History WesternAnimation / InvaderZim

* [[ThatLiarLies That Filthy Lying Liar Tells Lies of Lying Filth!]]

* ThemeNaming: The main characters all have three-letter names: ZIM, GIR, Dib, Gaz.

* ThemeNaming: The main characters all have three letter names: ZIM, GIR, Dib, Gaz.

* BodyHorror: Dib and ZIM slowly morphing into giant bologna sausages. "Dark Harvest" is probably the most egregious example in the series, as Zim runs around removing peoples' organs, replacing them with random objects, while stuffing himself with them until he's a blob.

* BodyHorror: Dib and ZIM slowly morphing into giant bologna sausages.
** "Dark Harvest" is probably the most egregious example in the series, as Zim runs around removing peoples' organs, replacing them with random objects, while stuffing himself with them until he's a blob.

* BribeBackfire: When Dib tracked Zim to the Galaxy’s Largest Space Donut he asked the gift shop owner if he knew what Zim’s plan was. The owner replied that if Dib brought a few items it might jog his memory. It turns out that not only did he not know anything he didn’t even know what a bribe was and was just trying to sell his merchandise.

** In "Career Day," ZIM is told his ideal career is as a fast food slave, and the episode, like most others, suffers from NegativeContinuity and so the viewer thinks nothing much of it. Fast forward to "The Frycook What Came From All That Space," and we learn that an Irken Control Brain reprogrammed ZIM's PAK to register him within the Irken Empire as a fast food slave on Foodcourtia.
*** The joke started even earlier, in the first episode:
-->'''Tallest Purple''': Weren't you banished to Foodcourtia? Shouldn't you be... frying something?

* BridgeLogic: Subverted on Hobo 13.

-->'''Dib:''' Hey. (tastes the bars) these are made of real candy canes.
*** Immediately lampshaded and subverted with this.

* ChekhovsGun: When we first see the nurse in "Dark Harvest", she's playing with a mooing can. At the end of the episode, ZIM uses it to replace Dib's lungs.

* ChewToy: Poor little Invader Skoodge...
* ChildHater: Ms. Bitters, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
* ChristmasEpisode: "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever"
* ClarkKenting: ZIM.
* CloudCuckoolander:
** GIR.
** To a lesser extent, ZIM and Dib.

*** Dib, what did you think a game entitled Angry Turds would entail?

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: A lot of it, perhaps best exemplified by a room... ''With A Moose!''
** Banishment to the "Realm of Eternal Screaming and... Restlessness".

* [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]]: It is a show made by Jhonen Vasquez, after all. Humans are generally stupid, ignorant, and repulsive and the world they live in is polluted and unclean. The episode "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" featured creatures from another almost hell-like dimension crossing over under the impression that the other side is a perfect world that they can ruin, but they are so repulsed by their first impressions that they immediately retreat back into their own world. The Irkens, the other main civilization featured, are a cheerfully xenocidal species that decide rank by the individual's ''height'' and whose main form of entertainment is the extermination of entire planets while eating nachos and curly fries.

In February 2015, Creator/OniPress announced an ''Invader Zim'' [[ComicBook/InvaderZimOni comic book revival]] in collaboration with Nickelodeon, with the first issue of the ongoing monthly series being released on July 8, 2015. The comic is overseen by Jhonen Vasquez himself, with him also writing a handful of issues. Many other issues have been done by Eric Trueheart, a veteran writer of the series. Other series veterans, such as artist Aaron Alexovich and colorist Rikki Simons, would lend their talents to the comic during its early run as well. The monthly series ended with its 50th issue in March 2020, followed by the start of a new quarterly series (simply called ''Invader Zim Quarterly'') the next month.

The show's distinctive dark humor attracted a large amount of people [[PeripheryDemographic outside the targeted age range]]: namely high school and college students. The show was also host to a very unique art style, adapting Vasquez's usual look for animation and utilizing a vast color palette: colorist Rikki Simons joked that all the different shades and tones had them going into "fourth-ary" colors, which, mixed with the regular use of CGI animation that was incorporated in ways that other shows like ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' were jealous of, led to the series constantly ''struggling'' against its budget for almost every episode.

In February 2015, Creator/OniPress announced an ''Invader Zim'' [[ComicBook/InvaderZimOni comic book revival]] in collaboration with Nickelodeon, with the first issue of the ongoing monthly series being released on July 8, 2015. The comic is overseen by Jhonen Vasquez himself, with him also writing a handful of issues. Many other issues have been done by Eric Trueheart, a veteran writer of the series. Other series veterans, such as artist Aaron Alexovich and colorist Rikki Simons, would lend their talents to the comic during its early run as well.

* ThreeDEffectsTwoDCartoon: It doesn't blend perfectly with the flat animation, but it still looks pretty good. The creators {{lampshade|hanging}} it in the DVD commentary for "A Room With a Moose", claiming that they spend the whole season's CG budget on the [[MundaneMadeAwesome 3D walnuts]].

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Invader_Zim_Resized_2954.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:INVASION!]]

* ConspicuousCG: It doesn't blend in as well as, say, WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}, but it still looks pretty good. The creators {{lampshade|hanging}} it in the DVD commentary for "A Room With a Moose", claiming that they spend the whole season's CG budget on the [[MundaneMadeAwesome 3D walnuts]].

Early episodes followed a basic format -- Zim would attempt to get rid of Dib and conquer the world, while Dib would attempt to expose Zim, only for both to discover that FailureIsTheOnlyOption. Later episodes would start employing {{Snapback}} to tackle a myriad of bizarre plots, such as the characters turning into bologna, in addition to developing a bit of a StoryArc over time as well. Ultimately, the efforts of Vasquez and head writer Frank Conniff (of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' fame) developed into an idiosyncratic, [[WorldOfHam hammy]], and [[SatireParodyPastiche satirical]] style that highlighted the [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]]-nature of the show's world even more.

* [[CrapsackWorld Crapsack Universe]]: It is a show made by Jhonen Vasquez, after all.

* [[PaintingTheMedium Eating The Medium]]:

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods

In February 2015, Creator/OniPress announced an ''Invader Zim'' comic book revival in collaboration with Nickelodeon, with the first issue of the ongoing monthly series being released on July 8, 2015. The comic is overseen by Jhonen Vasquez himself, with him also writing a handful of issues. Many other issues have been done by Eric Trueheart, a veteran writer of the series. Other series veterans, such as artist Aaron Alexovich and colorist Rikki Simons, would lend their talents to the comic during its early run as well.

!!Invader Zim Oni Press Comics contains examples of:
* AbandonedWarehouse: Where [[EvilSorcerer Nightnubs']] lair is in Issue 30.
* AbnormalAmmo: In Issue 26, it's revealed that GIR has a "muffin shooter", which is a gun that he uses to shoot muffins into his mouth. Dib shoots some into [[EyeScream Zim's eyes]] instead.
* AccidentalMisnaming: A RunningGag in Issue 16 is that Zim keeps referring to Gaz as "Gus". She doesn't seem to mind (at the very least, she never corrects him).
* AcronymConfusion: Dib was horrified when he though he killed Inquisitous the Observer’s "Son" until he found out it meant '''S'''entient '''O'''bservation E'''N'''voy.
* AdaptiveAbility: The monster lady bugs created by Zim in Issue 7 are not only able to recover from being obliterated by Zim’s blaster, they became immune to it.
* AddingInsultToInjury: After the hellish experience of being Zim’s intern in Issue 9, everyone hated Dib's video, calling it a bad fake. While at the same time they loved Agent Batflaps' video, which was just two hours of his feet.
--> '''Gaz''': Hey Dib! I can hear you crying through the wall! Shutup!
* AesopAmnesia: Averted by Issue 10, as Dib has finally learned that Gaz doesn’t care anything about paranormal activity so he pays her to listen to him.
* AirVentPassageway: In Issue 25, Zim does this to escape Virooz's ship... and [[EpicFail goes in a circle, ending up back where he started]].
* AllForNothing: After all the humiliating work Dib does as Zim’s intern in Issue 9, no one likes or even believes his uploaded video.
* AmbiguousSyntax: In Issue 31, Zim tells Dib that he has a "big bird plan" coming up, causing Dib ask if he means a big plan involving birds, or a plan involving a big bird. [[spoiler: [[BrickJoke At the end of the issue]], Zim reveals it was the former.]]
* ArbitrarySkepticism:
** In Issue 15, Dib refuses to believe that Ms Bitters is anything other than a creepy old woman, despite it being quite clear that she's not human.
** In Issue 29, he also has a hard time accepting the idea of secret societies using magic powered by Poop Cola, despite repeatedly seeing it used, and it not being remotely the weirdest thing in this series. This then gets turned around on him in the following issue, when the Poop wizards refuse to believe his claim that aliens exist, and Zim laughs at Dib's explanation about everything involving the Poop magic. Again, this is despite all the involved parties being involved in far weirder things.
** Likewise, when Dib informs the wizards about Zim in Issue 30 they call him crazy for believing in aliens.
* ArcVillain: Virooz in Issues 22-25.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Dib’s intern duties in Issue 9 include dusting the ooze, walking Minimoose, eating burnt peanuts because it shuts GIR up, data entry, Robo-Parents maintenance, and yard work.
* ArtShift: Several issues have guest artists, whose styles are different from the standard IZ design:
** Issues 6, 11, 26, 31, 36 and 41 are drawn in a style more reminiscent of newspaper comics than what the series usually uses.
** Issue 16 has darker color tones and an overall more {{Animesque}} style.
** Issue 21 uses a somewhat more horror-influenced style than usual, befitting its DarkerAndEdgier tone [[spoiler: and DownerEnding]]. As a result of this and the body-swapping gimmick of the issue, it ends up being more or less a brick of pure concentrated NightmareFuel.
* AsYouKnow: Lampshaded when Issue 20 opens with Zim crowing about his latest EvilPlan:
-->'''Zim''': My Conquer-Blob has been made with one thought in its every mushy cell -- to conquer the Earth for Zim!
-->'''Computer''': I know all this already. Who are you saying all this again for?
* BadFuture: In Issue 12, Zim and Dib accidentally slingshot into a future where [[TheEmperor Emperor]] Zim has taken over the world. Dib is understandably horrified, and while Zim is initially pleased, he finds his future self an ungrateful jerk and [[EnemyMine teams up with Dib]] in order to defeat him and escape back to the present.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** The Xliactian Historian will tell nobody the jump codes that lead to the Gargantis Array... unless they buy a bunch of stuff.
** In Issue 5, when Dib was about to be locked up for being an NPC:
--> '''Dib''': You’re gonna lock me in here?! But I didn’t do anything!
--> '''Lord Voxelrot''': You’re right, and that “anything” was gaming. Which you didn’t do but listen. Don’t think of the console as a prison for NPC’s. think of it as a way for an NPC to finally be given a sense of purpose besides just filling space.
--> '''Dib''': That doesn’t sound so b--
--> '''Lord Voxelrot:''' Also it’s a hideous prison.
--> '''Dib''': NOOOOOOOOOO!
** After Dib asked Voxelrot who he was, he replied that he’ll never tell him. He’ll keep him hooked up to the Console and Dib’ll always wonder who he is... [[spoiler: before just deciding to revel he’s Gaz.]]
** Zim goes to a tiny galaxy when he wants to be alone and think about what it all means. Before punching a small planet in the face.
** Inquisitous the Observer assured Dib that the Inquisitorians always ensure their technology is thoroughly tested. Which he’ll be doing right now on Dib.
* TheBermudaTriangle: Parodied in Issue 46 with Pandora's Quadrangle, "the stormiest place in the ocean", where numerous ships and planes have disappeared. It turns out to contain a portal which leads to a small planet surrounded by other such portals.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: Issue 12 shows that Zim will conquer Earth in the future, creating an {{Egopolis}} of himself and enslaving everyone, all in preparation for turning the whole planet into a ship and flying it to the Tallest as a present (whom, it should be noted, are genuinely impressed by his actions).
* BeyondTheImpossible:
** Dib got 21406 dislikes for his internet video but only 6 views. Even he himself lampshades this.
** Inquisitous the Observer stated the fact that Dib and Zim’s recollection of events were so drastically different was this, concluding that one of them had to be completely delusional.
* BlatantLies: In Issue 8, Dib claims he left the family vacation early not because he accidentally deleted Gaz’s game account resulting in her threatening his life and breaking his Dibpad over his head, but because he discovered that cowboys are the mortal enemies of vampires.
* BottleEpisode: Issue 20 consists primarily of Zim and GIR sitting on their couch, binge-watching a TV show.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Issue 22 sees GIR infected with a virus that makes him try to kill Zim.
* BreakingTheFourthWall:
** In Issue 23, Dib's one panel appearance involves the Robo-Parents telling him that he's "not in this one", to his confusion.
** In Issue 31, after being confronted by the mutant super bear, Dib [[AsideGlance turns to the audience]] and laments that he only has one panel to appreciate it.
* BrickJoke: Issue 14 opens with Zim falling into a hole randomly dug into his front yard, breaking his legs in the process. [[BookEnd At the end of the issue]], it's shown that he's still stuck in there, and trying throw his legs over his shoulders so that he can climb out.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: By Issue 9 Zim has completely forgotten uploading embarrassing footage of Dib working out for all the universe to see, at the end of Issue 2.
* CerebusRetcon: The first issue reveals that Prisoner 777 is only supplying Zim with information because Zim is holding his children hostage.
* ChekhovsGun: Issue 29 has a gag about GIR buying out all the city's supplies of Darkpoop Cola. In Issue 30, Dib goes to retrieve one of these to help defeat Poopthulhu [[spoiler: and ends up giving it to Gaz instead when Poopthulhu is defeated without him]].
* CompanionCube: Issue 45 has Li'l Meat Man, a vaguely baby-shaped wad of meat that Zim becomes incredibly attached to, treating it as if it really were his own child. [[spoiler: Until it fully registers with him that it's just meat, at which point he stops caring.]]
* ConspiracyTheorist: Issue 15 turns Gretchen into one, as she is shown to be utterly convinced that Miss Bitters is the HiveQueen of a race of bug monsters that are using the skool as a base to TakeOverTheWorld from.
* CreateYourOwnVillain: Issue 5 reveals that Gaz could care less what Dib does; it’s only his insistence in involving her to the point of completely disregarding her wants and desires that makes her so antagonistic toward him. It reaches the point where she puts him in an AndIMustScream situation to get him to stop.
* DamnedByFaintPraise: In Issue 39, the alien investigating the main characters' memories notes that Gaz seems more stable than Dib and Zim. Gaz dryly notes that that's faint praise.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: In Issue 44, Dib spends so much time and energy on catching up with Zim atop Meat Mountain that he didn't actually think about what he'd do to stop Zim's plan when he got there. Fortunately, he has a EurekaMoment just in time.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In Issue 45, Zim and Li'l Meat Man are accosted by a group of men in chicken costumes who don't like meat people because they're "ruining our country", in a clear parody of the KKK and other hate groups.
* EnemyMine: Issue 12, with Zim and Dib teaming up against Zim's future self, Emperor Zim. Somewhat Averted, however, as Zim was only able to convince Dib to help him defeat his future self by putting a slave collar on him to get him to corporate.
* EpicFail: Dib is absolutely terrible at skiing.
* ExactWords:
** Tak's A.I hatred of Dib causes it to follow his orders this way. For example, from Issue 2:
--> '''Dib''': Wait you could’ve caught up with Zim any time? Why didn’t you do it before now?
--> '''Tak’s ship''': You asked me to track Zim. You didn’t say catch him.
** In Issue 4, when Zim activated his defense gnomes' motion tracking and told them destroy anything that moves. They detected their own movements and destroyed each other.
* EyeScream: In Issue 26, Dib shoots a couple of muffins into Zim's eyes as a distraction, causing him a lot of pain.
* FantasticFightingStyle: Pants Pants Revolution, the ancient pants-based martial arts of the space pants that allows them to generate bursts of psychic energy.
* FantasticallyIndifferent: In the BadFuture, once Professor Membrane converted his consciousness into pure energy, he stopped caring about saving Earth from Zim.
* FateWorseThanDeath: To the amoebas accidentally created by Zim, living is this due to the fact that Zim’s ultimate destiny is to destroy Earth, and they only live to please him, and since destroying things pleases him [[InsaneTrollLogic he must be angry at them as he hasn’t destroyed them yet]].
* FissionMailed: In Issue 27, Xooxi's last boring conversation drags on for so long that the comic finally gives out to a black page bearing a message from the issue's artist, stating that she can't stand how boring it is anymore and demanding to know why she was forced to draw it.
* FluffyTheTerrible:
** In Issue 7, GIR's pet slug monster -- which Zim mutates into a giant armed with MoreDakka -- is apparently named "Dennis".
** In Issue 9, Zim refers to his giant Core-Muncher monster as "Linda".
** In Issue 10, the Sylvestran Snarl Beast has a default form of a six-legged kitten.
* ForScience: Why would Membrane build Gaz a machine capable of allowing her to enter alternate realities so that she could kidnap her brother and trap him in a nightmare of virtual horrors? For science.
* FramingDevice: Several issues have characters ending up in situations where they tell/view various stories:
** Issue 15 has the students in Dib and Zim's class trading theories on Miss Bitters' origins.
** Issue 17 has Zim and Dib telling [[UnreliableNarrator highly unlikely]] stories about themselves to an alien jailer in order to get it to release them.
** Issue 40 has Recap Kid getting sucked out of the universe and viewing various alternate realities while trying to find their way back to the main comic universe.
* FreakyFridayFlip: A pudding-related accident with a body switching machine in Issue 21 causes Zim to switch with Gaz and Dib to switch with GIR. TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody is in full effect for most of them: Gaz takes over Earth while Zim becomes apathetic and obsessed with games, and Dib [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead goes insane]] after looking through GIR's files; GIR himself stays exactly the same.
* FreedomFromChoice: The Plim have spent so long having everything in their society handled by automated systems that they lack any sort of initiative. As such, they hate the thought of deciding anything on their own to the point of it making them scared and uncomfortable, so they just do whatever they're told.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Zim ''really'' does not like [[RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf Emperor Zim]].
* GirlyBruiser: The Girly Rangers, an organization of sweet, smiling [[GenkiGirl Genki Girls]] that won't hesitate to bust open a can of whoop-ass should their [[DeliberatelyCuteChild charms]] not result in someone buying their cookies. They have a ninja-like fighting style and use their cookies as ninja stars. Their organization's name is a combination of the Girl Scouts of America and ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', which pretty much says it all.
* AGlitchInTheMatrix: In Issue 37, Dib sees blackberries growing on a tree, and a squirrel with a carapace. This helps him realize that [[spoiler: he's trapped in a poorly researched virtual illusion]].
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: In Issue 12, Dib while imprisoned with no company other than his future self's corpse, starts arguing with it.
* GoneHorriblyRight: In Issue 38, a sequence of events leads to GIR impersonating Dib so well that everyone becomes convinced that he's the real Dib and chase the real Dib out of town. Zim decides to take advantage of this, and tells GIR to keep up the impersonation. However, at prompting from Gaz, this leads to GIR trying to expose Zim as an alien, and doing a better job of it than the real Dib, leading to the ruining of Zim's latest plan.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The mobile-suit human Zim used to get a bank loan in Issue 6 ends up broken in half by GIR running off with the legs.
* {{Hikikomori}}: Dib became this in Issue 1 after Zim disappeared.
--> '''Gaz''': I think you hiding in here forever is awesome Dib, but Zim has been gone a long time. Let it go. Move on. Take a bath. It was funny at first, but now it’s just awful and gross. You’re gross, Dib.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** In Issue 4, the Tallest used a ParanoiaGambit on Zim ForTheEvulz which eventually caused Zim to send the trash they made him think was an unstoppable weapon back to them. However the device they used to send him the trash was a FlawedPrototype and sending it back could end up destroying half the universe. Specifically the half they were in.
** In Issue 25, [[spoiler: Virooz creates a makeshift PAK to [[GrandTheftMe transfer his mind into Zim's body]]. But when Zim's own PAK takes it back, Virooz's PAK is left attached to a couch, trapping him.]]
** Issue 34 reveals that Zim pays to have a private space prison lock up people for him. But when his bill comes up overdue (as a result of him putting GIR in charge of paying it), he gets locked up in the same prison, leaving him at the mercy of the people he imprisoned.
* HumanResources: In Issue 44, Zim's latest plan is to abduct people, wrap them up, and sell them as stuffing for pillows at an alien retail store.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Dib telling Groyna, the last survivor of a zombie pants apocalypse, that she is stupid for thinking just one or two people could stop an alien invasion.
* HypocriticalHumor: Dib in Issue 8 is walking through the skool while condescendingly thinking to himself how people are blind and that they miss what really goes on in the world to the point that they could be surrounded by zombies and not notice. All while being surrounded by zombies and not noticing.
* IHaveYourWife:
** Issue 1 reveals that Zim enforces Prisoner 777's loyalty by holding his children hostage, threatening to erase them from existence if he doesn't do what Zim says.
** Played for laughs in Issue 13, as some aliens abduct Zim's "best friend" to set up a HostageForMacGuffin exchange. Unfortunately, they took Dib, having mistaken him for Zim's friend; understandably, Zim isn't inclined to help.
* ImplausibleDeniability: Zim denying that he’s trying to turn all of Earth’s atmosphere into hot cheezo dust while he’s flying into the Earth’s atmosphere with a cargo of flaming hot cheezos.
* InsufferableGenius: A lot of Dib’s life would be a lot easier if he would just stop trying to prove how much smarter he is than everyone. For example in Issue 30 in order to get [[ItmakesSenseInContext Dark Poop from Zim so he could save the world]] he had to face his greatest fear which Zim thinks is a sandwich. Dib immediately tells him he’s not afraid of that. As well as all the other things Zim conjured.
* ItsAllAboutMe: The comics repeatedly show that Dib cares a lot more about being right than proving that the paranormal exists. In many cases he has come across aliens or the supernatural and cared more about not wanting to deal with the people involved in those events than the events themselves.
** Issue 29 shows that Gaz has to schedule time for her to watch TV because Dib hogs it so much and even then he sees nothing wrong with taking the remote from her.
** Also in Issue 29, Dib was specifically told that he might have magical abilities but refused because he thought soda based magic was stupid.
** In Issue 30 because Dib took so long to get the Dark Poop the Poop Wizards had to sacrifice themselves to save the world. His only thought was that he gets to keep the soda.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Issue 22 ends with Zim entering GIR's mind in order to find the virus that's driving him crazy. He spends most of Issue 23 in there.
* LargeHam: Inquisitous the Observer
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** After an issue of tormenting Dib’s PlotAllergy, Zim ends up getting a hive from a cat.
** Zim pays to have people locked up in Moo-Ping 10, usually just for annoying him. Then he falls behind on his payments, so he finds himself locked up alongside his victims (who specifically refuse to be released, as they want payback).
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In Issue 46, Zim doesn't remember Skoodge ever being on Earth, a possible acknowledgement of how the episodes where that happens were never made.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: At the start of Issue 41, Recap Kid makes it clear they want to complete forget that Issue 40 (which they spent viewing TheMultiverse) ever happened.
* LighterAndSofter: Although the comic series remains full of mordant wit and [[ButtMonkey extravagant Dib abuse]], Dib's family situation is a little kinder, with a less neglectful Professor Membrane and a [[VitriolicBestBuds more sibling-like]] relationship with Gaz.
* LotusEaterMachine: Turns out to be the cause behind the events of [[spoiler: Issue 37]].
* MadArtist: When Zim pretends to be an artist in Issue 3 for his latest plan, people take his usual eccentricities as him being this.
* MagicVersusScience: Zim vs the Space Pants' Queen in their Pants Pants Revolution fight.
* MechanicalAbomination: Issue 46 opens with Zim attacking Dib with the "Car-Nivore", a monster made from a living car, which is designed to absorb other cars into itself.
* MisterSeahorse: In Issue 6, when a morbidly obese GIR fell out of his mobile suit human, Zim claimed this. The news blamed it on a side effect of the Ribiyich.
* MistakenForAnImposter: In Issue 38, everyone is fooled by GIR's Dib costume, and become convinced the real Dib is a clone, chasing him out of town. [[spoiler: He's able to return after GIR-as-Dib "dies", only to be mistaken for a zombie.]]
* MobileSuitHuman: Zim built one in Issue 6 to get a bank loan.
* MoralMyopia:
** Despite Dib’s frustration at the world not believing the paranormal, Dib sees nothing wrong with disregarding or even destroying things that other people care about because they aren’t as important as his paranormal studies. This is ultimately revealed in Issue 5 to be the reason for the antagonistic relationship between him and Gaz after he prevented her from being the first person in history to beat a game to show her Zim yelling at a cat.
--> '''Gaz''': If I only could not care, but nooooo! You make me care. Whether I like it or not. You want to be left to your stupid business, but every chance you get, you think everyone, you think I have to hear about that business. Don’t you?
** That same issue also showed Gaz to be this as well. She claims that Dib was selfish for trying to get her involved with his interests, but at the same time not only is she never willing to spare him any time, but her obsession with video games is at such a violent level that even Dib's obsession with the paranormal can't compare. And another thing, even when Dib chooses (after the fact) to try and do things that she enjoys, she STILL finds some reason to hurt him (beating Dib up because he happened to win a game fairly).
* MultipleChoicePast: Ms. Bitters' is the focus of Issue 15, as the students all come up with different ideas on what she is.
* TheMultiverse:
** Appears near the end of Issue 32, when [[spoiler: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Zim and Dib's pushup competition transcends them out of the universe]]. The various universes are manifested as giant sentient ab muscles, which offer to send the pair to the universe of their choice. They choose instead to keep competing.]]
** This is also the main plot of Issue 40, as a "cosmic mistake" sucks Recap Kid into the space between universes, and views various alternate realities while trying to find their way back to their own.
** A major part of the Battle Void arc, as Zim, GIR and Dib end up in PocketDimension linked by portal to numerous other alternate timelines [[spoiler: and inhabited by the Zims of all those other universes]].
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Membrane is still a master of this.
-->"Daughter, prepare for the awesome eventuality of... dinner!"
* MutagenicGoo: In Issue 7, the crashed Voot Cruiser's spilled fuel acts as this, causing rapid evolution in anything that falls in it.
* NegativeContinuity: Just like the show. Reinforced twice in Issue 3. The first time was Recap Kid getting run over by Zim's ship (meaning the rest of the comic does not follow the previous two issues), the second being at the very end when Dib recalled Issue 3's events and Zim denied them.
* NeverMyFault: In Issue 29, Dib spilled an incredibly rare limited addition drink when he was wrestling with Gaz for the remote (even though she had already scheduled TV time) because he wanted to watch a show. Gaz told him to either find her another drink or apologize. Dib treated apologizing as a FateWorseThanDeath.
--> '''Dib''': ''And I can never apologize! Because it wasn’t my fault!!!''
--> '''Store Clerk''': ''Wow, kid, you have issues.''
* NeverRecycleYourSchemes: Usually played straight. There is one subversion, however, as Issue 22 sees Zim once again trying to disperse Flamin' Hot Cheezo dust into the Earth's atmosphere in order to make the planet uninhabitable for humans, something he tried once before in Issue 12, though in this case he changes the planned method of dispersal.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In Issue 43, [[spoiler: Dib takes down the anti-technology field surrounding planet Plim so that the natives won't declare Zim their leader based on his lies about being able to do so himself. However, he finds out too late that the field was to hide Plim from the Irkens, so they're immediately conquered anyway.]]
* NoFairCheating: Gaz after Dib defeated her in a fighting game.
* NoodleImplements: Issue 14 opens with Zim setting out to gather the supplies needed for his latest EvilPlan -- a robot pie oven, seven million pairs of rubber gloves, and a space amoeba with a giant... something. (He falls into a hole before he can finish the sentence, let alone grab anything.)
* NotSoDifferent: Gaz’s obsession with games:
--> '''Gaz''': Your kind has plagued me from the start. Judging me, not understanding the heart of a true gamer, our hearts depending on the game. No more. I save you for last because you were the worst and now the world gets to watch you pay the price for your crimes against humanity.
** Thing is, it’s revealed that punching a hole into other worlds is extremely difficult, as if you do it the wrong way it tears reality apart. It took Gaz a lot of tries to get it right, so who knows how many countless realities she destroyed merely to get revenge on Dib.
* OffscreenInertia: Indirectly acknowledged in an exchange between Zim and GIR in Issue 10.
--> '''GIR''': Remember that commercial for the puddin' where the kid eats the puddin' and he turns into puddin' and he flies around the room? That was scary.
--> '''Zim''': '''Silence!''' I remember that commercial and it ''was'' upsetting so speak no more of it! They never show the kid turn back so you're all, "Is he trapped as pudding forever?" Awful.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Issue 30 has Poopwatch's fight with Poopthulhu, which happens while Dib is stuck trying to get a bottle of Darkpoop from Zim.
* OtherMeAnnoysMe: When Zim meets his future self Emperor Zim in Issue 12, he finds the Emperor to be an ungrateful jerk, while Emperor Zim finds his younger self an incompetent idiot.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: In Issue 8, zombies are created by wearing mind altering alien pants.
* PaperThinDisguise: When pretending to be an artist in Issue 3, all Zim did was put on glasses, a hat, and a scarf, and change his name to Shminvader Shmim.
* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Zim gets off several of these when he's being interviewed by newscaster Jeff Sheffy in Issue 3.
-->'''Zim:''' Oh, [[AccidentalMisnaming David]], your assumptions are so—what's the word—begoodious.
-->'''Jeff:''' That's not a word.
-->'''Zim:''' DO NOT CENSOR MY ART! Anyhow, this is the ''sixth'' of my Star Donkey series. To bind myself to so-called "numbers" would be flapdoodious.
-->'''Jeff:''' That's not a word, either. Oh, I get it! You are an artist!
* ThePigPen: Dib when he became a shut in after Zim disappeared. The smell was so bad that Gaz and Membrane had to burn all of his things to get rid of it.
* PlanetOfSteves:
** Played with in Issue 42, which features the Planet Plim, home of the City of Plim, inhabited by the Plim species... all of whom have individual names.
** A major part of the Battle Void arc is [[spoiler: a PocketDimension inhabited entirely by Zims. They have to use numbered collars to differentiate each other]].
* PlotAllergy: In Issue 11, Zim discovers Dib is allergic to most furry animals and proceeds to build a machine that launches such animals at Dib. He spends most of the issue just torturing his nemesis, proving he is superior... and then the last panel reveals he's allergic to cats, too.
* PokeThePoodle: In Issue 1, Zim's "reign of terror" includes such heinous crimes as: Kicking over a trash can, switching people's mail around, and reading a newspaper despite never subscribing. Then averted when GIR literally launches a poodle into space.
* PreviouslyOn: Recap Kid's job is to tell everyone what happened in the last issue.
* PrivateProfitPrison: Moo-Ping 10, the space prison from Issues 34 and 35.
* PuppeteerParasite: The Space Pants from Slksskz.
* RantInducingSlight: Gaz to Dib after he unplugged her game.
* ARareSentence: Dib in Issue 8, after being attacked by the Space Pants.
-->'''Dib''': The last thing I remember, I was attacked by pants. I can't believe I'd ever say those words. But here I am saying them.
* RashomonStyle: Issue 39 does this, as an alien observing Earth abducts Zim, GIR, Dib and Gaz to his ship, due to them being the only beings present when his exploratory probe and its robot operator were destroyed, so that he can interrogate them on what happened, via putting them in a machine that plays their memories. Dib's memories show that Zim attacked his house in a MiniMecha made from random pieces of machinery, and when the robot showed up to meet Dib (do to detecting Tak's ship in his garage and determining it to be the most advanced technology on the planet), Zim took offense and destroyed the robot. In Zim's memories, he peacefully greeted the robot while in a much more advanced mech, only for Dib (whom he portrays as a drooling moron) to blow up the robot by accident. Gaz's memories show that she wasn't even paying attention to the fight at all. And GIR's memories... [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth cause the memory machine to melt down and the alien's ship to explode]].
* RealityEnsues:
** When Zim discovers that Dib is allergic to cats, Dib is able to solve the problem by getting himself some allergy meds, rendering himself immune to Zim's attacks.
** In the first issue, years of obsessing over Zim with little to no regard to his personal health and hygeine has left Dib cripplingly obese and invalid, allowing Zim to conduct a reign of terror unopposed. Comically subverted when Zim's "reign of terror" ends up being a string of ultimately harmless pranks and Dib is able to recover his original health after a single day of working out.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Dib yet again involves Gaz (in the middle of playing an online game, by turning it off) in spying on Zim... telling a cat that was being fed by GIR to get off his lawn. Needless to say, she reacted badly.
* SeriousBusiness:
** Gaz's gaming has reached the point that when Dib interrupted her while she was playing a game (as in [[TooDumbToLive turning the game off]]) just so that she could look at Zim yelling at a cat, Gaz asks Membrane to build an invention so she could search for a dimension where gamers rule the earth and put non gamers in mind simulations similar to ''Film/TheMatrix'', where they are forced into the role of player characters, controlled by random gamers and die violently over and over, and subjects Dib to it.
*** Also do not be a freemium gamer in this world.
** Zim losing one of his boots at the end of Issue 6.
** Issue 19 reveals the existence of the Zoo Crimes Division, which protects the Town Zoo like a fortress, and treats Zim's home-made zoo like a felony.
** Issues 29 and 30 revolve around secret groups of magic users fighting over control of Poop Cola, which is the source of their power.
*** Poopwatch respects proof of purchase.
--> '''Poopwatch Wizard''': ''Curse you, Poopwatch code of ethics! The one who holds the receipt by rights holds the poop.''
* ShapeshifterDefaultForm: The Sylvestran Snarl Beast initially looks like a cute 6 legged kitten.
* ShowWithinAShow: Issue 20 gives us Floopsy Bloops Shmoopsy.
* SnapBack: Issues can end with things like the Earth getting kicked into the sun by a [[EldritchAbomination Star Donkey]] (which ends up being snapped back by the end of the ''very issue it happens'') and Gaz taking over the Earth after [[FreakyFridayFlip body-swapping with Zim]], but ultimately it'll all be ignored by the very next issue.
* StopWorshippingMe: In Issue 7, Zim initially likes having the amoebas worship him, but they quickly get on his nerves.
* StoryArc:
** Issues 22-25 are the "Arc of Virooz", referencing the mysterious force responsible for infecting GIR with a virus that makes him try to kill Zim.
** Issues 46-49 are the Battle Void arc, wherein Zim, GIR, and Dib are trapped in a PocketDimension [[spoiler: inhabited by the Zims of various alternate universes]].
* StupidestThingIveEverHeard: This was Zim’s reaction when Dib told him about the evil wizard of Dark Poop trying to unleash Poopthulu in Issue 30:
--> '''Zim:''' I care nothing for your foolish human superstitions Dib! Poop Magic is the primitive sodaguzzling belief of primitive sodaguzzling human ape-brains!
* TakeThat:
** Issue 9 gets a lot of mileage out of its Website/YouTube parody, with its obviously faked videos and the string of {{troll}}ish and downright moronic viewer comments.
** Zim's plan in Issue 37 is essentially the plot of ''Film/TheMatrix''. Which makes Dib's lampshading of all the logic plot holes in it a pretty clear jab at the movies.
* TheMagocracy: Poopwatch, an organization dedicated to monitoring the magical use of Poop Cola.
* ThirdPersonFlashback: How the Memory Visualizer works. Dib lampshades how odd this is, but is ignored.
* TimeDilation: Issue 28 is built around an experimental Irken device called the Time Accelerator (or the "Time Thingy" as it's nicknamed). It generates a field which causes time to move faster the closer you get to it. [[spoiler: And when it ends up exploding near the end of the issue, it causes Zim to age into an elderly state.]]
* TimeDissonance: In Issue 7, thirty seconds for Zim is thousands of years for the amoebas he created. Also, a side effect of them evolving so fast seems to be a very loose concept of time, as they keep making references to centuries passing every few minutes.
* TimeyWimeyBall: In Issue 12, Zim’s actions in the future changed the past. Dib quickly points out that that isn't how it works only to be told to shut up.
* TooDumbToLive: Dib, even after finding out that the Space Pants are a race of PuppeteerParasite aliens that consume all of a planet's resources before moving on decided to aid the Pants Queen in defeating Zim, the only one who knew how to defeat them. Luckily Zim was not quite dead.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** Membrane, after he TookALevelInKindness, sold out Dib in issue 5 so that the gamer robots wouldn't take his dinner robot.
** Dib also has come to fit this trope; while he was never exactly a saint in the show, he was a bit nicer than he has been in the comics. Nowadays he's more prone to things like abandoning people when they're no longer of use to him (Groyna in Issue 8 for example) and refusing to apologize when something is clearly his fault (such as Issue 29 where he spills Gaz's soda).
* TookALevelInKindness: Professor Membrane seems to have become a more attentative parent in the comics as he is seen making dinner (or at least operating the robot who does it) and even playing video games with Gaz.
* TrainingMontage: Dib had one in Issue 1 to get back in shape. Gaz had to stop him from singing his own montage music.
* TranquilFury: Gaz in Issue 5 after Dib turned off her game.
* {{Troll}}:
** In Issue 2, Tak’s personality based A.I. used Dib’s exact words to track Zim’s ship so that by the time they got to the location Zim was long gone. It wasn’t until after going to hundreds of spaceside attractions that a frustrated Dib tells it to actually catch Zim did it do it.
** Agent Batflaps seems to be a parody of your standard Internet troll, coming up with obviously fake videos and only having bad things to say about Dib's.
* TheUnapologetic: Dib, when he destroys or disregards something someone else likes or finds important because it’s not as important as him stopping Zim (or whatever other paranormal activity he’s focused on at the time). In fact, he will only ever apologize if the person retaliates in a way he can’t counter. Gaz called him out on this in Issue 5 after she put him in a AndIMustScream situation when he destroyed her chance to be the first person in history to beat a certain video game. Stating that he was just doing everything he could to get out of the situation and didn’t really mean it. It literally took ten million games and logic defying deaths for Dib to legitimately mean his apology.
* UngratefulBastard: Dib in Issue 8 -- after Groyna saved him from being zombified, he tried to leave her because her experience of being the last survivor in a zombie apocolypse was making her emotional and he's uncomfortable around crying girls. When she convinced him that they could work together, he kept telling her how stupid she was for thinking one or two people could stop an alien invasion by themselves. Finally, when they came across her zombified friend and she tried to save her, Dib pretty much just left her to die.
--> '''Dib''': I’m… um… going to go downstairs now and look for the pants-hive. I’d help but… basement door right here so yeah.
* UnknownRival: Played for laughs in Issue 46, where Zim fails to remember who Tak is when she's mentioned (despite referring to her by name in several earlier issues).
* UnreliableNarrator:
** Throughout Issue 17, Zim and Dib keep telling stories that present themselves as awesome, and paint the other in a negative light. In Dib's case, this involves making him a badass who everyone loves, and for Zim, it's making him an AllLovingHero.
** In Issue 39, Zim's delusional, self-serving memories portray him as having peacefully met the alien probe only for Dib (who is shown as a drooling moron) to destroy it by accident. This is in contrast to Dib's memories, which are more in line with the pair's standard characterizations (Dib tries to greet the robot as a self-appointed ambassador of humanity, only for Zim to destroy it when it annoys him).
* UnwantedFalseFaith: In Issue 7, where Zim quickly gets annoyed with the amoebas worshipping him.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity:
** Issue 21 has this as the way [[FreakyFridayFlip Gaz-as-Zim]] takes over the world -- first, she gets everyone's attention by destroying all the world militaries' weapons, calling it an act of world peace. Then, she solves world hunger with a new artificial food, which happens to contain an alien chemical that makes people stupid and easy to control. This leads to the world's leaders all asking her to take over as ruler of Earth.
** In Issue 42 and 43, Zim is far more popular with the Plim than Dib is.
* VomitIndiscretionShot: Zim in Issue 2, after eating a dark matter filled donut, is prominently shown vomiting out of the Voot Cruiser.
* {{Whatevermancy}}: Poopromancer, one who practices magic by harnessing the power of Poop Cola.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Issue 33 confirms that the series is set in America, just not ''where''.
* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough:
** Zim explains that the Snarl Beast they're fighting is the first one anyone has seen in "over a thousand years" because "nobody has been dumb enough to look for one in all the time." He then boasts that "Zim is dumb enough!"
** No one believed that Inquisitous the Observer's ship blew up because it couldn't handle the stress of looking at the world through GIR's eyes.
--->'''Inquisitorian Elder:''' I'm sure the Big Bad Robot is just as scary as you remember him, but I think our GIANT SUPERCOMPUTER can handle anything this defective sir unit can dish out.
* WrittenInAbsence: Zim is absent during the plot of Issue 14 due to accidentally falling down a deep hole in his front yard and breaking both his legs.
* YankTheDogsChain: In Issue 43, Dib beats Zim to win the spot as leader of the Plim by taking down the anti-technology field surrounding the planet... and then [[spoiler: the other Irkens, who had been searching for Plim for centuries, immediately swoop in and conquer it anyway]].
* YouAreTooLate: In Issue 2, Zim has already enacted his plan by the time Dib catches up to him.

** No one believed that Inquisitous the Observer’s ship blew up because it couldn’t handle the stress of looking at the world through GIR’s eyes.
--> '''Inquisitorian Elder''': I’m sure the Big Bad Robot is just as scary as you remember him, but I think our GIANT SUPERCOMPUTER can handle anything this defective sir unit can dish out.

* CompulsorySchoolAge: ZIM's older than any human alive, and in "[=NanoZIM=]" he taunts Dib that he's been flying ships since before Dib was born, yet he attends what appears to be an elementary school -- and with his height, he fits in, although [[PaperThinDisguise he really shouldn't]]. He opted to do so, believing it to be the best way to retrieve information about the species he intends to conquer.

* FutureMeScaresMe: Zim ''really'' does not like [[RidiculouslySuccessfulFutureSelf Emperor]] [[Zim]].

* RealityEnsues: "FBI Warning Of Doom" has the villain of the week try to kill ZIM with zombies. Except that the zombies just sort of wander about uselessly and run into things. As it turns out, a mindless corpse that just sort of shambles towards people trying to bite them isn't exactly a huge threat.

* DelayedReaction: Zim possibly sets a new record by having one delayed for a ''month'' in Issue 20.
-->'''Zim:''' GIR, that raccoon is eating your leg.
-->'''GIR:''' Dat's Wilma.
-->(...)
-->'''Zim:''' Seriously, Wilma?

* RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything: The Resisty is shown to be this, though to their credit they did almost take down the massive....Only because Zim inadvertently helped them.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Invader Zim might be the most cynical kids cartoon ever created! Everyone is either apathetic, a complete moron, ungodly cruel, or all of the above.

* ForWantOfANail: At first, Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus seems to be just an adaptation of the first comic: Zim went into hiding, causing Dib to become stuck to his chair and unable to stop Zim's plans. And then Zim forgets what PHASE TWO was supposed to be. [[spoiler For the record, Phase 2 in the comics was supposed to be Zim sharing embarassing footage of Dib getting back into shape with the rest of the galaxy so that no one would ever take him seriously]].

-->'''Jeff:''' That's not a word, either.

* PlanetOfSteves: Played with in Issue 42, which features the Planet Plim, home of the City of Plim, inhabited by the Plim species... all of whom have individual names.

* StoryArc: Issues 22-25 are the "Arc of Virooz", referencing the mysterious force responsible for infecting GIR with a virus that makes him try to kill Zim.

* TerminatorImpersonator: Zim creates a robot called a "Hunter-Destroyer" (which has a name and appearance incredibly similar to a "Hunter-Killer" robot from the ''Terminator'' franchise) to go back in time and and kill Dib before he can become Zim's enemy. However, in addition to the TemporalParadox this would create, the robot proves incompatible with TimeTravel anyway, so the scheme never gets off the ground.

* GirlyBruiser: The Girly Rangers, an organization of sweet, smiling [[GenkiGirl Genki Girls]] that won't hesitate to bust open a can of whoop-ass should their [[DeliberatelyCuteChild charms]] not result in someone buying their cookies. They have a ninja-like fighting style and use their cookies as ninja stars.

* TerminatorImpersonator: Zim creates a robot called a "Hunter-Destroyer" (which has a name and appearance incredibly similar to a "Hunter-Killer" robot from the ''Terminator'' franchise) to go back in time and and kill Dib before he can become Zim's enemy. However, in addition to the TemporalParadox this would create, the robot proves incompatible with TimeTravel anyway, so the scheme never gets off the ground.