Invader Zim is a queer show, this is an indisputable fact.
The entire Irken race is canonically aroace.
Even among the Irken race where being aroace is the equivalent of being straight, Zim is still queer. He is in the closet and in deep denial about wanting relationships the rest of his species consider abnormal, like parental love and friendship. He is constantly insisting that “Invaders need no one” but we all see him keeping GIR around even though he messes up his plans more than he helps, or squeezing the cold unfeeling robot arm, or programming Clembrane to think that Dib loves Zim, or in the comics insisting that Prisoner #777 is his friend.
Within the show’s subtext, the main premise is two people who don’t fit in with their respective societies desperately craving recognition and acceptance.
Zim represents the closeted, repressed queer experience. He wears a disguise in public and is constantly putting on performative displays of normalcy and denying that the parts of himself that deviate from social norms exist. Dib meanwhile, is openly “different” and enduring the struggles of not being accepted, respected, or understood, particularly by his family. Part of Zim’s public masking often includes piling on the ridicule Dib deals with in order to deflect attention from his own “abnormality”, which rarely works and only makes it more acceptable for people to shit on both of them.
Literally the first time Zim and Dib meet, Dib identifies Zim on sight and tries to out him, only to get called out on being prejudiced himself. Zim hates Dib for trying to expose and endanger him. But to Dib, Zim is indisputable evidence that he isn’t crazy for believing what he believes and its the rest of the ignorant world who refuse to see the truth who are wrong. Zim’s existence validates Dib’s.
Certain episodes make this theme almost explicit.
In the unfinished episode Mopiness of Doom, Dib pretends to be something he’s not in order to fit in and enjoys the social benefits for awhile but ultimately becomes depressed and realizes he can’t find true happiness without being his authentic self. The subtext isn’t even subtle here, they straight up code Zim and Dib’s unhappiness with their separation like a romantic break-up, ending in a reconciliation that confirms that they feel attachment toward each other.
But that wouldn’t be the first time Zim did an entire episode with gay subtext. The very next episode after Nightmare Begins is Bestest Friend, a story that begins with Zim attempting to dissuade speculation about his single status by recruiting a beard. A beard who happens to be another boy wearing a rainbow shirt, who is part of a group of outcasts. Keef is even explicitly stated by GIR to “love” Zim. In Return of Keef not only is he still crazy about Zim, he becomes fixated on Dib as well, and becomes so excited about the two of them hugging he explodes. That’s the true power of finding solidarity with other gays.
Keef would not be Zim’s only beard in the series either. With Tak, it’s barely even subtext, he straight up dated a girl to “pass” at Skool, not knowing she was doing the same thing.
The show is so gay it’s literally the precursor to Steven Universe. Baby Rebecca Sugar looked at the show, saw the obvious implications of Irken society and Zim’s existence, and then grew up and made her own show based around the idea of unpacking all of that and making the queer subtext explicit text.
