Happy Tree Friends: Mindless Violence, or Something More?

Cute animated animals, cotton candy-fluff settings, and horribly graphic violence! Wait, something there is not like the others...

A cultural phenomenon of sorts, Happy Tree Friends remains somewhat of a mystery to most. Originally spawning as an internet-based short, the series has since blossomed into video games, an abundance of fan-art, and even a TV show (which you can surprisingly find on Netflix). Want to know what it’s about? Don’t be deceived by its initial cutesy nature: in nearly all episodes, counting both the TV series and the online shorts, the friendly cartoon animals you see here are murdered, beaten, and tortured… with often horrendously graphic results.

Some may claim it’s only shock value, which I admit was my interpretation at first, until I stepped back and took a closer look at what was going on: Happy Tree Friends has a meaning behind it.

Although it has been quoted before, think of the comic violence in such beloved shows as Tom and Jerry: roughhousing (and usually more) ensues, but, at the end of the day, the slippery mouse and the defeated cat end up with little to no injuries. Parallel to this, Happy Tree Friends has the same first stages of violence: little accidents that in a normal cartoon, would usually have the victimized character completely unharmed.

The violence is cranked up to ten, and in doing so, Happy Tree Friends poses a certain question: isn’t violence without consequences just as worse as consequential brutality?

Children watch shows with violence every day, but it is almost never explained, and is usually brushed off with a quick laugh. When showing infinitely more violent outcomes (albeit heavily over exaggerated at that), it does beg the question…

Isn’t under exaggerating violent acts just as criminal as over exaggerating them?