Professor Membrane

Professor Membrane, also known as Dad, is one of the main characters from the Invader Zim series.
== Charactah Account ==
The father (at least allegedly) of Dib Membrane and Gaz Membrane. He is a scientist who also hosts the Show Within a Show Probing the Membrane of Science. He keeps a very busy schedule, to the point he can only manage to eat dinner with his children once a year.
Although his parenting skills seem to be missing in action, he really does love his kids, taking time at least once a year for dinner together—and always remembering to activate the food monitor. In "Future Dib", he invented a device that would supply unlimited energy to the entire planet, but refused to activate it unless his children were there to share the moment.
Membrane is somewhat embarrassed of his son's belief in the paranormal, refusing to call it a "proper" branch of science. However, he believes Dib's obsession is just a phase (or as he speaks of it, "temporary insanity"), that Dib will eventually grow out of, and allows his son to do as he pleases to an extent.
== Appearance ==
=== Cartoons ===
* Invader Zim
* Invader Zim Season 2
=== Comics ===
* Invader Zim
* Invader Zim Quarterly
* Invader Zim Quarterly Collection: Oodles of Doom
* Invader Zim Treasury Edition
* Invader Zim TruthShrieker
* Nickelodeon Magazine
=== Movies ===
* Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus
=== Video Games ===
* Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway
* SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom
== Trivia ==
* Professor Membrane's voice actor is Rodger Bumpass, who also provides the voice of Squidward on SpongeBob SquarePants.
** Bumpass also portrayed Nightmare Bitters in "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" and ironically the alien Spleenk in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars".
* In TruthShrieker, it is revealed that his last name is Membrane.
* The Professor was the final member of his family to have met Zim and by extension possibly the first scientist to have met an alien, though he is unaware of this fact as he thinks Zim to be a child with a skin condition.
* Professor Membrane knows Zim as Dib's "little foreign friend" which makes sense as he (somewhat erroneously) believes that he is from another country rather than another planet (this could refer to the fact that "alien" is also a synonym for "immigrant").
** He does believe in the existence of extraterrestrials, though does not believe they have visited Earth, as he said in one episode that if there truly were aliens in space then they would be too far away to travel the massive distance to our planet.
* Jhonen Vasquez revealed that Professor Membrane is rich, which makes sense seeing as he has his own TV Show "Probing the Membrane of Science", creates several inventions that he most likely patented, has two labs, one downtown and the other in the basement in his house and it is hinted in "Future Dib" that he also gets funding from the government as he is friends with President Man.
* He doesn't allow Dib to use his tools for his "para-science", as stated in the Halloween episode. However, this is contradicted in "NanoZIM", when he allows Dib to use his Nanoship, although it's possible that the Professor made these restrictions after an unseen event in the series, maybe the above mention of bringing the dead back from the grave.
* The Professor has a lever built into his home for restoring power to the entire city, in the (apparently frequent) event that his son causes a city-wide blackout.
* In "Battle-Dib", it's revealed in his autobiography that the professor's first sentient thought was "I will poop now". However, this could be false information fed to Dib by Gaz, who was attempting to sabotage him, as another kid quickly tried to correct her, but was pushed away.
* In "Future Dib", there was going to be a future version of himself who is presented as a head in a jar in a floating robotic body, as seen from the concept art by Aaron Alexovich. This was probably inspired by Futurama, which had a similar concept in which the heads of famous people are kept alive in the 31th century by being preserved in jars.
* Since the Nanoship's controls he created that were seen in "NanoZIM" strongly resembles the Game Slave, it may hint that Professor Membrane is a bit of a gamer himself. Another clue was in "Game Slave 2", when he said that "video games develop hand eye coordination, and make kids into better human beings!", and later in Issue 1 of the comics he was seen playing a video game with Gaz.
* The Professor calls Gaz his "funny child" and sometimes he even calls her "honey". He sometimes even calls her by her name which he never does to Dib, implying that she is his favorite child and may be protective of her.
** The feeling must be mutual since unsurprisingly, because The Professor is Gaz's favorite family member.
* Jhonen Vasquez has said in the commentary for "Future Dib" that he had trouble with one of Professor Membrane's colleagues calling Dib and Gaz his "roommates" rather than his kids as he feels that joke while it does highlight him as an absent figure in their lives he does love his children.
* In the unmade episode "Mopiness of Doom", Professor Membrane could actually tell Dib was unhappy following his turn towards "real" science, since a formula he got from him was incorrect and the Professor believed it was a "cry for help", and for once gave him some fatherly advice. Of course, this just ends up backfiring as he unintentionally encouraged his son to be a paranormal investigator once more.
* Despite the Professor not recognizing Dib and often being embarrassed by his "para-science" he does love his son as Jhonen Vasquez has said that without his father, Dib would've been dead long ago, one example of this could be seen in "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy" when he made the MegaBoy 3000 to save his son's life.
* The Professor has a little handmade puppet version of himself and seems to have a talent for ventriloquism. However, this may just be because his mouth is covered by his clothing.
* In "The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever", during a flashback when the Professor was a kid, he sounds as if he's already an adult.
* In "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom", he appears as a nightmare monster along with Gaz.
* In the series Professor Membrane is scrawny with a single scythe looking hair. However, in Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, he seems to have a full set of hair and gained some weight.
** In the movie it's also revealed that Professor Membrane has robotic arms, his real ones having apparently been lost to sharks he tried to befriend as a child.
* The scene in Enter the Florpus where Professor Membrane yells "Not scientifically possible!" at a random crowd member quickly became a meme.
* Professor Membrane and Hobo 678 are the only known characters who have robotic implants, however how they lost their arm(s) is vastly different.
* Melissa Fahn played Professor Membrane during InvaderCON 1, as Roger wasn't invited as a guest at the time.
* Professor Membrane's name is based off of a membrane, a thin film-like structure that separates two fluids.
* Professor Membrane may well be a very vain individual, considering how highly he talks of himself and his studies. Not only that, but he has a lamp of himself in his own home.
* Jhonen Vasquez chose to make Professor Membrane a scientist so Dib could have access to advanced technology he could use against Zim's advanced Irken Technology.
* Despite Professor Membrane being a single father, there is no evidence that he was ever married; there is no mention of Dib and Gaz's mother at any point in the series, nor are there any pictures of her in the Membrane household. Eric Trueheart has said that Dib was going to go on a quest to find out why his life was so horrible and eventually discover that he's a clone of his father, which would explain why there is no Mrs. Membrane, as his children were created by the use of his DNA alone.
* Professor Membrane has made it clear that he'll do anything if it's stated to be "for science", no matter how morally questionable. It's how he justifies imprisoning Gaz and turning her into a media freak during "Gaz, Taster of Pork", and in Issue 5, Gaz weakly using it as her reasoning for finding a dimension ruled by gamers and imprisoning Dib in it is enough to get Membrane to go along with it.
* In Issue 16, he allows Dib to use an experimental Fear Siphon, despite admitting it's not safe for human use yet. Combined with the above mentions of doing anything "for science", this implies the Professor has a very loose set of morals.
** This issue also shows that, despite being a man of science, he seems to be unaware that humans have already landed on the moon, as he states that the Fear Siphon's slurry could one day be used as fuel to reach the moon. However, in Issue 32, he claimed to be needed there and made it with nothing more than his lab coat and a space helmet, which could imply that the Fear Siphon was involved in his ability to travel, but is most likely merely another case of the series' loose continuity ignoring a previously established fact for the sake of a gag.
* In the YouTube series "Good to Evil" Professor Membrane was (erroneously) ranked as the most evil character in Invader Zim. Although, he wasn’t much a villain nor a pure evil character in the series.
* In the YouTube series "Cartoon Scientists: Dumb to Brilliant" Professor Membrane was ranked as the third smartest scientist in cartoon history only losing to Professor Farnsworth from Futurama and Rick Sanchez from "Rick and Morty."
* In Issue 44, it's revealed that the Professor has an RV with his hairstyle on top of it.
** In the same issue, it's shown that he thinks that Minimoose is one of "nature's deformities", which would explain why no one questions why he's purple or can float.
** It's revealed in the same issue that the Professor is surprisingly skilled at skiing.
** This issue marks the first time that Professor Membrane doesn't wear his lab coat and instead wears winter clothing.
* A flashback to Membrane's childhood in Quarterly 3, specifically the origin of his hatred of Santa Claus, shows his parents for the first time. Interestingly, his mother's hairstyle is the same as his, while his father's looks similar to Gaz's.
* He has a mixed reaction from the fanbase. Many praise him for his sense of humor, while others criticize him for being a bad father by not supporting his kids enough and that he cares more about science than his own children. Some fans think he is the reason why Dib and Gaz rarely ever get along.
== Gallery ==
File:Professor Membrane Render 01.png
File:Professor Membrane Render 02.png
File:Professor Membrane Render 03.png
File:Professor Membrane Render 04.png
File:Professor Membrane 01.png
File:Professor Membrane 02.png
File:Professor Membrane 03.png
File:Professor Membrane Fan Art 01.png
== External Links ==
* Professor Membrane at Invader ZIM Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Invader Zim