About

The Ants 😡🐜 is a copypasta and catchphrase deriving from a TikTok video in which one person imitates an ant. The TikTok video which was intended to illustrate ants "all over" a piece of fruit went viral in September 2019 due to its odd but simplistic concept. The video was then ironically parodied by other TikTok users and soon the text label, "the ants 😡🐜:," used in the original video became a popular comment on TikTok and Twitter.

Origin

On September 3rd, 2019, TikTok user @erinleexd uploaded a video using the TikTok sound "July 19 Dance Trends mashup- thedylanmiller" in which they act out the text "throw this piece of fruit away. it has ants all over it" and "the ants 😡🐜" (shown below). The video gained over 246,100 likes and 13,000 comments in six days.

Spread

On September 6th, 2019, TikTok users began parodying the ants video. For example, TikTok user @isaakboi like many other users posted a video in which "the ants" don't belong in the scenario they create (shown below, left). The video gained over 900 likes in three days. The next day, TikTok user @headass uploaded a video showing an overwhelming amount of "the ants" comments on different TikTok videos (shown below, right). The video garnered over 18,000 likes in two days.

That same day, "the ants 😡🐜" replies and tweets began appearing on Twitter. For example, @amysmvrcury^[1] tweeted, the phrase repeated and accumulated over 70 likes in two days (shown below, left). On September 8th, 2019, Twitter user @gabillla^[2] tweeted, "everyone’s always says the ants 😡 🐜 but no one ever asks how r the ants 😡 🐜" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References