A sign in the Massive announcing Probing Day.
Probing Day is an Irken occasion on which the Tallest contact all of the Irken Invaders on duty, and check up on how far each has gotten in their missions to conquer their assigned planets. This generally involves the Invaders having to give a presentation of sorts like an essay or video presentation, depicting their current plan to subjugate or kill their planets' inhabitants.
However, the current Tallest have added some ideas of their own to the procedures: As of the most recent Probing Day, each Invader has to deliver a puppet show; failure or refusal to do so will result in the contactee getting pummeled by a pair of mallet-wielding robotic arms, remotely controlled by the Tallest. This is called a "pummeling."
Probing Day was witnessed in the episode "Walk for Your Lives". It is the only known holiday celebrated by the Irken race.
Facts of Doom[]
- In human culture, aliens are stereotypically believed to use probes to get information out of the people they abduct. In this case, however, the Tallest exacts information out of the Invaders by demanding a puppet show.
- It's unknown what event in Irken History caused the Irkens to start celebrating this holiday, though seeing as the Tallest are interviewing the invaders, one can make an educated guess that the holiday started as a result of the conquest of an enemy planet, possibly the first planet conquered by the Irkens in days long past.
- Despite the fact that Zim isn't actually an Irken Invader, he was still on the Tallest list for Probing Day inspection. This is probably a hint that the Control Brains filed Earth as a possible planet for conquest that is being infiltrated by an exiled Irken as stated by Jhonen Vasquez.