Will the ant family survive against Sniffles’ Robo Ant?
Sniffles builds a cybernetic robo-ant to infiltrate the anthill. (DVD)
Plot
Sniffles enjoys a picnic in the park, when he is suddenly hit on the head by a stray golf ball. Lumpy, dressed in golf attire and holding a golf club, runs over and apologizes. Sniffles angrily returns Lumpy's ball and turns to find an ant taking some food from his picnic. He runs behind a tree and extends his tongue out, slowly creeping it towards the unsuspecting ant. He touches the ant, who quickly runs away until it finds itself cornered with a cup of hot coffee at back. Sniffles knocks over a salt shaker and cringes as he realizes it is salt, he then knocks over a pepper shaker, and then sneezes and realizes its pepper. Finally, Sniffles tastes the ant and when Sniffles' tongue pounces at the ant, it dodges, causing Sniffles to knock over the coffee cup and burn his tongue severely.
Determined, Sniffles resumes the chase. The ant runs up a tree and walks onto a branch with a single leaf hanging from it. Once more Sniffles corners the ant, only to have it slip away by using the leaf as a parachute and then as a boat when it hits the water. Sniffles' tongue follows the ant, weaving in and out of the water. The Mole on shore takes a picture of the chase, the photograph that comes out is Sniffles' tongue in the water like the Loch Ness monster. The ant hits the shore and runs off with Sniffles' tongue in hot pursuit, when a golf ball rolls up. The ant trips as it runs for ant-hill, leaving it vulnerable as Sniffles' tongue pounces in for the kill. The tongue stops short of the ant, however, unable to move forward, allowing the ant to escape, slamming a door on top of the hill. The viewer finds that Lumpy, in trying to play his ball, has stepped on Sniffles' tongue. Sniffles confronts a sheepish Lumpy about this before storming off in defeat.
Sniffles observes the ant-hill from a distance, discovering they use a secret knock to get inside. He imitates the knock and one of the ants opens a peephole to see Sniffles' finger with a picture of an ant drawn on it. Shrugging and thinking it is a friendly ant, the ants open the door only to immediately have Sniffles' hand slam down inside, barely missing them. Unfortunately, the ants stitch his hand and arm to the ground, and begin pulling his fingernails up with a needle. To increase the pain, the ants pour salt on Sniffles' fingers. In his attempts to free himself from the hole, he tears the skin off his hand.
Back at his house, Sniffles has bandaged his hand and completed work on a robotic ant. He places a helmet on his head similar to a helmet the robot wears and begins moving around, the robot imitating his movements. Back at the ant-hill there's another knock on the door. They let the robot in upon seeing it through the peephole, quickly regretting it as it extends saws, hooks, and a drill from his arms. The robot chases the family, destroying the ant-hill in the process. The robot chases the ants outside, where they run up to Sniffles' house. The robot lunges at them with hooks, missing and getting the hooks caught in an electrical socket.
The robot gets electrocuted, as does Sniffles, causing both to fall to the ground. One of the ants removes the helmet from the robot and crosses the wires. Sniffles wakes up, the helmet still on his head, to find the ant family inside his house waiting for him. One of the ants puts the helmet on and begins moving. Because the wires were crossed, now Sniffles imitates the ant's movements. The ant proceeds to torture Sniffles in agonizing and gruesome ways, making Sniffles stick numerous razors in an apple and take several bites of it and then making Sniffles stick his tongue in a paper shredder before having him yank it out as it is being cut.
Finally, the ant has Sniffles go outside, nail his tail to the ground, and tie his tongue to a double sided paddle. Sniffles begins crying as the ant has him twist the paddle before letting it go, making it fly upwards in a helicopter effect. Because Sniffles is nailed to the ground, his tongue and organs fly with the oar and out of his body. Later, the view sees that the ants have made a new home out of Sniffles' body. Meanwhile, Lumpy, still playing golf, puts on a golf glove and, upon not being able to locate his other glove, picks up and unknowingly puts on the skin torn from Sniffles' hand earlier and cracks his knuckles. He hits his ball through Sniffles' intestines, which are wrapped around a tree along with his organs and rib cage in a type of makeshift mini golf hole. Lumpy does a fist pump at his successful shot.
Moral
"Don't make a mountain out of an ant-hill!"
Deaths
The aphid seen in the episode might have died when Sniffles' robot made the ant hill explode. (Debatable)
Sniffles ties his trunk to a double-paddle and lets go of the paddle, tearing his organs from his body, all while being mind-controlled.
Injuries
Sniffles is hit in the back of his head with a golf ball by Lumpy.
When he tries to catch the Mother Ant, he accidentally knocks a cup of hot tea, making it spill on his tongue and burning it.
Sniffles is electrocuted when his robot ant inserts its metallic claws in electrical sockets. Due to him wearing a mind control helmet, as well as his robot, both him and the ant are electrocuted.
Prior to his death, Sniffles goes through a wide series of gruesome and painful injuries, including:
One of his hands is sewed to the ground; then one of his fingernails is opened, revealing his flesh; salt is poured on it and, to increase the pain, one of the Ants closes the fingernail and stomps on it.
In a desperate attempt to free himself, Sniffles yanks his injured hand out of the anthill, but gets its skin torn off in the process.
Inserts numerous razor blades in an apple and proceeds to bite it, cutting up his mouth and breaking his teeth (Mind controlled).
Tongue gets cut off by a paper shredder and Sniffles yanks it, successfully freeing himself but with a severely cut off tongue (Mind controlled).
Nails his tail to the ground with a hammer and a peg. After this, he starts to cry (Mind controlled).
Survival Rate
Amount of surviving main characters: 2
Amount of dead main characters: 1
Total: 66%
Destruction
A hot glass of coffee spills.
Sniffles breaks down the ants' door.
Sniffles' robot blows up an ant farm.
Sniffles' robot and helmet are electrocuted.
Goofs
Lumpy's antlers change directions several times, sometimes during continuous shots.
Sniffles wouldn't have sneezed if he just tasted the pepper. However, he might be allergic of them. (Debatable)
When Lumpy hits the golf ball, the ball isn't small enough to fit inside the hole in Sniffles' intestine.
Even though Lumpy has an appearance role, it would make more sense for him to have a featuring role.
Sniffles' teeth were not cut before shredding his tongue.
While running towards Sniffles' house, the Ants are almost the size of the main characters.
Sniffles' snout is already twisted before the ant forces him to twist his tongue.
Despite losing the skin on his left hand, Sniffles' hand is shown to be perfectly fine after he sends his robot into the ant-hill.
Despite having his tongue shredded, Sniffles' tongue looks fine when it, along with his organs, are wrapped around the tree.
Sniffles loses the skin on his left hand, yet at the end of the episode Lumpy places the skin over his right hand. (However, he might have been wearing it backwards.)
Trivia
The title of this episode is a reference to the term "tongue-in-cheek," which means to joke around.
This episode aired on YouTube on April 27, 2012 as confirmed on Twitter along with Easy Comb, Easy Go and Wingin' It. The name for the mix is "Eleventh Hour" (which was originally titled "Good and Nice Eleven"). Lumpy, Sniffles and The Mole appear in all three of these episodes. Lumpy dies once and Sniffles dies twice while The Mole survives in all three.
Sniffles' tongue licking the mother ant with her back to the wall is a reference to the 1979 movie Alien.
The Loch Ness Tongue-ster!
The photo The Mole takes of Sniffles' tongue closely resembles the Loch Ness Monster photo, also referred to as "The Surgeon's Photograph."
Despite Sniffles' numerous encounters with the ants during the internet series, this is the only Sniffles vs. Ants episode of the TV series (unless one counts the prehistoric ants in Blast from the Past having a brief appearance).
This is the only episode of the TV series to have only one death in it. (Though Handy is the only confirmed main character to die in A Change of Heart, a whale dies as well, and Lumpy may have died).
This is probably the most torturous death in Happy Tree Friends. Lumpy's death in The Chokes on You is second to this.
This is one of the few TV episodes where there are less than five characters.
This is the only TV episode where only one character stars alone without any featuring characters.
Sniffles' death is the longest in the TV series, the second longest being Lumpy's in Letter Late than Never.
Sniffles is indirectly responsible for his death in this episode, although The Ants are directly responsible for his death.
This episode marks the second time a character uses a part of a character as clothing, where in this case Lumpy wears Sniffles' hand as a glove. The first time is in Let It Slide when Lumpy wears Flaky's skin as a hoodie.
Nobody dies until 6 minutes throughout the episode.
This qualifies as Sniffles' most antagonistic role in the series.
For now, this is the last episode with the Ants. (though it is possible they will appear again.)
This episode, along with Wishy Washy, is considered one of the most graphic episodes in the TV series.
Lumpy is wearing the same golf outfit from the end of Chew Said a Mouthful. It is possible this episode takes place after that one; two of the three surviving characters reappear here but none of the characters who died reappear.
There are no female characters in this episode, if one doesn't count the Mother and Daughter ant.
Sniffles' remains are used for three different things at the end of the episode, more than any other single corpse in the series.
The moral of this episode is a reference to the famous idiom "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill," which means to not make a big issue out of a smaller one.
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