Curse you, Poop Dawg! — Zim |
Invader Zim Episode | |
Door to Door | |
Chronology | |
Previous: | Bloaty's Pizza Hog |
---|---|
Next: | FBI Warning of Doom |
Information | |
Episode No: | Episode 11a |
Production No: | 11a |
Airdate: | Planned US airdate: September 14, 2001[1] Delayed airdate: March 29, 2002 |
Credits | |
Writer(s): | Eric Trueheart Courtney Lilly |
"Door to Door" is the 1st segment in the 11th episode of the first season of Invader Zim.
It was originally going to premiere on September 14, 2001, however it was delayed. It eventually premiered on March 29, 2002, on Nickelodeon.
Plot Summary[]
SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!
The episode begins with another eerie lesson at Skool by Ms. Bitters, who is making a massive house of cards on Dib's desk and using it as a metaphor for how society is destined to collapse in on itself; unfortunately, when the stack does so, it destroys Dib's desk in the process. Since the Skool's desk budget has currently run out, Dib is forced to use a racoon-infested trash can as a replacement.
Ms. Bitters then sets up a projection screen where the Mascot of Poop Candy, Poop Dawg, tells the kids about a fundraiser they can do for their school, with the prizes including adhesive medical strips, a hovercraft, a helmet, and most importantly, a secret prize.
While everyone in the class is mostly impressed, Dib questions the logic in spending the money on prizes instead of proper desks. Zim is also initially unimpressed, and states that the hovercraft is a "joke of engineering", while the helmet is not even immune to laser fire.
However, Zim becomes intrigued after Poop Dawg mentions the secret prize, which can only be won when someone sells a ridiculously high number of Poop Candy bars. Zim hopes that the secret prize is a weapon of mass destruction, and becomes obsessed with winning the secret prize.
The next day, all of the Skool kids sell Poop Choco Bars like crazy, much to the neighborhood's horror. Dib, however, is proving the most successful at selling, for, as he tells Zim, he can't wait to see the alien fail. At first, Dib proves right as Zim fails to sell more than one Poop bar because of everyone refusing his offer (except for the old lady).
After a demonic version of Poop Dawg taunts Zim for his failure, Zim, now enraged, releases the full power of Irken persuasion: He forces virtual reality helmets onto his customers, which makes them see a horrifying alternate future where they didn't buy his chocolate bars and are now slaves of the Irkens.
Petrified, this coerces them into buy Zim's chocolate bars. After a few days, however, Dib's sales are the highest, and as reward, gets a box of adhesive medical strips. However, Zim bursts in, flooding the room with dollar bills, and promptly demands he receive the secret prize.
Ms. Bitters then reveals that the secret prize does not exist: It was thought up to encourage kids to sell as many Poop Bars as possible, thus making Poop Dawg extremely rich.
As a consolation prize, Zim is given a can of tuna. Zim, furious that he has been tricked, screams in fury, his sound waves destroying the newly repaired desks, while the demonic version of Poop Dawg seen earlier laughs in the background.
End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.
Facts of Doom[]
Cultural References[]
- Poop Dawg's name is a play on Snoop Dogg's name. He is also a parody of Pepsiman, the Japanese mascot of the Pepsi company.
- "Adhesive Medical Strips" is the same thing as a Band-Aid, except the name for the product was changed, since Band-Aid is a copyrighted company name.
- In one scene when the students started to sell the candy, the black car the woman was driving in slightly resembles a Cadillac CTS even though the real life car did not go onto the sale market until 2004.
Trivia[]
- This episode is the only episode from the first season along with "FBI Warning of Doom", whose air dates were delayed in the United States.
- This episode is the first episode in production order where Dib's head is mocked. In air date order, "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" is the first to start the running gag.
- Zim's skin doesn't burn when someone sprays water on him. His skin does burn in "The Wettening" when it's exposed to water. So it might imply that he put on paste before he went out to selling the Poop Bars with GIR.
- This episode is the first time where GIR is in a different disguise rather than his dog disguise and the only other time he wore the "little brother" disguise was in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever."
- As shown in the image, an Irken can be seen holding an Irken guard's shock spear.
- When Zim said that the hovercraft is a "joke of engineering" it might be a reference to the fact that he worked as a scientist on Vort Research Station 9.
- On the February 14, 2016, airing on Nicktoons, this episode was paired with "Germs."[2]
Things You Might Have Missed[]
- In the beginning of the episode, the number thirteen is on the door to Ms. Bitters's classroom, implying that the classroom's number is thirteen.
- When Zim was selling candy to the Grout family, there was a Krazy Taco commercial playing on their television. Bloaty can also be seen on the news for a few seconds on WHUH, the news channel in the show.
- The episode breaks the fourth wall when the virtual reality helmets are flying out of the truck and into houses. One flies toward the screen and disappears behind the camera, suggesting that Zim tried to place a mind control helmet on the audience.
- In the vision that Zim gives to the Grout family, GIR can be seen in the background; it isn't a normal SIR Unit since its eyes were cyan instead of red.
- Invader Dooky can also be seen in the illusion getting a balloon from GIR.
- When Dib won "adhesive medical strips", the box of the strips say that it's bacon scented.
- When Zim tries to sell candy to a mother with a baby, the "baby" she's holding is one of the Nhar-Gh'ok left stranded and turned amnesic during "Plague of Babies".
- During the montage, Zim is seen holding the same Nhar-Gh'ok, whether or not he recognized him is unknown.
Changes and Cuts[]
- When Zim puts virtual reality helmets on the Grout family, the virtual screening originally showed New York, implied by the Statue of Liberty floating in the water. Since the September 11 attacks happened three days before its planned air date (September 14, 2001), this episode and its paired episode, "FBI Warning of Doom" was put on hiatus until March 29, 2002. In other countries like Latin America, Europe and Australia, the uncut version of the episode still airs.
- The uncut version was accidentally aired on March 29th, 2002, the first time it aired. The uncut version first aired on May 19, 2002.[3]
- This episode, along with its paired episode "FBI Warning of Doom", aired in Latin America, Australia and the United Kingdom before the United States. It first aired in Australia in 2001.[4]
- Jhonen Vasquez has admitted that he likes the new version better as he disliked the idea of adding a real world city in the Invader Zim universe.
- When the Grout’s house is first shown, a cockroach can be seen climbing up the house's walls, and falls off when Zim enters the house.
- Poop Dawg was originally going to be called Poopsy the Clown.
Inconsistencies and Animation Errors[]
- At the beginning of the episode, when the tower of cards on Dib's table, the three and ace of clubs near the top are red instead of black.
- At the beginning of the episode Ms. Bitters states that the school funding is low for desks so the skoolchildren use other random objects as desks. At the end of the episode though, the normal desks have returned.
- When Zim bends down to pick up candy on a sidewalk, one of his eyes is blue, and the other is purple. In some parts of the episode both of his eyes are either blue or purple
- When Zim licks the camera, a part of his right arm is missing.
- In the beginning of this episode Zim uses a cardboard box as a desk. The next time he is seen, he has a garbage can as a desk.
- When Ms. Bitters says "There!" at the very start of the episode when the camera is panned onto the classroom's door, her mouth doesn't move.
- When GIR is quickly eating Poop Candy bars while Zim is talking, the color of his iris and eye highlights for his boy disguise are switched.
- During Zim's failed attempts at selling candy, he gets blasted with water from a hose, and only shows annoyance (as opposed to "The Wettening", where water was shown to harm him) It is possible however that he was covered in paste.
- When Zim says "Now, see a world in which you do not buy my delicious treats," his collar is green instead of pink.