[1] The film stars Martin Savage as a man, John Ward, but credited as the "Subject", who buys some new internet software for his computer, which begins to take over his life.
He complains that the unit claims he was online for 200 hours in a week, and other various problems with his computer, such as his monitor vibrating, blasts of static electricity and his screen shutting down, meaning he has to send his email from an internet cafe.
Whilst he reads the manual and email explaining it, his daughter begins to play with matches.
The Subject then responds again saying that he tried to remove the unit, but he got badly burned when he touched the glowing Praemus logo.
Options displayed include, "Friends", "Spouse", "Children", "Sanity", "Pets" and "Acumen", all marked "Off".
Praemus send an email to the Subject's wife saying they were sorry at hearing the news of the heart attack.
The Subject's heartbeat then appears to stop, and the light on the unit fades away, but it turns out the heart monitor is not working.
A doctor simply hits the machine and it begins to work, ironically implying that was all the subject needed to do.
Comic actors David Walliams, Richard Ayoade, Martin Savage and Amelia Bullmore also star, with voice-overs by Peter Serafinowicz and Julia Davis.
Hello Friend was released as an extra on the first series DVD of The IT Crowd, a television sitcom also directed and written by Linehan.