Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared has been baffling the internet for five years now

The internet is nothing if not fickle. Fads, obsessions, and memes come and go with whiplash-inducing rapidity. Seemingly every week, a new “Damn, Daniel!” or “Yo Dawg” is tossed onto the scrapheap of the past, like a broken toy with which the world has become bored. And yet, the sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying web series Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared—a surrealist children’s show that’s basically Sesame Street as filtered through David Lynch and Hieronymus Bosch—has endured for half a decade, not only surviving but thriving over the years. With only six brief-ish episodes to its credit since July 2011, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared has managed to rack up over a million subscribers and 121 million total views. The release of each new episode is an event, with some fans scrutinizing and analyzing each moment like detectives trying to solve a tough case. The latest episode gives super-fans plenty of fodder for their various theories. Combining puppetry, live action, and animation, this installment could either serve as a series finale or a franchise reboot, depending on your interpretation.