Invader Zim/Characters

Zim
"Voiced by: Richard Steven Horvitz"

""I am Zim, and Zim shall rule!""

A pint-sized alien from the planet Irk, with an ego as big as he himself... isn't, Zim is a walking disaster area that somehow remains oblivious to his own shortcomings and the contempt his people hold him in. He thinks he was sent to Earth as an Invader to ready the planet for hostile takeover, but really his leaders were just trying to get rid of him by sending him as far away as possible (they didn't even know there'd be a planet there for him to try to conquer). On Earth, he aims to Take Over the World, but is of course continually thwarted, through Dib's interference, GIR's stupidity, or sheer bad luck, but often as not Zim's greatest obstacle to success is himself.

"Dib: You're just jealous!
 * Abusive Alien Parents: "I love you cold, unfeeling robot arm!"
 * All of the Other Reindeer: Even though he's completely oblivious to it, his reputation among the other Irkens is less than amiable.
 * Amusing Alien
 * Awesome Backpack: If you don't think that a backpack with spider legs, an organ-stealing device, goggles, an entire personality and history, memories, and a hologram device isn't cool, then you need to taste some DOOM.
 * Ax Crazy: Incredibly so.
 * Bizarre Alien Biology: "Gah, my squeedlyspooch!"
 * Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Almost Blunt Words Trauma. Although Zim speaks perfect English, he has a tendency to mix up words, or in some cases he just doesn't listen and ends up hearing the wrong thing.

Zim: This has nothing to do with jelly!"

""Well, me being mad will get us no closer to home...""
 * Burger Fool: Zim was banished to a planet called Foodcourtia where he had to do community service for royally screwing up Operation Impending Doom I.
 * Butt Monkey: He fares slightly better than Dib.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: "Now...back to my filthy evil, I guess..."
 * Catch Phrase: "YOU LIE!!", "SILENCE!!!", and "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
 * Clark Kenting
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Chaotic Stupid: With a healthy dose of Stupid Evil.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: In the Japanese dub and as a smeet.
 * Determinator
 * Devil in Plain Sight: Or with a Paper-Thin Disguise...
 * Enfante Terrible: He was capable of causing apocalypse-level damage even as a smeet (Irken baby).
 * Evil Laugh: In the theme song.
 * Expressive Mask: His contact lenses.
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Choleric.
 * Genius Ditz: It can be hard to credit, but he's demonstrated some true cunning on occasion. He's more insane than stupid, but his insanity is what makes him do stupid things in the first place, so it's hard to tell the difference.
 * Girl Scouts Are Evil: When he's selling Poop candy bars for a school fundraiser to get the mystery prize in "Door to Door".
 * Gray Eyes: In his human disguise.
 * Hates Being Touched
 * Humans Through Alien Eyes
 * Hypocritical Humor: (laughs) "Inferior human organs! ...Ow, my squeedlyspooch!"
 * Insane Troll Logic: "My Tallest, a new child attacked me with meat. My conclusion? SHE'S IN LOVE WITH ME!"
 * I Reject Your Reality: Zim's remarkable ego is a great example of this.
 * It's All About Me
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: In "FBI Warning of Doom" and "Planet Jackers".
 * Karma Houdini: Sometimes, sometimes not.
 * Kill All Humans: That or enslave them -- he changes it from enslaving, ruling, killing, poisoning their food supply and cutting their legs off depending on the episode. The bottom line is that the Earth needs to be ready for the other Irkens to conquer, so the humans need to be gone or easy to enslave.
 * Large Ham: So large it has its own gravitational pull.
 * Little Green Man
 * Mad Eye: This is a Jhonen Vasquez production.
 * Mad Scientist: He was once formerly a military scientist, albeit one responsible for killing the previous Tallests.
 * Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: In the unproduced episode "The Trial," it's revealed that he has, in fact destroyed more than one planet. By scratching himself.
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain
 * The Napoleon
 * Nice Hat: In "GIR Goes Crazy And Stuff", he wears a police hat he took from Officer Squidman.
 * No Indoor Voice: "You lie! You liiiiiiiiiiiiie!!!"
 * Off-Model: In one shot in "Megadoomer", his uniform is red instead of pink.
 * The Only One Allowed To Destroy Earth: And he already promised the moon to GIR.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Consists of a wig and contact lenses (that apparently are very uncomfortable and can be knocked out just from hitting him in the head) doing nothing about his vibrantly green skin. Which may may you think at first, since Irkens have the technology to make themselves look completely human, but he only picked that one because he thinks he's too attractive to be covered up.
 * He claims he has a skin condition, which is also the reason why he doesn't have ears...
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Tricky to place, but Zim does do a lot of damage, intentionally or not. According to the unmade scripts, he single-handedly started a crippling global blackout when he was about four minutes old.
 * Pet the Dog: Rather literally, Zim has had a few moments of genuine-seeming kindness directed at GIR.

""Who are you?"
 * Pick on Someone Your Own Size: His rivalry with Dib... although, technically, they ARE the same size...
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse
 * Psychopathic Manchild
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Word of God has him "older than any human alive," at any rate.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: His uniform is pink.
 * Reassigned to Antarctica
 * The Renfield
 * Screaming Warrior: Mostly averted; Zim attempts this but usually ends up with a high-pitched squeal.
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: And this is how he screams when he's afraid or in pain.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Dib's manly man. Although not "sensitive" in the soft and feminine sense, he is a lot more emotional than Dib is.
 * Small Name, Big Ego
 * Spider Limbs: Almost a crossover with Awesome Backpack.
 * Stupid Evil
 * Super OCD: "GERMS!!"
 * Take Over the World: The premise.
 * Temporary Bulk Change: He becomes enormously bloated in "Dark Harvest" as a result of stealing organs from his Skool classmates and eating them.
 * That Liar Lies: Zim's proclamations of lies, and how they usually bring out his hamminess, is a Running Gag.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: If it's not his personal motto, it ought to be.
 * They Would Cut You Up: Zim fears this would happen if he were caught by Earth's natives. Dib explicitly threatens him with it. At one point he's seen vividly imagining his fate, human scientists stuffing him in a jar, dancing around his helpless body, cutting out limbs and eyes and keeping him a dark room for the rest of his life.
 * Third Person Person: "I am Zim, and Zim shall rule!"
 * Villain Protagonist
 * Weaksauce Weakness: To water. It was supposed to be to polluted water only, but that didn't come across to the writers/animation team/storyboarders.
 * Though, given Earth's state in this setting, one could argue that ALL water has been polluted.
 * Also, meat.
 * Well Done Invader Guy
 * Won't Take Yes for An Answer: A Running Gag with him is that he'll continually interrupt people trying to tell him something, demanding they tell him about the very thing his interruption is preventing them from saying in the first place.

"I AM-"

"Who are you?"

"I AM-"

"WHO ARE YOU?""

"Zim: Hey, these (waffles) aren't bad. What's in 'em?
 * Another is for him to randomly accuse people of lying for no apparent reason.

GIR: There's waffle in 'em!

ZIM: YOU'RE LYING!"

GIR
"Voiced by: Rosearik Rikki Simons"

""I like waffles!""

Zim's robot sidekick, on Earth disguised as a dog. Supposedly a "SIR" (Standard-Issue Information Retrieval) unit assigned to all invaders, but GIR is an "advanced" model the Tallest specially gave Zim. And by "advanced", we of course mean "moronic," thanks to having a head literally full of garbage. While usually too flighty to be of any consistent help, GIR will now and again go into "Duty Mode," signified by a change of eye-and-panel color from green to red, and act like a real SIR.

"Zim: You now possess superior geographic guidance abilities, GIR.
 * Ambiguous Innocence: It's hard to imagine that GIR even has the mental capacity to understand that there is a difference between right and wrong, much less know what that difference is.
 * This has been outright defied by the show's creator, who devoted an entire episode to showing what a delightful little sociopath GIR can be after the fans got a little too fond of portraying him as an adorable ball of sunshine and fairy dust. Well, Jhonen, this is what you get when you go for Generic Cuteness.
 * Affably Evil: Much to Zim's dismay.
 * AI Is a Crapshoot: While GIR's usual level of helpfulness is questionable at best, when Zim temporarily locks him into hyper-compitent Duty Mode, GIR decides that Zim himself is a threat to the mission and decides to take over.
 * Anti-Villain: Type IV (unless he "goes crazy and stuff")
 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny
 * Bag of Holding: The inside of his head.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Usually, he's too stupid to realize how evil he is... but when he's in Duty Mode...
 * Blue and Orange Morality: We have absolutely no idea why he does anything he does, and if we could look into his thought processes our brains would a splode.
 * Blue Eyes
 * Big Eater: Waffles and tacos mostly.
 * Catch Phrase: (in duty mode) "Yes, sir!"
 * Chaotic Stupid
 * Chick Magnet: Was seen dancing with a bunch of girls at a club, then dropped off at the house hours later by his new friends.
 * Cloudcuckoolander
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Blue/green = regular GIR. Red = duty mode.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Well, not quite -- his eyes are the same color as the lightbulb on the antenna on the top of his head.
 * Cute but Cacophonic
 * Death Glare: Pulls one off when delivering his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Zim in duty mode in "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff".
 * Deadpan Snarker: During his moments of clarity, GIR can be pretty snarky towards Zim.

GIR: Finally."

"Zim: I'm going to attempt to lock you into duty mode with this behavioral modulator.
 * The Ditz
 * Dumb Is Good: This was not the intent, but the fandom picked it up and ran with it. GIR is often misconstrued as a harmless or even compassionate character rather than a merely stupid one. "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff" was in part a measure dedicated to correcting that.
 * Easter Egg: The infamous "Bloody Gir" (an image of GIR in duty mode and covered in blood), hidden as a Take That against the network for not allowing the image into a scene.
 * Extreme Omnivore: To name a few... A live chicken, tacos, burritos, taquitos, cupcakes, waffles made outta peanuts and soap, a fish (or tried to), pizza, Acne Blast acne cream, puppies (maybe)...
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Sanguine.
 * Genki Robot
 * Head Pet: He rides on Zim's head in a few episodes such as "Battle of the Planets" and "Attack of the Saucer Morons". In "Tak, the Hideous New Girl", he uses Dib's head instead.
 * Heh, Heh, You Said "X":

(GIR giggles)

Zim: What?

GIR: Doody."

"Zim: GIR! Your waffles have sickened me! Fetch me the bucket!"
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: In duty mode.
 * Although non-duty mode GIR has moments of surprising clarity that Zim repeatedly fails to pay any heed, like in "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy".
 * The best example of this would be the time he tried to point out to Zim that speeding up a slowed down explosion (It Makes Sense in Context) would be a bad thing.
 * Keet
 * Killer Rabbit: Despite his his super cute disposition he is surprisingly able to cause much damage and harm just like any other SIR unit. The only person we ever see get on his bad side was Zim, and that was only briefly, such as that one time Zim tried to lock GIR in duty mode.
 * Lethal Chef


 * Ocular Gushers: "WHYYYYYY?! WHY, MY PIGGY?! I LOVEDED YOU PIGGY! I LOVEDED YOU!"
 * Pint-Sized Powerhouse: In duty mode.
 * Raymanian Limbs: The little metal cone-shaped thingies that serve as his legs/feet don't appear to be attached to his torso.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: In duty mode, again.
 * Super-Powered Evil Side
 * The Starscream: In GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff.
 * Talkative Loon: "OOH! LEPRECHAUNS!"
 * Temporary Bulk Change: The metal he's made of is apparently very flexible because he grew to a massive size in "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" from eating the candy stolen from a bunch of trick-or-treaters.
 * Wolverine Publicity: He is the most heavily marketed character among the Invader Zim cast.

Dib
"Voiced by: Andy Berman"

""My problem is that the human race seems to want to be destroyed!""

An eleven-year-old (or thereabouts) self-styled "paranormal investigator", and one of only two people on Earth (the other being his sister Gaz) to realize Zim's extraterrestrial origin. Dib's goal is to expose paranormal phenomena to the rest of the world, but is regarded as a loon by pretty much everyone, and essentially treated like crap by the very people whose lives he's trying to save. Nonetheless, while he means well, he's fairly ruthless (at times bordering on sadistic) when it comes to dealing with Zim, making him not very highly regarded by viewers who like to cheer Zim on, but the other half of the fanbase staunchly defends his status as The Woobie.

"Zim: "Your loony "PARA-CHUTING" powers don't scare me, Dib. All it does is make you look stupid!"
 * Adorkable: His little dance with GIR near the end of "The Frycook What Came From All That Space" comes to mind.
 * Also, this exchange.

Dib: "It's para-NORMAL, and you're wrong, it makes me look cool!""

""My head's not big!""
 * Anime Hair: And according to "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom," it gets more and more extreme as he ages.
 * Anti-Hero: Type IV --> Type III
 * Agent Mulder
 * Arch Enemy
 * Artificial Human: Would have been revealed as one had the show not been cancelled.
 * Badass: In "NanoZim," he hangs upside down from the ceiling, does a series of ninja backflips to evade the security system of Zim's house, and escapes without a scratch.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass Longcoat
 * Big Brother Instinct: Towards Gaz...sometimes.
 * Brown Eyes: Changed frequently to Eyes of Gold in fanworks.
 * Buffy-Speak: Quite often-"I'll be there! DOING STUFF!" and the memetastic Things he do.
 * Butt Monkey
 * The Cassandra
 * Character Development: Arguably more than any other character in the series. He starts off as something of a Knight Templar, but by the end of the series has definitely become its primary Straight Man.
 * Child Prodigy: He could spell the word "aliens" when he was still in diapers.
 * Conspiracy Theorist: Though he's often right, and is often contrasted with even more insane and deluded conspiracy nuts.
 * Crying Wolf: He has the reputation of making bizarre and unverifiable claims (see Noodle Incident below), although it's quite possible he was right about those too. It doesn't help his case, though.
 * Dib Can Breathe In Space: "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom".
 * Disney Death: In "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy".
 * Deadpan Snarker: "How did you pass the verbal portion of the exam?"
 * Deuteragonist: To Zim, of the opposing kind.
 * Determinator: By necessity.
 * Dork Knight
 * Expressive Mask: His glasses.
 * Fan Nickname: He does not have an official last name, but many fans have taken to calling him "Dib Membrane."
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Melancholic.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Particularly earlier on, where it's not only clear that just because he's right about the alien invasion doesn't mean he's not crazy, but that when he is right about stuff he tends to engage pursuit almost cruelly, Zim just being the most recent example. He loses a bit of that as the show goes on, though.
 * Hero Antagonist
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood
 * Informed Deformity: His supposedly big head.

"Zim: Despite his large head, the Dib-monkey is quite stupid.
 * Intelligence Equals Isolation: His classmates go out of their way to avoid him and are sadistically vicious when they do have to acknowledge him.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One

Dib: MY HEAD'S NOT BIG!"

""SON! There had better not be any walking dead up there!""
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Becomes more and more like this as the series continues.
 * The Klutz: He tends to trip over and bump into things a lot.
 * Leitmotif: A violin, which goes with Gaz's harpsichord.
 * Let's Get Dangerous: Briefly sheds his Butt Monkey status several times, one of the most noteworthy being Battle of the Planets.
 * Mr. Exposition: Dib. "Wow.....WOW! I'm boring! Do I always explain everything like that?"
 * The Necromancer: One of Professor Membrane's lines from "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars" implies it.

"Greg from the FBI: Hey...you're DIB...right? Heh-heh, you ever get that ninja ghost outta your toilet?
 * Noodle Incident: A Running Gag is that someone will allude to some crazy-sounding paranormal event that Dib claims to have discovered before. Given how weird this show is, it's plausible that they really happened.

Dib: Yes, no thanks to you!"

"Professor Membrane: Son, there better not be any walking dead up there!
 * Whatever led to Dib bringing the dead back to life the first time.

Dib: It's nothing to worry about, dad! And I said I was sorry about that!"

"The Letter M: Yeah, what's wrong with you? All you talk about is aliens and ghosts and seeing bigfoot in your garage!
 * Then there was this little gem in "The Nightmare Begins":

Dib: He was using the belt sander..."

"Dib: (talking to a spaceship clone of himself) Remember our fifth birthday when we fought off that swarm of alien... ghost... bee babies?"
 * From "Dibship Rising":

"Random kid: Hey, Dib's being all weird and giant again!"
 * Don't forget whatever gave the Mysterious Mysteries host his scar. Honestly, it's probably safe to say that Dib's entire life is one big Noodle Incident.
 * Oh, No, Not Again: Also from "Dibship Rising":

"Prof. Membrane: My poor, insane son.
 * "No Respect" Guy
 * Only Sane Man: Which is saying something, as he sometimes seems not entirely sane himself.
 * Parental Neglect: Although it's more workaholic neglect then outright abandonment, Membrane scarcely acknowledges him.
 * Pay Evil Unto Evil: Towards Zim at times.
 * Properly Paranoid
 * Punctuated for Emphasis: "You will pay for ruining my childhood, Zim! You! Will! PAY!!!"
 * Running Gag: So, how many fans are convinced Dib's head really is drawn larger than the rest of the cast's, I wonder?
 * In the animation project God Save The Dib, Jhonen changed him so he actually does have a larger head.
 * Sanity Slippage
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man to Zim's sensitive guy.
 * Speech Impediment: Temporarily as a result of Zim screwing with his past in "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy".
 * Straight Man: He seems to be the only one on the show who realizes how insane and horrible it can be.
 * Surrounded by Idiots
 * Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome: In fanart. Especially if said fanart involves ZADR.
 * Thinking Out Loud: A habit he frequently lampshades in later episodes.
 * The Unfavorite: Dib's dad seems to notably favor his sister, just because she's not 'insane'.

Prof. Membrane: (to Gaz) You're my funny child!"


 * Subverted in "Bloaty's Pizza Hog" when Professor Membrane refuses to leave Dib behind on Family Dinner Night.
 * Verbal Tic: "NYAH!!!"
 * Vocal Evolution: Andy Berman couldn't seem to make up his mind: in some episodes, Dib sounds like he did in the premiere (more nasal and fast-paced), and in others, Dib's voice is much rougher and thicker (slower and sounding more like a pre-teen boy).
 * Worthy Opponent: "You're one of the only people who can appreciate the amazingness of this plan, so I'm going to let you in on what "it" is..."
 * And If the Series was not canceled a season early, he would have taken it a level further by attempting to take over Irk.

Gaz
"Voiced by: Melissa Fahn"

""What you need is to give the Game Slave to me or I will plunge you into a nightmare world from which there is no waking!"

(after getting a negative response): "I hope ya like NIGHTMARE WORLDS!""

Dib's younger sister. Like Dib, she knows Zim's real origin, but unlike him, she doesn't much care, on the grounds that he really isn't very good at the whole world-conquering thing. That, plus she seems to be something of a misanthrope herself. (She did once have a very hard time deciding whether to destroy all life on Earth or not, when putting a can in a super-powered microwave.) Mostly Gaz sticks to her video games and snarks at the insanity around her.

"Gaz: Are there any video games around here?
 * Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: Her treatment of Dib is downright psychotic in some episodes, but Played for Laughs.
 * Actually Pretty Funny: She's laughed at some of the stunts Zim's pulled on her older brother. Oddly, her saying this line near-verbatim after one of Dib's stunts proved unexpectedly hilarious was one of the closest things she's had to a Pet the Dog moment with him.
 * A Day in the Limelight: "Bloaty's Pizza Hog", "Game Slave 2", and "Gaz, Taster of Pork"
 * All There in the Manual: According to this issue of the Nickelodeon magazine, her full name is Gazlene.
 * Aloof Younger Sister
 * Anime Hair: It doesn't look like the hairstyles her brother and father sport, but it deserves its own mention -- it's shaped like a set of jaws.
 * Anti-Hero: Type V
 * Anti-Villain: Type I
 * Ax Crazy: Not to Zim's level, but she has her moments.
 * Badass Biker: In the script for "Ten Minutes to Doom", she drives a motorcycle from the arcade all the way to her father's lab to retrieve Zim's PAK (long story).
 * Berserk Button: Take her stuff (especially her Game Slave) and you will pay.
 * Comedic Sociopathy
 * Creepy Child: She frightens grown men.
 * Daddy's Girl: An odd example, but she does seem to have some affection for her father.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Death Glare: She's VERY good at it.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Particularly in the episodes "Game Slave 2" and "Battle-Dib", Gaz is prone to waging all-out war against those who cheat her of what is rightfully hers... even if it's just a pizza or a gaming console, it's Serious Business.
 * Enfante Terrible
 * Evil Is Burning Hot: Sometimes when she gets angry, the background behind her bursts into flames.
 * Evil Is Petty
 * Expressive Hair: Her hair turns straight when she's angry at Iggins for taking her Game Slave 2. When he gives it back to her, it springs back into shape.
 * Eyes Always Shut: When she does open them, she's either in an enraptured trance or about to hit you.
 * Brown Eyes: And this is her eye-color.
 * Fan Nickname: Like her brother, she doesn't have a last name, but is often called "Gaz Membrane."
 * Feel No Pain: She completely ignores the itchy lice attack on her head in "Lice" and isn't bothered when Zim steals one of her organs and replaces it with her Game Slave in "Dark Harvest".
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic.
 * Gamer Chick: Er...sort of. She would rather play video games than just about anything, and she is very very good at them. And terrifying if you get in her way.
 * Hair Decorations: When younger, she wore a bow in her hair as seen in "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy".
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: If she can be bothered to help at all, she's this.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Known among anime fans as the voice of Rika Nonaka in the English dub of Digimon Tamers and Ed.
 * Referenced in the commentary track for "Nanozim". Upon Jhonen admitting that he regretted not bringing Melissa Fahn on to do commentary for "Gaz's episode", the other commentators attempt to impersonate her voice to make up for it, which culminates in them repeatedly chanting "DIGI-MODIFY!"
 * Improbable Weapon User: She used cans of Poop soda against Zim, Dib, Tak, and MiMi in "Tak, the Hideous New Girl".
 * Jerkass
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On VERY rare occasions, she can be this, as seen in "Tak, the Hideous New Girl".
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Also this trope. She does save her brother, but only because she wants to go to Bloaty's Pizza Hog.
 * Karma Houdini: On occasion, though other times (like in "Battle Dib"), she gets her comeuppance.
 * Kids Are Cruel: Taken to the highest possible extreme.
 * Leitmotif: A harpsichord.
 * Little Miss Badass
 * Little Miss Snarker
 * Name's the Same: No, not that Gaz...
 * Off-Model: The shape of her head is inconsistent between certain scenes in "The Wettening".
 * Offscreen Teleportation: When stalking Iggins in "Game Slave 2".
 * Only Sane Girl: She is one of the few people who know perfectly well that Zim is a alien who wants to conquer/destroy the Earth. She's also largely uninterested in the conflict, quipping rather correctly that Zim isn't very good at what he does.
 * A Plague on Both Your Houses: She delivers these more than a person probably should.
 * Pet the Dog: Her moments of this are so noticeable because they're so damn rare; it almost seems out-of-character when it happens!
 * Pink Means Feminine: Her stockings/tights.
 * The Power of Hate
 * Smurfette Principle: In the quartet of main characters, she's the only girl.
 * Somebody Else's Problem: Oh yeah!

Zim's Computer: No. Not really.

Gaz: I guess I'll...save the earth then."


 * Strange Girl
 * To the Pain: Takes great care to explain to Dib how she will make him suffer in Gaz, Taster of Pork, complete with glowing Red Eyes, Take Warning and levitation.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza, to the point where it's one of the accessories that comes with the Palisades toy of her.
 * Twitchy Eye: "I'm trying to draw a little piggy. Can't you see I'm trying to draw a little piggy??"
 * Villain Protagonist: In Game Slave 2.
 * Wingding Eyes: She gets swirls in her pupils when distracted by a commercial in Bloaty's Pizza Hog.
 * Woman in Black
 * You Gotta Have Purple Hair.

The Almighty Tallests
"Voiced by: Wally Wingert (Red), Kevin McDonald (Purple)"

""The universe will be ours for the taking! It's only a matter of time before all the races of the Universe serve the Irken Empire!"

"I'll have them serve me curly fries.""

The leaders (or more accurately, figureheads) of Irken society. Their height being the only qualification for office, they're not necessarily well-equipped in the brain department, although Red does seem to have it together more than Purple. Pretty much they sit around snacking and acting like jerks. Their role can be likened to a pair of teenage bullies picking on and ordering around a bunch of smaller kids.

Red and Purple weren't the first Tallests. Some of the previous leaders were slated to appear in flashbacks if the show hadn't been canceled.


 * Affably Evil
 * All There in the Script: Their real names are Red and Purple.
 * Bare Your Midriff: The design of their "Tallest" outfits.
 * Big Bad Duumvirate
 * Big Eaters
 * Butt Monkey: Purple to a degree, mostly due to Red's abuse of him.
 * The Caligula: Both of them, although Purple is especially useless.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: You'll never guess which one is Red and which one is Purple.
 * Divergent Character Evolution: In the first episode they each got alternating moments of stupidity and intelligence. By "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars" Red seems to be the smarter one, though he still spends plenty of time acting lazy and stupid along with Purple.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": They're referred only as the Tallests in the series.
 * Evil Empire
 * Fingore: They only have two fingers on each hand as opposed to a normal Irken's three. According to the Zim wiki, when a Tallest is chosen, their thumbs are chopped off in a ceremony to prove that they can rule without them.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Wally Wingert and Kevin McDonald are Red and Purple respectively.
 * Hidden Depths: Red in "Backseat Drivers" -- namely, he's Brilliant but Lazy.
 * Jerkasses: Big time.
 * Karma Houdini
 * Law of Chromatic Superiority: Red is smarter, more competent, and more dominant than Purple.
 * Lean and Mean
 * Man Child: Not to the extent of Zim, but its there. They love sweets and junk food, bicker over simple things, and make their servants present their planet-conquest strategies with puppet shows.
 * Meaningful Name: Red is the first color in the rainbow and purple is the color associated with royalty.
 * Moral Myopia: Averted. While the Irkens treat all other races as nonentities, the Tallests still have no qualms about shooting their own people out of cannons or airlocks.
 * Orcuses On Their Thrones
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red, of course.
 * Smug Snake
 * Sweet Tooth: It goes in hand with their big eater status -- although it's possible that sweets are part of a healthy diet for Irkens.
 * Those Two Bad Guys
 * Thrown Out the Airlock: They like to do this to people they don't like.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Of a sorts.
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: Purple's reaction to the parasite eating Zim's brain at the end of "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars".
 * While Rome Burns
 * You Don't Look Like You: Red's Series 2 Palisades toy gives him a darker shade of green skin than Purple.
 * Younger Than They Look: They look older than Zim, but the script for the unproduced episode "The Trial" reveals that he's the same age as them.

Professor Membrane
"Voiced by: Roger Bumpass"

"Friend to the world, enemy of Santa Claus."

The father (at least allegedly) of Dib and Gaz, Membrane is a scientist who also hosts the Show Within a Show Probing the Membrane of Science. He keeps a very busy schedule, to the point he can only manage to eat dinner with his children once a year.


 * The Ace
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: He refuses to believe any of Dib's paranormal claims, but he does believe in Santa Clause.
 * Anime Hair: Where Dib gets it from.
 * Badass Labcoat
 * Evil Laugh: "There are no curses, son. MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
 * For Science!!
 * Goggles Do Nothing: That we know of.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: He also voices Squidward Tentacles.
 * Hot Scientist: He has fangirls who will defend this trope.
 * Large Ham: Possibly the biggest one in the series. Considering the kind of world he inhabits, it's quite an accomplishment.
 * Mad Scientist: He built a space-time object replacement device, a perpetual energy generator, and his own kids.
 * Mundane Utility:
 * Using a Hand Blast to open a door.
 * No Mouth
 * Parental Favoritism: He does appear to favor Gaz. Not that he hates Dib, he just thinks he's crazy. ("My poor, insane son.")
 * Parental Neglect: He loves his kids but is hardly ever there for them.
 * Show Within a Show: The aforementioned Probing the Membrane of Science.

Miss Bitters
"Voiced by: Lucille Bliss"

""The universe is just doomed. Doomed! DOOOOOOOMED!""

Teaches Zim and Dib's class.


 * Ambiguously Human: She's almost definitely not, but we're not quite sure what she is.
 * Sunlight burns her. Although, in the Halloween special she says she was a Fairy Princess once.
 * The Fair Folk maybe?
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Despite the obvious hatred she has for her students and all the horrible stuff she's told them before, she refused to divulge just what happened that led people to start giving out meat on Valentine's Day. Her response to Dib's question was "You Don't Want to Know". She even expressed "moral outrage" to the principal allowing the kids to celebrate the holiday.
 * Evil Old Folks: She's half human, part demon, Twisted & Evil.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: She's Smurfette!.
 * Humanoid Abomination: According to one source, Miss Bitters didn't come to teach, as she's always existed on that land... the school was simply built around her.
 * Living Shadow: She sometime sneaks up on people by becoming their shadow. Literally.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: Played for Laughs.
 * Obviously Evil: And how!
 * Sadist Teacher
 * Scary Shiny Glasses
 * Snake People: She's tall and thin and swirls through the air and curls around people like a boa constrictor. Rattlesnake sounds show up when she speaks or gets annoyed.
 * Transplant: She was Squee's teacher.
 * Weakened by the Light: Sunlight hurts her.

Invader Skoodge
"Voiced by: Ted Raimi"

""So that no Irken boot has to come in contact with any unsavory alien filth! HOO-HA!""

An incredibly short Invader, and something of Zim's only friend. Had the show continued, he would have become a reoccurring character, and lived in Zim's basement.


 * Affably Evil: He doesn't really come across as being evil for its own sake, but Irkens in general seem to have an Always Chaotic Evil bent and at the very least he is complicit to genocide.
 * Badass: He's the first Irken Invader to single-handedly complete his mission, and he survived being on a planet as it was being blown up. If it wasn't for his gullibility, he'd be an Irken to be reckoned with.
 * Butt Monkey
 * The Chew Toy
 * The Dragon: What he would have been to Zim.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Joxer the Mighty, Walking through the countryside...
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick
 * Most Definitely Not a Villain
 * "No Respect" Guy
 * Unexplained Recovery: Blatantly and repeatedly.

Tak
"Voiced by: Olivia d'Abo"

""I should have been an Invader! I should have been part of The Great Assigning! I shouldn't have to be stealing this planet from you!""

A female Irken out to seek Zim's mission and prove herself as a worthy Invader to the Tallests. Fifty years ago, Zim caused a blackout that caused her to miss her test to become an Irken-Elite. Not to be confused with the main character of another Nick franchise, Tak and the Power of Juju.


 * Beauty Mark
 * Butt Monkey: Somewhat, particularly being exiled from her planet despite being an excellent invader but Zim's idiocy caused this, and getting thwarted by Zim and being almost killed in a spaceship crash. Tak just couldn't catch a break.
 * Cats Are Mean: Her S.I.R. Mimi takes the guise of a cat, and is nasty powerful enough to kick Zim and GIR's asses.
 * Compelling Voice: It only works on idiots though.
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: She is deeply aware Earth is a Crapsack World and exploits it.
 * Evil Laugh: Holy crap!
 * Evil Versus Evil
 * Green-Skinned Space Babe: Not one in canon, but is portrayed as such in fanart.
 * Freudian Excuse: Zim ruining her chance to become an Irken-Elite.
 * Large Ham: It leads to Ham to Ham Combat when she argues with Zim.
 * Motive Rant
 * Purple Is Powerful: Instead of the standard dark pink Irken uniform, she wears a purple one. Her eyes are purple too.
 * The Rival
 * Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness: She's essentially a competent, intelligent version of Zim.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Is her SIR unit named Mimi or MiMi?
 * Strange Girl
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Her human disguise.

The Resisty
""You haven't seen the last...of the RESISTY! (That's right, that's still our name!)""

Latecomers to the series, the Resisty are a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits from different planets who banded together to... well, resist the Evil Irken Empire. Led by Lard Nar, a Vortian.


 * All There in the Script: The character's names.
 * Character Development: It's only in one episode, but you can still kinda see Lard Nar come into his own over the course of "Backseat Drivers" -- from a guy who completely freaks out over the slightest setback, to a leader undaunted at even the loss of his entire ship.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Shloonktapooxis.
 * Cool Chair: Lard Nar's.
 * Cool Ship: Too bad they had to shrinky self-destruct it.
 * Eyes of Gold: Lard Nar.
 * La Résistance
 * Lovable Cowards: To a man.
 * Mood Swinger: Lard Nar, at least to start with.
 * Multiple Head Case: One of them, although he isn't given a name.
 * No Name Given: All of them except for Lard Nar, Shloonktapooxis, Spleenk, and Ixane.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: Again, Lard Nar. Though he quickly clears his throat and tries to look like a badass again.

The Nhar-Gh'ok
""We will take your ship! And for the trouble you've caused, we're going to destroy your base, leaving you stranded here. Just like we were.""

A race of aliens led by Gorkspace Sergeant Shnooky who were stranded on Earth posing as human babies after an incident in a maternity ward. They attempt to take Zim's ship and use it to fly back to their home planet. It doesn't end well for them.


 * Aliens Speaking English: As is standard for aliens in the Invader Zim universe.
 * Disproportionate Retribution: Zim refuses to let them take his ship. They threaten to take his ship, destroy his base, report him to the human authorities, and leave him stranded on Earth.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: At the end of Plague of Babies, Zim uses the power amplifier to reduce their intelligence to that of real babies.
 * Fusion Dance: "Now, my minions! FORM GIGANTO-BABY!"
 * Human Outside, Alien Inside
 * No Name Given: Like the Resisty, most of them are not given individual names.
 * Poisonous Person: One of them spits out an acid-like substance to melt through the wall of Zim's base.
 * Vocal Dissonance: Shnooky talks with a very deep voice.
 * The Voiceless: With Shnooky as the only exception, none of them speak.
 * What Could Have Been: Tommy Pickles was going to be one of them. Nickelodeon did not approve.

Sizz-Lorr
""Nobody escapes from Sizz-Lorr. I will find you, Zim. I will search all of space's dark corners to hunt you down. AND I WILL FIND YOOOOOUUUUU!!!""

Zim's boss during his exile on Foodcourtia, an Irken frycook who runs Foodcourtia's premier restaurant. After Zim escaped the planet, Sizz-Lorr swore to make him come back if it was the last thing he did.


 * Badass: Proves himself to be one in the climactic scene of The Frycook What Came From All That Space.
 * Bad Boss: He was like this to Zim even before the latter ditched him on Foodcourtia and left him stuck there for 20 years.
 * Big Yes
 * Improbable Weapon User: His laser-spatula...thing.
 * Large and In Charge: And how - he is taller than any other Irken we have ever seen, perhaps even surpassing Tallest Red and Purple.
 * Large Ham: It's a given.
 * Nice Hat: His frycook hat.
 * Purple Eyes
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: After he finds out that Zim is gone in the flashback, his eyes momentarily glow red.

Skoolchildren
""We think Dib's even crazier than normal today! Can we use one of our Crazy Cards to send him to the Crazy House for Boys?""

- Zita

The other kids in the Skool which Zim and Dib attend, which includes Miss Bitters' class. They mostly act like normal kids and have absolutely no idea that Zim's an alien.

"Zootch: Argh! My organs!"
 * Aerith and Bob
 * All of the Other Reindeer: Dib's class makes no effort to hide how much they hate him.
 * Amusing Injuries:


 * Anime Hair: Peyoopi
 * The Ditz: Willy.
 * Evil Redhead: Chunk and Rob.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Sara is XJ-9, otherwise known as Jenny!
 * Kids Are Cruel: Miss Bitters' class could give Gaz a run for her money in this department. The only ones to be exempt from this are Gretchen, Keef and a handful of recurring kids who don't pick on Dib.
 * Nice Hat: Carl, who wears a red stocking cap.
 * No Name Given: The One-Scene Wonder student president in "The Voting of the Doomed".
 * Recurring Extra
 * Teacher's Pet: Zita is the only student who Miss Bitters seems to like.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Zita and Gretchen have purple hair, Peyoopi has green hair, and Sara has blue hair.
 * Younger Than They Look: Old Kid.