The start of a very one-sided rivalry.
- Buckle up for safety!
Airdate: January 28, 2000
"Crazy Ant-ics" is the fourth episode of the first (internet) season of Happy Tree Friends.
The episode begins with an anteater with glasses (sound familiar?) who just found an ant hole and sticks his tongue underground to eat some ants. Unfortunately, however, the ants use all types of Cold-Blooded Torture towards him by impaling his tongue, scraping it with a cheese grater, pouring a lemon onto it, sawing it in half, and pouring gasoline to make him explode. The baby ant later chants as he makes it out of the ant hole.
"Crazy Ant-Tics" contains the following:
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Ants inflict this on Sniffles.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After having his tongue hammered by a stake, grated (plus lemon poured on it for good measure), sawed, and covered in gasoline, Sniffles dies by having the Mother Ant lit his tongue, with the flames traveling into his body causing the jerrycan he swallowed to blow him up into Ludicrous Gibs.
- Debut Queue: Sniffles makes his debut in this episode.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Most of Sniffles's upper body explodes after the flame reaches the jerrycan inside his body.
- Disappeared Dad: The Ant Father is shown on the family's picture frame, depicting him as a soldier.
Word of God says that he died in the war. - Early-Bird Cameo: The Cursed Idol appears as one of the buried items, way before "Treasure Those Idol Moments", an episode revolving around that particular item, is made.
- Establishing Character Moment: The ants torturing Sniffles in such ways that not even Fliqpy would inflict onto his victims.
- Furry Reminder: As brainy as Sniffles is, he still would rather stop by an anthill to hunt his prey as his snack.
- Hero Antagonist: Sympathetic or not, Sniffles is played as the villain against the ants, who are mainly attacking out of self defense.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: One of the buried items is a treasure chest.
- Karma Houdini: Like their later appearances, the ants get off with no consequences for torturing and exploding Sniffles.
- Ludicrous Gibs: What is left of Sniffles after his death.
- No Ending: Sniffles explodes and the baby ant cheers.
- Oh, Crap!: The Ants' reaction when they get Sniffles's tongue as a visitor.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble: Sniffles is introduced thinking about math equations with one, establishing him as The Smart Guy. The picture changes to an ant when he spots the anthill.
- Pun-Based Title: "Crazy antics".
- Shout-Out:
- Sniffles's tongue traveling underground to reach The Ants' home may be a parody of the Gold Well arcade game.
- The whole plot seems to be based on the short "Ants in the Plants". Both have anteaters as the main antagonist and Tongue Trauma induced by ants.
- Tongue Trauma: Sniffles suffers from this for much of the episode.
- Updated Re-release: One of the early episodes to be part of "Classics Remastered" releases, which rerelease early HTF episodes in HD.
- Your Head Asplode: Happens to Sniffles in the end.
