#invader zim basically sums up my personality in general-

[monkeymindscream]

Okay, I've been following you for months without interacting in any meaningful way... if you feel like it, wanna sell me on Invader Zim?

Ehhh well, I’m not very good at “selling” things, so tospeak, mostly because I worry that if I talk something up too much it won’tlive up to expectations. But y’know what since you asked I’m gonna give it ago, just for you (just please keep your bar low, whatever I say).

In the interest of avoiding any misconceptions though, let’sstart off with what might turn some people away from the show:

Also I’m going to go into this assuming you know nothingabout the show, so forgive me if I repeat anything you already know.

For starters, it’s weird.Like… on the surface, “an alien trying to blend in on earth so it can conquer it”sounds a little cheesy, but still fairly basic, right? But holy shit, there isan episode wherein the titular alien gets a pimple,which he then discovers has the power to hypnotize people. That’s the plot ofthe whole episode. I’m not kidding.

Which segues nicely into the next point, sometimes the showcan be downright gross. The abovementioned episode? It ends with the pimple exploding,which results in a flood of— yeah, you get my point. Fills a room. Notpleasant. Even if that’s not a dealbreaker for you, I still don’t recommendeating anything while watching it.

Last point, shit can get darkon Invader Zim. There is an episodethat revolves around Zim stealing people’sfucking organs. Which he then stuffshis own body with. At one point when he’s speaking, an entire intestinepops out of his mouth. All done in an attempt to blend in better. Yeah.Nicktoons of the early 2000s ladies and gents.

Though to be fair what did you expect from a creator thatprior to this worked on a comicbook called Johnnythe Homicidal Maniac?

Now if you’re still interested after reading all that, let’stalk about its good points:

The show’s garnered a reputation as being the flagship forthe “oMG!!! SO RANDOM!!! XD” crowd. Which isn’t exactly wrong, because anotheraspect of its aforementioned weirdness is that things just sort of happen. But the thing that I really likeabout the show is that it acknowledgesthat shit makes no sense, usually in the most tongue-and-cheek way possible. Example:our deuteragonist (Dib, by name) is being shaken down by Girl Scouts to buycookies. Being in a hurry, he relents, rummages around in his pocket for moneyto pay, gives it to the Girl Scouts, and runs off. The Girl Scout he paid opensher hand, revealing to the audience what he gave her, and screams, “Hey! This is ham!! You can’t pay for cookies with HAM!!”

Dib, now a fair distance away, pauses, and quietly asks, “Whywas there ham in my pocket…?”

Look man if that doesn’t get a chuckle out of you then I’msorry your funny gland is broken orsomething.

Other good things:

The characters (the heart of any work) are tons of fun. Zimis just too outrageous to be contained (whichis actually the plot point that sets the show in motion), Dib (his rival)is an adorkable – if not occasionally arrogant – straightman of a woobie, andGir (Zim’s defective henchbot) can be hilarious under the right circumstances. To say nothing of the rest of thecast.

Zim’s alien culture is actually pretty freakin interestingto consider; it goes above and beyond “aliens conquer stuff” (while at the sametime somehow capitalizing on it).

I’m sorry, look at Zim and the rest of his race and tell methey’re not adorable. Which is kindashallow yeah, but I don’t really care, now do I? The Irkens are just nice tolook at, and they all have oddly distinct individual designs, which is. Sonice. Seriously, go on to the wiki and take a look at all the Invaders. Wow. Soum yeah what I’m trying to get at here is characterdesigns.

It (unfortunately) got cancelled, but that means that it’s anice size to watch.

Even though it got cancelled, there’s still a bunch ofsupplementary materials and information floating around the internet, so evenafter you finish watching the show, it’s like… it’s not over. Unless of course you don’t care, in which case youcan refer back to the last point. It’s a very consumable size.

That about sums itup, I think. I mean obviously there’s a crapton more reasons why I like it, but those are less generaland more personal preferences. And I tried to keep this general. Apologies ifthis got rambly. Double apologies if I somehow misconstrued the question and gave you an overly long answer you never asked for.