The Most Horrible X-mas Ever (pronounced "The Most Horrible Christmas Ever") is the twenty-seventh episode of Invader Zim, and was the last episode to be completed before the series' cancellation.
This episode begins two million years in the future, in which a robotic snowman named Mr. Sludgey is telling children the story of the "most horrible Christmas ever". It all started when Zim, GIR and Minimoose were on the streets trying to make monies... with no luck. All they receive is a beating heart and a tuna sandwich. Eventually, however, the alien notices that fat men in red coats and white beards are "stealing all his money".
He captures one and, upon interrogating his victim, learns the story of Santa Claus. Amazed by the incredible amount of power Santa has over the humans, Zim orders his computer to drain the Mall Santa's brain. As the Christmas-y knowledge in the human's brain flashes on a screen before Zim's eyes, he begins to cackle maniacally as he formulates his next, foolproof plan to destroy the humans.
After learning the amount of influence Santa has over humanity, Zim decides to create a Santa suit that he can use in order to masquerade as Santa. Dib figures out Zim's scheme and heads out to stop him in order to not only save Christmas, but to save the entire human race as well.
Unfortunately, "Santa" has the blind worship of every human on Earth (save Professor Membrane, who has a grudge against Santa). Gathering the human race at the North Pole, Zim uses his Kringle-y influence to introduce a new Christmas tradition: the Yuletide "Helping Santa build a giant teleporter capable of sending all humans to their doom." However, Dib appears and confronts Zim in front of everybody, trying to expose him as a fraud. Of course, the humans treat Dib with their usual contempt, Zim has him dragged away to the "Jingle Jail". Dib escapes from his prison on Zim's ship and disguises himself as one of Zim's robot elves. Zim, not realizing that the elf is actually Dib, starts venting with him in the room. Zim explains that he is using the Santa suit to trick humanity into building a teleporter that will take them to the Tallest for enslavement.
However, the suit Zim is wearing is starting to take over his body, because it actually thinks it is Santa. This malfunctioning, Zim says, is brought on by prolonged exposure to "anything Christmasy", as is demonstrated seconds later when GIR sings Christmas carols. As Zim struggles to regain control, Dib attempts to take advantage of his enemy's distraction, and strikes Zim from behind with a candy cane. Unfortunately, this results in Dib finally being exposed; Zim decides to put him in the "extra-strong" Jingle Jail, before dropping him out of the ship and onto a sinking chunk of ice after Dib question why he didn't just put him in there beforehand.
Almost immediately, Dib calls Gaz for help. She initially refuses, but quickly comes to "rescue" her brother in Tak's Ship, after he confesses that he decapitated her beloved Bitey the Vampire doll. On the flight back to the North Pole, Dib contacts his dad, who, for once, gives his son permission to use all of his anti-Santa arsenal.
Armed with a giant robot suit, Dib confronts Zim again at the North Pole, where the teleporter is complete. Unfortunately for both Zim and Dib, the Santa suit has taken full control over the alien, and Dib is forced to battle it. In the end, Dib's robot suit defeats it, Zim is freed from the suit, and the mutated Santa monster is launched into space. But it's not a happy ending; Zim, dressed as the Easter Platypus, convinces the human race that Dib killed Santa and they all tackle him.
With the story ended, we go back to Mr. Sludgy talking to the kids, and he explains to them that Santa is in fact not dead, but is in space gathering strength to attack the Earth every Christmas, and that is why they live in a protective dome.
End of Spoilers:There is no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.
During the scene where the mall Santa tells Zim about Santa, his eyes originally made a bubbling noise as they drifted in separate directions.
During the interview with Zim in the Santa suit, there was originally going to be rock music, and Zim was going to sound like Hulk Hogan.
The Uncut Version depicts "Santa" 's interview as a reference to WCW's n.W.o.
At the end of the interview, after Dib says "Oh no," instead of Zim saying "Oh yeah!", the news anchor was going to say "That sounds like a lot of fun!"
Zim's line, "We don't have much time! I only hope the suit can absorb all the Santa data! This is not going to be easy, GIR!" was originally just "This is not going to be easy, GIR!"
Originally, the music throughout almost the entire episode (except for "Jolly Boots of Doom" and the score that accompanied the climactic battle) was far less cheerful and Christmas-y. Additionally, "Jolly Boots of Doom" was not reprised in the scene where the Labor Sleighs take off.
Curiously, although many of the lines were only added in the final version, the characters' lips can still be seem mouthing them in the uncut version.
Mr. Sludgy's line "Zim was already preparing for his trip to the North Pole when..." originally ended with "-when something happened..."
Zim's line "The hardest part was making the Santa suit! I used a Vortian liquid substance," was originally "The hardest part was getting my hands on the suit! A Vortian liquid gear."
Zim's line "An ingenious brain interface allows me to command the suit!" was originally "-to command it!"
Originally, after everyone runs away from the falling debris except for 45, he was going to open his arms to accept the large hunk of debris that crushes him. This was cut.
Dib's speech toward the end of the episode was originally accompanied by discordant chorus of cats (much like the music that played as Zim rallied Slab Rankle's prisoners in FBI Warning of Doom), but this was replaced in the final version by a subtler, more fitting, instrumental version of "Silent Night."
GIR's child costume, in the scene where he is talking to the Mall Santa, is similar to a character from Jhonen Vasquez's earlier comic, Squee!.
The children that sit surrounding Sludgy the Snowman at the beginning, middle, and end of this episode bear a slight resemblance to the characters of another cartoon series, South Park.
The "Bitey the Vampire" scene was a reference to the horror movie "The Fly."
Mr. Sludgy is a reference to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, in which a talking snowman narrates the entire movie.
When Mr. Sludgey says, "Now, Zim hated humans more than anything", he makes a reference to How the Grinch Stole Chistmas!, where the narrator says "The Grinch hated Christmas more than anything".
The scene where Santa tries to reach Dib through the mech's shield with his tongue is an obvious reference to the movie Aliens, which also festured a similar climactic showdown.
In the uncut version, there was a different version of the "Jingly Bells" scene in the animatics.
Nickelodeon received 103 complaints from parents, saying that their children were disturbed by the mutated Santa. This is one of the many complaints parents had with the series, other than when it was launched (during which time Christian Parenting Today blasted it by calling it immoral, lacking in Christian values and Biblical teachings, and too dark for children).
When Zim asked Minimoose how much money they earned from donations, there actually was some money in the box.
There is a reason why Zim says that Minimoose has been with him all this time. The unaired episode, Nubs of Doom was supposed to air before this. In it, Zim created Minimoose. However, when Invader Zim was cancelled, Nubs of Doom and "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever" were still being made. Nickelodeon let the staff finish "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", but that was the only new episode that was allowed to air after Zim's cancellation.
This episode airs after all the other aired Season 2 episodes in terms of production order in Australia, unlike the US where it aired before all the other Season 2 episodes.
The crew had originally planned for there to be a montage of scenes from earlier episodes with Minimoose crudely inserted. It was a joke to show he had truly been there the whole time (see above), but they didn't have enough time to do it.
When Zim throws Minimoose down after using him as binoculars, the heart falls out of Minimoose's donations box.
Zim breaks the fourth wall for the final time (he says "Merry Platypus!" to the audience with GIR waving to them).
This is also the first and only time in the series we see the sky blue.
When the crowd is booing at Dib, he is forced to duck and you can hear a gunshot ring out. Afterward he is forced to leap back as a car gets flung at him.
This episode may be the first real evidence that the human race eventually did find out about Zim.
On the Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD, the title says "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever Part 1" twice.
Melissa Fahn, the voice of Gaz, did the higher notes of the "Jolly Boots of Doom" song, being a singer herself.
When the elves are singing, the little bouncing ball that hops over the words, like in a musical, is Minimoose.
When the Elves take Dib away to the Jingle Jail, GIR can be seen being taken away too.
In the uncut version, 45, an Ian Graham cameo, is crushed by part of the teleporter. However, his brother Chris can still be seen crying and clutching his brother's hat. Nickelodeon more than likely saw this as graphic for a cartoon person to be seen killed.
The bee-type insect that appears after Dib tells Gaz the truth about Bitey has a slight likeness to Pustulio, Zim's hypnotic pimple from the episode Rise of the Zitboy.
While Zim is screaming after he sees Santa, the camera pans out. The people around him are blurry, but one looks like Jhonen's character Johnny from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
When Dib's robot pins the mutant Santa to the wall, a Bloody GIR has been said to appear under "Santa's" tongue when he roars. This remains unconfirmed.
When Professor Membrane sees "Santa" and crushes the television remote in his hand, there are no batteries in the remote.
When GIR is seen in the background eating candy in Zim's lab, his closest photoreceptor is gray.
When Zim extends his spider legs from his PAK in his lab, the monitors behind him are missing. However, when he starts draining the Santa knowledge from the Mall Santa's brain, they reappear. This may be an animation mistake.
At the North Pole, just before GIR directs the humans on where to place a piece of the teleporter ("Mmmhmm, a little that way, no, a little back, good, good!") you can see on the tower that the "10 Minutes to X-mas" says "10 Minuts to X-mass".
Right before Zim tells Minimoose to stop being jolly, he takes away the candy cane in GIR's mouth. But a second after that, the candy cane was still in his mouth.
When GIR says "A little that way no a little back good, good." His tail is green instead of black.
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