Roboparents

The Roboparents are Zim's robotic "parent" decoys, which he uses to appear more human (as Irkens do not appear to have actual families in the animated series). They are poorly built, and have a limited vocabulary, primarily consisting of "Welcome home, son!".

Summary
The Roboparents debuted in "The Nightmare Begins", and have shown up frequently throughout the series onwards. However, the episode "Parent Teacher Night" was their first major appearance, where they were upgraded by Zim to behave more parent-like. They also played a role in "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars" by distracting Zim from both piloting The Massive and monitoring the levels of the containment unit that housed a brain-eating monster.

Both "parents" seem oblivious to the fact that they're actually robots, and appear to think that they are actually Zim's parents. This was emphasized in the unfinished episode "Roboparents Gone Wild", when there is a malfunction and the Roboparents act as if they were Zim's real parents.

The Roboparents have made several small appearances in the comic series, such as greeting Zim when he returns from gloating to Dib in Issue 1, and helping him gather animals to attack Dib with in Issue 11. They also briefly cameo in Issue 9, where doing maintenance on them is one of the chores that Dib/"Derb" is tasked with as Zim's intern. In Issue 12, once transported to the future, Zim encounters heavily upgraded versions of the Roboparents, who are highly armored; they confront him upon approaching Emperor Zim's palace, and once they recognize him, escort him to a waiting room.

The Roboparents' biggest comic appearance to date is in Issue 19. They arrive in Ms. Bitters' class during a Jobs Day presentation by the Skoolchildren's parents, and present themselves as zookeepers (having been inspired by a commercial for the Town Zoo). When a suspicious Dib encourages the other kids to head to the zoo they supposedly work at, Zim hastily constructs one outside his base, containing poorly created fake animals which the Roboparents care for. However, since the animals are clearly fake, the Zoo Crimes Division decides that they're grifters and arrest them, carting them off to jail.

The Roboparents were implied to have been replaced in future appearances as Zim told Immola Krom that he had "Fresh Parents" in the cellar.

By Issue 23, the Roboparents are back, whether they were exact replicas or the originals that seem to have broken out of jail in a riot is unknown, whatever the case, they break the fourth wall to tell Dib he's not in that issue, becoming the first characters other than Recap Kid to do this.

They also appear in Issue 24, trying (and failing) to fool Dib that Zim's not home.

Robomom
Robomom started malfunctioning early on in the show; she often loses her eye and has faulty vocabulary.

In the episode "Backseat Drivers From Beyond the Stars", she became a shutterbug who loved snapping pictures of Zim, Robodad, and whatever other thing amused her. She once mistook Gaz for a boy, much to Gaz's irritation.

Robomom wears overalls, yellow gloves, and a ballerina tutu, and has blue hair that is styled somewhat similarly to Zim's human wig. She also has wheels, like Robodad. Robomom was voiced by Mo Collins. In the Spanish dub, she was voiced by Rocío Prado.

Robodad
Robodad is Zim's other robot parent decoy. He has glasses and wears a vest over his shirt, and always has a pipe with him. Unlike Robomom, he has clearly-mechanical clamps for hands.

Robodad lost his arm in the episode "Parent Teacher Night", which Zim then covered up by claiming that his "father" had lost his real arm in "the war". Taking it from there, Robodad began to dramatically lament the loss of his "squeezing arm". Later, he became obsessed with spending "quality time" with Zim in the episode "Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars", and would do anything to have it, including "playing in the toilet." Robodad was voiced by Michael McDonald. In the Spanish dub, he was voiced by Carlos del Campo.

Sightings
Robot-padres de Zim