I Carly / Tropes A to E

aka: Tropes A-E

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#-A

• 13 Is Unlucky: In "iScream On Halloween", the apartment believed to be haunted is numbered 13-B.
• Above the Influence: "iSaved Your Life" features something similar to this trope, but not with Drugs/Alcohol. Freddie realizes that Carly is probably only in love with him because he saved her life, so he tells Carly they should wait a while, and see if she still has feelings for him later.
• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: Carly (and everyone else) repeatedly say "Yaki-MUH," as in "I'm not moving to Yaki-MUH." It's actually pronounced "Yakih-MAH." Apparently this was done deliberately. Also an odd case of Reality Is Unrealistic, since it's not an uncommon mispronunciation, though it's more common to southeastern Washington than metropolitan Seattle.
• Accidental Pervert: In "iLost My Mind", Spencer runs out into the hall, pantsless, calling after Carly to bring back some more olive oil. There he is met with an old lady, a child, and a nun. The old lady pepper sprays him.
• Actor Allusion: Tons, since the actors/actresses have also been cast in earlier Dan Schneider shows.
  • "iBloop" alludes to Miranda Cosgrove's previous role as Megan in Drake & Josh by having Drake Bell randomly appear on set and address her as Megan, before asking where Josh & their parents were, and who Mrs. Benson was.
    Drake: Hey, Megan! Where's Josh?
  • In "iGet Pranky", it is revealed that Carly has never pulled a practical joke. After being pressured by Sam and Freddie, she unsuccesslly attempts to prank Gibby. Later in the show, she's shown watching TV, and you can hear the final scene of the Drake & Josh episode "Megan's Revenge" when Megan (who is well-known for her pranking) causes an explosion that makes the floor under Drake and Josh collapse. Carly sighs, saying "How come that little girl is so good at pranking?"
  • In "iToe Fatcakes", Carly watches a Megan-centric scene of the Drake & Josh episode "The Peruvian Puff Pepper" before flipping to another channel.
    Carly: Seen it. (flips to another channel)
  • Nathan Kress, who plays Carly's leading man, had a guest role in the aforementioned show where he hits on Megan (played by Cosgrove) to no avail. Dan Schneider liked his performance so much that Nathan's scene was cut from the episode and was immediately cast as the male lead for Miranda's new show, iCarly. Guess how Nathan's role began on the show.
  • In "iPilot", Carly watches an episode of Grey's Anatomy in which Nathan was a guest star; while that happens, Sam pulls Freddie from his legs into Carly's room.
  • The character of Sam Puckett is based off Jennette McCurdy's guest role in Zoey 101 where she also played Trisha Kirby, a very mean girl. While Trisha doesn't appear as violent as Sam, she is definitely as delinquent, lazy and precocious as Sam, and how pushy she comes off as and she also failed a grade. It could be said that she is a form of an Ascended Extra, except its a different show and character.
  • Jerry Trainor, who plays Carly's older brother Spencer, had various goldfish as pets, which seems to allude to this short film
    • In "iGet Pranky", Spencer watches "The Storm" (the part where Crazy Steve, also played by Jerry Trainor, watches Dora the Explorer). Lampshaded by Carly after she turns off the TV:
      Spencer: Hey, why'd you turn that off?
      Carly: I'm turning you off!
  • Jeremy Rowley played the little crazy hat man who served as a distraction from big hairy moles on The Amanda Show. He now plays Lewbert.
  • Victoria Justice's guest star in "iFight Shelby Marx" is alluded to in "iParty With Victorious" when Sam points out Victoria Justice's character, Tori Vega's, similarity to Shelby Marx.
  • In "iParty with Victorious", Sam remarks that Marissa hadn't had a date since Seinfeld got cancelled, to which Marissa remarks, "It wasn't cancelled! Jerry chose not to do another season!" Mary Scheer (Marissa's actress) had 2 guest roles on Seinfeld.
  • Tim Russ, who was Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager, plays Principal Franklin. In "iOMG" he says the line "Study hard and prosper".
  • Jack Black's character talks about wanting to tenaciously flog Spencer, a reference to Jack Black's real life band, Tenacious D.
• Acquainted with Emergency Services: It's revealed that the fire department knows Spencer by name in "iGot a Hot Room".
• A-Cup Angst:
  • Carly's "flat-chestedness" has been humorously referenced in a few episodes.
  • In "iSaw Him First":
    Carly: What's that supposed to mean?
    Sam: Why won't you ask your new helping bra?
    Carly: (looks down and gasps) There's nothing wrong with a little help.
• Adaptation Decay: "iCarly Saves TV" involved the webshow being bought to produce for television. By the end of the episode, Freddie the producer had quit working on the show completely, they added a zany mascot, the Deadpan Snarker sidekick was fired too, and when the lead quit, she was replaced by a sitcom family, and they changed the title. Yet the network considered it the same show, despite not even being In Name Only.
• Adults Are Useless:
  • Heavily lampshaded in the series. Each adult has his or her own brand of eccentricity.
  • Sam's mother Pam is a very negligent and abusive parent, refusing to feed Sam at all and mostly spends her time chasing rich men with high-paying careers.
  • Subverted by Principal Franklin and occasionally Spencer, who are competent, if overly lenient.
• Advertised Extra:
  • Yes, Jack Black was in "iStart A Fanwar", but it was more about Creddie vs Seddie while he just gave Spencer something to do. However, it did have the memorable performance of him in true Large Ham fashion as an over-enthusiastic LARPer who said "damnation" in character and it actually survived the censors!
  • Emma Stone's cameo was built up as if it was part of the plotline. Instead she's in the episode for about a minute and has nothing to do with the plot. She just appears, goes crazy and the plot moves on after.
• An Aesop: In "iStart a Fan War", Carly declares the Word of God intention to focus on comedy instead of dating.
• Aesop Amnesia: Most of the time the characters don't even get past the end of the episode where they learn their lesson before forgetting it or deliberately ignoring it.
  • "iPromise Not To Tell": Sam uses the unattended computer of Principal Franklin to change the grade that Carly and Freddie got in a history class. At the end of the episode after revealing the truth, she accepts her punishment of 6 weeks detention, saying "she needs to learn her lesson". Principal Franklin walks out of the room, and Sam changes her detention.
  • Nevel in "iPity The Nevel". He spends the entire episode learning to be a better person after ending up on the internet insulting a little girl. At the end of the episode, he does the exact same thing that he just learned not to do.
  • "iDate Sam & Freddie" ends with Carly angrily giving the aesop to Sam in regards to her tormenting and clashing with Freddie, declaring that they should break up if they can't sort out their own issues themselves. The very episode "iCan't Take It" has Carly resolving another issue just to keep their dating afloat, with the only difference in the situations being that even though Sam was the one who caused his plights, Carly was the one who told Mrs. Benson and Gibby about it.
• Affably Evil: Nevel Papperman is polite and friendly despite his attempts to destroy iCarly because Carly refused to kiss him.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Spencer builds a security robot in "iOpen a Restaurant" that ends up going haywire and targeting himself, Carly, and Freddie.
• Air-Vent Passageway:
  • Spencer attempts to escape this way in "iGo to Japan" and fails miserably since it leads out to another vent of the same room.
  • Averted in the first season "iHatch Chicks" where Spencer tries to catch a chick that had gone into the duct system. When he tried to go in after it, he gets stuck with half his body sticking out.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • The central plot of the twopart special episode "iDate a Bad Boy". Griffin is a delinquent who stole the motorcycle that Carly bought for Spencer. Following a Slap-Slap-Kiss incident, Carly has a crush on him much to Spencer's chagrin and Freddie's jealousy. Carly and Sam even gush at the fact that Griffin is full of scars and he punched a hole on the wall due to anger. But all of his bad boy rep went downhill when Carly discovered his deep obsession over plush toys.
  • Gender Flip in "iMake Sam Girlier". Sam asks Carly to teach her how to behave like a real girl to catch the attention of her eye-candy Pete. While Sam does a good work in behaving "girly", Carly gets attacked by a bully which triggered Sam's Unstoppable Rage. Unfortunately, Pete saw how Sam wrestled with the bully, but it turns out he likes a girl "who kisses well and can break an arm if she wants to."
• Alliterative Name: Spencer Shay, Gibby Gibson and Chuck Chambers. Gibby's real name, however, is Orenthal.
• All Just a Prank: Subverted with Melanie in "iTwins". Her visit was NOT a prank, but Freddie has been tricked by Carly and Sam so many times that he is led to believe it was (he assumed Melanie was just Sam in disguise). In the end, Sam pretends that she was disguised as Melanie to get even with Freddie; not that the girls didn't do anything to prove she was real anyway.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Several love triangles in "iWin a Date": Reuben to Sam, Shannon to Freddie, and Gibby to Shannon.
• All Men Are Perverts: For a kids show, the main cast of males each have their moments, given that all 3 of them are also stepping on Chick Magnet territory. Spencer is already a quirky Handsome Lech since Season 1, Gibby has the makings of a pimp, and Freddie is becoming quite versed from watching the Animal Channel.
• Almost Kiss:
  • Occurs repeatedly throughout the third half of "iSaw Him First".
  • Happens In "iBeat The Heat" when Carly has a talk with Griffin in the hallway. He proceeds to kiss her, but she immediately declines mid-sentence.
  • Also In "iHate Sam's Boyfriend", Jonah attempts to kiss Carly in the middle of a conversation but she stops him and realizes he's cheating on Sam.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: To Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire, despite that the two shows are years apart from each other. Almost everything is a bit similar.
• Amateur Film-Making Plot: The B-plot of "iHate Sam's Boyfriend" involves Spencer trying to make a claymation movie called "The Alien, The Space Hamster, and the Burrito" for a contest. He spends all his time carefully making each individual frame, obsessing over the details, but his work is ruined by interference from Sam's boyfriend Jonah. As such, his 10-minute idea had to be shortened down to a rushed and plotless 20-second film thanks to the lack of time once he started over.
• Amazing Freaking Grace: Carly is quoted on the trope page due to her performance of this in iPie, where she stalls for time at a wake by singing.
  "Hey! Here's a fun song to sing when people die!"
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: While also My Beloved Smother, Mrs. Benson becomes this in "iMoveOut". First, she interrupts an iCarly webcast to bring Freddie the asparagus he didn't eat for supper, making him eat it while singing her vegetable song. This is done on camera in front of the iCarly audience. She later shows students at school his baby pictures.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • After the failed attempt to prank Spencer, Gibby asks "Did you hear my ribs crack?"
  • In "iCan't Take It":
    Gibby: Sam dislocated my breastbone!
  • Freddie gets these a lot.
    THERE'S A FORK IN MY SHOULDER!!!!
• Angrish: Spencer's reaction when he gets home, only to see Carly and Griffin now in full lip-to-lip contact.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Carly does one of these as Freddie starts to believe that she only likes him because he saved her life. It doesn't work, and Freddie breaks up with her, despite Freddie having loved Carly since the day he met her.
• Anticipatory Breath Spray: Nevel, in his first appearance.
• Anti-Mentor: One episode has Carly turn to Spencer for art lessons after being unable to even draw a decent looking rabbit. Despite being a talented artist, his mentoring included tactics such as waking her up in the middle of the night to draw his foot (which was covered in a sticky green substance), making her draw hobos in the park, and a lecture on the history of the color yellow. Carly gets fed up and leaves for a different art teacher, however she turns out to not be much better as she only got so far as teaching the class to make straight and unconnected lines before Spencer calls her out on being uncreative.
• Anti-School Uniforms Plot: As part of Miss Briggs and Mr. Howards reign as co-principals during "iHave My Principals", they implement a blue-and-kahki uniform, showing their totalitarian attitudes about their new roles. While it's not the focus of the episode, it does portray uniforms as being a horrible punishment inflicted upon the students.
• Apple for Teacher: In "iSpy a Mean Teacher", a student tries to give Ms. Briggs an orange that he grew especially for her. She slaps it out of his hand and snarls "I hate citrus fruit!"
• Apple of Discord: The iCarly t-shirt in "iDon't Want to Fight"; Sam trading it to Rodney for Cuttlefish concert tickets is what causes Carly to call her out for giving away the friendship present she worked so hard on, igniting their feud for the episode.
• Arrowgram: In "iMeet Fred", the archery club informs Freddy that his is out of the club this way.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • "Made of a super-soft, thick luxurious fabric of some sort, the Sack comes in: rash red, mucus green, pus yellow and blue."
  • And in iOMG, Gibby asks what science has ever done for them. Carly says, "Artificial sweetners...man on the moon...liquid soap...".
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Spencer: "Do girls have bladders?"
  • Carly: "Do butts have muscles?"
  • Maurice the Chicken. Called a male name. Makes rooster sounds. Is actually a hen, a female.
• Artistic License – Geography: Carly's grandfather claims that it took ninety minutes to drive from Yakima to Seattle. If he added two to two-and-a-half hours more to that, then it would be more accurate.
• Artistic License – Law:
  • In iPromote Techfoots, they use Spencer's law school experience (all three days of it) to find a way out of their contract with the shoe company. Since Sam, Carly and Freddie are under age, any contract they sign is not legally binding anyway if their parent or guardian doesn't also sign it (unless Spencer, Sam's mother Pam or Freddie's mother Melissa signed it off-screen in which case the trio was contractually obligated to promote the hazardous techfoots that can erase your computer memory and give you electrical shocks).
  • In iOwe You, Principal Franklin claims that it's illegal to ask for money on the Internet without giving anything in return. In real life, this is only illegal if the person asking for money specifically offered something in return and didn't provide it after payment, a.k.a. fraud. Freedom of speech in the United States protects the ability to acquire money off the Internet solely because you asked for it. Politicians are known to ask for donations on the Internet without direct, immediate returns to donors so long as they promise to bring change to the area they're running for elections in the future. There are also websites such as GoFundMe that are specifically for making requests for money without exchange.
  • In the episode "iHave A Lovesick Teacher", Ms. Ackerman gets arrested by the FBI and goes to jail for illegally downloading thousands of songs from the internet to her PearPod. In real life, although it is a crime to illegally download music from the internet without paying for it, prison sentences for it are extremely rare, and you will usually end up being punished only with heavy fines, lawsuits, and court orders telling you to cease and desist. This is because most criminal prosecutors consider it a waste and practically pointless to actually prosecute downloading copyrighted material from the internet, especially if the perpretrator is not reproducing it and trying to sell it as their own work.
  • In "iShock America", Even if The Tonight Show was live, they would likely have a second or two lag so the censors can bleep out words or pixelize inappropriate images or nudity, such that happened with Gibby's pants falling off. Also, all of the legal issues of what goes out on the air is the legal responsibility of the show, not its guests, espcially if the camera continues to focus on the nudity for too long as it seems happened in the episode.
• Artistic License – Medicine: In "iWanna Stay With Spencer", It was revealed that Spencer kept Carly's asthma inhaler for seven years since she last had an attack. That inhaler should have been tossed out years earlier.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Gibby/Noah Munck. He was originally intended for only a few lines and a couple gags with him not wearing a shirt, but they loved him so much that by the 4th season, he's listed among the main cast!
  • T-Bo, also formerly a minor character, has been promoted a reoccurring character. While not credited as part of the main cast, he's still heavily featured in the opening as of season 5!
• Ascended Fanboy: Gibby 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.
• Ascended Meme: Again, iStart A Fan War using the Creddie and Seddie pairing names.
• As Himself:
  • Jerry Trainor in iBloop.
  • Plain White T's in "iRue the Day" and One Direction in "iGo One Direction"
  • In "iShock America", Jimmy Fallon and Steve Higgins from The Tonight Show. Also Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch both former castmates of Jimmy's on Saturday Night Live.
  • Rick and Corey Harrison as well as Chumlee from ''Pawn Stars' appear in the episode "iLost My Head in Vegas".
  • Kenan Thompson played himself in "iPary With Victorious". He even mentions his old show All That.
  • Guess who appears in "iMeet the First Lady"? Michelle Obama.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign:
  • Krustacia in "iSell Penny Tees" wasn't speaking Uzbek, but Russian. For that matter, her actress was Russian, too.
  • Freddie's random Spanish usually consists of legitimate Spanish words; although sometimes, as in iBeat The Heat ("tubos yellos") or iBelieve in Bigfoot ("El Foot-ah Gigantico") they are just Spanish-sounding nonsense and often without context.
• Ask a Stupid Question... and Sam will answer you.
  • In "iHatch Chicks":
    Carly: What's the temperature in here?
    Spencer: Seventy-two!
    Carly: Turn the heat up to ninety!
    Spencer: Ninety degrees?
    Sam: No, ninety pickles! Yes ninety degrees!
  • In "iPity The Nevel":
    Spencer: Papperman?
    Sam: No, Nevel Van Hooter-Schmoozen.
  • In "iParty With Victorious":
    Freddie: The famous Kenan Thompson?
    Sam: No, Kenan Thompson, the butt doctor!
  • Carly also tends to answer Sam like this, particularly in "iFence".
    Carly: (her phone is between her cheek and her shoulder) You know what's even weirder? The Dorfmens are coming and Spencer's not back yet!
    Sam: Did you try calling him?
    Carly: No Sam, I'm just keeping my cellphone warm here between my cheek and my shoulder!
• Attention Deficit... Yay, food! From iGot Detention:
  Freddie: Yeah, way to go Sam. You just ruined iCarly's 50th Web Show Spectac—ooh, popcorn!
  • Sam, in "iLost My Mind":
    Sam: Who cares, so I kissed you. So... so maybe I do like you a little bit. It doesn't matter 'cause there's no way I'd ever go out with you or be your little girlfriend and—dang this place makes good quesadillas.
• Author Appeal:
  • Lampshaded in one episode with a Running Gag of using duct tape.
    "Ha! More duct tape. I think this is like the third episode in a row that features the use of duct tape. No, the writers are not obsessed with duct tape. It's just a coincidence."
  • Bunnies. Dan Schneider owned a pet bunny himself named Cookie (which also appeared in iFight Shelby Marx). Ginger Fox has a pet bunny, while Sam once owned a bunny named Fluffles.
  • Names. The female characters all have normal names that you could walk down the street with. Male characters, on the other hand, tend to have some sort of Embarrassing First Name (Fredward, Lewbert, and Gibby, which Cornelius is an Embarrassing Middle Name; his embarrassing first name, Orenthal, was revealed in iStill Psycho), with the sole refugee being Spencer.
• Ax-Crazy:
  • Nora in iPsycho. She also held a medieval hatchet and a Nixon Mask that scared off the trio back to their incarceration.
  • iStill Psycho has her show up again. Not only is she even worse than before, it's revealed her parents are every bit as crazy as she is!

B

• Baby Don't Got Back: In the episode "iDo", while rattling of a list of Spencer's flaws, Sam mentions that that he has a flat butt. Spencer immediately thinks she went too far.
  "C'mon it's like two fresh apples back here!"
• Badass Adorable: Sam, a petite blonde, can kick anyone's butt. To an extent, Gibby's little bro Guppy also qualifies.
• Bad "Bad Acting": The store clerk's homemade pirate movies (possible Shout-Out of Blockblister). Also mercilessly lampooned on the webshow's fake movie trailers.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: iCarly Awards, when one of the titular statuette dolls is shown skirtless.
• Base-Breaking Character: invoked. An in-universe example is Sam in iBelieve In Bigfoot. Well, technically it's Bigfoot, but Sam does the actual base breaking, when the student body are having a number of civilized discussions about Bigfoot.
  Sam: Raise your hand if you think Bigfoot is real.
  <Half of the students raise their hand>
  Sam: Now everybody who thinks Bigfoot is not real, raise your hand.
  <The other half of the students raise their hand>
  Sam: Okay, about half & half. That means half of you are stupid. Discuss!
  <The students all burst into arguments with one another.>
  • Sam again, this time in iStart A Fanwar
    <After being asked if Carly & Freddie are dating, and the response leading to being asked if Sam & Freddie are dating>
    Sam: It's true - Carly & Freddie are deeply in love.
    <Riot ensues>
  • invoked Creddie vs Seddie comes up in iStart A Fan War in-universe.
• Battered Bouquet: In the episode "iSaved Your Life", Freddie gets injured when he pushes Carly out of the way of a truck (hence the title). Carly and Spencer visit him when he gets home from the hospital, bringing flowers. Mrs. Benson, who blames Carly for the accident, takes the flowers, and...
  Carly: What happened to the flowers?
  Mrs. Benson: I soaked them in bleach and pounded them with a mallet.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Spencer pulls this off to get to the vault containing the severed head of a company's founder in iTake On Dingo.
• Better as Friends: Sam with Freddie. At the end of iLove You, they mutually conclude that they just don't work as a couple and forced a romantic connection from a platonic one. She still cares for him (even in her own abusively twisted way), but they broke up and remained friends, obviously being Better as Friends at least for now.
• The Beard:
  • Carly is this in the Christmas episode. Nevel must not want his mother to find out. Or he's hopelessly confused about his sexuality.
  • There is also a minor character who asks Carly to be his girlfriend, and the dialogue seems to imply, by making it because his mother doesn't believe him about something regarding girls or a girlfriend, that this could be the main reason why.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Christmas Episode iChristmas. Carly wishes for Spencer to be normal, and an It's a Wonderful Life homage ensues, ending with Carly more appreciative than ever of her life.
• Big Blackout: Spencer's sculpture invokes this in iWant A World Record.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: iBelieve in Bigfoot deals with the title characters trying to prove Bigfoot exists. In the end, he steals their RV!
• Big "OMG!":
  • Spencer lets this loose when Sam's boyfriend Jonah ruins his claymation movie in iHate Sam's Boyfriend.
  • Carly, Sam, and Freddie also say this on various occasions.
  • In iGo To Japan, Freddie shouts the three-letter version when pushed out of the airplane by Sam.
  • There's an episode titled iOMG, the shocking Season 4 finale with a major plot twist.
    • Although the big reveal actually doesn't have a character say anything, just look shocked, which makes the episode itself, rather than anything anybody says, an embodiment of this trope.
  • You can hearing the full words in iGet Pranky when Spencer dropped 200lbs. of garlic powder on his classmates.
• Big "WHAT?!": Carly shouts three of these in a row in iWin a Date when she realizes Gibby chose her instead of Shannon.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
  • Missy in iReunite With Missy is this, acting sweet and innocent in front of Carly, but in actuality plotting to get rid of Sam as Carly's friend. Fortunately, Carly eventually catches Missy badmouthing Sam.
  • Chuck. He seems like a nice little kid but if you get him grounded, you'll regret it. He also uses his cuteness to take suspicion off of him.
  • Wade Collins from iRocked The Vote. He at first seemed like a meek and mild-mannered Nice Guy who just wanted to help his mother. However, when the iCarly try to help his music career he reveals his true colors as a rude, loathsome diva. Oh and his mother being sick? A lie he made up to get sympathy for the voters of America Sings.
• Bittersweet Ending: Happens in iGoodbye: Carly gets to go to Italy with her Dad, but she had to leave behind her friends to do so, and they can't do iCarly anymore, but on the bright side, Carly and Freddie finally fall in love.
• Bland-Name Product: Freddie's Samsun Gemini Max Pad phone is based off the Samsung Galaxy series of products, and the jokes come from how large his phone is. Both the Galaxy S3 smartphone is larger than some other phones, and Samsung also have the Galaxy Note, which is a 'phablet' sized smart phone.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
  • The main Power Trio is exactly this trope, only averted by Freddie's gender. Carly is the innocent, photogenic Beauty, Freddie is the tech-knowledgable Brains, and Sam is the Badass Adorable Brawn.
  • iReunite With Missy evokes this trope alongside Blonde, Brunette, Redhead. Carly and Sam are the beauty and brawn respectively, while Missy qualifies as the brains for staging a devious scheme to reenter into Carly's life.
• Beneath the Mask: Nevel is a polite, nice kid when within his mom's vicinity, but is a complete Jerkass outside of it.
• "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Carly to Sam, most especially when Sam quips that Carly made up the Fladoodles yet Mandy still found them.
• Better than a Bare Bulb: The shows writers include lampshades all over the place. Generally in 2 ways:
  • When a main character picks up the Idiot Ball. See iSell Penny Tees, where Carly lampshades her paying the children upfront so they could stop working and move the plot along.
  • When they use common genre tropes.
• Betty and Veronica: Carly and Sam respectively, with Freddie as Archie. Kind of subverted though as, while Carly and Sam both fit the archetypes, there wasn't really a love triangle present.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Good-natured Gibby can endure being bullied, just don't kidnap his friends nor let him discover you're hitting on his girlfriend]].
  • Carly Shay. She is very sassy at times (don't say it to her face, though), but she does have a long temper. To short it out is not a good idea.
    • The focus of iThink They Kissed. Carly's always open to her best friends about her secrets, but when she learns of her best friends' secret that is kept from her, she got "whipped up". In such state, NEVER tell her to calm down]].
    • In a similar scene, Freddie tried to calm Carly's spazzing (as she suddenly suffered "space madness" herself) in iSpace Out. Her response? "Shut up, Freddie!" She then smashed the window and dived out of the pod.
    • iSpeed Date. Carly never finished one sentence when her talkative dance partner keeps interrupting her. Ultimately pissed, she manages to drive him away with a long ''SHUT UP! Shut up, shut up, shut up!''
  • Freddie has also had moments of this. He's pranked Sam twice, once manipulated the girls into firing an incompetent intern whom they only hired because he was attractive, was willing to beat up Steve for cheating on Carly and even contemplated attacking Sam with a knife!
• Big Bad: The closest the series got to a main villain was Nevel Papperman. iGo To Japan had Kyoko and Yuki, two Japanese web comedians, as the main villains. The one hour special iPsycho had the Ax-Crazy Fangirl Nora Dirshlitt as its Big Bad.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Gibby in iPsycho smashes down a door to psycho-fan Nora's house, engages in a long fight scene while his brother Guppy frees the iCarly gang from Nora's sound booth.
  • In iStill Psycho, Mrs. Benson and T-Bo break the Dirshlitt's front door down with a motorcycle, leading to Mrs. Benson dueling Nora and her mother with model swords while T-Bo tackles Mr. Dirshlitt.
• The Big Damn Kiss: In Season 3 "iSaved Your Life", Carly finally kisses Freddie after she commends him for his heroics at school and becomes smitten with her savior when his heroism wins her heart.
• Big Eater: Sam's own quote in her biography states that "I'll eat anything that doesn't eat me first!"
  • She is also an indiscriminate lover of meat, and in the absence of milk, will eat her cereal with root beer.
• Big "NO!":
  • Spencer beautifully evokes a "Non-Lethal K.O." version in "iSaved Your Life", complete with Slow-Motion Fall and distorted voice effects.
    Spencer: What's that, a lollipop?
    Delivery Man: Yeah, except from where I'm from, we don't call it a lollipop.
    Spencer: What do you call it?
    Delivery Man: SUCKER! (slaps Spencer and dives on the floor)
    (Sam hangs upside down from the doorbeam, blowtube in her mouth ready for the "kill")
    Spencer: NOOOOOOOOOOO! (attempts to draw his blowtube but Sam strikes him with a headshot, claiming victory)
  • Carly also evokes this in "iBeat the Heat" (again, with distorted vocal effects) when Sabrina blindly tramples on her model of an Utopian City a la Godzilla.
  • In their spoof film Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie:
    Sam (as Natalie): Do you want to fit in with the popular crowd?
    Carly (as Kelly): I do!
    Natalie: Well, too bad!
    Kelly: NOOOOOOOOOO!
  • Carly again, toward Sam. When the former suggests something criminal, the latter would ask to confirm.
    Carly: Okay Spencer, we're going shoplifting!
    Spencer: Wear a jacket!
    Sam: (excitedly) Are we really going shoplifting?
    Carly: NO!
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • iGo to Japan becomes funnier when you know that the reason the Japanese security guard slapped Spencer is that he called his mother fat.
  • In iGo Nuclear, a bonus joke is that Cal's box containing illegal uranium is actually labeled plutonium in Russian.
  • In iGot a Hot Room, Sam threatens the Italian exchange student that she'll break his leg unless he greets Carly a happy birthday.
  • In iKiss, Carly talks about who her first kiss was with. Sam and Freddie laugh when they hear his last name is "Huebscher," but it's actually a German word meaning "handsome." Bonus points for Carly saying his lips tasted like potato salad.
• Black Comedy:
  • iPie: Here's a fun song to sing when people die!
  • iQuit iCarly: T-Bo talks about his best friend Eddie Robinson who was hit by a bus and now became "Dead-die Robinson".
  • iSaved Your Life: Spencer plays with Freddie's toes, which are poking out of the cast on his broken leg...
    Spencer: This little piggy went to market... and this little piggy got hit by a truck!
    Carly: SPENCER!
  • iMove Out: Spencer jokes that their aunt died falling out of a "winder". He quickly amends that the cause of death is a heart attack.
  • iPsycho: The old clown in Nora's birthday party suffered an aneurysm and was transported via a gurney, implied he can't make it through.
  • iBeat the Heat: When the temperature gets too high, the elderly will start to DIE!
    • Man, that is a CREEPY rhyme!
  • iGot a Hot Room: Spencer and Carly rejoice the fact that their great-grandmother's watch, destroyed in a fire, got them $80,000 from the insurance company. Carly then casually comments, "We should have gone to her funeral."
  • Everything about iSam's Mom. From the Shadow Hammer to the nasty insults between Sam and her mom.
    Pam Puckett: Hey Sam remember Fluffles you had as a kid? I sold him.
    Sam: You sold my bunny?!
    Pam: To foreigners!
  • iDo: Gibby almost crushes an elderly woman beneath him when reaching for the $5 hanging on a tree. Much moreso when Gibby runs away from the immobile woman who can be thought as dead until she spoke "Do we still get coffee?"
  • iGet Pranky:
    Spencer: What if I don't [sign the contract]?
    Carly: Well then I might sneak into your room tonight and push a pillow over your face until you stop kicking.
    Spencer: That's some pretty dark stuff.
• Black Comedy Rape: Toned down to be "safe-for-kids".
  • In iPie, Trudy (Mr. Galini's sweaty granddaughter) dragged Spencer to the couch and practically spent the episode repeatedly lip-raping him, leaving the trio in a state of Squick.
  • In iPsycho, Sam forces an unwilling Freddie up against a glass partition so Nora (the girl who is holding them prisoner) can make out with him through the glass. Sam yells "Come and get it!" and Freddie cries out "This is so humiliating!" as he struggles in Sam's grip.
  • Full-blown in iStill Psycho where Nora lip-rapes Freddie on the table. The scene also cuts forward, implying that some time had passed as Sam and Carly are seen eating cake which they aren't doing before while Nora is concentrated on Freddie.
• Blatant Lies: Sam. It is very obvious to the viewers that she caused a random misdeed and often times turns the blame on the resident Butt-Monkey, Freddie. She freely runs away with it... she's Sam!
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • In iReunite with Missy, there's blonde Sam, brunette Carly, and redhead Missy.
  • Wendy, a recurring character, can be considered as the show's resident redhead.
• Blowing a Raspberry: Not much used in the show, but is taken to adorable effect in iSaved Your Life when Freddie and Carly blow raspberries on each other playfully after they break-up.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Enforced in Season 5 where Sam goes to Carly to discuss her dating issues with Freddie and Carly points out that both of them are right about the flaws both are complaining about in each other and wrong in their own way. However, it is deconstructed and mocked later in the episode when Carly becomes frustrated, incensed and fed up with their frequently explosive and confrontationl clashing antics. As a result, she angrily snaps on them, ranting that they might as well just break up if they learn to get along and coexist peacefully.
• Bottle Episode: "iBeat the Heat" and "iCarly Awards" are set entirely in the Shay's apartment.
• Brain Bleach: Characters rely on squicked expressions when they see something disgusting.
  • In iHurt Lewbert:
    Freddie: Last night, I slept with my socks on.
    Sam: So?
    Freddie: (grins) Just my socks.
    Carly: (rolls eyes)
    Sam: Uuuuuugh... (spits chewed junk food back into packet)
  • In iDate a Bad Boy:
    Sam: Check out this new video I found called Neck Infection.
    Carly: Okay.
    Freddie: Whatever.
    Freddie & Carly: AAAAAAAAAH!
    Carly: Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew!!! (Runs away shrieking)
    Freddie: That is horrible!
    Sam: Come on, watch this next part. It's really funny.
    Freddie: (gags) Oh! Oh! Aaaaaah! No! (runs away screaming)
  • In iBeat The Heat, all four main characters are squicked with Lewbert's foot sore "that never heals".
• Brainless Beauty:
  • Inverted for Cort from iHire an Intern. No matter how badly he screws up, even spilling lemonade from a bag onto Freddie's laptop and electrical equipment, effectively killing their webshow for the week, all he does is take off his shirt and Carly and Sam forgive him, calling him "cute" and "sweetie" and even giving him "unlimited chances". And the girls completely glossed over someone who has HAD experience with electronics and would run the show better before, and picked Cort simply because he's chiseled. Why're you still going after Carly with your brains Freddie? It's clear that all this shallow-as-hell girl's really interested in are boys with muscles, abs, and the IQ of window drapes. Not personality and intelligence, don't be silly.
  • Freddie returns the favor by hiring Ashley, seemingly a female version of Cort, but she's really only playing dumb.
• Brand X: Being a Dan Schneider production, the product names on the show are affectionate parodies or spoofs of famous brands (Peppy Cola, Send Ex, Web Flix, Pear Pods, Pear Tunes, Violin God, Skybucks Coffee, The Jonas Book of World Records etc.) The revival features more real world brands, but does retain some parodies, like Pear Products and Skybucks.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  Spencer: Okay, I've separated your phone calls into three categories.: From your mother, death threats, and death threats from your mother.
  • "The average fans." "The super-fans." "The psycho-fans." "Even the super-psycho-fans."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: This VERY hilarious dialogue in the iCarly website about the 2009 Teen Choice Awards.
  Freddie: Does Baby Spencer love Jerry Trainor?
  Baby Spencer: (also played by Jerry Trainor) What?!
  Freddie: Do you love Jerry Trainor?
  Baby Spencer: Don't say that! You're breaking the fourth wall! Nooooo!
  Freddie: Aw, sometimes it's OK to break the fourth wall.
  Baby Spencer: No! It violates everything I believe in!
  Freddie: Did you know Jerry Trainor is up in the Teen Choice Awards?
  Baby Spencer: Hush! Don't talk about it!
  Freddie: Don't you want everyone to go online and vote for Jerry Trainor?
  Baby Spencer: Baby don't like shameless self-promotion!
  Freddie: Don't you know iCarly is up for lots of Teen Choice Awards?
  Baby Spencer: SHUT UP! I'm so uncomfortable with this in so many levels!
  • In the Parody film The Blowing:
    Sam: How do we save ourselves from this wind?
    Fleck: We don't.
    Sam: But how can we survive?
    Fleck: We can't.
    Sam: But we have time to make this movie?
    Fleck: We won't.
    Sam: Oh.
• Breakout Character: Gibby. As of Season 4, he's finally been Promoted to a Main Character.
• Brick Joke:
  • In iSpy a Mean Teacher, Spencer mentions breaking up with Connie (his girlfriend) because he learned she juggles for someone else. While the gang is airing their webcast with Ms. Briggs, one of the show's viewers is shown with his new juggler girlfriend, Connie.
  • In iWill Date Freddie Sam asks Valerie over the Blabcam to "Email Freddie the adress of the mental institution [Valeries] locked up in, and [Freddie] will get her there". Seasons later, in iLost my mind where does Sam admit herself because she likes Freddie? Troubled Waters Mental Institiution.
  • In "iPromise Not to Tell", when Carly and Freddie hack into the school's computer network, they take note that the lunch list for the next day is going to be spinach, which they disapprove of so they decide to change it to tater tots instead. The next day (which happens several scenes apart in the episode), when they're confronting Sam about the whole grade-changing incident, she says "Look on the bright side...there's a screwup in the cafeteria today, they're having tater tots instead of spinach!"
  • Even better one that comes full circle. When Spencer finds an old workout machine in the junkyard and shows it off to Carly and gang, Gibby asks if it's a motorcycle, resulting in the gang questioning how Gibby could possibly mistake a workout machine for a motorcycle. In the last episode, iGoodbye, Spencer brings home a motorcycle to fix and when Gibby sees it, he asks if it's a workout machine.
• Broken Aesop: There are a few ways iGo Nuclear could be considered to have broken the supposed Green Aesop: The first telling Freddie he failed because he imported worms for Portugal, then telling Carly that taking the bus would've been better. When Sam passed for doing nothing, it made it seem like the moral was "Don't bother trying to help the planet, because you are unwittingly doing it wrong anyway." It's worth noting that Executive Meddling mandated a Green Aesop that the creators didn't want to write—this might be a purposeful Spoof Aesop that being forced into environmentalism just sucks.
  • A shocking truth in Real Life is presented in iBeat the Heat. Carly gives An Aesop speech based from her utopian city project contrasting the Old American "neighborhood" life to the hubbub of the people in her loft. The lesson seemed to have sunk in, until all power inside the building gets restored, prompting the residents to leave the loft immediately without giving any form of gratitude. The stunned expressions of the main characters are just priceless.
  • The aesop of iStart a Fanwar, where everyone should concentrate on the show itself because it's only about comedy and not shipping? The very next episode started a 5 part Shipping arc that Dan Schneider himself hyped to the point he was expecting it to break the 12 million viewer record of iSaved Your Life.
• Broken Record: In iStill Psycho, the repeated gag of "And ever...and ever...and ever...and ever..."
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: iWas A Pageant Girl had Sam breaking the streak of the long-running champ of a beauty contest by putting on an amazing dance number.
• Brutal Honesty: Carly's speech to Sam and Freddie after they snap her patience in regards to their fighting and dragging her into them, telling the both of them exactly what was wrong with their behavior without bothering to sugarcoat it, and then finishing it by saying they shouldn't be dating at all.
• Buddy Snaps First: In "iSpace Out", Carly, Sam and Freddie are put in a space simulator for the chance to do their show from outer space, and their final test involves them having to stay in a bunker for 24 hours. During the experiment, Carly constantly has to remind her friends not to succumb to Space Madness and opening the door lest they fail the challenge, but by the episode's end, it's she who ends up having a claustrophobic meltdown.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • In "iMake Sam Girlier", a freakishly large senior named Jocelyn likes to pick on Sam, who only doesn't beat her up sooner than she does because she's trying to be girly. Considering Sam's reputation around school, Jocelyn probably should've known better.
  • Sam invokes this in "iKiss" when she tells the ones bullying Freddie that if they want to pick on someone, pick on her. She then makes sure they know exactly what picking on her would imply.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite all his weirdness, Spencer 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 any legal mishap they get themselves in very effectively. It was even given quite the focus in "iPromote Techfoots" when he acted as the gang's lawyer and wore a bizarre necktie.
• But That I Would Believe: In "iPromise Not to Tell", Carly finds herself wracked with guilt after Sam admits to her that she found a way to change their school grades as a favor. Eventually, she decides to confess to the principal while trying to take the fall for Sam by claiming she changed her own grades... which the principal doesn't buy, because not only is she a model student, Freddy had already "confessed" to doing the exact same thing minutes before. Then Sam herself comes in and sets the record straight, and given her history of troublemaking...
  Sam: Okay, it was me, all right? I hacked the computer and I changed the grades.
  Principal Franklin: Now that I believe.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Freddie. And man did he have a good first impression of this trope since episode one. He had a hopelessly unrequited crush on Carly, which she was aware of and exploited it for all it's worth in order to get him to do things he doesn't agree with. The first time he actually goes against what Carly wants (to do something he really likes), she insults him then tells his mother about it upon realizing her exploiting his crush on him to back down would not work and she would not get her way with him easily, complete with snarky tone. The main source of his buttmonkeyness lies in Sam who endlessly insults, harasses, physically abuses him, humiliates/mentally abuses him in front of other people at school and on the webcast, breaks his possessions and causes him constant problems. One of the more emotionally brutal moments for him is when in iKiss, Sam reveals live during the webcast that Freddie has never kissed anyone, leading him to become depressed by everyone teasing him at school and in public about it and isolating himself from society, even from his mother. And then there's his monstrously overprotective mother.
  • Pilot episode: Freddie doesn't have a single appearance in the episode that doesn't involve Sam insulting him, Freddie being reminded that Carly doesn't love him back (by both girls, Sam does this especially harshly) and being physically abused by Sam for making a simple mistake. Carly convinces Freddie to keep helping the girls, not by getting Sam to stop insulting him, but by manipulating Freddie through his crush on her. It doesn't get better and it makes Carly seem like a Manipulative Bitch, Sam as the antagonizing bully, and Freddie as the only good guy of the group. Basically, if not for Freddie's back-then exploitable crush, iCarly would have had a much lower chance of taking off, if any at all.
  • Freddie isn't the only one suffering this trope actually, Carly herself and her older brother Spencer also get this treatment from time to time, especially Spencer. In Carly's case, it's dealing with stuff such as trying to promote a crappy shoe line and suffering through a bitchy teacher taking her heartbreak-induced rage out on her students. It's enough to make Carly a woobie. In Spencer's case, hilarity often ensues, some incidents involving that bratty boy Chuck and his little brother Chip.

C

• Call-Back:
  • In "iAm Your Biggest Fan", Mandy brings up the times Carly and Sam blended spaghetti and meatballs in "iWant More Viewers" and when dressed up a dachshund as a a pig in "iWill Date Freddie".
  • Carly says "Hand me the Peruvian Puff Peppers!" in the 2nd episode of season 3. The Peruvian Puff Peppers actually came from the 2nd episode of the third season of Drake & Josh. How did they do that?
  • In "iGo One Direction" Spencer drags an exercise machine into his apartment, leading Gibby to ask "What is that, a motorcycle?" In iGoodbye Gibby enters the apartment to see a motorcycle that Spencer is fixing up and asks, "What is that, an exercise machine?"
• Calling the Old Man Out: Inverted with Freddie to Mrs. Benson sometimes and sometimes from Carly to Spencer if Spencer did anything truly terrible to her, even if said thing appealed to Carly's shallow side. The main focus in iMove Out. Freddie snaps and calls Mrs. Benson out on her emotional abuse to him at school, on the webshow, and then when she cleans his ears while he's asleep (Seems non-consent is her way of telling herself she's a good mother), forcing him to move out of her apartment and to deny her pleading to come back to her.
• The Cameo:
  • Josh Peck has a very stealthy appearance in iReunite With Missy as a Groovy Smoothie customer in a blond wig and shades.
  • Daniella Monet was at Nora's party in iPsycho.
  • The minor characters in various episodes (like the MMA doctor in iLook Alike) are iCarly writers themselves.
  • Steve Hoefer, one of Schneider Bakery's resident directors, is the gang's director in iCarly Saves TV.
• Camp Straight: Nevel acts and sounds very effeminate, but has been only shown to like girls.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin':
  • Played straight, when Federal agents burst in when the gang hacked the school computer and averted it with the live webcast from detention that doesn't get punished.
  • While the first half of the episode iGot Detention is about the group trying to get in trouble (and failing) what gets Carly in detention is slamming her locker in frustration. As opposed to pulling the fire alarm in the middle of school.
• Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': On "iGot Detention", Carly and Sam are planning a big 50th-webcast show. Sam gets detention for the night on which the show was being held, though, so Carly and Freddy decide to broadcast the show from detention. Trouble is, no matter what they do, it backfires (Carly pulls a fire alarm; there was a real fire. Freddy grafittis a window; it gets washed off. Carly breaks a teacher's chair; she's so happy that she gets a paid vacation she doesn't investigate. Etc.) Eventually, Carly gets detention for slamming her locker in frustration from the failed attempts of getting in trouble, from a Sadist Teacher, and Freddy, failing to get detention, has to sneak into detention.
• Can't You Read the Sign?: Gibby infuriates the museum guard by repeatedly using flash photography with a sign that says otherwise, prompting the guard to evoke the trope. Gibby provokes him with an aerosol string and saying "This is the part where you must chase me."
• Cassandra Truth:
  • The entire focus of iTwins. Freddie disagrees that Sam really has a twin sister after being pranked twice and since he never saw both Sam and Melanie at the same time. Also, Carly doesn't believe Spencer's accusations of the multitudes of abuse he got from Chuck.
  • In iReunite with Missy, Sam already had an instinct that Missy is deliberately getting rid of her as Carly's best friend but Carly disproves her accusations.
  • In iSpace Out, a little girl finds her way into the apartment, but when Spencer tried to show her to a police officer, she'd hidden somewhere.
  • The ending scenes of iBelieve in Bigfoot strongly implies that Bigfoot and the Beavecoon are real, at least in the Schneider-verse
• Catchphrase:
  • Carly's "Please, for me?" toward asking Freddie a request.
  • Sam usually calls herself Mama to describe herself or whenever she feels competitive.
  • Later episodes have Freddie showing a habit of saying random Spanish words, usually as alternatives for saying "goodbye" like "Pantalones!" or "Agua!"
  • Nevel has "You'll rue this day, YOU'LL RUE IT!"
  • Guppy quips "Happy Birthday!" (because of the coded SOS video in the form of a happy birthday letter in "iPsycho"). His big bro even lampshades it being his catchphrase.
  • Gibby's "Gibb-eh!" and "I love that!" (Season 4 and 5)
    • He also seems to have taken to telling every fan he meets, "Thanks, the show's a lot of fun."
• Cats Are Mean: Stewart and Ollie's cat Harmoo in "iMove Out" doesn't seem to take a liking to Spencer that much, and attacks him whenever he sees him.
• Caught on Tape:
  • The convenience store clerk in "iStake Out" was caught in the video of "Crazy Fruit Dude", walking in the background and carrying a suspicious package. This results in the detectives showing up at the apartment.
  • In "iTwins", Chuck's harassment of Spencer was recorded by Socko's laptop which was in the room recording at the time, and Spencer uses such to prove to Carly that Chuck is evil.
• Cavalier Consumption: Sam gets a call from her friends telling her they're trapped in a teacher's house. She says something along the lines of "that sucks", picks up an apple and takes a bite.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • One of the questions that Sam's mom asks after watching iCarly for the first time is: Victoria Justice looks a lot like that chick Shelby Marx.
  • iGet Pranky has Carly watching the Drake & Josh episode Megan's Revenge. All Carly does is wonder why she's not as good at pranks as "that little girl".
  • In the same episode, Spencer also watches the episode The Storm, complete with Crazy Steve yelling "Come on, Dora!"
  • Lampooned by Dan Schneider here: a mock video of him with a Loony Fan who is constantly bothered by the gigantic amount of possible cross-references in the iCarly-Victorious crossover and Dan's previous shows, i.e. Carly may recognize Tori as Shelby Marx; Tori (who is also Lola) might also recognize Carly as Paige Howard or Megan Parker; etc.
• Chalk Outline: Tape version used in iTake On Dingo.
• Chain Letter: Freddie gets a chain letter regarding Consuela, a Spanish woman who had died. He must pass it on, or suffer such misfortunes as red socks getting mixed with white shorts, his sandwich getting run over, and his computer shorting out, sparking, and making weird popping sounds. Subverted though, because Sam caused all that misfortune. Freddie catches her in the act though and gets back at her at the end of the episode.
• Changing Yourself for Love: In "iMake Sam Girlier", Sam requests Carly and Freddie to help her become more of a Girly Girl to impress a boy she likes. It works until the new school bully starts harassing Carly and Freddie and she reverts back to her old self to save them. It turns out Sam's crush actually likes her for being who she already is instead of who she tried to be.
• Cerebus Syndrome: iOMG is the first of a five episode 'arc' involving the Sam/Freddie 'romance'. The first promo from the 2nd episode is void of comedy, and instead concentrates on kissing, and Sam wondering if she has 'lost her mind' for liking Freddie.
• Character Blog: Part of the extensive tie-in website.
• Character Development:
  • Gibby: From something of a Ralph Wiggum expy, rarely seen, awkward friend in Season 1 to a hot-chick pimp, the Big Guy of the gang and a major character, and in Season 4 part of the credits. Seems puberty has been VERY lucky to this boy.
  • Freddie: From a very nerdy and shy kid to a smart, confident teenager. His feelings for Carly develop from a minor Stalker with a Crush vibe in the first season, into something more mature and genuine in Season 2, and then in Season 3 he saves her life, becomes her boyfriend briefly, and then leaves the relationship because he's worried it's not real love on her part. Despite this he retains his feelings all the way up to the end of Season 4, which is when the Wham Episode iOMG happens and from there who knows.
  • Sam: Grows up a little in the episode iReunite With Missy, where she actually comes to Freddie and asks for his help.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Whenever the main characters seek help in searching something, the webshow itself is their main form of problem solver.
  • Spencer's episode-acquired possessions usually join the main plot like the fishing rod, the Proton Cruiser and the mechanical bull.
  • In iHate Sam's Boyfriend, Carly and Freddie hesitantly talk about using the "Wedgie-Bounce" bit for their next show. Sam later improvises their show and uses this to punish her two-timing boyfriend Jonah by the end of the episode.
  • The "School at Sea" contest in iReunite with Missy, which paved the way for Carly to learn of Missy's Villain Ball speech.
  • In iEnrage Gibby, Freddie sets up another camera to examine how two pieces of bread rot in a period of time for the iCarly webcast. At the end of the episode, this camera also provided proof that the incident between Tasha and Freddie was an accident.
  • In iHave a Lovesick Teacher, the titular teacher mentions in the first half of the episode that "Well, the Pear Pod wasn't cheap, but I just got the songs off one of those music-sharing websites." It is not spoken about until the end, when she gets arrested for downloading music illegally.
  • The Mood App in iOMG is a Chekhov's Gun, used in an extremely lazy way to show the audience that Sam likes Freddie without bothering to actually explain why Sam likes Freddie, when Sam started liking Freddie and allows the plot to keep Brad as a Red Herring until the final 'shocking' cliffhanger moment.
  • The locator chip in Freddie's head introduced in iGo To Japan is a major plot point in iStill Psycho. With no other escape options, the gang resorts to shocking Freddie's head to disable the chip and trigger an alarm that will alert Mrs. Benson to their plight (with Spencer's shock pen from iPrank, which also counts as a Chekhov's Gun).
    • The highly conspicuous swords hanging on the wall of the house can also count.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Jeremy aka "Germy", a student who always coughs and sneezes is the prime example in Season 1. In iNevel, after Nevel gave iCarly a dishonest review, the trio employs Jeremy to force Nevel to tell the truth, knowing his hate of germs. In iWill Date Freddie, he also appears early in the episode, and later gets recommended by Freddie "who knows tech stuff" as his replacement when he left iCarly.
  • iRue The Day involved Nevel hacking iCarly.com. Earlier in the episode, "Uncle Roger", a member of the military and friend of the Shays' dad said he was staying for a month. Guess who came back at the end of the episode?
  • in iStill Psycho, T-Bo has to stay with Mrs. Benson. When Mrs. Benson finds out Freddie and the girls are in danger, he assists her in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • In Spencer's 3-day stay in law school, he managed to learn some of the most basic knowledge in law also with the help of his law book. His "background" becomes very handy whenever the gang encounters legal matters like in iPromote Techfoots and iOwe You.
  • Sam's unerring ability to pick locks (as much as using a sharpened duck bone) has been of great help to Carly and Freddie (or assault Freddie from his apartment) in a lot of episodes.
  • Gibby's kickboxing. For that alone, do not make him angry. You won't like Gibby when he's angry.
  • Mrs. Benson's fencing history. Not only did it turn up later in iFence to beat up some bullies, she uses her skills to defeat the Ax-Crazy Nora and her mother in iStill Psycho.
• The Chew Toy:
  • Lewbert the lousy doorman at Bushwell Plaza is the dumping ground for the 2 girls' pranks. Other than just Carly and Sam, he's gotten his steak dinner stolen out of his hand by some mean kid, receives death threats from people regularly (including if not mostly his mother), tries to take refuge from a crazy ex-girlfriend who wants to boss him around non-stop, and then there was that incident with Porkchop and Sludge Hammer who Spencer heckled over Lewbert's radio under the alias "The Doorman" then the two show up at Bushwell Plaza looking to find this alleged doorman for violent purposes.
  • Spencer can be an even bigger chew toy than Freddie is, given that many people like to beat up or bully Spencer, even for no reason. Chuck locked Spencer up inside a cage for a few days deprived of food and sprayed him with a toxic liquid that feels like but isn't water, got his back broken by professional MMA wrestler Jackson Colt, he got rolled inside a giant pumpkin by kids on Halloween into a street and some crazy psychopath Spencer tried teaching art to in prison just grabbed Spencer and strangled him for fun. Not to mention the fact that a lot of his inventions catch fire, even if it isn't physically possible.
  • Freddie undergoes a lot of abuse from other characters. Seriously, the amount of crap he endures from everyone around him is tremendous. VERY few episodes in the series have ended on a positive note for him. Freddie seems to get it gradually more as the series progresses. Both physical from Sam and emotionally from his mother.
• Chic and Awe: Carly and Sam keep making fun of Freddie's AV friend, Shane, who they assume is a Stereotypical Nerd. Until they actually meet him and find out he's Mr. Fanservice.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Freddie and Carly. Freddie started out on the show with a crush on Carly, they were together for an episode after he saved their life, and it finally comes full circle when Carly kissed Freddie in the final episode "iGoodbye".
• Christmas Episode: "iChristmas", complete with It's a Wonderful Plot, and Shout-Out to Peanuts.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Many minor characters have never come back again like the mean popular girl from Nevel's first episode, Tareen, and "Germy" Jeremy.
  • Wendy, a popular minor Ensemble Dark Horse character simply vanished as well after her last appearance in the final episode of Season 2. In "iLove You", Wendy was referenced as going with Sam to hit golf balls at the soccer team. She doesn't come on screen, so we don't know if it was her or not.
  • Brad has vanished off the face of the earth. It could be conceivable he wouldn't be in "iLose My Mind". In "iDate Sam & Freddie", the trio do a webshow in their usual time and place and he's not there, which would seem to confirm he isn't showing up again.
• Claustrophobia: Carly suffers from this, freaking out after being trapped in small rooms in both iSpace Out and iSam's Mom.
• Cliffhanger: The end of "iOMG" doesn't outright show what reaction Freddie has to Sam's kiss, and Carly's main reaction to The Reveal. The fifth season resumes right off the events of the episode, making it the actual season finale.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Carly displayed this in the hallway scene of the extended "iSaved Your Life". When Freddie becomes popular to the Ridgeway students after his accident, one of the girls flirts with him by insistently inviting him to a party. Possibly in her pants. Annoyed, Carly hugs Freddie and initiates a French kiss that forces the girl to leave. After the kiss, Freddie then prompts, "Wow, my kitty's got claws!"
• Clip Show: iBloop, iBloop 2: Electric Bloopaloo, iGoodbye all consist of clips from previous episodes.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Everyone is just a bit nutty, especially Spencer.
  Spencer: Things haven't gotten better?
  Freddie: They've gotten the opposite of better.
  Spencer: So... worse?
  Freddie: (Stares at Spencer in disbelief) ...Uh-huh.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: In "iHeart Art", Sam bets that she can go an entire week without insulting Freddie, or else she has to pay five dollars for each insult (which she would gladly do, but was broke). Freddie tries all sorts of things to make her crack. The end has her receive a large sum of money, then give it up because she just had to insult him.
• Collective Groan: Done numerous times in iDream of Dance.
• Comedic Sociopathy:
  • One of the main sources of humor within the show, most especially the abuse Freddie (and Gibby) suffer from Sam; and the rare instances between Carly and Spencer (ex. iLook Alike)
  • Even characters who are generally nice sometimes encourage this behavior— when they're not the target of it and if they feel the target deserves it. Usually as part of the Aesop of the day, or just because it's funny.
    Freddie: I wanna see Sam beat up TV writers!
  • The sequences where Nevel gets angry at a little girl for dropping something of his on accident and yelling at her in "iPity the Nevel". While this is a serious situation, a Laugh Track plays over this, so we are expected to laugh over a guy yelling at a girl who is much younger than him. Justified — the audience is expected to laugh about Nevel losing his popularity, not that he's tormenting a little girl.
• Comic-Book Time: Averted in the first and second seasons, with them clearly moving up a grade, as well as the cast clearly entering puberty and growing up. They also explained how their school was a combined Middle and High school as they moved to a grade, that in almost all US education systems, means moving from from a Junior or Middle school, to a new High School. After Season 2 however, it gets hazy. It's likely they are now in grade 10, but it's possible they could be still in grade 9, or have moved ahead to grade 11.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Spencer reports something to Carly, she usually diverts the subject.
  • Spencer finally manages to show video evidence to Carly that Chuck is a horrible kid toward him.
    Carly: (gasps) That lying little beast!
    Spencer: You see?! He grabbed me, pulled me over the couch and then wailed on me!
    Carly: I know! You gotta start working out!
    Spencer: That's not the point! Now you know I was right! He's evil, and I want revenge!
    Carly: No! I know how to get him back, trust me. (squeezes Spencer's arm) You really got to start working out.
    Spencer: Stop squishing it!
  • Spencer explains the prank that sent a group of kids to the hospital when Carly notes his grammar, also mentioning the problem.
    Spencer: I didn't know garlic powder stang if it got in your eyes!
    Carly: (laughs) You mean stung.
    Spencer: What?!
    Carly: Well, I think the past tense of sting is stung, not stang.
    Spencer: You're missing the point!
  • In "iPity The Nevel"'s B-plot, Freddie gets attention for a bunch of vampire Fan Girls for his intentionally horrible acting in a parody of popular vampire fads, not seeming to get that he did it to make fun of said fangirls and their favorite things.
• Common Crossover: Drake & Josh, Victorious and Zoey 101 due to their shared universe.
  • After Sam exits the stage for the first time in iWas a Pageant Girl, one of the off-screen contestants can be heard introducing herself as Quinn Pensky.
  • In the end credits of "iGot a Hot Room", Carly, Sam, and Freddie all sing the iCarly theme song. Freddie and Sam then sing the chorus of the theme songs of Drake and Josh and Victorious, which leaves Carly utterly perplexed.
  • In iGet Pranky, Carly is obviously watching the Drake & Josh episode Megan's Revenge, where Megan admitted the camera just stunned her pet hamster. Carly even wonders why is the girl this good at pulling pranks, which is also a subtle Actor Allusion.
    • Same episode, Spencer watches the Drake & Josh episode The Storm (where Jerry Trainor's "other" character Crazy Steve yells "Come on, Dora! You're the one with the map!!")
  • In iStart a Fan War, Gavin, Craig, Eric, and Stacey Dilsen cameo in the Creddie fan camp. Gavin even pulls his catchphrase "I got it" while he held the flare that ignited later.
  • Stacey Dilsen appears again as an applying intern in iHire An Idiot. True to her Chew Toy status in Zoey 101, Carly is creeped out by her.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong:
  • Freddie when it comes to Sam.
  • In "iMeet Fred". Freddie is bashed with a tennis racquet because he said Fred wasn't that funny. And then tossed out of a treehouse. Among other things.
• Complaining About People Not Liking the Show: In-show example: The world's reaction to Freddie saying that he didn't like Fred videos in iMeet Fred. Mostly due to Fred falsely claiming that he's not going to do his videos anymore because Freddie didn't like them, but even after Fred admitted he just said that for publicity, Sam beats Freddie up for saying that he still didn't like them. invoked
• Consolation World Record: iWant a World Record has a variant. After failing to break the record for longest continuous webcast, the Records Books official noted that Spencer had broken the record for most moving parts on a sculpture. He then invites Carly, Freddie, and Sam to help him "finish" the sculpture (by adding extra pieces) so they can receive co-artist credit.
• Continuity Nod: Despite the show's episodic plots relying on Status Quo Is God, combined by Nickelodeon airing them Out of Order, there are still a lot of elements within the show's universe that call back episodes from previous seasons, i.e. Spencer's sculptures, the hammer (that almost killed Carly) lodged on the wall, and the iCarly iWeb trophy in the studio.
  • iThink They Kissed is a very good example. The interrogation scene between Carly and Freddie recalls plots from a lot of previous episodes: iKiss, iPromise Not To Tell (Carly overpowered Freddie), iSaw Him First (Freddie's voice got lower, as well as being stronger), and iTwins (Freddie still not believing that Melanie really exists).
  • iBeat the Heat guest stars the residents of Bushwell who had appeared in earlier episodes, among whom are Chuck, Griffin, Mr. Klemish, Dr. Dresdin and Lewbert, who even had hilarious dialogues with Mrs. Benson involving their failed relationship.
  • In iPsycho, Spencer tells Gibby that he got kicked out of sleep-away camp, but doesn't say why. In the earlier episode iTwins, he consoles Freddie about the "Clown Day" incident by telling about how the other campers tricked him into thinking it was "Naked Day."
    • When Gibby's mom visits him at the Shay's she quickly declines to stay and say hi to Spencer, whom she had briefly dated in iFix A Pop Star.
  • In iFind Lewbert's Lost Love, Carly and Sam are shown singing Ginger Fox's song, heard in full later in iFix a Popstar.
  • In iParty with Victorious When consoling Carly, Sam says "I brought the butter sock" and pulls the butter sock that was introduced in iTake on Dingo out of her bag.
  • iSam's Mom cements Sam's hatred of the word "panties" as a fact, as well as her "I Love Las Vegas" underwear, the mention of her twin sister, and Carly's claustrophobic freakout.
  • In one episode, Britney Spears Expy Ginger Fox stabs Freddie with a fork. Go back a few years (and across the Nick Verse) and what did Zoey (played by Britney's sis Jamie Lynn) threaten to do to Royal Brat Logan in "Hands on a Blix Van"?
  • In "iStill Psycho", Sam still has the shock pen that Spencer had Carly use in "iGet Pranky" the season previous.
  • In the Season 3 episode "iCarly Awards", one of the awards is given to the boy who can shoot milk from his eyes, first seen in the pilot episode. This also counts as In-Universe continuity.
• Cool Bike: The 1964 Sterling (which is actually a Triumph like the one Fonzie rides in Happy Days). Socko wanted to give it to his cousin Ryder but Ryder and Socko get in a fight and Socko gives it to Spencer who gives it to Sam.
• Covered in Gunge:
  • Nevel, with "guacamole" that resembles good ol' Nickelodeon green slime.
  • In "iGo To Japan", the trio gets mud splattered on them by a passing truck.
• Crapola Tech: One early episode has the kids agree to promote a brand of high-tech shoes that later turn out to be very cheaply made; when Carly steps in a puddle while wearing a pair, she gets shocked, when Freddie uses the Wi-Fi on them, they crash his new laptop, and they're shown to occasionally burst into flames.
• Crapsaccharine World: Everything in the iCarly-verse (and Schneider-verse in that matter) are colorful and jolly, with a cast full of eccentric characters. And then there's SadistTeachers, evil rival celebrities, Jerkass neighbors, all in the name of comedy. Interacting with them is just another normal day for our iCarly gang.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • Mrs. Benson probably has bought and possessed a care-for-your-child product for ANY occasion and keeps a first-aid kit the size of a luggage bag.
  • After confiscating Sam's blowtube, Carly and Spencer are quite taken aback that Sam kept a spare one ("A good assassin always has backup!") Carly then pats down Sam and finds two more mini blowtube guns hidden inside her socks.
• Creator Cameo: Dan Schneider appears as Spencer's auto parts dealer Meekalito in "iGoodbye".
• Crossover:
  • iParty with Victorious and "iMeet Fred."
  • In "iStart a Fanwar", Eric, Craig, and Gavin from Drake & Josh make an appearance, along with Stacey Dilsen from Zoey 101.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Gibby. If you are his friend who betrays his trust (or someone who dares kidnap his friends), he won't think twice about beating the fudge out of you.
  • Mrs. Benson. Way overprotective mother, way too concerned about the smallest hygiene, and... oh yeah. Master swordfighter.
• Crying Wolf: The central conflict of "iTwins". Freddie is convinced Sam's twin sister Melanie is just another prank the girls are pulling on him after being deemed the most gullible person in Seattle. But the girls are telling the truth, and no matter how many times they tell him, he doesn't fall for it. He still remains none the wiser by episode's end.
• Cryptid Episode: There's an episode centering around the the hunt for Bigfoot.
• Convenient Slow Dance: Firstly, that the Groovy Smoothie was playing slow music just perfect for their Dance of Romance when you'd expect pop or top 40 music, and secondly, the fact that the other 12 customers inside all vanished within the space of the 2 minute conversation that caused both their dates to leave.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right:
  • In "iTwins", Sam wasn't lying about having a twin sister named Melanie, but it isn't until Freddie leaves near the end that we get to see the two onscreen together.
  • In "iBelieve In Bigfoot", the "Beevcoon" that Spencer mentions repeatedly turns out to actually exist.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ricky Flame's solution to always win is to wrestle pre-teen boys. Then he finds himself on the receiving end when Sam takes him on.
  • Sam versus Dana and her friends at the 'smash party' in iRescue Carly. Sam + 'Butter Sock' + night-vision goggles & darkness + Carly in danger = bad business for you, juvie punks!
• Cute Bruiser:
  • Sam is widely acknowledged as the toughest kid of either gender at school, has taken down a bully almost twice her size and ripped a chain lock off a door while in pursuit of Freddie in iKiss. She was towing Gibby behind her and wasn't even out of breath.
  • And in a non Unstoppable Rage moment in iCook she wrestles a full grown man to the ground without working up a sweat.
  • Shelby Marx, a pro wrestler. Freddie calls her "smoking hot".
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Nevel should just concentrate on his own website, instead of wasting his time on crazy schemes to try and steal the iCarly webshow. The guy has major talent in web design, coding, hacking, scripting. Hell, even if he still wanted to be a villain, those hacking and coding skills would be far more useful as a Black Hat cracker than in stealing the show. Which has no profitability and a blatantly obvious result of Carly either going back to the military like she did the first time, or just getting the cops involved.

D

• Dance Party Ending: "iParty With Victorious" ends with the cast of both shows and the partygoers dancing while the former two sing a mashup of "Leave it All To Me" and "Make it Shine".
  • The end of "iBloop", the blooper themed episode that only featured Miranda and Jerry (the actors who played Carly and Spencer) ended with random dancing that featured much of the crew rather than the cast.
• Date Rape Averted: Played Lighter and Softer as Trey (the nerdy boy from iPear Store) chases Carly and tries to 'kiss her', but is foiled by Spencer.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Used against the Daka shoe company in iPromote Techfoots when the shoe is a hunk of crap, burns out when used, crashes computers with its wifi, and causes a backlash against their show.
• Dance of Romance: The ending of "iSpeed Date" in Season 3. After Freddie's magician dance partner vanishes and Carly drives away her talkative date, Carly and Freddie admit how frustrated they felt by this awful plight. Since they are the only ones left alone in the Groovy Smoothie, Freddie tries to salvage the night by requesting Carly to share a well-deserved special dance with someone they aren't fed up with. Despite initially refusing to be Freddie's acquantance, Carly enthusiastically agrees. The cashier T-Bo tunes up the music, then Carly and Freddie comfortably share a relaxing and heartwarming romantic slow dance that clears away all the bad memories.
• Dead Artists Are Better: In "iEnrage Gibby", after a newspaper mistakenly prints Spencer's obituary, his art suddenly becomes worth thousands of dollars. Spencer uses this to his advantage.
• Deadly Sparring: In "iFight Shelby Marx", Carly agrees to a fight with teen MMA-fighter Shelby Marx, but is promised that the fight is entirely for publicity and no real blows will be thrown. However, Nevel uses this as an opportunity to cause trouble for Carly by making Shelby think Carly deliberately attacked her grandmother during the pre-fight press conference, leading to Shelby hitting Carly for real during the fight.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Each of the main characters had their moments of snarkiness, but Sam and Mrs. Benson are the harshest of the lot. Carly seems to be a runner-up of being most snarky however.
  • In iGet Pranky:
    Sam: Pranking Gibby doesn't count! You have to prank a real person!
    Carly: Gibby is a real person, and this is a good prank! You'll see.
    (Gibby sees the fish in his locker and joyfully goes home)
    Carly: (dismayed) I kinda got him.
    Sam: You got him dinner.
  • In Season 3's iSaved Your Life:
    Carly: How is he (Freddie)?
    Mrs. Benson: Broken... damaged... And I see you look fine, isn't that nice?
• Deconstruction: The entire horrendous and abysmally feudal Sam/Freddie story arc early on in Season 5 shows exactly how and why their pairing is horribly dissonant and dysfunctionally incompatible because the duo frequently lock horns at each other's throats. They clash, butt heads, get under each other's skin and frustratingly can't even bother to get along peacefully and harmoniously for once. Even Carly becomes fed up with their falling out and blowout antics, and angrily tells them that they might as well break up if they keep ruinously clashing. The final nail in the coffin shows them being unable to share an interest of the other without ruining it for the person whose interest it is, that they have no shared interests in common outside of filming the web show. As a result, their abusively toxic, dysfunctionally strained and dissonantly turbulent love-hate dating fades away naturally because they have no reason to see each other for anything but making out. They both ultimately realize that their polar opposite personalities are far too dissonant and incompatible to work in a relationship for more than a few weeks. As they are a pretty standard Belligerent Sexual Tension ship, it also serves to deconstruct that type of relationship as a whole.
• Delayed Reaction: Used quite a bunch of times throughout the series, usually by Freddie and Spencer.
  • In iMust Have Locker 239, Freddie negotiates with Sam about getting her half of the locker as Sam mentions that her mom is driving a car to fetch her just after having an eye surgery. Freddie still goes on his negotiation until Sam's statement sinks in.
  • In iHurt Lewbert:
    Carly: Lewbert got hurt, which brought out your mom's motherly instincts.
    Sam: So, what if you... got hurt?
    Freddie: Yeah... (pauses) WHAT?!
• Delinquents: Sam is the resident bad ass of the group. She has been to jail, as well as juvie, numerous times.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The book BigFoot: True or Real? and also, the Seat of Sitting.
  • In iPie:
    Spencer: What does it feel to lose someone you're close to? It means you've lost someone that you're close to.
  • In "iSell Penny Tees", when Sam looks at a can of "Chunk Meat", she opens the can after saying this:
    "May contain meat". Well, if it may.
• Derailing Love Interests: Used to break up Jonah and Sam in iHate Sam's Boyfriend. They spent 60% of the episode being sickenly sweet to each other, with Sam spending all her time with him. Rather than have Sam and Jonah deal with how that was hurting her friendships and their webshow, Jonah suddenly tries to cheat on Sam with Carly, giving them a quick solution and easy end to their relationship.
• Detention Episode: In "iGot Detention", Sam gets detention around the same time she has to do the show, so Carly and Freddie deliberately get detention and host the show from there whenever Mr. Howard is out of the room.
• Determinator: Gunsmoke (and hilariously so). "Nobody's going to touch that boy..."
• Deus ex Machina:
  • The show has Freddie invent a 'mood app' that can apparently detect that Sam is 'in love'. How it got made was never discussed. It never showed up in a previous episode. Despite being illogical and unworkable even by the show's standards, for some reason everyone in the show takes it at complete face value the instant they turn it on.
  • The namesaken title website can also qualify for this.
• Die for Our Ship: invokedInvoked in iStart a Fan War. While denying having a relationship with Freddie, Carly points out her actual romantic interest. The In-Universe Creddie shippers to whom she was preaching take the wrong message from the speech and attack him.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
  • Carly was playing short chords of "Leave It All To Me" on her ukelele.
  • At the end of the "iParty With Victorious", the cast of both shows sing a mashed up version of both theme songs.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: Carly and her friends don't seem to have a problem with it, but they use anti-piracy laws to get one of their Sadist Teachers arrested.
• Dirty Old Man: One shows up in "iWant My Website Back" trying to seduce Spencer disguised as an old woman, calling security on him when he refuses.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Carly/Spencer's father is in the military until "iGoodbye", Sam and Freddie's are completely absent, never even mentioned. In the latter's case, however, it's readily apparent that Freddie's mom is impossible to live with, suggesting a divorce.
  • Sam's father's disappearance was finally addressed in "iParty with Victorious":
    Carly: Steven told me I'm one of a kind!
    Sam: Yeah, and my dad once told my mom he was coming back! (Everyone stares at her in horror) ...Moving on.
  • And again in "iLost My Mind", when asked where her father is, Sam yells back, "You tell me!"
• Discontinuity Nod: Sabrina appeared as a random partygoer in iTwins where Freddie and Melanie dated, and budged Freddie causing him to spill the fruit punch he was holding. In iBeat the Heat, Sabrina appears again and behaved as though she had never seen Freddie before.
• Disguised in Drag: In iWant My Website Back, Spencer disguises himself as a "busty old woman" and an old man gets the hots for him. Even after Spencer blew up his cover that he is really a man, the old geezer still pursued him to his apartment, willing to "start all over again" as long as Spencer wears back the wig. This subplot is also a potential homage of the film Some Like It Hot.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • Briggs threatens Freddie to get expelled because of Spencer's presence; Howard gives Gibby triple detention for being "too Gibby" and his smartass replies; Devlin marks down Carly's report for being printed on three-holed paper which he hates; Ackerman gives Carly an F for a quiz she never took after Spencer broke up with her. The list goes on...
  • Nevel. Carly refused to kiss him and stuck some food on his face. Therefore, he swore Carly would rue this day and he embarked on a campaign of revenge, which included fraud and cyberterrorism.
    • "iPity the Nevel" showed a video of him picking up the last jar of a particular brand of pickle in a store. As he's about to put it in his car, a little girl accidentally runs into him with a cart, causing him to drop the jar, which falls on the floor and breaks. He flips, screaming at the little girl and taking a lollipop she had out of her cart, then throws it on the ground, taunting her and screaming at her more as she's crying. The little SOB calls her mother an idiot. The numerous hateful comments the video receives about Nevel are actually well-deserved.
  • iKiss. In retaliation for Freddie handcuffing her to Gibby, which was in turn all for the endless abuse she had given him, Sam reveals Freddie's embarassing secret, that he's never kissed a girl, to the world on the webshow.
  • "iMake Same Girlier" involved a senior bully that was worse than Sam and required Sam to fight her. She is first shown shaking down a much younger kid for forgetting to say "God bless you" when she sneezed.
  • Chuck Chambers. He was breaking a building rule by playing raquetball in the lobby, and Spencer couldn't get him to stop, so he told Chuck's dad, who grounded him for 2 days. Chuck got revenge...by keeping Spencer locked up in a storage cage in the basement (and squirting him with a "suspicious liquid"). And then he's perfectly willing to beat the crap out of Spencer. All for a 2-day grounding over something he wasn't supposed to be doing in the first place.
    Chuck: If I can't watch TV, then NOBODY CAN!
  • "iMove Out" also had the "petographers" (who, as you could guess, were pet photographers), who destroyed Carly and Sam's studio because they refused to shut down their pet photography business, claiming they can't have two pet photography groups in Seattle.
  • "iCan't Take It". Hooooo boy, possibly one of the most excessive examples. At some point offscreen, Sam asks Freddie what time it is and he didn't know. Sam's response? To take his NERD camp application and make it look like Freddie's a dirty whore, which gets him rejected. Plus, Carly begs him not to dump Sam over that because it was before they started dating. Even though it IS a legit reason to dump someone, he's begged not to because shipping reasons.
• Dissension Remorse: In "iQuit iCarly", after Carly and Sam are rescued and their realize their fighting nearly got them killed, it causes the two, plus Fleck and Dave, to break down in tears and reconcile.
• The Ditz:
  • Carly's role in The Cowboy and the Idiot Farm Girl skit. Gibby may also have his moments wherein he is quite slow in the uptake.
  • In-universe example: In iHire an Idiot, Cort is a literal male Brainless Beauty (at least for the girls). And then there's Ashley. Ashley is actually a subversion, though, as she was only pretending to be dumb for a psychology experiment for a class she was taking in college.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Carly meeting Nevel for the first time is oddly reminiscent of meeting an internet pedophile. Obviously it's toned down for kids.
  • Carly and Sam fighting over Freddie in iQuit iCarly was very much like divorcing parents fighting over the affection of their kid.
  • In "iBeat The Heat", Freddie tries to lift Carly onto the kitchen bench. He fails, and ends up making it look like he's having (clothed, obviously) sex with her.
  • Mrs. Benson interrupting their webshow holding a bag which looks identical to a bag of weed and asking Freddie what it was. It turns out to be the asparagus that Freddie didn't eat for dinner, but it's obvious what it was meant to resemble.
  • When Carly stopped dating the guy in "iQ" Sam gives Carly the huge fork which she took from the Shays at the beginning of the episode. When Carly asks Sam why is she giving up her beloved fork, Sam pulls out a huge fork. Carly replies "That is comically big." Which, not only reminds us of a body part that can sometimes be comically big, also reminds some of us of what one woman might give her now-lonely girl friend to compensate for not having a boyfriend any more. If you know what I mean? Probably the closest a kid show ever came to making a masturbation joke. And it's with females at that.
• Domestic Abuse: Despite entering a relationship, Sam still hits Freddie. It's dismissed by Carly, and she even calls it sweet because Sam now avoids hitting him in the face.
• The Dog Bites Back: In "iGet Banned", T-Bo starts coming over to the Shay's apartment constantly, which bothers Carly to the point of banning him. Feeling upset and angered, T-Bo gets back at Carly by banning her from the Groovie Smoothie.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Miranda Cosgrove, who plays Carly, sings the theme tune.
• Door Focus: Carly and Sam get into a fight, which ends when Carly leaves their apartment, slamming the door behind her. A beat passes before Carly opens the door again and tells Sam to get out instead, as the apartment is her house.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
  • Sam towards Freddie, almost like a theme in general. Can be seen as Crossing the Line Twice depending on the intensity and longevity of each individual action, iMeet Fred is one good example. Another infamous trope associated with this show, more so than with Schneider's previous works, and not even his later ones like Sam and Cat.
  • Implied and justified with Carly, Sam, and Shelby ganging up on a trapped Nevel at the end of "iFight Shelby Marx", given that Nevel caused Shelby to beat Carly to a pulp after he told her Carly had deliberately pushed her grandma down the podium.
  • Freddie's extremely overbearing mother is actually a case of emotional abuse, yet this dynamic is only played for laughs. Many of her behaviors, including purposefully embarrassing him in front of his friends, being overprotective about things like scissors, and secretly implanting a chip in his head when he was a toddler (Meaning he couldn't consent to it, mind you) so that she can track him are definitely not okay and would easily be classified as child abuse. But this is "iCarly" logic, so it's okay cause it plays the abuse for laughs. *Sarcasm*
  • There are several moments when female-on-male violence is actually portrayed as bad, such as Miss Ackerman with Spencer (iHave a Lovesick Teacher) and Marta with Lewbert (iFind Lewbert's Lost Love). Even still, they are only played for laughs, which is very disappointing considering the long-term trauma it is implied to have caused Lewbert and the illegal actions Ackerman took to insure hers and Spencer's relationship would come back and keep going.
  • Sam pushes Freddie into a bike courier, who hits Freddie, who falls onto a fire hydrant and is knocked out with blood pouring from his ears. This wonderful moment of bullying, abuse, and potential brain damage is — according to Freddie — worth the hearing loss because it's when Sam realizes that Freddie is cute. Again, iCarly logic makes it okay by playing it for laughs yet again.
• Do Wrong, Right: The tummy-rub antic of the Shays.
  Carly: You guys are so embarrassing! (beat) If you're gonna do it, do it right!
  (Carly tummy rubs with a siren sound as Spencer and Granddad resume theirs. Sam and Freddie follow suit, to Lewbert's chagrin.)
• The Dreaded Toilet Duty: In "iOwe You", Sam gets a terrible job at a gross fast-food joint. Her boss orders her to go and clean out the toilets- the men's toilets, to be specific. She was utterly appalled by the mere idea of it, angrily asking if one of the male employees could do it instead. When forced into it, she gains a look of apprehension as she nervously approaches the bathroom door. Then a fat, burping customer walks out, scaring her even more.
• Dream Episode: In "iDream of Dancing", the trio fall asleep while reviewing videos of their viewers dancing, and thus each has a wild dream that heavily involves dancing. Each dream seems to blend together as well, with the three of them seen together at the start commenting that none of them remember waking up that morning.
• Dream Within a Dream:
  • Spencer's dream about the soup-eating monster in "iDate A Bad Boy."
  • Carly begins with a nice dream, and wakes up when it turns into a nightmare in iMight Switch Schools. She goes back to sleep to "reboot" her good dream. Ooh, watch out, Inception.
• Drop-In Character:
  • Technically both Bensons, but since Freddie's part of the main threesome, only his mom really fits the trope.
  • Sam as well, and is more of one than Freddie as she lives somewhere that requires a car or bus ride (or presumably a long walk) hardly ever goes home.
  • Lampshaded by Spencer in iParty With Victorious:
    Spencer: Look! Sam and Freddie are here! That's different!
  • Spencer proceeds to continue pointing it out during the later seasons when that happens.
• Dumb Blonde:
  • The portrayal of Ginger Fox throughout iFix a Popstar.
    Carly: She should be here 4 hours ago!
    Ginger Fox: You said 2 o'clock.
    Sam: It's 6 o'clock!
    Ginger Fox: Well, I didn't know if you mean o'clock AM or o'clock PM.
    Sam: You're o'mazingly stupid.
    Ginger Fox: What did she say?
  • Inverted in iHire An Idiot: Cort was a dumb male brunet hired by the girls. Ashley, hired by Freddie, also had dark hair, appeared to be dumb at first but was only playing the part to help Freddie trick the girls into firing Cort.
• Dumb Muscle: Duke Lubberman in iHatch Chicks.
  Freddie: If we can only find a way to smoothly slide him (Spencer) out of there.
  Duke: Oh, I want a smoothie! (runs away)
  Freddie: Wait, wait! (groans) Tell them to add some intelligence boost!

E

• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • In earlier Spencer's Running Gag of starting fires by accident happened while he was doing things that would believably start a fire such as cooking dinner or rewiring a siren. The writers decided it would be funnier if Spencer's fires started for no reason whatsoever or even in situations where it would be impossible like in the shower or ringing a metal bell.
  • Star Wars is directly referenced a few times early in the show (for example, Carly mentions that Sam’s growling stomach sounds like Chewbacca in iGo to Japan) before later episodes started making mention of "Galaxy Wars" instead. Whether this was a retcon or Galaxy Wars coexists with the original deal is never made clear (GW seems to be popular in-universe, but there’s real life precedence as the parody Spaceballs has a sizable cult following).
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • In iGo To Japan. Thanks to the special's Big Bads, the iCarly gang go through hell to get their chance at the iWeb Awards and manage to overcome everything to win.
  • All the shit Freddie has suffered through and he finally gets the girl in the end of "iGoodbye". He nearly died for her before, and still had to break up with Carly despite it. That is seriously earning your happy ending Freddie. Extra kudos to you, you deserve it.
• Earth Day Episode: The episode "iGo Nuclear" was made because Nickelodeon made them do it. Dan Schnieder stuck it to the execs by having all of Carly's attempts to go green backfire on her.
• Easily Forgiven: In "iCan't Take It", Sam ruins Freddie's chances of getting into an exclusive science camp that would help him get into any college he wants. Because Freddie didn't know what time it was when Sam asked him. Freddie finds out and gets angry, then, after prodding by Carly, forgives her about 2 minutes after and kisses her again to end the episode.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: Got a late start, it wasn't until the third season that the Space Needle was added to the rotation of EstablishingShots.
• Elderly Ailment Rambling: In "iBeat the Heat," an old man tells Carly unprompted that he suffers from angina.
• Elevator School: Ridgeway is a combined Middle and High School, as it was easier than building new sets and casting new teachers when they moved from Grade 8 to Grade 9.
• Embarrassing First Name:
  • Fredward Benson. No wonder he goes by "Freddie".
  • iStill Psycho reveals that Gibby's name is Orenthal Gibson. His embarrassing middle name, Cornelius, was revealed in iWin A Date.
• Embarrassing Hobby: One episode ran on the All Girls Want Bad Boys trope until Carly realized her "bad boy" had a collection of girly toys. This was a big enough turn off for her to dump him.
• Embarrassment Plot: One episode focuses on Sam revealing that Freddie has never kissed anybody. People tease Freddie and he becomes so embarrassed that he hides in the fire escape all day. It gets resolved when Sam admits to never having kissed anyone either.
• Endangering News Broadcast: Freddie catches a criminal called the Shadow Hammer on video with special sunglasses that record video, one of the girls who lives in Freddie's apartment building reveals where he lives despite Freddie's insistence not to say so.
• Endearingly Dorky: Freddie. Carly even created a new word to describe him, "cukey" (cute and geeky).
• End of an Age: The series finale "iGoodbye", which premiered in November 2012, seemed to kickstart the end of classic golden age era Schneider's Bakery Nickelodeon sitcoms. During 2013, the series finale of Victorious, Victori-Yes and the series finale of non-Schneider fellow Nickelodeon sitcom Big Time Rush, Big Time Dreams both premiered and the year also saw Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice retire from TV and begin careers into movie actreeses and also, Nickelodeon began premiering new sitcoms such as The Thundermans, Henry Danger, Game Shakers and various other long-running sitcoms which lasted for the remainder of the 2010s.
• Enemy Mine: In "iPity The Nevel", Nevel asks for the iCarlys' help in restoring his reputation.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Subverted with Jocelyn the bully in "iMake Sam Girlier" when she's about to eat them before Carly tells them they're the iCarly gang's. In response, Jocelyn dumps them down Sam's blouse.
• Enfant Terrible: Chuck.
• Enter Stage Window: Mandy barged back in the Shay loft to stay there overnight. When Carly asked her how she entered with the door locked, Mandy replied "but not all your windows are."
• Epic Fail: In multiple episodes, something Spencer is doing bursts into flames, prompting him to lampshade its ridiculousness.
  • iAm Your Biggest Fan: Spencer's police light props on the car seat shorts out and catches fire. Later, he enthusiastically beats on his drum set's cymbal with his drumstick, and the cymbal bursts into flames.
    Spencer: HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!
  • iHurt Lewbert: Spencer simply fixes the bell with a screwdriver. It catches fire in thin air, which he douses with his soda. It lights aflame again shortly.
    Spencer: [exasperated] HOW?!
  • iGot a Hot Room is an example that isn't played for comedy; in fact, quite the opposite. Spencer gives Carly a gummy bear lamp as a birthday gift, but it catches fire and destroys her entire bedroom.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: Used for the episode "iGo Nuclear", where Carly and Sam dance in the dark with flashing green strobe lights.
  RANDOM STROBING!
• Everybody Cries: Near the end of "iQuit iCarly", Carly and Sam (who spent most of the episode having a fight) have just been rescued from falling from the apartment building while trying to film an iShorts video in a window washer platform. They claim that they were brave and didn't cry the whole time... only to start crying moments later, prompting Spencer to guide the girls into a hug with each other as they reconcile. This causes Dave and Fleck (who also spent most of the episode having a fight) to start crying as well as they hug and reconcile too. After seeing those unfolding moments, Freddie and Spencer happily decide to share a hug themselves while remaining composed. A moment later, the janitor of the apartment building, Morris, arrives with harnesses for Carly and Sam's video and is left confused when he sees all the hugging and crying.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Carly and Freddie. Despite Carly's "he is not my boyfriend" moments with Freddie, a lot of characters assume them as a couple, in addition to the teasing from Sam in iSaved Your Life. Jake thought Carly's nose-kiss to Freddie as them being together, a Japanese receptionist mistook them for a honeymoon couple (when they were only 14 no less), and T-Bo is beaming with pride watching Freddie dance with Carly in the Groovy Smoothie.
  • Jacked up in iStart a Fanwar, where Adam is hesitant to approach Carly because of it, the in-universe blogosphere has sites dedicated to 'Creddie-shipping', and a fan at 'Webicon' shows photos demonstrating that the two of them are always positioning themselves in ways that demonstrate their affection for one another. Eventually escalates to Die for Our Ship when Carly points out Adam as her interest instead of Freddie.
• Evil Counterpart: Nora to Sam. Both are teen harassing/bullying action girls (Nora is an evil one). But if Nora is totally psychotic; Sam is sane (mostly due to Carly). It's possible that Sam can be like Nora if she didn't have friends too.
• Evil Gloating: Missy does this in iReunite With Missy, allowing Carly to overhear and finally figured out that Missy was trying to get rid of Sam.
• Evil Twin: Played straight by Sam, and inverted by her twin sister Melanie, who's the 'good twin'.
• Exactly What It Says On The Box:

(( Literal versions: Lewbert's stash of "Deeply Personal Items" and Carly's box of "Inexpensive Meatballs".

• The overly long titles of the iCarly skits. For titles like "Pathetic Plays: (insert long title)", "The Prisoner Who Wanted Some Soup and the Man Who Refused to Give Him Some" and "The Cowboy With a Mustache and the Idiot Farm Girl Who Thought the Mustache Was a Squirrel", guess what the looping plot line of each skit is.

• Exact Words:
  • In "iPie", Mr Galini had told his granddaughter that his pie recipes were in the computer. She couldn't find them. Not even Freddy could until they realized he meant he hid the paper copies of the recipes literally inside the computer.
  • In "iCook", at the end, Ricky Flame was able to join the boys wrestling league because, as he pointed out, it was "recommended for boys ages six through ten." He emphasized that it was just "recommended".
  • In "iGo One Direction" when Justine looks at the Omni-Flex, she asks Spencer if he's looking for new people to exercise and schedules a workout for tomorrow at 7:00 PM. She never said she wanted to workout, which is why her bratty daughter Bethany showed up instead.
  • This is how they get out of their contract in "iPromote Techfoots". When the shoes have a lot of major problems and, according to their contract, they have to positively promote the shoes, they decide to highlight those major problems in a positive way, angering the board of directors, but technically not in violation of their contract.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Although not seen, Mr. Howard and Ms. Francine Briggs likely have their limits as far making the lives of the students, especially the main characters, as miserable as possible. However, they haven't been seen going as far as wanting one of them to die unlike Marissa Benson did, as seen in "iSaved Your Life".
  • Nevel eventually gains standards once they save his reputation, saying he will no longer attack iCarly.
• Evolving Credits: The theme song is updated each season to feature episode clips from that season. The only scene that does not change is Carly tossing her hat in the air at the very end of "iPilot" at the end of the song.
• Excuse Me, Coming Through!:
  Sam: Okay people, unless you're a bowling pin, MOVE!
  (students scramble away)
• Executive Ball Clicker: One episode has Spencer build a large scale version made with bowling balls that manages to work.
• Exploding Closet: Used a couple of times:
  • Spencer is going on a camping trip and needs to get his sleeping bag out of the Shays' storage locker in the basement. Guess what happens next.
  • Sam rigs Lewbert's cupboards to bury him with golf balls.
• Expy:
  • iCarly Saves TV has Zeebo, a parody of Barney.
  • Ripoff Rodney is a very close expy or homage to Mike Damone, except for not being The Casanova or a Casanova Wannabe.
  • Loony Fan Amanda "Mandy" Valdez appears to be a spiritual successor to Penelope Taynt. The fact that her name's "Amanda" likely isn't a coincidence.
  • "iCook" was about a TV chef named Ricky Flame who hosted a show called "Food Fight". This was a parody of Bobby Flay and his Food network show "Throwdown!"
• Extremely Overdue Library Book: In "iRocked the Vote", Spencer finds about about a 10 year overdue video that he owes. Subverted when the girl working at the store tells him her boss sends them out to customers just to scare them.

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