Becky and Joe

The comical, bizarre and curious world of Becky and Joe, (Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling), is visualised through the work they produce together. After graduating from Kingston the directorial duo formed a collective called ‘This Is It’ and soon made their first collaborative film ‘Bad Things That Could Happen’. This initial exploration established the pairs unique visual approach, incorporating puppetry and stop-frame animation as the basis of their films.

Becky and Joe share a special sense of humour that is at the core of their work, “Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” highlights the humour and playfulness that brought the pair together. The internet sensation has received millions of views, spanning six parts the puppet show first aired on the web in 2011 and follows the narrative of three puppet protagonists: Duck, Red Guy and Yellow Guy. On first impressions DHMIS presents itself as a comical educational children's programme, yet it is revealed that the show holds a dark and twisted reality. Episode One encompasses the three puppets and a singing notebook who together explore the realms of creativity that slowly descends into raw meat chaos. The slow transition from happy, sunny and light to dark, sinister and twisted is what makes DHMIS so unique, through its series the show adventures into various subjects presented though catchy songs that evolve into humorous somber entertainment.

The admirable element to Becky and Joe is their creative approach to image making. The duo mix the old with the new, experimenting with puppetry and animation, through stop-motion to CGI. This mix of techniques and technologies forms a fresh and original framework to film making. Their use of puppetry which is evident in DHMIS bares similarities with classic children's television such as “Cambric Green” and “Zippy” yet the fuse of CGI and animation forwards the duos work into the contemporary, in turn breaking the boundaries of modern design and film. Beck and Joe’s playfulness with processes continues within music videos for Tame Impala, where they painstakingly created a plasticine stop-frame animation, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, where by puppetry was explored again. Keeping it fun and challenging the different seems to be the pairs philosophy, through the old and the new Becky and Joe make clear that what one can produce when given the freedom to explore puppets, raw meet and humour.