If you grew up watching Nickelodeon's Invader Zim, chances are you're a cool person with a twisted sense of humor... and repressed trauma. That's because Invader Zim, despite being a kids' show, is absolutely morbid and dark even compared to the likes of Cow and Chicken, Samurai Jack, or the first three seasons of Spongebob Squarepants. It's no wonder Invader Zim only lasted two seasons in Nick.
Still, the utterly insane kids' cartoon gained a cult following which even warranted a belated Netflix film, Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus. It was a dream come true for us fans of the screechy evil green alien. Creator Jhonen Vasquez even included some homages to the canceled cartoon, something only fans could've chuckled at. Here are 10 of those moments in Enter the Florpus.
Correction (September 10th): An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Minimoose's first episode.
GAZ'S GAME SLAVE/VIDEO GAME ADDICTION
We all know Gaz, right? She's the cool punk goth girl of our dreams who's also a gamer girl. While Enter the Florpus made her slightly less hardcore compared to the cartoons, her character is still pretty much intact. The biggest evidence for this is her fixation to her Game Slave 4; it's basically a parody video game consoles in Invader Zim.
Keep your eyes peeled during the early moments of the movie and you'll see Gaz busy with her Game Slave 4 device. It's a faithful nod to the episode "Game Slave 2" of Invader Zim, where Gaz lined up at the video game store to grab herself a copy, only to be cheated by another gamer.
ZIM'S "WHAT?" DIALOG
The Dib-monkey is a worthy nemesis to the evil genius Zim. Throughout the show, the two's shenanigans (as in Zim's attempts to conquer the Earth and Dib's attempts to stop him) have made for entertaining exchanges. Then, there's also that one moment in "Mortose der Soulstealer;" the two sworn enemies simply had a meme-able miscommunication with Zim repeatedly saying "what."
Such a profound and dramatic exchange between the two was recreated in Enter the Florpus where Zim couldn't hear Dib's threats and vows of retribution over the cacophony of the crowd. It's a scene which ought to put a smile on the faces of anyone who's ever watched the show.
THE TALLEST'S LOVE FOR SNACKS
The funny thing about Invader Zim's portrayal of aliens is that it's hilariously similar to human conventions. Apparently, the Irkens are vain creatures who value height... above all... no pun intended; which is why their leaders are bluntly called The Tallest. Apart from height, they also love invasions and... snacks.
Almost every appearance of The Tallest shows them eating donuts and drinking soda. Thankfully, the movie stayed faithful to the junk food obsession of The Tallest. We can see the two of them eating their favorite snacks and drinking soda while talking badly about Zim.
PROFESSOR MEMBRANE'S ARMS
During the first few minutes of Enter the Florpus, hardcore fans would easily notice Professor Membrance's redesign. His gloves were made longer and they now cover his whole arms and his lab coat was made thicker. Additionally, it seems the creators retconned his past: Membrane claims to have lost both his arms as a child thanks to sharks.
Oddly enough, the Invader Zim show portrays membrane with at least an intact upper arm. They're even visible in all of the episodes he's in. The movie, on the other hand, shows his arms both gone all the way to the shoulder. So, he's either lying about the sharks or the childhood part or he replaced those arms himself. Either way, best dad ever.
ZIM'S PARENTS
Speaking of parents, Zim has his own to match Dibs'... well, not really. Zim's actually just built his own robot parents to appear as a normal stinking Earth child with a family. They can even greet Zim when he returns home from school and at one point, were modified to be able to attend a parent-teacher night.
As a tribute to Zim's evil genius, Enter the Florpus shows them once again with their favorite line, "welcome home son". They only appear briefly, however, but it's enough to make your nostalgia sense tingle.
GIR'S WAFFLES
One of the unanimously favorite episodes of Invader Zim is that one awesome filler "Zim Eats Waffles". It's the one where Gir makes some soap-flavored waffles for Zim and makes him eat it while Dib watches in secret. Zim, being a good master, eats the waffles with reluctance and disdain.
You'll be pleased to know that there's a reference to this in Enter the Florpus. During the Dib training/Zim planning montage, Gir can be seen with his specialized waffle-maker cannon. It fires out cooked waffles and even has a syrup dispenser inside! It's not much, but the waffles are there alright.
TAK'S SHIP/DIB'S TROPHY ROOM
Tak was a one-off character in Invader Zim but came down as one of the most memorable. She's also Irken and came to Earth to steal Zim's job. In all respects, Tak is a case study of what Zim would have been like if only he was competent. Even so, Tak failed and her spaceship crash-landed back to Earth; this left a gaping suspended plot point in the show.
Luckily for us, Enter the Florpus ties up that plot point. Dib repairs Tak's ship which he hid and kept in his dad's garage in order to stop Zim's plans once more. The ship even has a British accent, seemingly a nod to Tak's fluctuating British-American accent in the show. Now we can sleep easy knowing what Dib did with the ship.
ZIM'S EXAGGERATED COMPUTER
Here's a fun fact: it was Johnen Vasquez himself (Invader Zim's creator) who voices Zim's computer. You know? The one Zim uses to operate his home-base and the one he also orders around when he's planning. As it is, that computer's also a character in itself given how exaggerated it answers Zim sometimes... all the time, to be exact.
Since Zim's house is still intact, Computer is also back and he's grumpier than ever. When Zim and Gir started laughing maniacally in the toilet, Zim asks Computer to laugh with him only for the latter to reply irritably that he doesn't want to. What a buzzkill.
MOOSE=EVIL
Any longtime fan of Invader Zim will know that for some reason, the showrunners have this inexplicable phobia with moose. They even seemingly voiced this out with one episode of Invader Zim titled "Room With a Moose". It's literally what it sounds like which happens to be bad for the humans in Invader Zim. Somehow moose are evil; dooo not question Zim's flawless logiiic!
Enter the Florpus intensifies this fear of moose but in a cuter manner. Zim re-introduces Minimoose, who briefly appeared in an earlier episode, who also happens to be his most powerful superweapon ever. Zim even used Minimoose to teleport Earth into the flight path of The Tallest's ship. Don't be fooled by the cuteness, it's evil!
GIR'S TANTRUMS
Adorable as Minimoose is, there can only be one aggregator of fan favor: Gir. Gir is everything to the franchise. His dysfunction and penchant for chaos give the show more than comic relief. Sometimes, destructive as he is, Gir does have an irresistible side. It's when he does an infantile tantrum that gets Zim every time (by annoying Zim into submission).
Thankfully, Gir hasn't changed at all in Enter the Florpus. He occasionally still breaks down into a noisy bawl every time Zim rejects his plans for food. This time around, Gir weeped uncontrollably after Zim rejected his suggestion of ordering a million pizzas, rolling around in them pizzas, and then turning into a giant pizza. Understandable.