Simons was the color designer for the animated TV show Invader Zim, and also voiced the robot character of GIR on the show. Show creator Jhonen Vasquez wanted someone with no experience in voice acting to play the part of GIR, as a reflection of how broken and messed up GIR really is. Vasquez was disappointed with actors who auditioned for GIR saying they were "good actors" who just did a "stock crazy robot voice". Simons was Vasquez's friend and was working on I Feel Sick with him, and he asked Simons to try to audition for GIR, saying he "couldn't screw it up anymore than anyone else".
Simons did a few different voices for his audition for GIR, including one where he was trying to imitate his mother-in-law, but decided it was too "shrieky". He then remembered when he used to play with hand puppets with his father as a kid and tried to do one of those voices. Vasquez said he gave Simons the part of GIR because he was "bad at it", and that fit the character. When voicing GIR, Simons' voice was edited to make it sound higher-pitched and metallic. While Simons eventually learned to perform the voice without the high-pitch editing, the metallic quality still had to be added. Unedited versions of Simons' voice-overs can be heard in voice recordings for the unfinished episodes.
Simons said in a 2004 interview that he approached the role of GIR "by pretending (which didn't take much effort) that it wasn't a job... A lot of people comment that I sound like I was just making things up on the spot. That's partly true, but I'm not a voice actor... while I did the voice-actor thing of taking his direction on inflection and I read the lines provided, I was really having the best time ever just yelling and screaming and being stupid."

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