Invader Zim Art Dump

I was like 5 when the show came out so I never watched it when it initially aired. It wasn’t until the 2011/2012 era of Zim reruns on what I believe was the Nicktoons channel ( a sister channel to Nickelodeon that was solely for cartoons ) that I caught glimpses of it from time to time and got intrigued. I was in middle school at the time and watched Invader Zim as much as I could…mostly through YouTube where it would be divided into parts - mostly because I could never catch it on TV because I knew it was the sort of show my parents would hate if they caught me watching. I become very obsessed though and have fond memories of meeting friends through Zim and bonding over the show together. Ever since then it’s been something that’s always been a part of me and impacted me in many ways. Every so often I get back into it like it’s a sleeper agent. I think Zim ages well when you get older so I find it equally as entertaining as an adult if not more, as I did when I was a preteen.

I think one of my favorite tidbits of Zim production lore is how well the show did when it was shown to test children. Not sure if cartoons nowadays do this but children were used as a test audience, called by the studio to monitor their reactions to shows that are still in production. Invader Zim scored really well in this, I assume since this was the first test screening - they were shown the pilot episode. It was the highest positive reaction that executive producer, Mary Harrington ( who was the one to scout Jhonen ) had ever seen. After the initial test run, due to the rest of the people in the network being unsure - they kept testing Invader Zim with children and kept getting the same positive results. It’s really a “But are you sureee you like this?” Kinda response from the network- that promoted multiple testings. And yet Zim remained a hit among all the test children.

I love this fact. I love that my favorite unconventional kids show was so incredibly popular. And you know what else I love? That it's evidence that kids don't need or like the way society coddles them. One of the people making it (I can't remember which but I believe it was Eric Trueheart) said it themself in regards to these tests - kids are thrilled to see minor horror and dark humor. Putting kids in these (metaphorical) padded pastel boxes without any form of reality is just boring them and in many cases making them want to rebel.

Daniel Handler said something similar about A Series of Unfortunate Events. Kids liked the books because they felt like the stakes were more real because there wasn't an implicit promise that everything would turn out alright and because there's some catharsis in seeing a world that isn't sugar-coated in false promises about life being fair and just and adults being trustworthy, capable, and responsible caretakers.

Reblogging this post again bc Zim day!! Happy 23rd anniversary to Invader ZIM!