Parent Teacher Night

	Invader Zim Episode
	Parent Teacher Night
	Chronology
Previous:	NanoZIM
Next:	Walk of Doom
	Information
Episode No:	Episode 03a
Production No:	03a
Airdate:	April 6, 2001
	Credits
Writer(s):	Jhonen Vasquez; Rob Hummel

NOOOOO! You have the mixture all wrong!
—

Plot

SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM: This section or article may contain spoilers!

After another day at the Earth Skool, Ms. Bitters reminds the children that it's Parent Teacher Night and that all the parents must come to the Skool at the end of the day. Zim is confronted with the fact that he doesn't have any parents (Irkens are cloned from a gene bank and have all their information given to them in PAKS by the Control Brains). Zim becomes worried because his robotic parents aren’t programmed for such a task yet, and he cannot permit them to blow his cover. He attempts to help them become the parents they should be, but GIR's carefree nature puts his plans in jeopardy.

At the meeting in the cafeteria, Dib, who brings his dad's communication device, tries to prove that Zim is an alien. The robotic parents malfunction and wreak havoc during the meeting, but nobody, besides Dib, notices they aren't human, or that Zim is an alien, due to the show's characters' stupidity. So, Zim's plan to fool everybody (except Dib) actually worked, despite GIR's interferene. In the end, Zim and the Roboparents fly off while Dib gets in trouble for throwing punch on the floor in frustration.

End of Spoilers: There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.

Facts of Doom

Cultural References

In this episode, Zim says "You lie! YOU LIE!" This is a reference to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. When Nny first meets Squee, he says the exact same thing.

Trivia of Doom

This is the first and so far only time we have seen Zim's parents out of the house.
Ms. Bitters has a security camera in her classroom.
The title was in the squiggly font instead of the Invader Zim font.
The parent teacher night happened in the afternoon, but at the very end when Ms. Bitters is mad at Dib and the whole room turns red, there is a clock in the background that says "12:16".
Like The Nightmare Begins, this episode was originally rated TV-Y but was later changed to TV-Y7-FV.
This is the only time Zim is shown as a smeet.
Smeet Zim was voiced by Melissa Fahn.
This episode shows that GIR knows how to successfully put on makeup.

Things You Might Have Missed

When Zim turns on the video to teach his Roboparents normal human behaviour, the child in the video looks similar to Timmy from The Fairly OddParents!
List of old-fashioned cartoons broadcasted in the base:
- Clay animated show
- Hunter's dog
- Heckle and Jeckle's first cartoon
- Dancing scarecrow
- Beaver eating corn
- Cat licking the stripy candy poles
When the robot parents were looking at the TV system, you can see a classic Tom & Jerry Christmas episode that came out in the 1940's.
When Dib throws the punch at Zim, it doesn't burn him like it does in later episodes.
The man in the parenting video looks like Old Kid.

Animation Errors

Ms. Bitters' dress changes from purple to black sporadically throughout the episode and early episodes.
As GIR is running after the Makeup Lady, he doesn't run all the way out of frame. He disappears a few milliseconds before he goes out of the frame.
When GIR falls from the ceiling with make-up on, in one frame his tongue is orange.

Music

Main Article: The Kevin Manthei Invader Zim-phony Special

Skool's Out
Makeup Lady
TV Lair
Spine Break SRC
Family Programming
Parents Arrive
Parents Crack

Quotes

Ms. Bitters: And you, Mary, right where your head is; before the Big Bang, there was nothing there.

Zim: I never agreed to this Parent-Teacher night!

Ms. Bitters: Yes, you did.
Zim: No! You lie! (swings arms wildly in the air) You Lie!
(Ms. Bitters scoffs and puts a disc into the computer, and the chalkboard slides down to reveal a screen; on it is a recording of Zim, looking very bored and balancing a pencil on his lip)
Ms. Bitters: (on-screen) Zim, are you going to bring your parents to Parent Teacher Night?
Zim: (on-screen) Yeah, sure, whatever.
Zim: (off-screen)...Why would you tape that?

Control Brain: Welcome to life,

File:Phy baby.jpg

Irken child. Report for duty.

Zim as a smeet: (jumps onto the arm to hug it) I love you, cold, unfeeling robot arm!

Thought-Cloud Dib: I'll see you and your parents tonight, Zim. By the way, it's not called Parent Teacher Night. It's called Zim doom parent... Zim... doom... Zimmy... doom... night. (laughs) Watch out for that puppy.

Zim: Huh? (trips over a puppy)

GIR: (running after the escaping make-up lady) Wait! Come back! I need stuff!

Ms. Bitters: (

to the group of parents) When you were my students, I said you'd amount to nothing. I was right. You're NOTHING!"

Robo-Mom: Oh no! Honey, is it-- ?

Robo-Dad: Yup! Diarrheaaaaaaaa...

Random mother: Can't you see that this woman is suffering from severe pokey trauma?!