What are the Visceral Emotions of The Amazing Digital Circus?

What makes The Amazing Digital Circus (TADC) so amazingly unique, and why does it create such a strange and compelling feeling?

TADC (a show hosted by the YouTube channel Glitch and created by animator and composer Gooseworx) tells the story of a handful of humans who are accidentally transported through a virtual reality system into a digital circus-themed world reminiscent of old 1990s computer games. This circus is led by an AI showrunner named Caine, who manifests himself as an energetic ringleader and attempts to provide a sense of belonging and purpose to those who have fallen in.

The first episode, which shows the world’s premise, can be found here, and I highly recommend watching it before proceeding with the rest of this article.

There are many opinions on TADC, ranging from “This show is incredibly well done and has so many wonderful elements” to “This show feels goofy and isn’t for me.” On the extreme ends, they can range from “I WILL DESTROY ANYONE WHO HATES THIS SHOW” to “I WILL DESTROY ANYONE WHO LOVES THIS SHOW.” Opinions aside, it’s clear that this show evokes some deep, underlying emotional connection to its viewers. What are these hidden emotions besides the comedic adventures and fun animation style?

CURIOSITY

People have been obsessed with mysteries of all sorts, from the innocence of a Scooby Doo mystery to unmasking the horrors in a paranormal investigation or murder mystery podcast. In a world of mundane routines, the unknowable is an exciting venture. The thrill of slowly piecing together information releases a dopamine rush known as a “eureka” or “aha!” moment. Curiosity is an ingrained human emotion that naturally latches onto anything that poses an interesting concept.

There’s a certain excitement when speculation occurs to piece together a broken puzzle, and an intricate story offers many puzzle pieces to slowly reveal the story. TADC is no exception. Many enticing clues have been left unanswered but tease future explanations. Why did humans get selected for the digital circus? Were they deserving of it, or were they chosen for other reasons? Who is the ultimate creator of this world, and is Caine unaware of what’s going on, or is he hiding something? What eventually happens when the number of those who lose their minds and become “abstracted” becomes too numerous? Most importantly, is there any true escape from the amazing digital circus, and what is the end goal?

The world of TADC establishes its own set of rules at the beginning, creates intriguing premises, and leaves the rest up for exploring. Our perspective is set at the same level as the characters: deep in the dark. For a mind that desires mystery, where better to start than going into a new world with blind curiosity?

Environmental Dread

The world of TADC exists in a wide variety of liminal spaces. Liminal spaces are familiar environments that have been abandoned and seem eery when encountered. The internet’s obsession with liminal spaces has exploded in recent years, notably with the project “The Backrooms.” The pure horror behind the backrooms hinges on the primary concept of environmental dread in an uncanny valley space. IFL Science puts it best by saying that these are spaces our brain recognizes as familiar since we’ve seen them before, like long hallways, big offices, or tiled subway stations. Still, the lack of other primary elements like people actively walking through or other familiar features tells our brain that something is deeply off.

TADC is filled with these environments. In the first episode, three distinct environments are shown. The first is an unsettlingly large 1990s computer-themed space in which the characters mainly reside. The second environment is the void, a vast, endless space everyone tends to be wary of. The third is a giant maze of empty offices, giving the eery feeling of dread accompanied by the visuals of a company that may have been alive at one point and now holds a handful of mysteries. Each of these spaces shares a feeling of endlessness, emptiness, and fewer living beings than there should be.

JUXTAPOSITIONS

Or should I say, “Jax-tapositions?” (Don’t worry, this is the only dumb TADC-related joke I’m doing).

A favorite element of mine in any form of media is a strong use of juxtapositions to create tension and intrigue. Juxtapositions add depth by challenging the viewer to not only incorporate a handful of elements in the same category but process elements of completely opposite categories together for a broader spectrum of experiences. These juxtapositions can also contribute to the eery, uncanny, disorienting feeling since familiar settings are combined with the unfamiliar. This distortion of what we know to be true and what we fear to figure out is a combination that creates curiosity for the truth and an aversion to what we’ll find simultaneously, like a car crash you can’t help but take a peek at.

TADC’s entire world is a juxtaposition. It’s a colorful circus world filled with characters experiencing mental breakdowns and craving escape from a place derived from the idea of “fun.” Imagine being put into a McDonald’s Playplace and told that you should be having fun while knowing you’re locked in the Playplace for eternity. That’s a McUnsettling experience.

SURREAL HORROR

This show’s last main category of complex emotions is surreal, incomprehensible horror. As the website TV Tropes puts it, horror figures like serial killers, beasts, or zombies are scary in and of themselves due to the natural threats they seem to impose on the characters and us as the audience. Unlike natural horror, Surreal horror scares us on the most visual and conscious level. Surreal horror strikes the mind at its deepest subconscious layer, bringing distress not merely due to its “scariness” but also its incomprehensibility. At its most digestible, Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” is a version of the influential and surreal madness in many surreal works of art (this is explained well by the art site Widewalls, which I’ll attach in the references section at the end of this article). This book is scattered with ramblings of characters who use strange logic to navigate the world around them. Playing cards are fighting over what color to paint the roses of the world; a rabbit is anxiously panicking over the time, and a cat with a signature creepy smile is following Alice around, all creating a sense of disorientation and fear reminiscent of a child exploring unfamiliar surroundings for the first time. On the darker end of the spectrum, movies like Eraserhead by David Lynch show the extent of the weirdly surreal darkness of these elements. This nightmarish movie depicts scenes of body horror, strange creature/human hybrid babies, and a girl singing an eery song in a radiator (writer Rua Fay points out these key traits on Cinemasters).

Surrealism’s incomprehensibility and horrific imagery/wording give viewers a sense of confusion, unease, and a lack of control over the territory they’ve entered. TADC falls closer to the Alice In Wonderland side of this spectrum. Characters each have their own quirks and ramblings. One of the show’s characters, Kinger, seems to have moments of sanity that are quickly dismissed and replaced with incoherent phrases and nonsensical statements. Another character, Gangle, has a personality that shifts depending on the literal mask that she’s wearing. Caine, the ringleader, seems to have a better sense of what’s going on and controls much of the space of the circus, but he is also unpredictable, uncontrollable, and has his own way of handling problems.

Characters who can’t keep up with the madness of the digital circus are doomed to a complete mental and physical breakdown in a process known as “abstraction.” Hallways and spaces seem to move of their own accord, random rooms lead to random outcomes, floating faces are screaming, and everything seems to make sense and not make sense at the same time. Our perspective follows the main character, Pomni, exploring this mad world similar to Alice’s as they both fall into their respective “wonderlands.”

CONCLUSION

Whether it’s basic human curiosity, a love for contrasts in art, or a desire for disorientation, TADC offers a fantastical escape into a world with many questions hidden inside. With these elements, memorable characters, fast-paced sequences, and relatability in the chaos, it’s no wonder this show’s pilot episode has already amassed over 300 million views as of this article’s publishing date. So, what is it about the digital circus that draws you in? Is it the desire to find logic in the madness or get lost in it? (or something else?)