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Dumb like a moose, Dib, dumb like a moose. — Zim |
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| Invader Zim Episode | |
| Bolognius Maximus | |
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| Chronology | |
| Previous: | FBI Warning of Doom |
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| Next: | Game Slave 2 |
| Information | |
| Episode No: | Episode 12a |
| Production No: | 12a |
| Airdate: | September 21, 2001 |
| Credits | |
| Writer(s): | Jhonen Vasquez |
"Bolognius Maximus" is the 1st segment in the 12th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It premiered on September 21, 2001, on Nickelodeon.
Plot Summary
SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!
When Dib once again notices that Zim isn’t eating his food, he throws a piece of bologna at him in order to taunt him. This instead caused Zim immense pain, and fused with his skin. Zim vows to get his revenge after all the other Skoolchildren laughed at him. During the next day of Skool, Dib sits on a tack, which causes Zim to begin laughing hysterically. Dib believes Zim is just being pathetic.
The next day, Dib notices that not only does he taste good, but all of the neighborhood dogs seem to think so too. Dib assumes that Zim just got something on his skin to make him smell and taste like something that dogs love, but the rest of the class and even Ms. Bitters thinks Dib smells awful. He gets sent to the bathroom to wash himself in the toilet, even though Willy was the last one to use it. In the bathroom, Dib runs some tests on a sample of his skin and the tack he sat on yesterday, and discovers that Zim actually introduced a foreign DNA sequence into his body, causing him to turn into bologna. Dib returns to class and begs Zim to cure him, but Zim just laughs mockingly and Dib runs away screaming.
Later, Zim is walking home from Skool and finds Dib surrounded by dogs. Dib admits that Zim's plan was pretty good, and holds his hand out in defeat. Zim reaches out to shake it when he believes Dib has finally conceded to his will, only to get pricked by the same tack that he had Dib sit on. Dib tells Zim that now he has to find a cure to save himself as well, but Zim declares that he will find a cure and keep it all to himself. However, Zim starts transforming into bologna much quicker than Dib, to the point where his base thinks that Zim is an intruder. Zim then goes to Dib for help, and the two try to find a cure together. When they finally think they got it, Dib drinks it and only turns more into bologna, the process having been actually sped up. This makes Dib angry, and blames the whole thing on Zim, but Zim says it's Dib's "inferior equipment" that is at fault, and they start fighting. However, the fight ends when Zim and Dib realize they are surrounded by dogs, and they find refuge inside an abandoned house, fully transformed into giant bologna sausages.
End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.
Facts of Doom
Cultural References
- The episode's story is heavily based on the sci-fi horror film The Fly.
- Ms. Bitters's movements in this episode, when she tries to identify who in her class was smelling awful, resemble the movements of the Velociraptors from the film Jurassic Park.
- When Dib shoves Zim through the vent near the end, a panel reading "DMZ 34" can be seen in the upper right. This may be a reference to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which divides North and South Korea and lies on the 34th parallel south.
Trivia
- Willy first appears in this episode. He is based on an identical-looking character, perhaps an early design of himself, that appeared in the "Pilot".
- One of the bathroom walls reads "Zim is an alien!", and another reads "He really is!". This is possibly a reference to the "Original Pilot", where Dib had to write "Zim is not an alien" hundreds of times on a chalkboard and you can see those very lines on the board.
- This episode had a reference made about in "Gaz, Taster of Pork", when Dib states: "I helped you when we were turning into giant bolognies!", to which Zim replies with "YOU'RE MAKING IT UP!". This scene proved that the events of Invader Zim do occur in a floating timeline. How they recovered from the virus is never explained, but it may be possible that they eventually found the cure or that the virus was just temporary.
- They also reference this episode in the comic series. In Issue 13, Dib mentions the time that Zim turned him into baloney. Also, during Issue 25, in Fitzoo-Menga's computer, we see Zim and Dib as walking baloneys.
- This is the sixth episode GIR doesn't appear in.
- In this episode, you actually see blood on Dib's hand.
- This episode was panned by fans due to its mean-spirited nature of the episode itself; Dib receiving a lot of humiliation, Zim being mistaken as an intruder as he enters his base when he catches the bologna virus, and the ending where Zim and Dib are surrounded by dogs.
Things You Might Have Missed
- When Dib starts screaming and the camera pans to the bathroom stall next to him, the kid in that stall wets his pants.
- The trays at the beginning of the episode have meat grease under them, which could mean that the school doesn't clean the trays as a part of the filthy theme in the world of Invader ZIM.
- Iggins can be seen in the cafeteria in the second shot. Iggins would incidentally play a major role in the episode paired with this one.
Inconsistencies and Animation Errors
- Brian, the boy who sits next to Zim in class, is seen bald during one of the scenes, despite the fact that he has hair.
- At one point while Zim is in Dib's lab, when they get repelled by the mixture, Zim's eyes are seen as their normal ruby color when he should have his disguise on.
- However, it might not be a definite mistake, as his lenses could have slipped off given that they can apparently slip quite easily as implied by the many times they have done so in public.
- While Dib is talking about how Zim never eats the food, the boy in the background is sipping from a juice box. The straw's layering is messed up during that scene.