The central protagonist and Straight Man to the constant shenanigans surrounding her, Carly is a relatively normal highschooler. At least, as normal as you can be when you're an Internet celebrity in a Dan Schneider TV series.
All Women Are Prudes: Personified in a kid-friendly way with her overall naivete.
Is going by the wayside with the reams of random boyfriends Carly has had into Season 5, to the point where she gets 'itchy' about not having kissed a guy in 4 months.
Good Is Not Dumb: In general, but averted in iStill Psycho where her acceptance to go back in the Dershlits' house made the gang their prisoners once more, and then again when she believed Mr. Dershlit was even sane enough to let them go.
The Kirk: The 'choose between the McCoy and Spock' aspect of this trope comes directly into play in iDate Sam & Freddie where Carly is constantly put in the middle of Sam and Freddie's fights, until it overwhelms her and she tells them they shouldn't be dating unless they can fix their problems themselves.
Ms. Fanservice: Her dancing dress in iDream of Dance, being clad a bikini in the skit of iHatch Chicks, being in a sports bra and boxing shorts in iFight Shelby Marx, being bound and gagged by Sam in iSpeed Date, wearing a sleeveless blouse and skimpy shorts in iBeat the Heat... Much moreso with how she dresses during her dates and being stranded in a bathtub for most of an episode.
Pettanko: Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with a little help. She's getting curvier every day!
Carly's best friend and petite blonde co-host of the iCarly webshow. In this Power Trio, Sam very definitely takes on the "Brawn" side: she's aggressive, violent and eats everything. She has a very tenuous relationship with her mom, who was She Who Must Not Be Seen until finally introduced in Season 4, played by none other than Jane Lynch.
Crazy-Prepared: Having spare blowtube guns tucked inside her socks also makes her a...
Combat Pragmatist: Mama doesn't play to get even. Mama plays to win.
Cute Bruiser: She's widely acknowledged as the toughest kid in school, took down a bully twice her size and ripped the chain lock off the door when chasing Freddie in iKiss. Not to mention she only failed to catch him because she was towing Gibby and didn't seem winded by it.
Escapist Character: While Carly appears to be one as for her webshow fame, Sam overshadows her in terms of increasing "talents" and Chekhovs Skills: singing, dancing, lockpicking, even art. It would even be nigh unheard of Sam's Badass-Jerkass tendencies being glorified and being able to run away from it. True, she's caught several times, but her arrests are shrugged off as Played for Laughs.
Hypocrite: Openly reprimands Gibby for bringing a few fatcakes from Canada to U.S.A. (which is deemed illegal) wherein she has several belts hidden under her jacket strapped with several kilos of fatcakes.
Informed Ability: The tie-in blogs of other characters (usually Freddie) have Sam 'hack' them and make reference to Sam's ability with technology.
Irony: Her attempt to intentionally smuggle fatcakes from Canada caused her to hide in a mistaken trolley bag, unintentionally causing her to be smuggled into Asia instead.
Jerk Ass Woobie: Has her moments, such as at the end of iSpeed Date.
Jerk Justifications: Type 3. That's just the way she is, and isn't going to change.
Kick the Dog: Don't get us started with all the crap she pulls on Freddie.
The Friend Nobody Likes: For Freddie and Gibby and anyone else who might be friends with Carly, Sam is this. Because of Type 1 Seniority, Type 3 Fear and Type 7 Audience Popularity.
The Lad-ette: Sam is this minus the sex and drinking (maybe) because, well, it's a kid show (kinda).
Ms. Fanservice: As Jennette McCurdy grew up it enabled Sam to fulfill the trope without having to be girly. Her form-hugging shirts/pants from Season 3 onwards just show it.
Precocious Crush: In iGet Pranky, Sam admits she has a "little crush" on Spencer.
Progressively Prettier: Starting in Season 4 after they stopped with the Suppressed Mammaries, and staying so during Season 5 with many of the outfits worn during the Seddie arc.
Stun Guns: She uses a shock pen in "iStill Psycho".
Suppressed Mammaries: Started around Season 2. In Season 3 it was in full effect, with obvious strapping down and buried under multiple layers of Tomboyish clothes. In Season 4 they gave up and now Sam occasional wears clothes that show off her figure.
Third-Person Person: Sometimes refers to herself as "Mama", especially when she's feeling angry or competitive — more than usual.
What the Hell, Hero?: Carly does this to Sam in iKiss, when she explains to Sam how her exposing Freddie's secret has utterly ruined his reputation and made it impossible for him to leave his house without people making fun of him. Sam, at first, shrugs this off, until Carly makes her realize that she went too far, even for her.
The cameraman and general tech-support guy for iCarly, as well as Carly's other best friend. He is an all-around nice guy, along with growing up under the wing of his overbearing mother Marissa Benson.
Ensemble Darkhorse: In-Universe, when the trio go to Webicon, he's clearly far more popular than either girl. He gets mobbed by fangirls. Carly and Sam don't get anywhere near that level of attention, and most of the fan questions revolve around which of them is or should be dating Freddie.
Establishing Character Moment: Showing up as the Dogged Nice Guy and minor Stalker with a Crush on Carly, by running out from spying on her through the peephole to pick up the bottle of water she dropped. iPilot also serves as an establishing character episode, as he is a Butt Monkey during the entire freaking episode and doesn't get a single thing go his way.
Mr. Fanservice: As just himself. With all the girls that are attracted to him (named below in Hollywood Dateless), if he didn't want Carly, Freddie would be a full-on Kidanova.
Even lampshaded in-universe when he parodied the angsty vampire FredwardCullen.
Don't forget that they're really kicking up the Mr. Fanservice vibe by constantly having him in the short sleeve shirts that would immediately mark him as a nerd - if it wasn't obvious that he's been spending some decent time on the free weights.
He Is All Grown Up: Remember when Nathan Kress was scrawny and had a high voice? Where it was completely acceptable to think that in iPilot Freddie was 2 or 3 years younger than Carly? Yeah, those days are incredibly over.
Hollywood Dateless: Averts both sides of the trope, by attracting regular girls on several occasions, but not being thought of by people (except Sam) as being completely inept. Valerie, Shannon, Rona, Leslie, Melanie, Carly, Magic Malika, Sabrina, the fangirls at Webicon, Patrice and Sam all show varying levels of interest in Freddie over the course of the series. He then dated Carly in iSaved Your Life and was in a temporary (four episode arc) relationship with Sam.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: In progress, as per the trope, it's played for laughs on the show. However, Mrs. Benson takes My Beloved SmotherUp to Eleven, their relationship can be quite bizarre, and will likely result in memories on par with the likes of Jeff from Coupling.
Informed Flaw: Freddie's general nerdiness. The second he hit puberty, it became harder to play those straight.
Unlucky Childhood Friend: He was about 16 years old when he finally managed to get Carly, for a week before he Anchored Ship because he wasn't sure if it was real. Carly says in that episode that Freddie wanted Carly to be his girlfriend since the first time they met. That's probably anywhere from 6 to 8 years (depending on when they first met) of being unlucky.
Carly's quirky older brother and legal guardian, as their parents are off doing Godknowswhat (Mr. Shay is explicitly in the armed forces, but that's all that's been said). He is a sculptor of some sort, but easily out-wacky-hijinxes the younger characters despite his more-advanced age.
Big Brother Instinct: Despite his rather aloof personality, he shows potential of being Carly's guardian, especially in "iWanna Stay With Spencer", when Carly and Spencer's grandfather claimed Spencer was an unfit guardian, and tries to take Carly. Upon leaving, Spencer stops them to give them Carly's inhaler, despite she's never had one in years, stating that asthma is tricky. This convinces their grandfather to let Carly stay with Spencer.
In "iLook-a-Like", Spencer is shown in a much more mature demeanor, actually saying no to Carly for once when she asked to do iCarly at an MMA fight. When Carly demanded when Spencer become 'uncool', Spencer coldly retaliated by calling her out on 'acting a baby whenever she doesn't get what she wants'. In fact, he became highly pissed off when he discovered she actually sneaked out to see the fight.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite all his weirdness, he was able to pick up enough during his three days at law school (and the book on law he kept) to help the gang out of just about any legal mishap they get themselves in very effectively. It was even given quite a Shout Out in iPromote Techfoots when he acted as the gang's lawyer and wore a bizarre necktie.
The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: In one episode, he spent the entire episode thinking a character from Galaxy Wars was going to show up and give him a hug, he was right.
Epic Fail: His Running Gag is that the mundane objects he fixes, sculpts, or (at the very least) touches become extremely prone to bursting into flames, bypassing any form of scientific logic. He even lampshades the more outlandish ones.
This trait of his was Deconstructed by being Played for Drama in iGot A Hot Room when a lamp that Spencer gives to Carly bursts into flames, destroying her room.
iChristmas did the same from, but from Carly's perspective.
He even poses as Pam Puckett in iLost My Mind to break Sam out of the mental hospital.
Orenthal "Gibby" Cornelius Gibson
Portrayed by: Noah Munck
Appearing as a minor character when the series began, Gibby is among the main trio's friend and schoolmate and a frequent Butt Monkey guest in the webshow. As the show progressed, he was slowly developed to be one of the gang's most loyal friends and a usual sidekick to Carly's eccentric big brother Spencer.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Gibby handles himself rather well during iPsycho in a fight against the crazed fangirl Nora, and had the upper hand until Sam stepped in to finish Nora off.
Let's Get Dangerous: When he confirms that Nora had captured his best friends, his action is to go from Cloudcuckoolander to busting down her locked door and engaging her in a brawl throughout her house.
Just when it looks like Nora's defeated Gibby, he takes off his shirt. Cue triumphant music.
Promoted Fanboy: Is a huge fan of the British boy band One Direction and got to sing with them as a ploy to get their lead singer to stop pretending to be sick so he could keep staying at Carly's and be nursed by her.
Running Gag: Alternates from being shirtless or slow-witted during the first few seasons. When he became a main character, his shirtless scenes are ditched in favor of being unable to decipher a joke or a pun (which he averts by solving the gang's coded message by himself in iPsycho).
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Despite being very young, he's obviously a pretty good computer tech or hacker or designer and such, and could probably make more money making websites if he didn't bother trying to shut down iCarly.com with various wacky schemes.
Stalker with a Crush: Towards Carly. It gets super creepy in one scene where he's shown to have setup a series of monitors looping close up shots of Carly from the webshow.
Sympathy for the Devil: After hitting rock bottom on a viral video that disgraced himself, the iCarly gang of all people is the one he approached to ask help in restoring his good name.
Disproportionate Retribution: Chuck makes Spencer's life a living hell by locking him in a crate and spraying a suspicious liquid at him. He, also, beats on Spencer every chance he gets; the reason: Spencer requested Chuck to stop playing racquetball (which WAS against the rules) in an apartment building and Chuck ignored him. When Spencer told Mr. Chambers, Chuck's dad grounded him for two weeks.
Characterization Marches On: Remember his first appearance on iDate a Bad Boy? You know, the one where he coaxed Spencer into buying bagels by calling him a jerk?
Ax Crazy: Lampshaded in-universe. She is completely insane, and at one point is wielding an ax.
As shocking as it sounds, she's worse in iStill Psycho.
Batman Gambit: In iStill Psycho especially. Her plan depended on so many things- the iCarlys forgiving her and agreeing to go to her house, the judge paroling her, Spencer picking them up and needing to use the bathroom, etc.
Comically Missing the Point: She fails to realize any metaphor of insanity directed at her. But she's well aware of her insanity in iStill Psycho, she just doesn't care.
Dark Action Girl: While she's not all that attractive, she's no slouch when it comes to fighting and engages Gibby in a rather brutal fight and holds her own.
Face Heel Turn: While technically starting as a Woobie fan, she later turned into the episode's deranged Big Bad.
Freudian Excuse: She has no friends, her parents left her alone on her birthday (apparently something she's used to happening), and she's had a pretty horrible life. Though this isn't nearly enough to justify her actions in iStill Psycho and it turns out her family is just as psychotic as she is.
I Just Want to Have Friends: Is a lonely girl with only her chicken to talk to... so she decides to kidnap the iCarly crew under the delusion that they're her friends.
Insistent Terminology: Nora despises any other words to describe her insanity. She prefers being called a "disturbed, lonely sociopath".
In the Blood: iStill Psycho reveals that her parents are just as Ax Crazy as she is.
I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Kidnaps Spenser and traps him in her basement on a giant wheel, spinning him if the iCarly gang does anything she doesn't agree with. She even threatens to kill him if they go too far.
Loony Fan: Her obsession with iCarly makes Mandy look sane by compairson.
Manipulative Bitch: In both of her appearences, she plays up her Freudian Excuse to trick the iCarly gang to do as she wants them to, not revealing her true motivations until they're already in her trap.
Never My Fault: Blames the iCarly gang for "ruining" her birthday party, when it was her own fault for kidnapping them in the first place.
Nora: The correct term is disturbed, lonely sociopath.
Villainous Breakdown: Between appearences, she got a lot crazier as a result of being locked up in prison. She also begins to lose it quite a bit towards the end of iStill Psycho.
Cerebus Retcon: The previous 'wacky' behaviour Sam talks about is retconned into something serious and Played for Drama when she shows up in her episode iSam's Mom.
Too Dumb to Live: The woman drove her car after getting eyedrops that distorted her vision, causing her to crash through a wall. Sam and Melanie were born on a bus because she took one while having labor pains instead of calling a cab.
The Unseen: Spent 3 and a bit seasons as one, before being revealed in the episode iSam's Mom.
