One story I read was that 9/11 was influential in Nickelodeon ultimately canceling it after a couple seasons. Not because there was anything the show was doing wrong that it was considered insensitive in a post 9/11 world. But sensibilities had supposedly changed so much because of that day, Nickelodeon would rather promote lighthearted shows like SpongeBob over something like Zim with a little more grit to it.
(Wikipedia goes into a little more detail, including a few fights the showrunners had with the network over its history. There were a few instances where they wanted to kill off characters, but the network wouldn't let them. There was something known as "the blood GIR episode" where they wanted to put an illustration of GIR covered in blood somewhere in the background but the network wouldn't let them. Ultimately, it wasn't the right fit for that network. Something like Sci-Fi or Toonami might have worked better)
Admittedly, I don’t remember too much about the show except for a handful of things.
The basic premise was kinda genius.
There’s a race of alien invaders. The all-mighty tallest (two individuals who are the tallest among a very diminutive race) send the others to conquer other planets.
Zim is the social pariah of his race for a few reasons but most notably, he caused so much chaos during Operation Impending Doom I that he was banished and deliberately left out of proceedings for OID II.
But of course he shows up and they’re forced to give him an assignment… planet Earth.
They give him the most inept assistant robot they could build (from a heap of space junk), the ever lovable GIR.
Once on Earth, only one person is able to see past Zim’s not-so-clever disguise is Dib… a fanatic of the paranormal that’s so loathed by his classmates, nobody believes him.
It’s kind of a perfect storm of elements with an offbeat sense of humor.
All the jokes I remember are from the pilot with a handful of exceptions.
- One segment where Zim uses a time machine to throw pig stuffed animals into Dib’s timeline to screw around with him. Poor GIR keeps having to sacrifice his beloved stuffed animals. Then in the end, Zim fails so badly he plants a note inside his own brain (“Dear ZIM, do not touch the time machine! Love, ZIM!)
Admittedly, I don’t remember too much about the show except for a handful of things.
The basic premise was kinda genius.
There’s a race of alien invaders. The all-mighty tallest (two individuals who are the tallest among a very diminutive race) send the others to conquer other planets.
Zim is the social pariah of his race for a few reasons but most notably, he caused so much chaos during Operation Impending Doom I that he was banished and deliberately left out of proceedings for OID II.
But of course he shows up and they’re forced to give him an assignment… planet Earth.
They give him the most inept assistant robot they could build (from a heap of space junk), the ever lovable GIR.
Once on Earth, only one person is able to see past Zim’s not-so-clever disguise is Dib… a fanatic of the paranormal that’s so loathed by his classmates, nobody believes him.
It’s kind of a perfect storm of elements with an offbeat sense of humor.
All the jokes I remember are from the pilot with a handful of exceptions.
- One segment where Zim uses a time machine to throw pig stuffed animals into Dib’s timeline to screw around with him. Poor GIR keeps having to sacrifice his beloved stuffed animals. Then in the end, Zim fails so badly he plants a note inside his own brain (“Dear ZIM, do not touch the time machine! Love, ZIM!)
- Dib overhears Zim call one of his organs a “squiggly-spooch” so he’s on a mission to prove he’s an alien because he lacks human organs. Suddenly Zim comes down with head pigeons and is sent to the nurse by Ms. Bitters. Dib shoves a pencil up his nose to be excused as well to follow him. Through the course of the story, Zim keeps swapping in random junk for other peoples’ organs. So when he’s eventually examined, he gets away with it cuz he has “such healthy organs.” Meanwhile Dib gets in paranormal tabloids. Zim swapped cow toy into his voicebox so he can only moo when he tries to speak.
- One time Zim and Dib have an interstellar battle, both driving planets rumored to have spaceship mechanics. Zim takes Mars while Dib pilots the Mercury
-Another time Zim is in an invisible robot causing havoc. GIR kept saying it had chicken legs. At one time, the invisibility wears off so Dib is able to see it. But when he finally uses camera, Zim informs him that he left the lens cap on... by which point, he'd gotten away
- A case of really bad head lice is making the rounds, which makes everyone super miserable. However, the authorities discover Zim is immune and grate off his skin particles to cure everyone else. (This was particularly memorable because of Dib’s sister, Gaz. On two occasions, she calls someone a whiner for complaining about the situation. The second time, it’s Zim after having his skin extracted “ah!!! The pain!!”… then a few seconds later, you barely hear her off screen going “whiner!” Prime example of this show’s whacked out sense of humor)
- I vaguely remember one instance where Zim manages to make GIR smart, but he becomes so smart that it almost becomes a “Space Odyssey/Ultron” situation where GIR decides Zim is a danger to the mission and tries to kill him
- Part of Zim’s “human” facade is having robot parents that welcome him back whenever he returns to his house. He’s told he needs to bring them to parent night so he hooks them up to a machine to “educate” them about being human. A lot of things go array and out of control but in the end, they manage not to blow Zim’s cover
- One notable episode that was almost a game changer for the entire series: Zim discovers that the tallest had sent another invader to Earth ages ago and completely forgot about her. And she ain’t happy about it. She’s more skilled than Zim as is her robot assistant. And I think Zim and Dib team up to defeat her
All I have left to offer are a bunch of random quotes I’ve retained all these years later.
Dib breaks into Zim’s house (possibly the piggy story arc) but it’s GIR’s fault for being terrible at security.
Zim- GIR, you left the door open!
GIR- sorry!
(After Dib escapes through the window)
Zim- you left the window open too?!
GIR- (absentmindedly) oh yeah!!
The voice acting alone just made that scene hilarious to me.
During the organs saga:
Ms. Bitters- Zim, there’s a pigeon on your head. You’ve got head pigeons. Go to the nurse!
Zim starts to leave
Ms. Bitters- never leave without a hall pass, Zim…
Zim- of course…
Dib- uh, Ms. Bitters? I have a pencil lodged my brain. Can I go to the nurse?
Ms. Bitters- how far is it lodged in your brain?
Dib- pretty far…
Ms. Bitters- fine, take the radiator hall pass
Yeah, Zim gets a locking neck bracelet as a hall pass. Dib is forced to drag a radiator around.
Gaz, twice she says not to bother her cuz she’s “in the zone” with her game. During Zim’s organ harvesting, she’s impacted as well. Later on, we see her taping her thigh because he wedged her video game machine under her skin.
Then of course the pilot-
After Zim shows up unexpectedly at the ceremony in the beginning and explains himself, the tallest ask, “you quit being banished??”
I know, like, who does that??
There’s a flashback of Operation Impending Doom I where Zim blows up a training facility, mistaking it for a foreign planet.
Afterwards:
Zim- I put the fires out…
Tallest- you made them worse…
Zim- worse… or better?
After Zim and GIR first land on earth…
GIR- (after being asked about his observations on first landing) I saw a squirrel...
Zim- (after an excited outburst from GIR) GIR, quiet! Or do you want to wake up the whole planet?
GIR- … I do.
Zim- now for your disguise…
GIR- I want to be a mongoose!
Zim- I was thinking maybe… a dog
GIR- can I be a mongoose dog?
There’s plenty of quotes to take from when Dib and his classmates first meet Zim.
So I’ll just pick one.
Zim- yeah he’s always saying stuff… I remember that one time…
Dib- hey! You just got here!
Zim asks in class about how prepared earth would be for an alien invasion, adding with extra malice “tell me…”
Ms. Bitters takes this in for a few seconds and concludes her lecture by saying “anyway, the universe is just doomed… doomed…” while Dib and Zim go back and forth, she continually says this in the background and the scene ends with her suddenly saying, “go now!”
On that note, I’ll leave with a clip of GIR’s classic composition- “the Doom song.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzpVaiP6eg
No joke- this was one of the first videos I watched when I discovered YouTube
Zim- I put the fires out…
Tallest- you made them worse…
Zim- worse… or better?
After Zim and GIR first land on earth…
GIR- (after being asked about his observations on first landing) I saw a squirrel...
Zim- (after an excited outburst from GIR) GIR, quiet! Or do you want to wake up the whole planet?
GIR- … I do.
Zim- now for your disguise…
GIR- I want to be a mongoose!
Zim- I was thinking maybe… a dog
GIR- can I be a mongoose dog?
There’s plenty of quotes to take from when Dib and his classmates first meet Zim.
So I’ll just pick one.
Zim- yeah he’s always saying stuff… I remember that one time…
Dib- hey! You just got here!
Zim asks in class about how prepared earth would be for an alien invasion, adding with extra malice “tell me…”
Ms. Bitters takes this in for a few seconds and concludes her lecture by saying “anyway, the universe is just doomed… doomed…” while Dib and Zim go back and forth, she continually says this in the background and the scene ends with her suddenly saying, “go now!”
On that note, I’ll leave with a clip of GIR’s classic composition- “the Doom song.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxzpVaiP6eg
No joke- this was one of the first videos I watched when I discovered YouTube
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