Recap / Invader Zim S 1 E 22 Bolognius Maximus

"You jerk."

Zim decides to eliminate Dib by infecting him with bologna DNA, causing him to change into bologna.

Tropes

• Big "NO!": Dib screams one because he is about to be fused with bologna
• Body Horror: The episode is about Dib and later Zim slowly turning into living bologna sausages. Played for Laughs, unlike most examples.
• Brick Joke: Near the beginning of the episode, when Dib's transformation is in its early stages, he tells Gaz to taste him because he's delicious, which creeps her out. Towards the end, when he's looking more like a sausage, Gaz finally obliges Dib, taking a piece of him off and eating it.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Dib slaps Zim with some meat, which gives the latter an allergic reaction. So Zim gets his revenge by turning Dib into bologna.
• Enemy Mine: Zim and Dib decide to team up and find a cure. Unlike most examples, this doesn't work.
• Failed a Spot Check: Zim stares right at Dib's hand when he offers it and somehow doesn't notice the tack taped to it.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Dib ultimately uses the same nail that transformed him into bologna on Zim, turning him into one as well. What Zim didn't acount for is how the transformation process is much faster for Irkens.
• Homage: To The Fly (1986).
• I Do Not Drink Wine: The episode begins with Dib pointing out how Zim never seems to eat his food during lunchtime. Said food is of course shown to be harmful to the alien.
• I Taste Delicious: Early on in his transformation, Dib takes note of how tasty his own body is.
  Dib: I'm delicious! Gaz! Taste me! I'm delicious!
• Lethal Joke Item: At first, it seems like Zim just stuck a tack on Dib's chair for his butt to land on as a prank. It's only after Dib gets far along in his transformation that he realizes the tack injected bologna DNA into his body. He then uses the same tack on Zim by tricking him into a handshake.
• Metaphorgotten
  Zim: I'll find the cure and keep it all to myself, and I will watch you transform more and more into what you really are, deep down in your heart!
  Dib: Deep down I'm bologna?
  Zim: Yes.
  Dib: That's just dumb.
  Zim: Dumb like a moose, Dib. DUMB LIKE A MOOSE!
• No Ending: A rather infamous example. Zim and Dib have fully transformed into bologna sausages. They barricade themselves in an abandoned house from the army of starving dogs. Then the two sit on a couch, where Dib calls Zim a jerk. Cue credits. When Dib brings up the events in a later episode, it seems to indicate that they eventually managed to have an Unexplained Recovery.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: "Meats of evil... meats of evil..."
• Slow Transformation: Dib only notices that something's wrong with him the next day, and he becomes more and more bologna-like as several days goes on. Downplayed with Zim, as it turns out his race is affected by the transformation much faster than humans.
• Taking You with Me: Dib turns Zim into bologna as revenge forcing the latter to either fully turn into meat, or make a cure and share it with his rival.
• That Came Out Wrong: "Gaz! Taste me! I'm delicious!" Gaz is understandably weirded out by this.