"So, Jhonen, was that your oh-mahg to... ?"
- Hall passes at the Skool take the form of an Explosive Leash.
- A lot of the music from the series has titles that are humorous Shout Outs. The best was the theme in "Walk for Your Lives" when the slow-moving explosion is let out on the city, which was called Happy Fun Ball. Another one from the same episode has the theme for when Zim is studying the explosion, with the title Analyze This.
- Gaz seems to be wearing an outfit extremely similiar to that of Pepito the Antichrist, another character of Jhonen's. The fact that they both have freaky demonic powers makes it even more true.
- The conversation between the Planet Jacker pilot and co-pilot mimics a similar conversation in Fargo. Plus threats of cephalophagy.
- In the same episode, when Zim goes to ring Dib's doorbell, Gir pretends to crush his head.
- 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 Deus ex Machina ending.
- The Megadoomer is a take-off on the EVA robots, the final battle in the Christmas Episode segues into a parody of End of Evangelion.
- Tak's plan to hollow out the earth is a send-up of the 1966 Doctor Who movie Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
- GIR shouting "My vision is impaired!" in GIR goes crazy and stuff is also a reference to the Daleks.
- Tak's design itself looks like Nny from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, another one of Jhonen's characters.
- The cutting edge video game in "Game Slave 2" is a clear homage to Vampire Hunter D.
- The Queen Louse in the episode Lice is a parody of the Alien Queen in the film Aliens, which Jhonen Vasquez is a huge fan of, often citing it as a major influence on his work.
- As is the scene in "Attack of the Saucer Morons" where Zim threatens to lay eggs in the human's stomach.
- GIR is dressed as a Xenomorph in the Halloween Episode's opening.
- During "Halloween Spectacular of Doom", Zim uses a motion tracker with the trademark beeping noise.
- Zim's original plan to destroy Dib in Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy is an obvious reference to Terminator.
- In addition, the fact that the temporal field rejects the battle robot (inorganic) from being teleported through time but accepts the rubber pig (organic) is also a reference to Terminator; in which the T-800 which are sent through time have organic tissue grown over their metal exoskeleton (and also humans) are able to pass through the temporal field but weapons like the Phased Plasma Pulse Rifle can't be sent through time.
- Dib's final form in "Bad Bad Rubber Piggy"? A Mad Cat from MechWarrior.
- You can see Max's head on one of Zim's walls.
- Jhonen Vasquez himself makes a Creator Cameo several times in the series.
- He appears as the "too ugly" disguise in "The Nightmare Begins" when Zim is searching for a disguise.
- He can be seen in "The Wettening" reading what appears to be a Happy Noodle Boy comic.
- In "Germs", he can be seen with Steve when Zim examines their burgers (To make it even better, Jhonen and Steve can be seen discussing the script for "The Nightmare Begins", as it can be seen in the background.
- He appears in "Attack of the Saucer Morons" as a saucer moron.
- The Nightmare World in "Halloween Spectacular of Doom" has a monster version of Nny that can be seen three times throughout the episode:
- When the camera pans down in Nightmare Bitters' Lair, he can be seen at the right corner.
- In the crowd, just before the second monster goes to the Realm of Eternal Screaming and Restlessness.
- When Dib asks Nightmare Bitters "Don't I get any say in this?" and the beasts turn to look at him.
- If you look in "Halloween Spectacular of Doom", one of the people in town can be seen dressed as Captain Underpants.
- Zim's birth (read: decanting) echoes Brave New World.
- The "programming" of the robot parents in "Parent Teacher Night" is a blatant reference to A Clockwork Orange.
- The black robots floating about the auditorium in "Voting of the Doomed" look eerily like the Death Star torture droid from Star Wars.
- Bolognius Maximus is one big shout-out to The Fly (1986), specifically the scene in the bathroom with the computer.Dib: Computer, have I absorbed the bologna?Computer: No. Subject Dib has been fused with Subject Bologna.
- On the official Nickelodeon website, one of the Invader Zim games is titled "Good GIR Gone Bad".
- Zim's treatment of Nick seems like a more intentionally malicious version of Stimpy's Invention, although this could be coincidence.
- The chant "Bow Down Before the Power of Santa" from The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever is eerily similar to the Overture from Les Misérables.
- The high-pitched straining noise made as the portal in Dib's head closes in Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom is unsettlingly like the noise of the gate to hell closing in the climax of Hellraiser II.
- In his human disguise, Zim wears a wig and contact lenses that cover his eyes completely, just as David Bowie's character in The Man Who Fell to Earth does. Although, Bowie's Thomas Jerome Newton is able to conceal his identity because his disguise is actually good, rather than Zim's working due to the sheer stupidity of the human race.
- "I'll get you back! Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon!"
- Gaz is seen reading Punch Club in "Rise Of The Zit Boy."
- In "Dark Harvest," Mrs. Bitters tells Zim he can't leave class without his hall pass, which turns out to be an electronic collar. She warns him it will explode if he leaves school grounds.
- The Girly Rangers' color schemes in "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" are reminiscent of The Powerpuff Girls; Moofy has a red dress and orange hair (resembling Blossom), while the other three have a blue dress and blonde hair (Bubbles), green dress and black hair (Buttercup) and purple dress and brown hair (Bunny, the fourth girl from the episode "Twisted Sister").
- Zim naming one of his robot bodyguards 'Lawrence' in Enter the Florpus, appears to be a reference to Batman, in which the Joker also refers to one of his henchman as Lawrence. Zim even uses the exact same inflection when calling the name out.
- Zim occasionally rides GIR in dog form in an extremely similar manner to the Rush Jet.
