The Ants ? ?
Meaning
The Ants ? ? is a catchphrase used on top of TikTok videos when the TikTok users show how an ant would react or behave in various situations.
The person who makes the TikTok video imitates an ant, putting his or her pointing fingers to their head as horns.
It started out with one video including the text “throw this piece of fruit away, it has ants all over it”, followed by another clip with the person’s fingers positioned on their head and the text “The Ants ? ?”
Because of its silly concept, people started copying the video and making their own versions.
Search Interest
Origin of the meme
The first video was uploaded on TikTok by user @erinleexd on the 3rd of September, 2019.
The background music played was “July 19 Dance Trends mashup” by thedylanmiller, and the first scene is supposed to depict the human throwing away the fruit, followed by the angry react of the ants.
The two emoji’s added to the end, “? ?” is also meant to show the ants’ reaction.
Spread of the meme
Just three days after the release of the video, other versions by other TikTok users started popping up, imitating “The Ants ? ?” in various situations.
Soon, “The Ants ? ?” became a popular topic and tag on social platforms such as Twitter.
First, user @amysmvrcury tweeted a post only containing “The Ants ? ?” repeatedly.
One day later, user @gabillla tweeted “everyone’s always says the ants ? ? but no one ever asks how r the ants ? ?”
Video
Further information/Sources
- Urban Dictionary – The Ants ? ?
- Know Your Meme – The Ants ? ?