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When will the lies end? — Zim |
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| Invader Zim Episode | |
| Mysterious Mysteries | |
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| Chronology | |
| Previous: | Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom |
|---|---|
| Next: | Future Dib |
| Information | |
| Episode No: | Episode 15a |
| Production No: | 14a |
| Airdate: | March 22nd, 2002 |
| Credits | |
| Writer(s): | Courtney Lilly Rob Hummel |
"Mysterious Mysteries" is the 1st segment in the 15th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on March 22nd, 2002, on Nickelodeon.
Plot Summary[]
SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!
Dib's evidence
When Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery is having trouble in ratings due to a lack of stories, the Anchor of the show decides to take drastic measures, finally requesting one of Dib's files to be on the show. The file in question happens to be a video which Dib took of Zim and GIR in the woods without their disguises, along with a mysterious glowing orb that's seemingly of alien origin. However, the camera that Dib is holding falls down, and the footage stops.
Dib's recounting of the events paints Zim in a very negative light, falsely stating that Zim fired a laser blast at Gaz (temporarily blinding her), and the two fought for possession of the video camera.
Dib's video and story seem to satisfy the Anchor, but at that point, Zim comes onto the show to disprove the video's accusations. In his version of the story, the events are twisted, making it look like Dib was bullying Zim (and Gaz is staying out of it, possibly out of fear of her brother's bullying).
Dib vociferously denies this, and he questions the glow in the video, certain that Zim will be unable to cover it up. However, the expert who analyzed the video turns out to be none other than Professor Membrane, who dismisses it as swamp gas near the forest in the footage.
An awkward moment ensues.
Zim asserts to the Anchor that Dib's crazy, and claims that any classmate the Anchor asks will agree; sure enough, the Skoolchildren who were interviewed say the same thing, Dib's crazy. Dib is not deterred and claims that visionaries are always seen as "crazy". In an attempt to get some support, Dib asks Gaz to be brought onto the show as his witness, as in the footage he even says as much to her.
However, her testimony is of little help to Dib, her version negatively depicting Dib and Zim babbling stupidly, followed by Gaz knocking down Dib with a sweep kick (what likely was the cause of Dib's camera falling out of his hands). Finally, the Anchor's about to declare a cold case to end the show when a "surprise witness" named Stacy abruptly comes on the show, claiming to know the truth.
But as it turns out, this is none other than GIR, with nothing more than pixelation concealing his features from the screen. When Dib accuses him of working with Zim, he's quickly beaten before he can lunge at him and restrained in a straitjacket. "Stacy's" version recalls that "she" was the chubby lady hiding in the bushes when a giant squirrel showed up and "ate Dib's greasy head," then flew back to his home planet to "fight all the bad guys."
This is the best work you've done!
Utterly flummoxed by the nonsensical testimony, the Anchor finally concludes that Dib and GIR are crazy, and that Zim isn't an alien, he's "just crazy." Satisfied with this conclusion, Zim drags "Stacy" out of the studio.
Meanwhile, knowing nothing matters anymore, the host decides that he's crazy, too, and then he starts babbling at the camera. When he watches the footage later, his boss tells him to give her more of the same because craziness "brings good ratings", much to the host's repressed horror.
End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.
Facts of Doom[]
Cultural References[]
- Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery is a parody of the Robert Stack' series Unsolved Mysteries. The host of the show is also based on Unsolved Mysteries' former host Dennis Farinna, who hosted and narrated the show since 2008 to 2010.
Things You Might Have Missed[]
- During the reenactments, there is a balcony visible in the background with a crew member on it. In every reenactment, he is doing random actions, such as sitting on a sofa drinking lemonade.
- At the beginning, when the Blotch is shown, there is a man who resembles Dib (in a blue shirt). This character is typically referred to as Adult Dib, and he also appears in "Attack of the Saucer Morons". A man who looks like Chunk can also be seen in the background.
- The Dib actor was actually injured by the squirrel, as the guy on the balcony can be seen pulling up a stretcher with Dib's actor on it in the scene after the clip where GIR says "Me and the squirrel are friends!".
- Baby Gaz was seen smiling briefly before Baby Dib places the last block, and she proceeded to kick them away.
Trivia[]
- According to the concept art, the producer of Mysterious Mysteries is really a tiny woman in a huge suit, implying that humans in the Invader Zim universe similar to Irkens have accessed the technology to create suits capable of changing one’s appearance, as it has been suggested by Wally Wingert that the Tallest are actually normal-sized Irkens in robotic suits that make then appear taller than they actually are (and thus are violating Irken law).
- Professor Membrane saying that the floating ball was a weather balloon is a reference to the 1947 Roswell incident, in which the U.S. military claimed that the UFO that was captured was nothing more than a weather balloon.
- According to Professor Membrane's testimony, the sphere of light is likely a ball of swamp gas produced in a wetland near the forest shown in his son's video footage. This references the 1966 Michigan UFO reports, which the astrophysicist J. Allen Hynek claimed were a result of 'swamp gas' from rotting vegetation.
- This doesn't make sense in context of the show, as the City seen in Invader Zim seems to take place in a location that is otherwise devoid of any wetland areas. However, it could be possible that the location where Dib took the video was nowhere near the city and in fact a location that had wetlands.
- Mysterious Mysteries apparently contacted Zim without Dib's knowledge to appear on the show.
- However it's unclear how they got Zim's contact information, especially since in the episode "Bestest Friend" Zim pulled the phone out of the wall in his base.
- It's possible that similar with how the Host came across Gaz, Mysterious Mysteries came across Zim at a random street hoping for some answers and that's how he got invited to the show.
- Dib's recounting of the events in his footage has Zim fire a laser at Gaz and temporarily blind her, yet this never happens in the footage that was sent in to the show.
- Gaz unintentionally saves Zim for the third time. First was "Battle-Dib" and "Ten Minutes to Doom". The next one is "The Voting of the Doomed".
- This is the only time in the entire series in which Gaz appears on TV. Dib, on the other hand, has appeared on TV three times, counting this episode as well as "The Girl Who Cried Gnome" and "Gaz, Taster of Pork".
- This is also the first time Zim has been on TV, the second time is in the aforementioned episode "The Girl Who Cried Gnome", the third was in "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", and the fourth and last was in the movie, Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus.
- This is also GIR’s first time appearing on TV while the second and third time is in the aforementioned Christmas special and movie.
- Dib and Gaz are seen as babies during a flashback. With this episode and "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", two of the four main characters are seen as infants, while Zim's smeethood was briefly seen in "Parent Teacher Night".
- The scene with Baby Dib and Baby Gaz doesn't make sense from a chronological standpoint, as Dib and Gaz are supposed to be a year apart in age.
- This could be a hint that they are Professor Membrane's artificially created children rather than biological ones.
- Most of the episode is seen through an editing room, since the episode was recorded this whole time.
- The employees of the show don't seem to have noticed that Zim was wearing his disguise in the studio, but in the video he wasn't.
- The movie Enter the Florpus, as well as short bit in "FBI Warning of Doom", revealed that humans will largely disregard Zim being an alien as long as he puts his disguise back on, as his neighbors saw Zim without his disguise several times and only freaked out for a few seconds but said "everything was normal" when Zim was back wearing his skool boy disguise.
- This could very well be the same reason as to why no one seems to notice or care that GIR's identity could have easily been verified, thanks to the video Dib provided, implying that everyone took GIR’s lie of being a “Chubby Lady” hiding in the bushes as true.
- The movie Enter the Florpus, as well as short bit in "FBI Warning of Doom", revealed that humans will largely disregard Zim being an alien as long as he puts his disguise back on, as his neighbors saw Zim without his disguise several times and only freaked out for a few seconds but said "everything was normal" when Zim was back wearing his skool boy disguise.
- LÖVE's 11.x version is officially named "Mysterious Mysteries".
Inconsistencies and Animation Errors[]
- The first time the Mysterious Mysteries crew looked at the "Pigfoot" picture, his mask was pink. The second time, it was tan.
- While Dib flashes on the screen, the Mysterious Mysteries host has a scar on his face. The next time it shows him as he walks to the closet, the scar is gone.
- During GIR's recounting of the events in the video, while the man in the squirrel outfit is hanging by strings when he "flies away" and hovers over a scrolling background of outer space, the left side of the image of the squirrel-man cuts off. This may have been an intentional, humorous portrayal of poor green-screening, but the next cut, showing that the outer space background is a part of the set he's on, suggests that it was simply an animation error.
- Dib is sitting in a seat, and there is only one seat. However, when its Zim's turn to explain his part of the story, another seat appears. The same thing happens when Gaz then GIR tell their parts of the story. How did they get the seats on the set?
See also[]
- Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery
- Mysterious Mysteries (Transcript)
- Mysterious Mysteries Screenshots