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The Carehound is a minor antagonist in the first episode, Jobs of the Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 2022 TV series. He is a mysterious dog-like creature that lives in a small door next to an elevator shaft, serving as a supposed "counselor" for stressed employees and possible mascot of Peterson's And Sons And Friends Bits & Parts Limited. His four-eyed appearance is meant to make fun of the fact that cartoon characters have two eyes even when looking sideways, as the Carehound was depicted that way in profile on posters.
Biography[]
It is unknown where the Carehound came from, but at some point, it went into the service of Peterson's And Sons And Friends Bits & Parts Limited, a manufacturing company specializing in making bits and parts. The Carehound did not work within the factory or in the offices, but rather, in a smoke-filled sectioned-off room next to the elevator in the company's factory. Supposedly, the Carehound would provide counseling to employees suffering from excessive stress, as was advertised on its posters, but in reality, the Carehound would eat said employees, hold them in stasis within its body for a few years, somehow rearrange their minds to make them more compliant and willing to work, then spit them out so they can go back to their jobs.
Eventually, Yellow Guy, Duck, and Red Guy, were transported against their will to the company's factory by The Briefcase, where Yellow Guy and Duck were put to work on the factory floor, while Red Guy somehow became the manager within nine minutes of their arrival. Duck, who was quickly fed up with the environment, was fired by Red Guy, and sent to the elevator to leave the building. However, in the elevator, the speaker began talking to Duck, claiming that he was stressed and tried to help him cope with the supposed stress, although the speaker's methods were ultimately more stressful. Exasperated, Duck began pressing many elevator buttons to get the speaker to shut up, accidentally pressing the Carehound button on the bottom of the control panel. The speaker then stopped the elevator right next to the Carehound's room, and began to open up the partition to it, telling Duck to whisper his complaints very quietly into the mouth of the Carehound. Duck, seeing the Carehound, nervously asked if he should whisper into its ear instead, but the speaker assured him that talking into its mouth would be fine. The Carehound then turned to face Duck, revealing its four eyes to him, and with a roar, lunged out of its room and swallowed Duck whole.
The Carehound kept Duck in stasis for forty years, rearranging his mind to make him a more compliant employee, and then spit him out, also seemingly creating a new employee uniform for Duck to wear, which he had on upon being released. The Carehound was then sealed back in its room as Duck happily returned to work. However, Duck soon realized what happened when he saw the elderly Yellow Guy and Red Guy, and after causing an accident, he managed to find The Briefcase again, who transported them back to the past and reset their bodies, freeing them from the company. Despite this, the Carehound presumably remains in the company's service.
Possible symbolism[]
While not a teacher and having no lines, the Carehound's ability to reshape the minds of the employees it consumes may represent a form of employee indoctrination programs, or possibly drug therapy, as the speaker's song before revealing the Carehound showed her attempting to give drugs to Duck to get rid of his stress. Additionally, the fact that the Carehound could keep beings in stasis for decades while rewriting their minds could symbolize that working a long time could eventually "cure" one's desire not to work, an extension of one of the episode's overarching themes of harmful workplace environments and forcing people to fit in. The fact that the Carehound is depicted in all of its posters as a helpful creature drawn in an innocent, almost cartoony profile, yet is actually a terrifying and seemingly mindless monster, coupled with an earlier scene showing that the company cared more about their reputation/image than employee well-being, encouraging employees not caught in an accident to be glad it wasn't them that got harmed rather than offering any safety tips or policies, seems to be a rather overt representation of companies neglecting or mistreating employees or having poor employee support programs while keeping up a façade of having a safe, friendly environment.
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