You'd think Sniffles would learn not to eat the ant family by now...
- "Don't make a mountain out of an anthill!"
Airdate: December 10, 2006
Sniffles tries to eat the ants by using his tongue and all sorts of other tricks. Unfortunately for him, the ants turn on him.
"Tongue In Cheek" provides examples of:
- And I Must Scream: Sniffles is being mind-controlled by the ants while he has no choice but to suffer the most heinous fate imaginable.
- Asshole Victim: Zigzagged in Sniffles' case. Sniffles had many chances to back out of his war with the ants but still refuses to leave them alone. Near the climax, Sniffles is at his worst when he destroys their home and pushes them to the brink of tears. Despite that however, Sniffles' death is so horrific and tragic that it's in fact very easy to feel sorry for the guy.
- The Ants became a victim of Chuck Cunningham Syndrome after this episode and have not been missed since.
- Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: At the very end of the episode, Lumpy not only unknowingly uses the skin torn from Sniffles' hand as a glove, but he putts a golfball into Sniffle's intestines. The scene then cuts to a blood-soaked tree, with all of Sniffles' torn out organs wrapped around it in the form of a makeshift miniature golf hole.
- Break the Cutie: As getting his teeth sliced and tongue shredded wasn't bad enough, Sniffles starts crying when the ants use mind control to impale his tail and forcing him to tie and twist his tongue to a kayak paddle before his organs fly out of his mouth and killing him.
- Butt-Monkey: Sniffles — particularly in the later half.
- Calm Before the Storm: Compared to all other episodes in the series, this one starts off relatively tame, with literally no blood or gore, let alone kills, happening within the first half. Within the first half, all that happens is a bunch of slapstick jokes, with not even Lumpy stepping on Sniffles' tongue causing any blood loss. This all changes by the second half, however, where Sniffles has his entire hand skinned, and afterwards is mind controlled into a Mutilation Conga, the only death in the whole episode. What little deaths there are, however, is more than made up for in sheer magnitude!
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Even worse than other episodes featuring the ants.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The ants were never seen again after this one-and they have not been missed.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: After being forced to mutilate himself in various ways, Sniffles ties his shredded tongue to a double-paddle, twists it several times, and lets go of the paddle, tearing his organs from his body, all while being mind-controlled. Many consider it to be the single worst death in the entire series, which is saying A LOT.
- Fingore: As Sniffles tries to pit his hand into the anthill to eat the ants, the ants tie his hand down, slice open his fingernails and even pouring salt onto the wounds to the point where the skin of his hand even rips off. He does get it bandaged later on.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sniffles' mind control helmet is immediately used against him.
- Human Resources: After Sniffles has all of his organs torn out of his body, the ants proceed to repurpose his corpse into a new house.
- Karma Houdini: The ants, once again, get off scot-free after inflicting the worst torture imaginable towards Sniffles.
- Kick the Dog: The ants do this up to eleven towards poor Sniffles. See Break the Cutie above.
- Mutilation Conga: The entire climax of the episode serves as a humongous one for Sniffles.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The Ants do this to Sniffles with his mind control helmet, well.. not before torturing the hell out of him first.
- Tongue Trauma: Sniffles in general is usually an easy target for this, but this episode takes the cake. The episode is particularly infamous for having lots of this in the second half. The ants make a mind-controlled Sniffles put his tongue into a paper shredder, severely damaging it, tie it to a paddle, and then twist it several times.
- The Tooth Hurts: The ants make Sniffles bite into a razor-bladed apple while mind-controlled, which slices his teeth and gums. It doesn't help that we are shown a nasty close-up of this, and this is only the first thing they make Sniffles do to injure himself.
- Villain Protagonist: Sniffles (for most of the episode) is the one to start all the conflicts with the Ant Family.
