Enjoy!
The Great Foodening is a major event on Foodcourtia. It happens every twenty (Foodcourtia) years and lasts the same amount of years. However, this time may be different elsewhere, as there is a "time warp thing" involved, according to Sizz-Lorr.
The Foodening is run by the Foodcourtia employees who get paid (save for Zim). All employees working on Foodcourtia are stuck on the planet for the entire duration of the Foodening. Because of all the customers swarming to the snacking planet, the gravity is somehow so dense that nobody can leave.
This is where it is at.
The Foodening is first mentioned in "The Frycook What Came from All That Space" as Sizz-Lorr explains that he was stuck helpless and having to do the work alone on Foodcourtia during the Foodening without Zim to help him. The Fry Lord also has to spend an additional Foodening alone when Zim escapes yet again.
Sizz-Lorr facing the Foodening.
The term "Foodening" was also used as a common noun in the unfinished episode "Return of Keef", implying that "Foodening" is a common word in the Irken language that is defined as a gathering of people coming together to eat, like a feast.
Trivia[]
- Sizz-Lorr claims there's a "time warp thing" involved when the Foodening occurs, which Jhonen Vasquez has said was simply a result of "lazy writing".
- Though there may actually be merit to this idea in terms of known physics, as the increased gravitational pull that occurs during each Foodening may be intense enough to induce a time dilation effect, similar to a black hole, where those on Foodcourtia would perceive real-time as moving slower, while an outsider would perceive Foodcourtia's time as sped up. It is, however, unclear if the "time warp thing" is a result of the increased gravity, leaving this hypothesis as speculative.
- Despite The Great Foodening lasting twenty years, its unknown how many days there are in a Foodcourtian year.
- Sizz-Lorr said that because the gravity was so powerful no one could leave Foodcourtia, however Zim managed to escape the planet using a stolen Snacky Cab vessel and the gravity didn’t seem to be an issue, so either Sizz-Lorr was not well informed on the matter or this is was one of the cases where Zim manages to do the impossible. Though it may be likely Zim was able to achieve escape velocity just in the nick of time before the gravity became too strong.