Free-Range Ant Farm Poster

Humor Experiment #4: Playing with Ideas

By Chris Dunmire

The creative idea of a free-range ant farm is funny because it's a bad idea. Not bad as in bad, but bad as in absurd. Anyone who's ever set up a small plastic ant farm for themselves, their kids, or a classroom knows these three things about ants and ant farms:

The ants are trapped within the ant farm walls and can't get out.
The ants are fed sugar water for nourishment.
The ants dig tunnels all day long until they die.

Now, if you were an ant given the choice of slave labor in an ant farm until you died OR the option to mosey along free-range style and escape when nobody's looking, which would you choose?

It's especially funny when you imagine dozens of ants scurrying off the farm and onto your kitchen counters looking for real morsels of food to eat instead of that tired old sugar water.

Actually, the concept of a free-range ant farm is quite brilliant, in an animal-rights sort of way. The only problem with an open, free-range ant farm is that you'll never get to see the ants do any work. Would you dig tunnels if you didn't have to?

In a perfect ant world, the best option is not to recruit ants for farming labor for human amusement at all, however, scientists, educators and toy-makers of all brands will object on account that we need to study the working habits of ants to understand productivity, efficiency, and how to scooch tired workers out of the way while climbing over those who get in our way. I mean the ants, of course.

If this ant humor (my antics) amuses you, please enjoy printing my exclusive and free Ant Farm Poster and hanging it on your refrigerator or cubical wall. You can also read about where my creative inspiration came from for this zany idea and how I went on to humorize the free-range ant farm concept for my fun Nit Wits comic.

Now I leave you with this short, alphabetical listing of words that rhyme with ant: can't, pant, rant. Wow, that is short. •

Chris About the Author
Chris Dunmire is the founder of the award-winning Creativity Portal® Web site and is a Master-in-training Kaizen-Muse™ Creativity Coach who supports clients through overwhelm, procrastination, perfectionism, and other blocks to their creativity AND celebrates the joyful, expressive parts of being . . . an imaginary being! Connect with Chris to experience how creativity coaching can enrich your life.

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Chris Dunmire helps clients nurture their creativity and supports them through overwhelm, procrastination, perfectionism, and other blocks to their creativity while holding the space to experience more joy, humor, and ease in their lives. Connect with Chris to see how creativity coaching can work for you.

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