Recap / Invader Zim S 1 E 20 Door To Door

The skool forces it's students to sell sawdust-laced candy, promising them fabulous prizes if they sell enough. Zim is intrigued by the "mystery prize" he'll get if he sells more than anyone else, and stops at nothing to get it.

Tropes

• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: GIR about Dib: "Why IS his head so BIG??"
• Ambiguous Situation: It's made very confusing if the Poop Dawg specter is just an illusion after Zim forces a family to buy his candy with his Bad Future Simulations and he invites Poop Dog to witness his triumph, promptly pulling down a window sheet to reveal Poop Dawg is very clearly staring in through the window in shock. This is doubled down on when Zim curses Poop Dawg for not getting the prize and cuts to him laughing as the episode ends.
• All for Nothing: It turns out that there is no mystery prize, meaning all of Zim's efforts throughout the episode were pointless. And even if there was a secret prize, it would never be anything he would find useful for his mission. One way or the other, this was never going to go well for Zim.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Poop Dawg gets the millions of dollars Zim earned from scamming off the whole neighborhood and gives Zim nothing as restitution even after promising a real special prize.
• Bowdlerize: Following the September 11th attacks, Zim's ultra-violent simulation which he subjects his customers to had to be toned down from a ruined metropolitan area overrun by alien space ships to humans being thrown into cages by monsters. Jhonen Vasquez even said he liked the new version more because it was more violent (the original broadcast accidentally played the pre-9/11 version of the episode due to a mix up with the master tapes).
• Broke Episode: In this case, it's not a character, but the skool, which is facing so many budget cuts that the students have to use whatever junk is lying around to replace their desks. Subverted in that selling candies doesn't actually fund anything skool-related, just the chintzy prizes. Lampshaded by Dib.
  Dib: Ms. Bitters, how about instead of buying prizes, the skool just uses the money to buy new desks?
  Ms. Bitters: That answer wasn't in the video.
• The Cake Is a Lie: Turns out there was no mystery prize, so all of Zim's efforts to win it were for nothing. He gets a can of tuna as consolation.
• Camera Abuse: During his apocalyptic simulation, Zim licks the camera while telling the viewer to buy his candy.
• Consolation Prize: Zim gets a can of tuna for his efforts when he learns that there's no mystery prize.
• Clumsy Copyright Censorship: In-Universe. The instructional film dubs over Poop Dog mentioning (presumably) Band-Aids as a prize with a rather unconvincing replacement voice that says "adhesive medical strips." When Dib wins the prize later in the cartoon, Ms. Bitters' mention of it is also overdubbed.
• Determinator: Zim will stop at nothing for that mystery prize.
  • Dib's sole reason for raising donations was to beat Zim and humiliate him.
• Disproportionate Retribution
  • Zim's sales pitch for his candies is to show his customers that the world will end if they don't buy any.
  • Later, due to dismal candy sales, Ms. Bitters tells the students that their parents will be instructed to love them less.
• Door-to-Door Episode
• Gainax Ending: Once Zim learns that there was never a real prize, he spontaneously generates a humongous shockwave that bowls over his classmates while the specter of Poop Dog laughs over the spectacle.
• Hilarious Outtakes: Poop Dawg's Totally Radical dialogue eventually becomes so bad that even the actor can't take it anymore, resulting in a conspicuous cut to the next scene.
  Poop Dawg: And if you think you's all somethin' with the top sellies... and... with... [actor breaks into normal voice] I can't do this.
  Director: CUT!
• I Ate WHAT?!: The candy bars aren't made of chocolate, but rather sawdust. GIR, an elderly woman and whoever else ate them all got sick from eating the "candy" with GIR even violently throwing up.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Zim comes up with an evil plan to force people to wear helmets showing that the apocalypse will happen if they don't buy his candy. He is doing this for a school fundraiser because he's convinced the mystery prize will help him take over the world.
• Mystery Box: Zim is only interested in selling candy because the instructional film informs him that whoever sells the most candies gets a mystery prize. It turns out to be a complete lie that the skool just tells kids so they'll sell more candy.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Poop Dog is an obvious parody of the rapper, Snoop Dogg.
• Shout-Out: The pre-9/11 version of Zim's apocalyptic simulation resembles the original movie version of The War of the Worlds.
• The Snack Is More Interesting: Even after Zim attaches visors onto the Grout family showing an Apocalypse that "will" happen if they don't buy his candy, the children keep indulging in eating weenies non-stop. They don't seem to realize GIR joined them in eating the weenies.
• Stealth Pun: GIR drops several eggs onto the sidewalk while Zim is tending to a customer. The sidewalk is literally hot enough that they fry.
• Storyboarding the Apocalypse: Zim manages to sell candies by putting virtual reality visors onto his customers' heads and forcing them to watch a simulation where the entire world is in ruins because they didn't buy his candy.
• Think of the Children!: Parodied in that the claim is made by a flaming mutant in Zim's simulation to coerce people into buying his candy when he had just devoured a little girl's doll while shoving her in his pocket.
  Flaming Mutant: (teary-eyed) Pwease? For the children!
• Totally Radical: Poop Dog, to the point that even he doesn't seem to understand his slang.
• Undesirable Prize: The prize for selling the bare minimum candies is Adhesive Medical Strips.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: GIR gorges himself on Zim's supply of candy bars and proceeds to vomit them back up.