History WesternAnimation / InvaderZim

* BurgerFool: This trope is taken to an absurd, NightmareFuel degree, to the point that it deters people from eating fast food and watching the show with a clear conscience. Pretty much every fast-food chain is portrayed as a disgusting, horrible place to eat or work, with the likes of Crazy Taco, Mac-meaties, Bloaties Pizza Hog, and Chicky Licks.

** Zim fares slightly better compared to Dib, but he's been kicked around several times as well. Be it due to his various horrible injuries, frequent failures, or being despised by his own species due to his own incompetence and violent nature.

* BalefulPolymorph: What Chickenfoot [WhatAnIdiot thinks]] he is.

Unfortunately, the show proved TooGoodToLast. While quite popular, especially outside of Nickelodeon's typical demographic, its ratings did not have far to slip before Nickelodeon deemed the show's hefty price tag not worth further expenditure. This alone would have provoked mass outcry, but Nickelodeon also declined to ''sell'' the show's copyright (and there ''were'' other networks interested in purchasing it), to the dismay of creators and fans alike. The InternetBackdraft was considerable, but sadly, largely unsuccessful, with one exception--Media Blasters getting the rights to sell [=DVDs=] of the show. (The Media Blasters [=DVDs=] have since gone out of print, and Amazon.com has released their own VanillaEdition collections of the show in an attempt to fill the void. Nickelodeon has also released a "best of" disc, ''Operation Doom''. [[NoExportForAll All of which were only released in North America.]])

* EverythingsWorseWithBees: Taken BeyondTheImpossible.

* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: Taken to BeyondTheImpossible levels with GIR. He is undisputably the most insane character in the entire series. "He" eats with ExtremeOmnivore tendencies, (in [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween Special]] of Spooky [[DoomyDoomsofDoom DOOM]] he attacked every trick-or-treater in the vicinity of Zim's house, apparently getting a sugar rush, then eating all their candy and becoming even fatter than the guy in the costume at [[SuckECheeses Bloaty's Pizza hog]].) drinks, sleeps, has a sense of smell (in one episode, for no discernible reason, he held a smelly dog in front of Zim and yelled "look what I found! He smells reeeeeealll bad!), cries, parties down and basically acts like a human child. "He" is also assembled from random bits of garbage, and is dangerously (and often explosively) defective.

* PalBonus: In "Game Slave 2", Iggins mentions that he already had the Japanese version but wanted the American version as it had a new level.

Unfortunately, the show proved TooGoodToLast. While quite popular, especially outside of Nickelodeon's typical demographic, its ratings did not have far to slip before Nickelodeon deemed the show's hefty price tag not worth further expenditure. This alone would have provoked mass outcry, but Nickelodeon also declined to ''sell'' the show's copyright (and there ''were'' other networks interested in purchasing it), to the dismay of creators and fans alike. The InternetBackdraft was considerable, but sadly, largely unsuccessful, with one exception--Media Blasters getting the rights to sell [=DVDs=] of the show. (The Media Blasters [=DVDs=] have since gone out of print, and Amazon.com has released their own VanillaEdition collections of the show in an attempt to fill the void. Nickelodeon has also released a "best of" disc, ''Operation Doom''.)

* CheerfulChild: Keef. This being [[CrapsackWorld Invader Zim]] [[ItGotWorse it doesn't end]] [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel well for him.]] [[IGotBetter But he gets better.]]

* IGotBetter: Is a RunningGag for poor [[TheChewToy Skoodge...]] First he was sent to Blorch, home of the slaughtering rat people, for being the shortest Invader of Operation Impending Doom II. When he actually did conquer it, the Tallests still didn't like him and launched him out of a cannon. This still didn't stop him from making an appearance in "Hobo 13", where his remarkable recovery was {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d and {{handwave}}d:
-->'''Zim''': Skoodge? I thought the Tallests killed you!\\
'''Skoodge''': Yeah, but I'm okay now.

Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, this dark, {{CyberPunk}}ish show starred Zim, an Irken Invader sent by the Almighty Tallest to take over Earth (read: [[ReassignedToAntarctica shipped off here because he screwed up on his last invasion attempt]]; they just want to get rid of him, but Zim doesn't know this).[[hottip:*:In fact, the Irkens ''aren't even sure there's a planet here''; it's just they just want Zim gone ''that badly''.]] He is ineptly aided in this "mission" by a defective robot assistant named GIR.

* ShoutOut: "So, Jhonen, was that your oh-mahg to..."
** Hall passes at the Skool take the form of an ExplosiveLeash.
** A lot of the music from the series has titles that are humorous {{Shout Out}}s. The best was the theme in "Walk for Your Lives" when the slow-moving explosion is let out on the city, which was called HappyFunBall. Another one from the same episode has the theme for when Zim is studying the explosion, with the title ''AnalyzeThis''.
** Zim wearing tissue boxes on his feet in the episode "Germs"
** The setting at the start of one episodes is not dissimilar to Edward Hopper's ''{{Nighthawks}}''.
** The conversation between the Planet Jacker pilot and co-pilot was a ShoutOut to a similar conversation in {{Fargo}}. Plus threats of cephalophagy.
** ''Hamstergeddon'' is an inversion of ''{{Gamera}}'', with the military unwilling to cause Peepi any harm at all and repeatedly brushing off Dib's pleas to terminate him with extreme prejudice. Ends with a subversion of ''Gamera'''s DeusExMachina ending.
** The Megadoomer is a take-off on the [[NeonGenesisEvangelion EVA robots]], the final battle in the ChristmasEpisode segues into a parody of ''EndOfEvangelion''.
** Tak's plan to hollow out the earth is a send-up of the 1966 ''Series/DoctorWho'' movie [[DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.]]
** The "My vision is impaired!" GIR shouts out in ''GIR goes crazy and stuff'' is also a reference to the Daleks.
** The cutting edge video game in Game Slave 2 is a clear homage to VampireHunterD.
** The Queen Louse in the episode Lice is a parody of the Alien Queen in the film [[{{Alien}} Alien]].
*** As is the scene in "Attack of the Saucer Morons" where Zim threatens to lay eggs in the human's stomach.
** Zim's original plan to destroy Dib in Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy is an obvious reference to {{Terminator}}.
** Dib's final form in Bad Bad Rubber Piggy? A Mad Cat from Mechwarrior.
** You can see [[SamAndMax Max's]] head on one of Zim's walls.
** Zim's birth (read: decanting) echoes ''Literature/BraveNewWorld''.
** The "[[BrainWashed brainwashing]]" of the robot parents in "Parent Teacher Night" is a blatant reference to ''Film/AClockworkOrange''.
** The black robots floating about the auditorium in "Voting of the Doomed" look eerily like the Death Star torture droid from StarWars.

* FridgeLogic: GIR is shown eating something almost every episode. Where exactly does all that food go?

** The black robots floating about the auditorium in "Voting of the Doomed" look eerily like the Death Star torture droid from [[{{Star Wars}} Star Wars]].

* BalefulPolymorph: What Chickenfoot [[TooDumbToLive thinks]] he is.

** Also Chickenfoot. [[TooDumbToLive Except not really]].

* FridgeLogic: GIR is seen eating constantly. Where exactly does all that food go?

* DumbassHasAPoint: In "Walk for Your Lives" Zim's plan to eliminate the explosion ([[WhatAnIdiot by setting it ''off'' on full speed!]]) is so terrible even '''''[[RalphWiggum GIR]]''''' realizes it.

* PlanetOfHats:: ...sort of. The planets that have been conquered are retrofitted to suit the Irkens' needs: Foodcourtia, the food court planet; the convention center planet; the shipping center planet; Hobo 13, the military training-planet; and so on...

* FollowTheLeader: After Invader Zim hit cult status and became immensely popular with the preteen demographic, many other animated TV shows started turning towards dark and random humor. Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, The Misadventures of Flapjack, Adventure Time, and Making Fiends are a few examples.

With that said, sometimes even the craziest rumors do wind up with a grain of truth to them. In September of 2010, JhonenVasquez disclosed in a [[http://www.questionsleep.com/mindspill/?p=2024 blog post]] that Nickelodeon ''had'' been seriously considering a revival, as Zim's ratings on Nicktoons were scoring second only to ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Although the final report was that the idea had been shelved, a {{Facebook}} [[http://www.facebook.com/OperationHeadPigeons group]] called "Operation Head Pigeons" (after a Facebook mishap, now Operation Head Pigeons 2.0) took to aggressively petitioning Nickelodeon with pleas to bring back ''ZIM'', a direct response to the announcement that Nick had considered reviving the show. Perhaps in response, the ''Operation Doom'' best-of disc was greenlit. There are also around 27 episodes available on Netflix.

** The "[[BrainWashed brainwashing]]" of the robot parents in "Parent Teacher Night" is a blatant reference to "AClockworkOrange".

* ButtMonkey: Dib, to the point where when he and Zim are piloting Mercury and Mars respectively in "Battle of the Planets", Dib is piloting the Butt of Mercury.

* MostlyNarmless: Since approximately 99% of the series is [[PlayedForLaughs played for]] [[RuleOfFunny ridculous, surreal]] [[PlayedForLaughs laughs]], when things ''do'' get serious it can get away with saying things that would seem totally ridiculous in any other show:
-->'''Dib:''' Wait, Zim! Promise me you're on our side this time.
-->'''Zim:''' I know not of sides, Earth Stink, but just this once I agree with you. The hamster must be stopped.

** Zim's birth (read: decanting) echoes ''BraveNewWorld''.

[[Characters/InvaderZim This page has a character sheet.]]

* TheMerch: Still available at your local Hot Topic.