- "Follow your Heart!"
Airdate: September 21, 2003
"A Hard Act to Swallow" is the eighteenth episode of the second (internet) season of Happy Tree Friends.
Sniffles is reading a book of math divisions while eating a slice of bread. The baby ant happens to show up in front of him, picking up bread crumbs. Of course, Sniffles does not miss this opportunity to eat him. After that, the anteater leans back to nap. Inside him, the baby ant fires his flare gun to get help from his family. Next thing he knows, Sniffles has been pinned to the tree he leaned onto. The ants begin their rescue mission by breaking through Sniffles's teeth with a battering ram. They tie a rope to his uvula to climb down, but it soon gets ripped off from the ants' weight, making Sniffles scream in pain. However, the ants immediately go for Plan B — Sniffles's heart. One of the ants ties up one of the arteries, causing the blood flow to get blocked and the heart to expand. Soon, Sniffles's heart cannot take it anymore, and it explodes, leaving a large hole on his body. A yellow inflatable slide pops out, and the ants happily slide out.
"A Hard Act to Swallow" contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology: So many things are biologically wrong with Sniffles in this episode, from him somehow chewing from the side of his face (his teeth are on the tip of his snout) to the biologically implausible way the ants end up traveling into Sniffles's heart from the esophagus.
- Aside Glance:
- The baby ant glances at the screen in exasperation after it realises that it has been eaten by Sniffles.
- In a darker example, Sniffles looks at the viewer in terror right before his heart explodes.
- Battering Ram: Used by the ants to infiltrate Sniffles's insides by destroying his teeth.
- Binocular Shot: Unlike the usual shots of this kind, this is reflected on the lens instead of from the mother ant's point of view.
- Blood from Every Orifice: Sniffles starts bleeding out of both his eyes and his mouth right before he dies from his heart exploding.
- Compressed Hair: The mother ant somehow manages to fit her Marge Simpson-esque beehive under an army helmet.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Sniffles's chest ends up bursting from his heart exploding.
- Downer Ending: Sniffles dies at the end of the ants' rescue mission. This is a Sniffles vs. Ants episode, after all.
- Flare Gun: Used by the eaten baby ant to signal for help.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Sniffles' stomach contains no stomach acid whatsoever, and the ant's only reaction to being eaten by him is to give the audience an exasperated Aside Glance and signal to his family for help with a flare gun.
- Heart Beats out of Chest: The ants cause this on Sniffles, leading to his death.
- Mama Bear: Upon noticing the baby ant's distress signal, the mother ant shows no mercy and decides to work together with her other two children to save him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The ants manage to pin the napping Sniffles into the tree using nails... without waking him up.
- Pinned to the Wall: Sniffles ends up in this situation once the ants' rescue mission begins.
- Pun-Based Title: "A hard act to follow"
- Shout-Out:
- Invoked by the episode's description, mentioning "children's fables". For those who wonder, it is related to Sniffles waking up only to find himself pinned by the ants.
- His death shares a similarity with Kane's from Alien, as both involve the chest being burst.
- They Killed Kenny Again: Sniffles dies.
- The Tooth Hurts: Sniffles's teeth end up broken by the ants' Battering Ram.
- Trauma Conga Line: First, Sniffles gets pinned to the tree by nails. Next, his teeth are forcefully broken just so the ants can enter to save the baby ant. After that, his uvula gets accidentally ripped off. Finally, his heart's artery is tied in a knot, causing it to painfully expand and end up exploding.
- Unexplained Recovery: Sniffles's teeth are fine again when he dies despite being destroyed by the Battering Ram earlier. Also, an undamaged-looking heart can be seen flying out of his chest despite it being the one organ to explode.
- Updated Re-release: One of the early episodes to be part of the "Classics Remastered" releases, which rerelease early HTF episodes in HD.
- Uvula Escape Route: The ants lasso a rope to Sniffles' uvula and attempt to climb their way out. Unfortunately, their weight tears it off.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Sniffles finally eats an ant for the first time! Cue the eaten baby ant signalling for help with his Flare Gun.
