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Pants! (also known as When Pants Ruled!) is an unfinished episode of Invader Zim.

Premise[]

This was the premise for the episode, written on June 8, 2001.

INVADER ZIM
Premise
"Pants!"
06/08/01

Dib goes to Skool to find that his classmates have fallen
victim to a horrible fashion trend...living, mind-controlling
pants. Everyone but ZIM, who has gone missing, eventually
wears these disgusting articles of clothing. Dib vows to
get to the bottom of this phenomenon and to not fall victim
to the stupid,“body snatchers-like" fashion trend. He finds
the pants’ hive and learns that the pants are stranded aliens 
and that ZIM has been using them to control the town...
and soon the world. Dib convinces the pants that ZIM is using 
them and that the Green one is the enemy.  Dib dons a pair 
of mighty Warrior Slacks and rallies his forces. ZIM counters 
by wearing a pair of Giant Robot Pants and while the two do battle, all
the rest of the pants sneak into ZIM's base and teleport
home. The warrior pants cripple ZIM's robot pants and Dib
is victorious. He has saved the world and an alien race but
is now trapped in the giant warrior pants.

Revised Premise[]

This is the final version of the premise as of July 17, 2001.

INVADER ZIM
"When Pants Ruled!"
Revised Premise
7/17/01

Dib returns to Skool after an absence to discover that everyone
has fallen victim to a disturbing fashion trend... organic,
disgusting looking pants. Despite being ridiculed for not
wearing them, Dib boldly refuses to conform. In a Skool
assembly, the principal encourages kids to distribute the
pants door to door and to force them onto the kids who won't
wear them...especially Dib. Dib is chased by a pants-wearing
mob but is rescued by Groyna, a tough jock girl who also has
resisted the fashion trend. She tells him that a week
earlier, ZIM arrived at Skool wearing these pants and anyone
who got near him had to have a pair. Dib vows to stop ZIM and
escapes the Skool with Groyna. The world outside seems eerily
empty until Dib discovers all the people lined up to buy
pants. Dib sees a renegade pair of pants that MOVE AROUND ON
THEIR OWN! Clearly, these aren't just ugly, mind controlling
devices, but some sort of sentient creatures...  He runs to find
Groyna but discovers that she has fallen victim to the pants
as well. He screams and runs through the pants infested
city...

Dib, now the only person not controlled by the pants, sneaks
around the city, where pants propaganda has spread impossibly
quickly. Billboards exhort people to "collect metal" and
encourage them to become "building people". Dib is captured
by a mob and led to the pants hive where he mindmelds with
their leader, the OVERTROUSER. Dib is told how the pants are
a group of aliens who drifted through space in their damaged
spaceship until they were contacted by a kindly being named
The Almighty ZIM who promised to help them build a ship for
them to get home if they help him get rid of an infestation of
humans. When Dib tells them that ZIM was lying, the pants
rebel and head for ZIM's base, where the huge spaceship is
almost ready to go. Dib is swept up into The Overtrouser and
heads up the rebellion. ZIM, prepared for just such an event,
dons a pair of gigantic robot battle pants. ZIM's plan has
been to load all the humans and the pants onto the ship and
launch them into the sun. The Pants aliens' form of fighting
involves much ridiculous dancing. Don't ask why. While ZIM
and Dib battle/dance, the rest of the aliens load onto the
ship and launch, leaving Dib trapped in the lonely Overtrouser.

Facts of Doom[]

  • This episode never aired because the network told Jhonen to "leave it be" due to it being too similar to an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius being planned at the time, When Pants Attack.
    • Essentially because of this, even if the series wasn't cancelled, this episode idea would most likely have been scrapped.
  • The idea for this episode eventually got used in the Invader Zim comics in Issue 8. Luckily, it’s not too similar to the Jimmy Neutron episode because of the different concept of living pants.
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