# What is This? A Center for Ants? 'What is This? A Center for Ants?' is a snowclone catchphrase pulled from Ben Stiller's 2001 comedy Zoolander, where male model Derek Zoolander mistakes a scale model of his literacy center for the actual building. Starting in the late 2000s, news headlines and humor sites began swapping 'center' for whatever tiny object they were mocking, growing into a long-running template for roasting anything comically undersized online. ## Origin The line comes from the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy Zoolander, in which the title character throws a tantrum after seeing a tabletop maquette of the 'Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good'[4]. He screams 'What is this? A center for ants?' and smashes the model, having apparently expected a full-sized building to arrive at the unveiling[3]. The quote made its way into journalism as an easy headline template well before it was a numbered meme. Vulture ran a July 2007 piece on artist Joe Fig's miniature studio replicas under the headline 'What Is This, an Art Studio for Ants?'[1]. In April 2008, New York Magazine's Intelligencer blog imagined Mariah Carey smashing a mini Empire State Building with a Zoolander-style outburst, dropping 'What is this? A building for ants?' straight into the item[2]. - **Platform:** Film (Zoolander) / Tumblr and Reddit (online spread) - **Creator:** Ben Stiller (film), Unknown (meme format) - **Date:** 2001 ## Overview The meme works as a plug-and-play snowclone. The structure stays 'What is this, a ____ for ants?' and the blank gets filled with whatever small object, image, or interface someone is complaining about[3]. Common variants include 'a picture for ants?' and 'a video for ants?' and the format shows up anywhere a thumbnail, miniature, or badly scaled design makes something look absurdly tiny[6]. The tone is incredulous disbelief, mimicking Zoolander's affronted delivery in the film[4]. On message boards and image-sharing sites, people use it to roast low-resolution uploads, cropped screenshots, and tiny preview images[7]. Miniature food, dollhouse-sized furniture, and scale models are common targets too, since the original joke was itself about a scale model[5]. ## How to Use Pair the line with any image of a comically small object, miniature replica, cropped thumbnail, or low-resolution upload. Keep the sentence structure 'What is this, a ___ for ants?' and swap in whatever the picture shows (a picture, a shower, a TV, a building). The delivery is meant to sound outraged, not confused. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is What is This? A Center for Ants?? It is a snowclone catchphrase from the 2001 film Zoolander, used online to mock anything that looks comically undersized by filling in the blank in 'What is this, a ___ for ants?'[3]. ### Where did What is This? A Center for Ants? come from? The line comes from Ben Stiller's Zoolander, where Derek Zoolander mistakes a scale model of his literacy center for the real building and smashes it in a rage[4]. ### What does What is This? A Center for Ants? mean? It is an incredulous way of saying something is way too small, used as a joke about miniatures, tiny thumbnails, or badly scaled designs[1]. ### How do you use What is This? A Center for Ants?? Swap 'center' for whatever the tiny thing is, as in 'a picture for ants?' or 'a video for ants?', then post it alongside the undersized image[5]. ### Is What is This? A Center for Ants? still popular? It is a classic snowclone that stayed in rotation on sites like Tumblr and Reddit's r/thingsforants after launching in 2011 and 2013[7][3]. ## References 1. [https://www.vulture.com/2007/07/what_is_this_an_art_studio_for.html]() 2. [https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2008/04/empire_state_building_to_look_1.html]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-is-this-a-center-for-ants]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-8IuUkJJc]() 5. [https://memegenerator.net/Zoolander-For-Ants]() 6. [https://cheezburger.com/5636994304]() 7. [http://madeforants.tumblr.com]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/what-is-this-a-center-for-ants Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library