foreign that Invader Zim is visually one of the most uneasy shows to watch I truly
mean that in the best way possible as I think Invader Zim molded my love for horror films
and video games that go above and beyond the Call of Duty to make me tense up and disgust
and all about what I'm looking at it's easily what you remember the most when looking back
or thinking about Invader Zim those moments of pure WTF energy that make you question if
this was a show for kids or not in fact the show had quite the pushback from the Network
Nickelodeon for many instances throughout the show's run but at the same time was able to
creatively and sometimes directly in your face get away with so much so I wanted to
take a look at the show itself how I was able to get some of those moments okayed
by the network and what pushed back the show faced so keep your organs on your insides and
your eyeballs in your head let's talk about the struggle of Invader Zim so many dogs
foreign
so how did we get here by that I mean moments like this or this or even this well that all goes back
to the creator of the show jonan Vasquez whom I share a birthday with and that's not important
to you but it is to me joning created a comic book series called Johnny the homicidal maniac and if
that title doesn't immediately give it away yes he was in fact a homicidal maniac Shocker the visuals
evoke such a distorted view of something chaotic something that some may find grotesque yet it was
gripping and had this pull to keep you engaged from here a spin-off comic series was created
called squee it continued the darker themes and feelings that you'd have reading Johnny but what
was extra special about these comics in general was that it caught the eye of Mary Harrington a
producer at Nickelodeon who was looking for the next slightly edgier cartoon for the network she
was hooked on the comics based on the visuals and characters themselves and contacted jonan giving
him a chance to pitch a new animated series for Nickelodeon and with having no experience dealing
with animation he said yes and then Peter Zim would be that pitch Joe the idea for exactly
what Invader Zim would be took him one hour before he knew this was the direction he wanted to go but
this journey wasn't easy Beyond this point his Origins and storytelling mixed with his visuals
are distinctively horrifying in the best of ways but maybe not so much to a kid's show
leading to a lot of pushback from Nickelodeon on a constant basis episodes would constantly
have scenes either reworked or cut in general in order to make the episode viable for Network play
the relationship between the network and those working on Invader Zim would be described as a
little dysfunctional there was just a conflict in personalities intentions and modus operandi
the reality was just not a great fit and yes it was a problem these statements come from
writer of the show Eric Trueheart while a lot of moments in the show were completely scrapped
or cut from the final product there were some moments that they ended up keeping in
the final product but in a workaround way that made it okay for the sensors and made it more
terrific for the mind sometimes not showing and implying the horror is scarier for your
mind to fill in those gaps of what you don't see so the subtlety or the lack thereof is
what ultimately gave the show its specific uniqueness on top of all of the weird you
still get to see on screen but what would be some of those moments or workarounds that
caused the team working on Invader Zim to clash constantly with the network let's take a look
Zim the green guy will return we warned you he's short he's green he's back Invaders them
so there was quite the amount of stuff cut for time or cut for not being suitable for
the network and I can't really show you what those ideas were it would just be me telling you what
they are so instead let's take a look at what was able to get through after some workarounds from
The Invader Zim crew these examples can be found as quickly as the first episode of the show The
Nightmare begins with a blink and you'll miss it moment where inside of dibs fridge there is a milk
carton on it with some slightly legible text that reads Rob Hummel is meat Rob Hummel is one of the
show's writers but originally the milk carton was going to consist of a young girl with find
me written on it in reference to missing persons being advertised on milk cartons starting in the
1980s called The Missing children's milk carton program Nickelodeon wasn't too fond of having
this regardless of how quickly in the shot it would be so it was changed to then reference Rob
the episode Parent Teacher Night featured a few moments with gur in which what he was watching
on TV needed to be changed from the cartoons he was watching originally being that of 40s
cartoons featuring drinking smoking and weapons all on display but of course this wasn't going to
be able to slide but even as something as small as the word diarrhea being shown on the screen
needed to be changed to a red color instead of the brown color it originally was because Nick
didn't want the word to relate closer to the color of what the subject matter actually is
replacing the content on the screen in general was a bunch of random things that is too quick
and too much for one to comprehend what is being shown and we also get stuff like this
bye yeah that's one way to sell you some aspirin in Walk of Doom we get to see an example of how
the relationship sometimes would be between those working on the show versus the network and their
demands this came from a sign that said welcome to Mexico as Zim exited a taxi at the end of the
episode this would be changed to say Carne the Spanish word for me as Nickelodeon found that the
welcome to Mexico sign mixed with the visuals on screen offensive regardless of jonan's background
the crew wanted to make this feel offensive in pursuit of Nickelodeon letting them use their
original idea but Nick approved this in bestest friend the character of Keef was planned to land
on some power lines after falling off of the roof leading him to be electrocuted now while
characters being electrocuted seems like a staple cartoon Trope of bygone years in more modern times
this was significantly toned down especially by Nickelodeon who would consider this as an
imitatable act so in order to work around this the crew had a few ideas of how to have Keith get hurt
in pretty bad ways like him getting hit by a car and mangled all up from which yeah Nickelodeon
didn't like that either but what they did do was ultimately more genius and a moment where
we really get to see the implied horror aspect of the show Blossom from Keith does end up falling
off of the roof into some power lines but all we get is a continued view from the rooftop as
he falls and then an explosion with a torturous scream from Keith it's about your mind filling
in the gaps of what you think just happened so with that episode in the instance in game slave
2 where iggins was shown or implied to be killed off they were forced to find ways to make it show
that this was not the case somehow by adding voice lines or extra scenes to prove all is okay with
iggins literally bursting out of the elevator rack accompanied with a title card and a guitar
riff this was all added in after the elevator gets cut and we see a title card saying the end before
we fade back to an extra scene depicting his survival obviously Nickelodeon wasn't a fan of
any character being killed or implied that they were being killed so during these moments where
there wasn't an easy work around and there needed to be some sort of compromise the crew would do
something like at the end card that they would say no characters were harmed in the episode even if
they clearly were the back and forth between Nick and The Invader Zim crew was always this constant
Battle of you can't do this and you have to change that and what the Creator's Visions always being
tweaked the crew found fun ways to poke back at Nickelodeon whether it was somehow still getting
away with some pretty messed up things just having to go about them extra creatively to
get past the sensors or they would constantly and directly put it in the viewer's face through the
character of Nick reflecting the happier tone that Nickelodeon wanted infused in all of their
cartoons and to be more appealing to a wider audience the network wanted more Rugrats type
of shows rather than something like an Invader Zim sharing the same network there were smaller things
like in door-to-door where some kids were going to be eating cockroaches this was changed into them
eating meat instead but some roaches can still be seen in the frame to convey the uncomfortable
grotesque nature of the situation in battle of the planets the car pile up was changed from
being on fire to just not being on fire in future dib the perpetual energy generator was supposed
to explode into a mushroom cloud but instead just continues on to open a space time Rift sometimes
the crew and Nickelodeon agreed on a few things like in the episode hobo 13 where the character
of Scrooge would have to eat his own skin to survive but both groups here found this to be
a bit too far and just downright disturbing due to real life events a few things in the show would be
changed or decided against like the design of the character dib who wears a black trench coat which
jonan fought for not changing the character at all especially with the amount of times Nickelodeon
pushed for dib to not be a main character or to lighten him up a bit with other tragedies a whole
ending was redone after airing one time on air showing New York getting turned into Rubble as
well as an explosion at one point changing from red and orange and yellow to a green explosion
another big thing that jonan really wanted to add into the show was blood splatters within
different and more violent scenes specifically in the bestest friend episode but technically a more
unsettling image would be left in various episodes of Invader Zim leaving a fun almost
creepypasta-esque hidden image to find bloody gir yes this image of bloody gir is real and made its
way to television unnoticed by the network on a number of occasions originally the concept was
never intended to be included in an episode of the show as they all knew it would be rejected
but since it was never handed to Nickelodeon for approval there was not really a no ever given
so Chris Graham an illustrator on the show and director Steve Ressell were able to sneak just
a small singular frame of this image into the episode bad bad rubber picky now the only way to
have caught it is if you think you saw something and claim it to be there later on in interviews
this would be proven as a true thing hidden within the episode sparking so many to try and posit at
the exact frame to get the image of bloody gir which when you see it it is extremely faint and
barely able to be made out no wonder this was snuck past Nickelodeon Executives and it wasn't
easily caught by the masses either but this whole thing became a lot more fun once it was revealed
that this image of bloody gir was put into random points hidden within the last 14 episodes of the
show The Bloody gir was the single frame drawing that Chris Graham Drew and I was putting into the
show at random points hidden within things it is very hard to make out and I am not telling where
or when those frames are you have to be a master to see bloody gir even with a frame by frame VCR
if anyone finds it let me know he is in several places through the last 14 episodes Nickelodeon
was completely unaware to this and it became a scavenger hunt after it was confirmed to be
real for fans to go and find these frame perfect moments to see bloody gir in fact what I do find
pretty interesting is that after the show was over and Nickelodeon found out about this slipping past
them and put into broadcast they didn't really care as it was too quick and so faint that there
would be no way a kid would even notice it in the first place so this Standalone PNG
of bloody gur is a legit real image that made it into episodes after all as a nice last laugh from
the crew and something for fans to hunt for and speculate on for searching frame by frame through
those 14 episodes a nice little extra piece of Legacy that the show was able to leave behind
the show Stars Zim in the role of Zim an alien bent on taking over the Earth
Creator jonan Vasquez based the show on real life experience oh
in the end Invader Zim went on to become a cult classic for many who were brought up with it being
on air as well as the rise in popularity it had in the later 2000s early 2010s with fashion thanks
to places like Hot Topic which helped parade the popularity of Invader Zim even further even if it
had ended its official premiere of the remaining six episodes back on TV in 2006. although with
the ratings of the show being what is to be believed the ultimate downfall of it it was
surprisingly and genuinely fun to have a sequel movie released in 2019 as Nickelodeon was having
some Legacy sequels to movies being released on streaming services like Netflix enter the floorpis
was a nice throwback and really just gave fans of Invader Zim one last satisfying ride in this
messed up World jonan created for us I think for kids media there is room for horror shows
or scarier shows something that challenges your visceral response without shows like Invader Zim
I may not have found my love for grotesque bloody horror movies or from Are You Afraid of the Dark
to my love of tension building horror with a sense of help growing up the media you're surrounded by
shapes and molds a lot of your taste into what you end up having a like or dislike for while
yes there are moments in Invader Zim that make me question if I should have seen that at a younger
age or not the show was something special that was able to capture an entire generation with Wonder
and disgust and I mean that in a good way tell me your thoughts on Invader Zim in the comments
below were you affected by it at a young age did it help build your enjoyment of the offbeat path
of horror entertainment did it make you want to skateboard yeah that's right skateboard
foreign so while this isn't a sponsor for transparency I want to tag this as such but
a lot of people have reached out about the skateboards I have and have shown off from
all the Pokemon ones to the SpongeBob board but these are all done by my good buddy bear Walker
he creates handcrafted skateboards that I consider beautiful works of art to hang on my wall but they
are fully functional and you can ride them still however the reason I'm bringing this up is because
bear Walker often collabs with really cool Brands and companies from Pokemon to Marvel to DC and now
even Nickelodeon like that SpongeBob board but this by far may be what I consider Bear's Best
work yet The Invader Zim board which I thought of no better video to show you guys this amazing
board from bear Walker that he sent over these are really cool collectors pieces that you can
check out through Bear's website linked below and there will be some more amazing designs
with cool collaborations coming all the time and the Invader Zim board is a limited time drop with
only 175 boards made in the entire world so if you are interested go check it out again this
isn't a sponsor I am not making a penny off of this I just love Bear's work and as a friend I
wanted to show off something I thought that you all would find pretty cool as well so check them
out thanks so much for watching make sure to hit the like button and subscribe with notifications
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channel follow me on Twitter and I'll be back soon with another video but until then later
foreign