GIR (Invader Zim)

Invader Zim Character
name = GIR


race = Robot
gender = assumed to be male
relatives = none
appearance = Pilot
age = Around 1 to 2 years
voiceactor = Rosearik Rikki Simons

GIR is one of the main characters from the animated television series "Invader Zim". He is a robotic servant of the show's main character Zim, constructed from scrap parts and given to Zim by the Almighty Tallest instead of a regular SIR (Standard-issue Information Retrieval) unit. GIR is voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons. The character GIR has featured in the main storyline in two episodes, Invasion of the Idiot Dog Brain, and GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff, and plays minor roles in almost all other episodes.

Origin

GIR's creation takes place in the series' first episode. When Zim requests a SIR Unit from his leaders, the Almighty Tallest, the Tallest, not wanting to give Zim a fully-functioning unit, offer him a new "secret model," which they claim they made just for him. They then assemble a robot with parts from a garbage can, and put whatever they happen to have in their pockets into its head instead of a brain. Upon activation, the robot introduces itself as "GIR" then starts hitting itself.

GIR: "GIR, reporting for duty!" Zim: "GIR? What does the "G" stand for?" GIR: "I don't know!.......... whooo hoo hoo!" Zim: "Um...is it supposed to be stupid?" Purple Tallest: "It's not stupid. It's advanced!"

Other than the manifestation of personality in GIR, the only differences between GIR and regular SIR units are the unique coloration of the the luminous parts of GIR's body (teal instead of red) and his cross-hatched mouth.

Personality

As a result of his ad-hoc construction, GIR is the only SIR unit in the TV series to display a personality. This involves an almost complete inability to focus on his instructions for long periods of time. He reliably displays a complete lack of cogent thought, making him generally useless and sometimes hazardous to Zim, although he occasionally offers genuinely useful insights into Zim's activities.

Every now and then he reverts to normal S.I.R. behavior (referred to as Duty Mode), during which time his cyan components or sometimes only his eyes become red and his voice becomes much deeper and menacing, but these periods are normally short-lived, usually lasting only long enough for him to say a sentence. During the episode "GIR Goes Crazy and Stuff", Zim manages to permanently set GIR on Duty Mode, but the result was that he became intelligent enough to realize that Zim was an incompetent invader and developed a desire to eliminate him as a threat to the mission.

When GIR shuts down, all of his cyan parts turn gray and he reverts to lifelessness. In public on earth, GIR's most common disguise is a green dog suit that squeaks, with a visible zipper down the front, emphasising the stupidity of most of the humans. Another disguise is one that looks like a human child with an extremely large head, and another that looks like a government agent by the name of "Government Man" another is one supposed to be a Jolly Elf from "The Worst X-Mas EVER!". He has also used other disguises, in the end of the episode "Tak the Hideous New Girl" he wears a suit resembling Tak's S.I.R. unit's black cat costume.

Unlike Zim, GIR doesn't mind getting involved with typical Earth culture; in fact in some episodes he admits to loving Earth. GIR has a strong love of Earth snacks, such as tacos, taquitos, candy, chocolate bubblegum, waffles, cupcakes, tuna, biscuits, chicken with mayo, pizza,
slush-style drinks (named in the scripts to be Suckmonkeys)Fact|date=July 2008, mashed potatoes,muffins, and corn. He can eat them, even though he is a robot. He is also shown becoming fat in "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" after stealing all of the Halloween candy from trick-or-treating kids. Despite his sub par disguises, GIR is actually quite good at blending in with the humans due to his behavior being similar with theirs.

He is seen in most episodes sitting on the couch, in his dog suit. Most of the time, he utters, in a slow, awed voice "I love this show", no matter what he is watching.

"Bloody GIR"

"Bloody GIR" is an Easter Egg visible in several episodes of the television series "Invader Zim". Bloody GIR was born when Nickelodeon refused to allow a scene involving GIR covered with blood. The crew inserted the forbidden image into single frames in a few episodes.Post production supervisor Jason Stiff has confirmed that the image appears in "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy". [Cite web | url=http://www.buzzyworld.com/zim/askjason/ | title="Ask Jason" section on Buzzyworld "There is one in the portal in Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy" | date=2 July, 2006 | accessdate=2007-05-08 | format=HTML] The existence of bloody GIR has been confirmed by director Steve Ressel in interviews. The frames were reportedly scattered throughout the episodes following "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy" by Ressel and Chris Graham. Bloody GIR can be seen the most clearly during the opening in "Mortos Der Soulstealer", when the purple pipe from Zim's house gets very close to your TV screen. In fact, it is almost in plain sight.

"The bloody GIR was the single frame drawing that Chris Grahams drew and I was putting it 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 shows. We tried to get him put into "GIR's Rubber Piggy" when the last pig goes through the portal: that was the first one and I don't think it stayed..you have to check...if it is there it is faint." -Steve Ressel [cite web | url=http://www.buzzyworld.com/zim/archives/bloodygir.html | title=Information about Bloody GIR with input from Steve Ressel | accessdate=2007-05-08 | format=HTML]

According to Ressel, Nickelodeon never discovered a Bloody GIR before the episode aired. [cite web | url=http://www.buzzyworld.com/zim/archives/askstevearchives.html#111103 | title="Ask Steve" section on Buzzyworld | date=11 November, 2003 | accessdate=2007-05-08 | format=HTML]

ee also

*List of characters in Invader Zim

References