Tongue Twister Trouble is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the nineteenth of the first season. This episode continues Sniffles' eternal struggle with the ants. It also introduces Cro-Marmot, an ancient mammal frozen in a block of ice and Mittens, Giggles' beloved cat.
HTF Episode Description
A leisurely ice skate goes horribly wrong in this snowy Happy Tree Friends episode. The ants once again take revenge on Sniffles the anteater. He just can't get a break!
Plot
The episode begins with the Happy Tree Friends enjoying a day on the ice, ice skating. Sniffles, meanwhile, seems to have some trouble with his footing. As Sniffles gets a good balance, an ant skates by. Fascinated, Sniffles proceeds to eat the ant. As Sniffles launches his tongue, his tongue misses the ant and instead hits the ice. Sniffles attempts to pull his tongue off the ice, but as he does so, he tears off the skin on the bottom of his tongue. Because of this, Sniffles is trapped.
The ants now use this as an opportunity to get back at Sniffles. First, they throw a toy mouse on Sniffles' tongue, and one of the ants releases a cat named Mittens. Mittens quickly jumps Sniffles' tongue, and she finds it so comfortable, she begins pricking her claws on Sniffles' tongue, making Sniffles shout in pain.
Behind Sniffles, one of the ants ties a rope to Sniffles' tail, and another ant is signaled to the next task. The other ant is seen holding a bottle of wine, and it swings it at an anvil, which is also tied by some rope. The anvil begins to sink into a hole in the ice. As the anvil sinks down, Sniffles is about to get pulled in as well. Luckily for him, his tongue is the only thing from making him fall in completely. Unfortunately, Mittens, still resting on Sniffles' tongue, uses her razor sharp claws to slice off Sniffles' tongue with one swing. With his tongue severed, Sniffles starts sliding into the hole, up until Sniffles sinks completely. Seconds after falling into the ice cold water, Sniffles re-submerges, now encased in a block of ice.
The final scene shows Mittens falling asleep on Sniffles' now severed tongue.
Moral
"Mind your manners!"
Deaths
- Sniffles is pulled into the water by an anvil and gets encased in ice, causing him to freeze to death or be put into suspended animation. (Debatable, because of Cro-Marmot)
Injuries
- Sniffles gets his tongue stuck to ice. The skin on the bottom on Sniffles' tongue tears off as he tries to get up.
- Sniffles' tongue is sliced by Mittens' claws.
Survival Rate
- Amount of alive main characters: 3 (2 including Debatable deaths)
- Amount of dead main characters: 0 (1 including Debatable deaths)
- Total rate: 100% (66% including Debatable deaths)
Destruction
- The bottle of wine breaks when The Ant swings it at an anvil.
Goofs
- Sniffles' scarf disappears as he begins sliding into the water, then it reappears when Sniffles re-submerges in a block of ice.
- When one of The Ants ties the rope to Sniffles' tail, the rope was tied midway, but when Sniffles began to slide into the ice, the rope somehow moved further up his tail.
- Right before Mittens cuts off Sniffles' tongue, he stops sliding, meaning that it has reached its limit despite it having been shown to be much longer in Crazy Ant-ics and Tongue in Cheek
- The width and size of Sniffles' tongue increases two times. The first time is when Mittens starts prickling her paws on his tongue. The second time is at the ending when Mittens is sleeping on Sniffles' tongue.
Quick Shot Moment
Just before Mittens comes out of her cage, there's a brief shot of Mittens/Honey resting on Sniffles' tongue.
(It looks exactly like the YouTube thumbnail for the HD version of this episode)
Note: This is fixed in the Classics Remastered version from YouTube and from Mondomedia.com.
Trivia
- Cro-Marmot makes a brief cameo in this episode, skating by in the background. As this is his first appearance in the series, he is the only character who did not star in his debut episode.
- However despite this, he does somewhat foreshadow what will later happen to Sniffles, which could be the purpose of his appearance in this episode.
- This is the last episode to air in the year 2000.
- When Sniffles falls down, trying to reach down to catch the ant, his glasses are off for a brief second, showing he has small, dotted eyes (similar to the eyes of Cub and Mr. Pickels). Later in A Sight for Sore Eyes, Sniffles is shown to have typical HTF eyes.
- This marks the first episode where only the starring character dies and the featuring/appearance characters survive.
- Cro-Marmot being in a big block of ice and still surviving makes Sniffles' death debatable.
- This is the first episode of Season 1 to be uploaded to the MondoMedia YouTube channel and the 5th overall of the Happy Tree Friends episodes uploaded.
- In conjunction with Cro-Marmot's first appearance, this is also the first episode to use the "Mondo" watermark up to Icy You.
- This is the internet episode with the lowest amount of goofs (not counting the ones without goofs; like Asbestos I Can Do).
- On the opposite end of the scale, the episode with the highest amount of goofs is Concrete Solution.
- While his tongue is stuck on the ice, Sniffles' snout is as short as it would be from the TV series onwards.
- This is the first episode where a character is killed by a non-anthropomorphic animal.
- If he survived, this would be both the first time Sniffles survives an encounter with the Ants and the first time Sniffles survives an episode in general.