The cartoon follows attempts of a blue aardvark named Aardvark (voiced by John Byner, impersonating Jewish comedian Jackie Mason), to catch and eat a red ant named Charlie (also Byner, impersonating Dean Martin), usually doing so by inhaling with a loud vacuum cleaner sound. The character is essentially unnamed; in the episode Rough Brunch, he claims his name is simply "Aardvark." Charlie Ant gives his nemesis a variety of names as sly terms of endearment (Ol' Sam, Ol' Ben, Ol' Blue, Claude, Pal, Buddy, Daddy-O). In several bumper sequences of The Pink Panther Show, he is called "Blue Aardvark."

The Raccoons is a Canadian animated television series which was originally broadcast from 1985 to 1991. The series revolves around Bert Raccoon and married couple Ralph and Melissa Raccoon, who Bert is a friend and roommate of. The series mostly involved the trio's efforts against the industrialist forces of greedy aardvark millionaire Cyril Sneer, who usually tries to destroy the forest for a quick buck. However, the Raccoons would always save their forest from Cyril's schemes, with help from their forest friends including Schaeffer, a gentle sheepdog, Cedric, Cyril's college graduate son, and Sophia Tutu, Cedric's girlfriend.