List of Invader Zim episodes facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Invader Zim is an American animated dark comedy science fiction TV show created by Jhonen Vasquez. It aired on Nickelodeon. The show is about an alien named Zim (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz) from the planet Irk. His big goal is to conquer or destroy Earth. Zim tries many times to take over the human race. But his plans always go wrong because he's not very good at it, his robot helper GIR (Rosearik Rikki Simons) messes up, or his enemy Dib (Andy Berman) stops him. Dib is one of the few humans who knows Zim is an alien.

Invader Zim first aired on March 30, 2001. The show was made for kids and teens and got great reviews. Over time, the number of viewers went down. Nickelodeon canceled the show before the second season was finished. This left some episodes incomplete. The show originally ran from 2001 to 2002. Six completed episodes from the second season were not shown at first. These episodes came out on DVD in 2004. They later aired on the Nicktoons Network in 2006. Even though it was canceled early, Invader Zim became very popular. It is now seen as a cult classic because of its growing fanbase and good merchandise sales.

The series has a pilot episode. It also has twenty-seven episodes, which are split into forty-six smaller parts. There were at least seventeen unfinished parts when the show was canceled. On December 24, 2011, the pilot episode was shown on TV for the first time. Most episodes were shown in pairs. Each 12-minute part debuted in the same half-hour. There are eight longer episodes, each lasting 24 minutes. This list follows the order of the DVD releases, with TV dates noted. Most episodes were directed by Steve Ressel. The pilot was directed by Jordan Reichek.

A TV movie based on the show, called Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, came out on August 16, 2019. It was released on Netflix.

Series overview
Episodes
See also

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
Season	Episodes		First aired	Last aired	Network
Pilot			May 11, 2004 (2004-05-11) (DVD) December 24, 2011 (TV)		Nicktoons
1	20		March 30, 2001 (2001-03-30)	July 12, 2002 (2002-07-12)	Nickelodeon
2	7	6	June 10, 2006 (2006-06-10)	August 19, 2006 (2006-08-19)	Nicktoons
2	7	1	December 10, 2002 (2002-12-10)		Nickelodeon
Enter the Florpus			August 16, 2019 (2019-08-16)		Netflix

Episodes

Pilot

A pilot episode for Invader Zim was made in 1999. Billy West was the voice of Zim in this pilot. It was first released on the Invader Zim Vol. 1: Doom Doom Doom DVD on May 11, 2004. The pilot first aired on TV on Nicktoons on December 24, 2011. It was part of their "Nicktoon's Winter Funderland" event.

Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original release date
"Pilot"	Jordan Reichek	Rob Hummel, Ed Scharlach, Jhonen Vasquez & Eva Almos Jhonen Vasquez (story)	Jordan Reichek & Jhonen Vasquez	May 11, 2004 (2004-05-11) (DVD) December 24, 2011 (2011-12-24) (TV)
Zim finds he is very allergic to the school cafeteria's food. Dib uses this to try and show other kids that Zim is an alien.

Season 1 (2001–02)

The first season of Invader Zim has twenty episodes. They are listed below by their production number, not when they first aired.

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original air date
1	1	"The Nightmare Begins"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel	Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray	March 30, 2001 (2001-03-30)
The Irken race is assigning planets for Operation Impending Doom II. The Tallest, who are Zim's leaders, want to get rid of him. They give Zim a broken robot, GIR, and send him to a far-off planet. Zim arrives on Earth. He sets up a base and pretends to be human at school. But a classmate named Dib, who studies strange things, promises to catch Zim and prove he's an alien.
2	2	"Bestest Friend" "NanoZim"	Steve Ressel	Rob Hummel, Roman Dirge, & Jhonen Vasquez Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel	The Graham Bros. Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray	April 13, 2001 (2001-04-13)
Zim sees that other kids have friends, but he doesn't. He does weird tests on students to pick the "best" friend. But it's harder to get rid of a friend than to make one. Dib sneaks into Zim's base and takes pictures of Zim without his disguise. Zim shrinks very small and goes inside Dib's body. He controls Dib to crush the disk with the photos. When Dib says he has a copy at home, Zim goes into Dib's brain to erase the memory of where it's hidden.
3	3	"Parent-Teacher Night" "Walk of Doom"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel	Ron Brewer & Kyle Menke Bryan Konietzko & Chris Graham	April 6, 2001 (2001-04-06)
Parent-Teacher Night is coming. Zim doesn't have parents. He uses his robot parents to try and fool everyone. But Zim knows his robot parents aren't ready for this job. Zim goes downtown to test a new chip for GIR. But GIR takes out the chip to save a cupcake. Zim and GIR get lost and have to use public transport to get home. Their trip gets harder when Zim temporarily loses his sight from looking at the sun. His disguise is mistaken for a bank robber. GIR also replaces his rocket fuel with tuna fish, ruining his escape from the police.
4	4	"Germs" "Dark Harvest"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel Eric Trueheart & Rob Hummel	The Graham Bros. Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray	April 20, 2001 (2001-04-20)
Zim watches a movie where aliens are stopped by germs. Zim becomes very afraid of germs and tries to kill all Earth's bacteria. He cleans everything very well and sprays himself and GIR. When he runs out of spray, he goes to buy more. GIR runs off to a "MacMeatie's" restaurant. There, Zim finds he can fight germs with a special hamburger "meat" made of recycled napkins. A pigeon lands on Zim's head in class. He is sent to the nurse's office for "head pigeons." He worries the nurse will find out he's not human. To avoid this, Zim steals human organs from other kids.
5	5	"Attack of the Saucer Morons" "The Wettening"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Eric Trueheart Roman Dirge, Eric Trueheart & Rob Hummel	Chris Graham & Bryan Konietzko Ron Brewer & Kyle Menke	April 27, 2001 (2001-04-27)
Zim's spaceship spins out of control after hitting a bee. It crashes in a park. Zim tries to get it back, but a group of UFO fans finds his ship. Zim is caught when his disguise falls off. They start to worship him as their alien god. GIR eventually rescues Zim and gets the spaceship back. But another bee makes them crash at an even bigger UFO meeting. Dib finds out that water hurts Zim's skin. After Dib splashes Zim with a puddle and a water balloon, Zim promises to get Dib wet as revenge.
6	6	"Career Day" "Battle-Dib"	Steve Ressel	Rob Hummel Jhonen Vasquez & Eric Trueheart	The Graham Bros. Shawn Murray & Kyle Menke	May 4, 2001 (2001-05-04)
It's career day at school. Dib is paired with a paranormal investigator named Bill. Zim goes to work at a fast food place called MacMeatie's. Dib finds out Zim is shedding his skin because of a "galactic equinox." Dib tries to get his new mentor to help him expose Zim. Dib wants to give a presentation about Zim to the Swollen Eyeballs, a secret group that studies strange things. First, he needs a permission slip signed by his father, Professor Membrane. Professor Membrane is very famous and has a TV show. Dib has to go through many challenges to see his father.
7	7	"Planet Jackers" "Rise of the Zitboy"	Steve Ressel	Rob Hummel & Jhonen Vasquez Frank Conniff & Roman Dirge	Bryan Konietzko & Kyle Menke Ron Brewer, Joseph Daniello, & Ian Graham	August 31, 2001 (2001-08-31)
Zim learns that "planet jackers" are stealing Earth. These aliens use planets to fuel their dying sun. Zim tries to get them to leave, but they refuse. So, Zim tries to steal the planet back himself. Zim is mad when he finds out Dib knows a weak spot in his base's defenses. Meanwhile, GIR eats pizza and jumps on Zim, covering him in grease. This causes Zim to get a huge pimple. GIR draws a face on the pimple. Zim finds out its movement has hypnotic powers. Zim uses this pimple to control the school kids. He forces Dib to reveal the weakness in his base. The pimple grows huge and explodes. Zim leaves to fix his base, while Dib has to clean up the mess.
8	8	"Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain" "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel Eric Trueheart	Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray The Graham Bros. & Dave Krocker	August 24, 2001 (2001-08-24)
During work on Zim's underground base, GIR's brain accidentally gets put into the house's computer system. Zim uses a time travel device. He hopes to send a machine back in time to kill Dib when he was a baby. But the machine can't time travel. Zim's new plan is to send small rubber pigs into the past to hurt Dib. After some success, Zim realizes changing the past can cause bad things in the present.
9	9	"A Room with a Moose" "Hamstergeddon"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel Eric Trueheart	Chris Graham & Miyuki Hoshikawa Rayfield Angrum & Ian Graham	August 17, 2001 (2001-08-17)
Zim sets up a fake field trip for his classmates. He plans to launch the class into a wormhole in space. The wormhole leads to a different dimension. This dimension is just a room with a moose in it. Zim's class gets a new hamster. Zim decides its cuteness can be used to control minds. Zim puts a device on the hamster. It makes the hamster grow to Godzilla-like size and get superpowers. It can even shoot a laser from its mouth. Zim can't control it, so he lets it rampage through the city. But when the hamster heads for Zim's base, Zim has to team up with Dib. They use alien technology to launch the creature into deep space.
10	10	"Plague of Babies" "Bloaty's Pizza Hog"	Steve Ressel	Rob Hummel Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel	Bryan Konietzko & Kyle Menke Dave Krocker & Chris Graham	September 7, 2001 (2001-09-07)
Zim fears a human baby saw him without his disguise. He thinks the baby is a threat and tries to question it. He soon finds out the babies are actually aliens stuck on Earth. It's Gaz's turn to pick a restaurant for the family's yearly night out. Dib doesn't come back from trying to defeat Zim. Gaz goes to rescue him so they can get to the restaurant on time.
11	11	"Door to Door" "FBI Warning of Doom"	Steve Ressel	Eric Trueheart & Courtney Lilly Frank Conniff & Jhonen Vasquez	Joseph Daniello & Ian Graham Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray	March 29, 2002 (2002-03-29)
The school starts a candy fundraiser to earn money. Zim isn't interested at first. But then he finds out about a secret prize. Zim gets scared after seeing an "FBI Warning" on a rental movie GIR keeps watching. Zim takes the DVD back to the mall to return it. He wants to avoid trouble with the FBI.
12	12	"Bolognius Maximus" "Game Slave 2"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez Eric Trueheart & Jhonen Vasquez	Chris Graham & Miyuki Hoshikawa Rayfield Angrum & Ian Graham	September 21, 2001 (2001-09-21)
Dib throws bologna at Zim during lunch. It dissolves Zim's skin. For revenge, Zim puts a thumbtack on Dib's chair, which Dib sits on. The next day, Zim tells Dib he infected him with a virus. This virus is changing Dib's DNA, turning him into bologna. Dib then infects Zim with the same virus. They both have to work together to find a cure. Gaz is waiting in line for a new handheld game console. The person behind her tricks the salesperson into giving him the last console. Gaz will do anything to get the Game Slave from the boy.
13	13	"Battle of the Planets"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez	Louie del Carmen, Chris Graham, Bryan Konietzko, Dave Krocker, Kyle Menke, & Steve Ressel	April 5, 2002 (2002-04-05)
Zim sends probes to Mars to see if it's useful for the Irken Empire. The probes send back pictures of artificial structures. Zim and GIR go to Mars. They find out the planet is actually a giant spaceship. Zim plans to fly Mars to Earth and "squish" all life on Earth. Dib finds out Zim's plan. He takes control of Mercury, which is also a spaceship, to stop Zim.
14	14	"Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel	Bryan Konietzko & Kyle Menke	October 26, 2001 (2001-10-26)
Dib accidentally creates a portal on his forehead. It leads to a dimension full of monsters. Dib goes back and forth through the portal and forces Zim to come with him. The monsters capture Zim. They say they won't let him go unless Dib lets them come through the portal to Earth. But when the monsters look through the portal, they turn back. They are disgusted by GIR eating candy.
15	15	"Mysterious Mysteries" "Future Dib"	Steve Ressel	Courtney Lilly & Rob Hummel Rob Hummel	Shawn Murray & Kyle Menke Rayfield Angrum & Ian Graham	March 22, 2002 (2002-03-22)
Dib goes on his favorite TV show, Mysterious Mysteries. He wants to tell the world about Zim and show a video he filmed. To Dib's surprise, Zim, GIR, and Gaz also appear. They tell their own versions of the story. These are then acted out on the show for viewers to see. Professor Membrane builds a device that creates energy. Zim gets an idea to break it to destroy the world.
16	16	"Hobo 13" "Walk For Your Lives"	Steve Ressel	Eric Trueheart & Danielle Koenig Eric Trueheart	Chris Graham & Miyuki Hoshikawa Miyuki Hoshikawa & Kyle Menke	July 12, 2002 (2002-07-12)
Zim asks for stronger weapons. The Almighty Tallest don't want to give them to him. So, Zim is sent to the dangerous training planet Hobo 13. He must prove he deserves the new gear. Zim, by being very selfish and using his teammates, surprisingly finishes the trials. Zim is doing time experiments on Dib. But the experiment explodes. Dib escapes, but he is "slowed down" and can only move very slowly. An explosion also happens, which is also exploding very slowly.
17	17	"Megadoomer" "Lice"	Steve Ressel	Roman Dirge, Eric Trueheart, and Jhonen Vasquez Rob Hummel	The Graham Bros. Rayfield Angrum & Ian Graham	April 26, 2002 (2002-04-26)
Zim accidentally gets a powerful robot suit with a cloaking device. He immediately goes to destroy Dib with it. The robot needs to be plugged in to stay hidden. Zim doesn't know that only the robot is hidden; he and the power cable are clearly visible. There is a head lice problem at the school. An extreme lice hunter comes to investigate the outbreak.
18	18	"Abducted" "The Sad, Sad Tale of Chickenfoot"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Rob Hummel Roman Dirge & Eric Trueheart	Joseph Daniello & Ian Graham Joseph Daniello, Louie del Carmen, & Miyuki Hoshikawa	April 12, 2002 (2002-04-12)
Zim and GIR are taken by two aliens. The aliens think they are human and dog specimens. Dib is frustrated with how people see paranormal science. He tries to prove the legend of Chickenfoot is false. Chickenfoot is actually a man stuck inside a chicken costume.
19	19	"GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom"	Steve Ressel	Eric Trueheart Jhonen Vasquez & Eric Trueheart	Chris Graham & Shawn Murray Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray	May 24, 2002 (2002-05-24)
Zim is annoyed by how useless GIR is. He puts GIR in permanent defense mode. Things go wrong when GIR sees Zim as a threat to their mission on Earth. Zim is hit by a muffin during lunch. He thinks Dib threw it, but he's not sure. That night, in a dream, aliens visit Dib. They say they gave Dib special powers. Dib uses these powers to threaten Zim. Zim gives up, and GIR self-destructs. Time passes, and Dib spends his life solving mysteries and stopping aliens. Finally, as an old man, Dib is interviewed on TV. He is asked if he threw the muffin at Zim, and Dib admits it. Then it's revealed that Zim made Dib think he lived a whole life just to find out who threw the muffin.
20	20	"Tak: The Hideous New Girl"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Eric Trueheart	Joseph Daniello, Bryan Konietzko, & Kyle Menke	May 10, 2002 (2002-05-10)
A new girl named Tak joins the class. Tak is also an Irken alien. She soon reveals her plan to hollow out Earth's core to prove she's worthy of being an Invader. Zim, Dib, Gaz, and GIR team up to stop Tak. At the end, Dib wishes he could explore beyond Earth. Then, Tak's abandoned ship crashes right in front of him.

Season 2 (2002; 2006)

In August 2001, Nickelodeon said Invader Zim would get a second season. It was planned to have twenty episodes. In January 2002, Nickelodeon announced they would cancel the show. The series ended with twenty-seven episodes out of the forty they planned. This left several episodes unfinished. The seventh episode of season two aired on Nickelodeon on December 10, 2002. The other six completed episodes from season two were not released at first. These episodes became available on DVD in 2004. They later aired on the Nicktoons Network in 2006.

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original air date
21	1	"Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez	Rayfield Angrum, Bryan Konietzko, Kyle Menke, & Shawn Murray	June 10, 2006 (2006-06-10)
Zim wants to bring his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, to Earth. He wants them to see his new plan for world domination. This plan involves a brain-eating parasite. So, Zim takes control of the Tallest's ship, the "Massive," from far away. But at that moment, the Tallest are being attacked by "The Resisty," a group of aliens against the Irken Empire. Meanwhile, Dib has been trying to fix Tak's spaceship. He got it in "Tak: The Hideous New Girl." He fixes enough of it to connect to Zim's computer. Dib then fights Zim for control of the Tallest's ship. When the Tallest realize what's happening, they send their hacked power-core to the Resisty. This pulls their ship toward Earth. The Resisty has to leave their ship safely. They set it to "shrinky self-destruct" to protect its secrets. The Tallest then contact Zim to punish him. But they find he is being attacked by the brain-eating parasite.
22	2	"Mortos der Soulstealer" "Zim Eats Waffles"	Steve Ressel	Eric Trueheart	Greg Colton & Perry Zombolas Rayfield Angrum & Bryan Konietzko	June 17, 2006 (2006-06-17)
"Mortos der Soulstealer": Dib calls a mystical ghost beast named Mortos der Soulstealer. He wants Mortos to attack Zim and stop him from taking over the world. Mortos will give Dib anything he wants. But Mortos is tired and needs time and food to get his energy back. It soon becomes clear that Mortos just wants to have fun. He spends time eating and trying on clothes. Dib confronts Zim with Mortos. He demands that Mortos stop Zim. But Mortos grants a random person's wish for ice cream instead. Then he goes back to his own world to rest. Guest star: Wally Wingert as Mortos "Zim Eats Waffles": Dib has put a spy camera in Zim's base. He hopes to record proof that Zim is an alien. But Dib's hard drives aren't working and need to be fixed. So Dib watches Zim while this happens. It's a quiet day for Zim. GIR tries to get Zim to eat waffles. But every now and then, Zim reveals part of an evil plan or gets attacked by a giant flesh-eating squid. Each time this happens, Dib tries to call someone from the Swollen Eyeball group to see it. But by the time they answer, Zim is eating waffles again. Zim eventually throws up on Dib's camera. Dib's hard drives finally get fixed. But then cyborgs sent by Zim destroy them.
23	3	"The Girl Who Cried Gnome" "Dibship Rising"	Steve Ressel	Rob Hummel Eric Trueheart	Josheph Daniello & Scooter Tidwell	July 15, 2006 (2006-07-15)
"The Girl Who Cried Gnome": A girl selling cookies gets her foot stuck in Zim's front yard. This gets the attention of neighbors, the news, and the Earth president. The girl loves all the attention. She won't let anyone just pull her out. Dib convinces the president to use a digging machine to dig under the girl. He suggests this because then Zim's base will be found. Zim finally decides he's had enough and just pulls the girl out of the hole. Guest stars: Eliza Schneider as Moofy, Jeffrey Jones as the President Man "Dibship Rising": Dib is again working on Tak's crashed spaceship. It turned against him last time because its computer brain is a copy of Tak's mind. To stop it from being so mean, he downloads his own personality into the ship. This doesn't go as planned. The ship starts to think it is Dib. Zim finds out what Dib did. He reminds the ship it's Irken technology and must obey Zim. Zim tells the ship to throw Dib into the city sewage plant. But the ship remembers it is Dib, and throws Zim across town. The ship is so sad that it is "Dib" that it deletes its personality. Guest star: Olivia d'Abo
24	4	"Vindicated!" "The Voting of the Doomed"	Steve Ressel	Danielle Koenig Eric Trueheart	Kyle Menke & Shawn Murray Rayfield Angrum & Louie del Carmen	July 22, 2006 (2006-07-22)
"Vindicated!": Dib sees the school counselor, Mr. Dwicky, about his school problems. Dib tells him Zim is an alien trying to take over Earth. Mr. Dwicky surprisingly says he believes him and wants to help. He later tells a friend this is just a trick to make Dib trust him. They trick Zim into thinking aliens are coming to meet him in the woods to give him super weapons. After waiting, Mr. Dwicky reveals he doesn't really believe Dib. Then, real aliens show up and offer to take Mr. Dwicky with them. Since he loved aliens as a child, he quickly goes. Dib is left behind with no one else believing him. "The Voting of the Doomed": Zim decides to use the school election to gain power. So Dib becomes the manager for Zim's opponent to try and stop him. Zim gets far ahead by making many crazy promises to the students, but he wins them over. Dib fights back by using a cellphone to give ideas to a boy who is running against Zim. This helps the boy debate Zim properly. Dib's candidate wins the election. But the school staff takes him to a lab. They painfully remove his unique personality and free will. This makes him a mindless leader for the strict school. Dib is not happy, as this would have happened to Zim if Dib hadn't interfered.
25	5	"Gaz, Taster of Pork"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez	Greg Colton, Perry Zombolas, Chris Graham, & Ian Graham	August 12, 2006 (2006-08-12)
Dib finds that his electronic spell devices still have two credits. These let him cast spells. Not knowing what the spells would do, he casts one on his sister Gaz to see. The spell makes Gaz taste pork no matter what she eats. To help Gaz, Dib decides to go to another dimension. He wants to ask for the spell to be undone. Gaz must face the Shadowhog and answer three questions correctly to reverse the spell. As part of a deal he made with the spell's creator, Dib is stuck cleaning toilets with brushes on his head.
26	6	"The Frycook What Came from All That Space"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez	Kyle Menke, Shawn Murray, Chris Graham, & Ian Graham	August 19, 2006 (2006-08-19)
While at school, a powerful Irken Frylord named Sizz-Lorr kidnaps Zim and takes him into space. It turns out Sizz-Lorr was Zim's jail-master and boss before Zim escaped in the first episode. Zim goes back to his old exiled job at a fast food restaurant on the Irken snacking planet of Foodcourtia. But he manages to escape before too much snacking makes the gravity too strong for anyone to leave the planet for 20 years.
27	7	"The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever"	Steve Ressel	Jhonen Vasquez & Eric Trueheart	Rayfield Angrum, Louie del Carmen, Bryan Konietzko, Chris Graham, & Ian Graham	December 10, 2002 (2002-12-10)
Zim learns how much people like Santa Claus. He decides to use this in a plan to take over the world. He dresses in a Santa suit filled with Christmas data. Dib realizes his father dislikes Santa. The Santa suit breaks and covers Zim. This turns him into a real Santa Claus. Dib then beats the suit and launches it into space. The episode ends two million years in the future. It's revealed that the Santa suit (now huge) returns to Earth every Christmas to cause trouble and eat milk and cookies.

Netflix film (2019)

In April 2017, Nickelodeon announced a TV movie based on the series. On June 26, 2018, it was announced the film was called Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus. The movie was released online on Netflix on August 16, 2019.

Title	Directed by	Written by	Storyboard by	Original release date
Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus	Jenny Goldberg (art) Jake Wyatt (storyboard)	Jhonen Vasquez	Tyson Hesse, Megan Lawton, Samir Barrett, Sofia Alexander, Stephan Park, Rie Koga, Shawna Mills, & Chris Graham	August 16, 2019 (2019-08-16)
Zim suddenly comes back to start the next part of his evil alien plan to conquer Earth. His old enemy Dib tries to show everyone who Zim really is, once and for all.