"Zim Eats Waffles" is the 2nd segment in the 2nd episode of the second season of Invader Zim. It first premiered on December 20, 2003 in Australia. In the United States, it was first released as part of the Horrible Holiday Cheer DVD on October 12, 2004 and it made its TV debut on Nicktoons on June 17, 2006.
SPOILER WARNING OF DOOM:This section or article may contain spoilers!
Dib asks GIR for a favor.
Using an active camouflage device, Dib gets past the Lawn Gnome sentries in front of Zim's house, hoping to get a spy camera in his base. However, he's caught by GIR at the front door after GIR splashes his drink on Dib, rendering his invention useless.
In a bid to use GIR's incompetence to his own advantage, Dib asks GIR to place the camera for him, which GIR happily does. Back at his house, Dib jumps to his computer, eager to see what Zim is up to. Multiple computer drives are set up around Dib's room, but they're in the process of being fixed. Just as Dib sets up the connection, Zim declares he's going to explain his "next evil plan".
Dib calls Agent Darkbootie, but all Zim and GIR do for the next couple of minutes is eat breakfast. Agent Darkbootie gets impatient and hangs up, stating that "jokes have no place in the Swollen Eyeball Network".
At that moment, GIR comes into the kitchen with a huge plate of waffles, intended for Zim's consumption. The Irken initially refuses but a tantrum courtesy of GIR quickly makes Zim agree to try them. Upon eating them, Zim is surprised to find them edible for him, and decides to eat waffles to build up a tolerance for Earth food.
The Flesh Eating Squid.
After several minutes of awkward silence, one of Zim's experiments, a flesh-eating demon squid, escapes and starts attacking Zim. The house security activates, sending robots and firing lasers, and even the Roboparents try to help, only to have their heads ripped off.
Dib quickly calls for another Swollen Eyeball Agent, but by the time Agent Nessie answers, everything has moved off-screen and all that is visible is GIR sitting on the table eating waffles.
After the agent angrily hangs up, Zim limps back on screen, looking worse for wear; however, he isn't very upset, as the squid wasn't part of his plan. Instead, Zim orders GIR to bring him Nick. Upon seeing that the alien has a human test subject, Dib calls the SEN again, but they hang up on him right away. As a result, Dib calls the FBI, and convinces them to send someone over on account of the giant Brain probe in Nick's head. To buy the FBI some time, Dib orders pizza from Bloaty's Pizza Hog and sends it to Zim's house.
"Don't make me use this!"
Meanwhile, GIR is still continuously feeding both Zim and Nick a never-ending supply of waffles, now containing peanuts and soap. Unfortunately for Dib, just as Zim is about to test his evil plan on Nick, the hideous mutant squid escapes again, and it's created an army of cyborg zombie soldiers to do its evil bidding.
While Zim's getting beat up, the squid knocks him into the camera, knocking it onto its side. From the shadows on the wall and Nick's commentary, Dib can see that the FBI and the pizza delivery boy are there, but they're not any help to him.
Eventually, Zim defeats the squid and his army of minions with a plunger. By the time Dib contacts Darkbootie, everything's all over and GIR and Nick have resumed their waffle-eating. It's at this moment that Dib's computer drives completely repair and and they're able to record again.
Whatever.
Zim reappears on the skewed screen, but at this point he has forgotten what his plan was, and then he proceeds to barf up the waffles into a disposal bucket. But Dib's glad he at least has something recorded, but then the cyborg zombie soldiers burst into his room and destroy the computer drives.
Shocked and frustrated at how his day's toil has been all for nothing, Dib screams, "Noooooo!!!!" for about two seconds, and then goes to bed saying "Whatever."
End of Spoilers:There are no further spoilers for this section or article. You can breathe now.
Nick is believed to have been a character to poke fun at Nickelodeon itself, due to them always trying to make the show "happier", and more appealing to certain groups.
Zim's weapon in the 2008 video game Nicktoons: Globs of Doom (a plunger) is a possible reference to this episode, due to the part where Zim is holding up a plunger and saying "Don't make me use this! I'll do it!".
The opening title sequence was a reference to both the first Superman movie and a short film called The Power of Ten (not the Drew Carey-hosted game show).
The title is the first use of 3D since "Planet Jackers".
According to the commentary, Rikki Simons said that the idea for this episode came about when the writers were in a Mexican Restaurant down the street from Nickelodeon. Rob Hummel was talking to Eric Trueheart about coming up with ideas for future episodes and by the end of the dinner, Eric put down his napkin and said "Zim Eats Waffles" to the surprise of Rob.
In his book, Trueheart confirms this story, but clarifies that it was a lunch not a dinner, and also claims that he actually threw the napkin on his own face.
Gaz and Professor Membrane do not appear in this episode.
According to the commentary, this was a "throwaway" episode that the crew made so they could save up money for bigger episodes, mainly "The Trial". But of course since the series was cancelled, these episodes were never made.
According to the writers of the show, Zim could eat GIR's waffles because he made them with Irken ingredients.
This contradicts with the fact that Zim seems to think eating the waffles (which he deems "not so bad") will help him build a tolerance to human food, although he could have been unaware of the questionable ingredients GIR put in the waffles.
This is the only episode where the entire episode name does not appear all at once (each individual word races to the screen). Jhonen Vasquez jokingly called it the "greatest intro ever."
This episode never aired on Nickelodeon in the US, but it has aired on Nicktoons Network.
At the same time, the US never had this episode aired on TV until 2006, unlike other countries which had it years earlier, such as Australia in 2003.
Although Zim and GIR were at home at all times, they at no time removed their costumes as usual, this being convenient as Zim didn't know that they were being recorded.
Dib was worried that Zim could go after the human race's "beaver technology", which apparently came true in Issue 27 when he built exploding (or "'splodie") robot beavers.
Despite the Roboparents not having a speaking role in the episode, Mo Collins and Michael McDonald are still credited.
Changes and Cuts[]
Originally the episode was intended to be one long shot, the view panning between Dib`s reaction and the computer screen, but this proved to be too taxing to animate.
Things You Might Have Missed[]
GIR vomiting.
While the demon squid is attacking Zim on-screen, GIR is seen eating two waffles and then vomiting continuously.
Behind Greg (the FBI guy) is "The FBI" in big bubble letters.
Listen carefully when the demon squid picks up the microwave. It dings before he hits Zim with it.
When the Demon Squid escaped, if you listen carefully as Zim sets his chair upright and sits down. The sound of a motorcycle leaving is heard.
When Zim and GIR sit in silence and the camera pans to Dib, a picture of an Irken-like alien can be seen pasted to Dib's wall.
When Dib first logs on to his computer, the Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mystery poster has a misspelling. Mysteries is spelled Mysterys. But when they turn the camera to show Dib's face, it's spelled correctly.
When Dib said "Whatever" at the end of the episode, his eyes are closed like Gaz's, a rare moment when he shows disregard for everything that has happened, something Gaz does frequently.
Animation errors[]
The eye error.
After Dib's room is trashed by the robots and they start to leave, the ones in the background aren't animated at all.
The torso error.
When Zim yells "ENOUGH!" to silence GIR's temper tantrum, right after he covered his eyes, his torso clips through the kitchen table.
When GIR wheels in Nick, the handlebars on Nick's thing on are taller than later in the episode.
The animation of the milk puddle around GIR's bowl of cereal messes up when the animation loops.
Right after Dib yells, "Come on! The plan already!" his eyes go through his glasses.
After Dib yells "Come on! The plan already!" and the shot pans back to Zim's kitchen, the table is briefly not shaded.
