, first of all, for those that aren't aware, Wonder Shozen was a show that was on MTV 2 10 years ago. Like "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" it was a show that not only parodied kids shows, but did so in a very abstract way and was fully of black humor. Don't get me wrong, "Wonder Shozen" went way further with this concept, using topics like genocide and racism, and it was a lot more controversial. It isn't even close.
While the two aren't exactly the same (again, since "Wonder Shozen" took this much further) the similarities are striking. I wonder how much influence, if any, it had on DHMIS. Yes, I get it, "Wonder Shozen" never aired in the UK, but certain clips have become memes and are easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection, so it isn't out of the realm of possibility that the creators knew.
