The Ants are recurring characters of Happy Tree Friends.
Character Bio
The Ants are a family of ants who serve as recurring characters throughout the series. There is a mother ant, a baby ant, a son, and a daughter. They live an anthill with a door at the top. Sniffles is their enemy, as he tries to eat them in every episode they appear. The Ants get revenge by torturing and killing him in the most sadistic ways possible, most notably in Tongue in Cheek, and apparently enjoy doing so.
Sniffles has made several machines to catch to ants, but they usually backfire on him. In some episodes, Sniffles has been very obsessive when trying to eat them. He manages to eat the ants in A Hard Act to Swallow and Blast from the Past, but in A Hard Act to Swallow, the other ants rescue the eaten ant. In order to escape, they tie up one of Sniffles' blood vessels, making his chest explode. The only time Sniffles gets away with eating an ant without being killed is in Blast from the Past, in which he goes back to prehistoric times to make sure everything is perfect so that he can stop Cuddles, Giggles, Lumpy, and Toothy from dying. Before leaving, he sees an ant on a fern and eats it. Prehistoric Sniffles sees this and he eats an ant as well, liking the taste. This started the conflict between ants and anteaters. The modern day ants, however, have not yet died.
They can be tricked easily, as is shown in Tongue in Cheek, in which they believe that a picture of an ant on Sniffles' finger is a real ant. As a result, they open the door to their anthill and Sniffles reaches in to grab them. In the same episode, a Robot Ant destroys their anthill. Even later in the episode, they use Sniffles' skin to build a new home. Also in Tongue in Cheek, Lumpy unknowingly saves an ant's life without knowing it by accidentally treading on Sniffles' tongue, stopping it just inches from an ant.
In Crazy Ant-ics, they are shown to be religious, as they are seen saying grace before Sniffles' tongue bursts into their dining room. Ironically, soon after, they torture Sniffles to death. Their home is mostly underground, as is seen in Crazy Ant-ics, A Hard Act to Swallow and Tongue in Cheek, though in Suck It Up, their home is a mouse hole in Sniffles' house.
The Ants' Episodes
Starring/Featuring Roles
Appearance Roles
- Blast from the Past (prehistoric versions only)
Number of Kills
- Sniffles - 5 (Crazy Ant-ics, Tongue Twister Trouble, A Hard Act to Swallow, Suck It Up, Tongue in Cheek)
Deaths
- Blast from the Past: A prehistoric ant is eaten by Sniffles. Prehistoric Sniffles sees this and eats an ant (who was once his friend), deciding that he likes it. (Possibly permanent)
- Prior to the series, the father of the family was killed by an unknown cause. (Possibly permanent)
Injuries
- Suck It Up: The Baby Ant catches Sniffles' cold.
- A Hard Act to Swallow: The sister ant is briefly crushed under Sniffles' falling uvula.
Trivia
- Despite being Sniffles' nemeses, they have currently only appeared in 2 TV episodes, even though they appear in Sniffles' title card. Despite this, they have also only killed Sniffles once, and they did not kill or harm Sniffles in Blast from the Past. This marks the only time to date where Sniffles was able to harm an ant without being killed.
- The Ants appear twice in each the first and second internet season, and the TV series, each. However, they are completely absent in Internet Season 3 and have yet to appear in Internet Season 4.
- They seem to have a combination of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic traits. They seem to be anthropomorphic like many characters in the show, but live in a anthill. In addition to that, Sniffles probably would not try to eat them if they were anthropomorphic.
- Their fights in episodes are usually started by Sniffles. An exception would be in Suck It Up, in which they start the fight by stealing Sniffles' cookies.
- Sniffles' failure to eat the ants is not unlike "The Ant and the Aardvark". The difference is that Sniffles is being murdered in the most gory way the Ants can think of.
- In Crazy Ant-ics, there is a picture on the wall of an ant who could be the deceased father of the family.
- Throughout the whole series, Sniffles has been the only character to encounter, interact with, or be killed by The Ants (not counting Mittens). Even though Giggles, Cro-Marmot, Lumpy and The Mole have been in some of these episodes with him, they do not do anything to help him or even seem to notice what is going on. This might be one reason why the war is ongoing, since nobody is helping Sniffles fight the ants.
- Because of their cruelty towards Sniffles, they are arguably one of the most hated characters on the show. However there are some who sympathize with them, as they seem to be afraid of Sniffles and may be resorting to torture to get him off their back.
- These ants have four limbs, unlike real ants which have six. The baby ant has only one antenna, or one hair, while the others have none.
- They have not been seen in the series since Tongue in Cheek, which aired in 2006. This means they have not appeared in the series for a decade now.
- The mother ant's hair is often compared to the appearance of Marge Simpson from "The Simpsons".
Template:Villains