I Carly / Tropes F to J

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F

• Face Doodling: Sam's prank to sleeping students whenever Ridgeway High has an all-nighter, snapshot them and upload it in the internet. Carly remarks that Sam's doodles are "accurate".
• Face Palm:
  • Spencer balls his fist onto his face when the European swimsuit models dance goofily.
  • Carly slaps her forehead with her palm upon learning Sam's mom has no idea what iCarly is.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Gibby in "iWin a Date", doubling as Comically Missing the Point.
    Carly: We have to keep the game clean and fair.
    Gibby: What if i don't pick Shannon?
    Sam: Listen. There will be 3 girls: Girl Number 1, GIRL NUMBER 2, and Girl Number 3.
    Gibby: But how will I know which one is Shannon?
    Carly: If you want TWO go on a date with Shannon, you got TWO choose carefully.
    Carly & Sam: That is all you have TWO do.
    Gibby: O-kaaaaay!
  • Freddie in "iBeat the Heat":
    Carly: What's the temperature outside?
    Freddie: A hundred and four degrees.
    Carly: Uuuuugh. (runs toward thermostat)
    Freddie: Try to make it cooler in here.
    (Carly glares back at Freddie)
    Freddie: Which is probably what you're doing.
    Carly: (deadpan) Uh-huh!
  • Spencer's overexcitement on the girl he just met at the ending of "iThink They Kissed" made him not notice that his little sister and her best friends are duct-taped against each other.
  • Combined with The Guards Must Be Crazy in the episode "iThink They Kissed", how did the prison guards not figure out that they were missing two prisoners or check inside the pants sculpture? Even Spencer realized the sculpture was deceptively heavy but didn't question it.
• Fandom Nod:
  • The first promo for the episode "iStart A Fan War" directly uses the Portmanteau Couple Name for both major pairings both in the voice over and graphics. In-universe direct references can be easily justified by the idea that as a popular online webshow, the shipping fan groups would probably actually exist in-universe as well.
  • "iLost My Mind" has Freddie directly respond to Seddie shippers who ignore Freddie's feelings.
• Feigning Intelligence: Carly tries this in an attempt to impress a very intelligent (and good looking) boy in "iQ".
• Feud Episode: Each episode where Carly and Sam quarrel.
  • "iDon't Want To Fight", where Carly gives Sam a handmade iCarly t-shirt (possibly the first ever made, but it's important to Carly), and Sam trades it for concert tickets.
  • "iSaw Him First", where they fight over a hot guy, complete with sabotage and tricks. The actual conflict is resolved by the guy, who gets sick of their competitiveness, and then falls down an elevator shaft, and after they resolve not to fight over a guy anymore.
  • "iQuit iCarly" is probably the worst fight between them, when both girls side with different friends. Carly calls Sam lazy and Sam brings up the fact that the show is names after just Carly alone. The two refuse to apologize to one another. It ends with the girls nearly falling off the side of a building after Sam rashly jumps out onto a window cleaners platform to get a good camera shot.
  • "iKiss" is the first example for Freddie splitting with the girls, as he quit the show because Sam revealed he hadn't kissed a girl. I'm sure you wouldn't be shocked to find out they ended up sharing a First Kiss with each other at the end to fix it.
  • In "iHire An Idiot", Freddie threatens to quit iCarly after the girls hire Cort as an intern solely because of his hotness.
• Fiction Isn't Fair: 2 main areas:
  • Firstly, how the teachers at the school behave towards the students, but don't get into trouble. One example would be in "iHave My Principals" where one of the teachers gives Gibby a detention for being too Gibby, and they introduce uniforms in about a day.
  • Secondly, Sam should have been expelled and in juvie by now, even with Carly as a Morality Pet.
• Fire Alarm Distraction: In an attempt to get into detention, Carly pulls the fire alarm. A teacher bursts out of the lounge and demands to know if she's the one who did it... and then says he's glad she did because the microwave in the lounge had just burst into flames.
• First Kiss: The subject of an episode regarding Freddie's admittance of not having one (except for Valerie, which he refuses to count for some reason) and Sam mocking him for it on the air. In the aftermath of the fight about Sam broadcasting it to the world, Sam reveals that she hasn't had her first kiss either, and the two end up sharing their first kiss together later in the episode.
• First-Name Ultimatum: "Gibby!"
• 555: 1-555-SEND-ME-A-SACK
• Flanderization: Everyone but Spencer, who could be argued started off Flanderized as the insane artist who constantly burns things, has suffered this:
  • In the first season, My Beloved Smother Mrs. Benson fit the pattern of classic OCD; in the second, not so much.
  • Sam's tomboy-esque vibes from the first season got worse in subsequent seasons, often veering into various examples of highly extreme bullying, anti-social and even downright sociopathic behavior, like her forming and running a child labor sweatshop to make Penny-Tees in the episode "iSell Penny Tees". After the series ended and the writers wanted to have Sam continue in the spinoff Sam & Cat, and tried to de-flanderize her and have her go back to how she was back in Season 1 of iCarly.
  • A minor character, Officer Carl, has also went through this. In his first appearance, he was a fair minded police officer who arrested Spencer for causing a huge traffic jam and understandably got mad at him for putting up a sign that was supposed to say "Please go online to iCarly.com", but after failing to turn it off due to causing a tremendous traffic crash, it ended up saying "Pee on Carl". Spencer sincerely apologizes, telling him it was an accident. In later appearance both on iCarly.com and the show, he has become a corrupt officer, still holding a grudge against Spencer about "Pee on Carl", despite Spencer pointing out he got revenge on him for that by using humiliation as a form of punishment for an unrelated offense. He also refused to arrest photographers who vandalized because they took pictures of his daughter's rabbit no charge. He then gives Carly a ticket for having a car that doesn't have a license plate, and doesn't nullify the ticket when Carly explains to him that the car in the studio is actually a prop.
  • Season 5 is horrible for this:
    • Carly has started randomly insulting people, telling off Spencer and being mean-spirited, as well as becoming dumber. In the Season 1 episode "iPromise Not To Tell", she complained about not getting an A in a history class even though worked hard on her schooling to try and get her first ever straight A's on her report card, but as the show went on until Season 5, all of that is gone. She showed signs of this in the episode "iSpace Out", where she can't pronounce claustrophobic astro-psychosis, even though she developing claustrophobia. In "iQ", she has to fake/cheat at being intelligent to try and impress a guy named Kyle when she should've simply told him.
    • Freddie has started dismissing Carly, ignoring her, blowing her off and generally mistreating her.
    • Sam's antagonism and fighting with Freddie was blown up in both "iDate Sam & Freddie" and especially "iCan't Take It", where it's implied that she outright sabotages and ruins Freddie's science camp all because he didn't know what time it was when she asked him.
• Flynning: Anyone who has ever seen or participated in ANY form of fencing knows it bears little resemblance to the random swinging that Freddie and Spencer were doing. While this is excusable as they were probably playing around, the actual match against Toder still had them using incorrect equipment and disregarding basic rules of the sport.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Fred/Lucas's pooch, Tibbles, is described by a terrified Spencer as being either a huge dog or a small bear.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In "iGo Nuclear", when Cal is about to insert the power rod serving as the main fuel supply for the power generator he helps Carly make, Carly asks him what it’s made of, and Cal nervously says "Let's just say it comes from nature." In the end, it turns out Cal is a wanted criminal and the power rod contains an illegal substance.
  • In "iBeat the Heat", Freddie states that Sabrina is just a tall girl, not a kind of hideous monster; after which he triggered an accident that made his statement figuratively true.
  • In "iSpeed Date", Sam has an apprehensive reaction to seeing Freddie and Carly having a slow dance. "iOMG" makes it clear she felt hurt and jealous at seeing Freddie with Carly.
  • In "iParty with Victorious", Mr. Howard, who has never been a pleasant teacher and is known to hate all kids, takes an unexpected liking to Carly's new boyfriend Steven. Turns out that Steven is a snake who is two-timing Carly with Tori in Los Angeles.
• Forceful Kiss: Sam did this to Freddie in "iOMG".
• For Science!: Carly uses this excuse in "iOMG" to get Gibby to help her electrocute her brother for their semester project.
• Foul Ball Pit: In the B-plot of "iBust a Thief", Spencer goes to Funk E. Fester's to try to win Murray the Magic Dolphin, which he's wanted since he was a kid. However, since Funk E.'s doesn't allow single adults without children, Spencer takes Gibby's little brother Guppy with him. When they arrive, Guppy tells Spencer that he has to pee. Spencer tells him "You can pee in the ball pit!", which Guppy proceeds to do.
• The Four Loves:
  • Storge (Family): Carly, Spencer, and Sam all share these feelings for each other. Carly, Spencer, and their father clearly love each other in "iGoodbye".
  • Phileo (Friendship): Sam and Freddie both tell each other they love the other after breaking up in "iLove You".
  • Agape (Unconditional/Self Sacrifice): Freddie towards Carly, who seems to love Carly unconditionally no matter where their relationship lies with regards to Phileo and Eros. He has proven his ability to self-sacrifice for her, being almost killed in order to save Carly from being killed herself by pushing her out of the way of a truck in one episode.
  • Eros (Romantic): Carly and Freddie.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Carly is sanguine, Sam is choleric, Freddie is melancholic, whilst Spencer fits into phlegmatic by way of being an artist who rarely interacts with anyone apart from the rest of the trio (his sister's friends), and his one single friend, Socko. He has girlfriends, but all are fleeting.
• Freak Out:
  • Carly is quite susceptible, most notably her hissy fits in "iThink They Kissed" and "iSpace Out". Minor variations are the instances where she delivers long rants like in "iSaw Him First" and "iDate a Bad Boy".
  • Mrs. Benson will freak out of anything, usually hauling Freddie off for a tick bath, like in "iFence".
  • Carly is an extreme claustrophobe. When locked in a small room ("iSam's Mom") or even a fake Space Shuttle ("iSpaceOut"), she can freak out quite spectacularly.
• Freudian Excuse: Sam as part of her Anti-Hero or Draco in Leather Pants semi-villainous character build. See "iSell Penny Tees", for how her mother's behavior influences her behavior towards the children.
• Friendless Background:
  • Sam fits this best with "iChristmas" and "iTwins" in mind.
  • Freddie also has a lot of friends besides the girls, since he is a member of lots of extra-curricular clubs in school, implied in his blog and "iMeet Fred".
  • Carly at least was shown working with Wendy for a project in "iDate a Bad Boy", as noted by Word Of God for that episode. Missy also shows up talking about their friendship when Carly lived in California. There is also the possibility that she became friendless after moving from California, until Sam showed up, and then she subsequently gained a wider circle of friends as she grew up.
• Friendly Enemy: Sam and Freddie in Season 2 onwards, wherein Season 1 they were forced to work together out of their mutual interest in Carly.
• "Friends" Rent Control: As stated in "iPilot", their loft has 3 floors with its own ELEVATOR. There are various fan theories for how they afford this (their father pays for it, Spencer's art makes a lot of money, etc.).
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": When a local pie shop owner dies in "iPie", Carly has to filibuster a eulogy as Sam and Freddie find the recipes for the pies in the computer to keep the shop open.
• Fun Personified: Spencer. His ex-girlfriend Veronica describes him best: "I thought he was crazy and... too loud. But Spencer is a creative, fun spirit."
• Fun T-Shirt: The various Penny Tee's that the iCarly crew wear. Examples include Peanut Butter Love, Parole Baby, Danwarp Tweets, and Bacon Farm.
• Fun with Acronyms: A subplot in "iStakeout" has Sam and Freddie argue over what "MPEG" stands for; the former thinks it's "Moving Picture Experts Group", the latter thinks it's "Mega Pixels Electronic Gallery". Turns out Sam's guess was right.

G

• Gamer Chick:
  • Sasha Striker in the episode "iStage an Intervention" who set the record for highest Pak Rat score.
  • Sam is also shown numerous times playing rhythm games, and Carly is shown a few times as well.
• Geeky Turn-On: Carly seemed to get pretty turned on by Freddie's tech talk in "iSaved Your Life", calling it cute and geeky, and coining the word 'cukey'.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Interpretation of exactly what 'counts' for the trope can lead to this trope being played straight or averted depending on the cast combination used.
  • If you count just the main trio of characters due to their age then the show fails the trope until Gibby becomes a full time cast member in the later seasons.
  • If you count Spencer because he's Carly's brother and that the eponymous web show is filmed in their apartment, Spencer would round out the Two Girls and a Guy cast to achieve the trope before Gibby, but then turns it into an aversion when Gibby eventually shows up to make it 2 girls and 3 guys.
  • If you also count Mrs. Benson because she was the only other major character on the show from the start, then it means women outnumber the men until Gibby comes along to make the main cast 3 guys and 3 women.
• Get into Jail Free: In "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love", to get away from his psycho/neurotic love interest who he escaped from years ago, Lewbert at first tries to take responsibility for stealing the remotes in the apartments before realizing the jail time wasn't enough. He then smacked one of the officers after hearing he would get six months for that.
• The Ghost:
  • Spencer's friend Socko is never seen.
  • Carly and Spencer's dad, he is always in contact with them but never appeared. He finally did in the series finale 2-part special "iGoodbye".
• Gift of the Magi Plot: Kind of the basis of "iDon't Want to Fight", on one side. It's Carly and Sam's 5th friendship anniversary, and Carly gives Sam a Special T-Shirt, while Sam promises to give Cuddlefish concert tickets, so she trades off the T-Shirt for the tickets to "Ripoff Rodney".
• Girl (or Guy) Of The Week): Each character has had at least a couple of these:
  • Freddie: Valerie, Melanie. And strangely enough, Carly.
  • Carly: Griffin, Jake, Shane, and Freddie.
  • Sam: Jonah, Shane, Pete (with a Snap Back).
  • Spencer: Too many to list. Most of those relationships can only imply that Spencer has sex with the girl and she slinks off the next day never to be seen again.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • "iWill Date Freddie" evokes this twice.
    • During Freddie's date with Valerie.
      Sam: I set up one of Freddie's little webcams and aimed it at the table.
      Carly: But that's spying. We can't spy on Freddie on his first date!
      (cue the girls slumping on beanbags watching the livestream on the monitor)
      Carly: We're bad people.
    • When Valerie "seduces" Sam to sever her ties from iCarly and join Valerie instead.
      Valerie: Don't say anything. We don't want Carly to know about this.
      Sam: Believe me, I won't.
      (cue back at the Shay's loft)
      Carly: She WHAT?!
      Sam: That skunkbag tried to steal me too!
  • "iSpeed Date": Sam refuses to go to the Groovy Smoothie with Freddie, thinking he, Carly, and Spencer can handle all the guys themselves. Cut to the Groovy Smoothie with 752 guys... and the whole group.
  • From "iQuit iCarly", when the Pirates try to take over Spencer's boat:
    Spencer: NO! WE'LL NEVER SURRENDER THIS BOAT!
    (cut to Spencer and Gibby being thrown into a dumpster)
    Spencer: (sticks his head out of the dumpster) ...They took over our boat.
  • "iGet Pranky": Carly tells Spencer not to go getting all prank-happy on people. Spencer says that he won't. Take a wild guess as to what happens next.
• Girliness Upgrade: The focus of the episode "iMake Sam Girlier".
• Girl Next Door: Carly is Freddie's female front-door neighbor he fell in love with "at first sight".
• Girl Scouts Are Evil: In "iOwe You", the mean teenage Sunshine Girls who are rivaling Spencer for their selling spot at the supermarket. Subverted with the incredibly-shy Moe Emily who is the daughter of the hot mother Spencer is helping.
• Give Geeks a Chance: "iSaved Your Life" epitomizes this trope. Freddie saves his dream girl's life, and boom, Carly falls head-over-heels toward him. Carly eventually comes around to Freddie in "iGoodbye".
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The plot of "iLost My Mind", regarding Sam's Love Epiphany.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Carly sees the best in people, but if betrayed or oppressed, will come up with a scheme like having a massive in-school riot to get the good principal back.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Spencer with his duck pajamas. Then his duck boxer shorts. Sam and her "I love Las Vegas" underwear. Freddie's anti-bacterial underwear would be related to this trope somehow.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!:
  • Many characters have a habit of using certain words as substitutes for words they cannot get past the radar (like the Shay siblings' "Shoosh yeah!"). Can be considered an Unusual Euphemism but most of the time, it's a bit surprising what got past the cenors.
  • "Cheese and rice!" Spoken by the principal himself with the matching accent for the expression it sounds like.
  • Freddie's "This is serious chiz!" was controversial enough for some people in YouTube to claim that iCarly had used a swear word. Hilarity Ensues if any non-viewer of the show saw the video and thought the swear word is Sam's last name.
  • Sam uses "Holy cheese on a chisel!" and "Holy crab!"
  • Diphead, Dipthong, Dipwad, Skunk Bag and so on.
  • Mrs. Benson's "What the YUCK?" when she caught Carly kissing Freddie passionately in "iSaved Your Life".
  • A highlight in iMove Out:
    Freddie: Oh, my go-
    Mrs. Benson: You better end that with gosh.
    Freddie: Dear gosh, please make her leave.
  • "Shoosh yeah" is a common euphemism.
• Grand Finale: "iGoodbye".
• Grandparental Obliviousness:
  • Carly can't stop Nevel from messing with her website because while his mom goes on a cruise, the only person in charge of him is his grandmother, "and she's hopelessly confused."
  • Averted Trope and subverted with Carly and Spencer's grandfather, who seems to be the sanest member of their family.
  • Averted with Wade Collins' mother, who practically is aware of her Jerkass son's actions and instead of punishing him, supports him whole-heartedly on it.
• G-Rated Drug: Fat Cakes are treated as such in "iToe Fat Cakes" when the group tries to cross the border.
• Green Aesop: "iGo Nuclear". Played with at the very least due to it being forced upon the writers, to the point where it can be interpreted as a Spoof Aesop.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In "iHalloween", while the gang were broadcasting their web show in a supposed haunted house, things began to get freaky and they start to leave. Unfortunately, the door got locked. While trying to figure out a way to open the door, Carly suggests hitting it with something. Sam promptly proceeds to use Freddie.
• Groin Attack:
  • Spencer gets this quite a bit:
    • Whacked with a ladle by Stu Stimbler's son in "iStake Out".
    • In "iKiss", when Sam threw the football to Spencer hard but not high enough,
    • In "iBeat the Heat", where Chuck Chambers hits him with a rolled up magazine.
    • In "iStart a Fan War", when someone throws his 'longstaff' from a crowd.
    • In "iCan't Take It", where he gets one from Sam while trying to stop her from beating up Gibby.
  • One of the holes in Spencer's mini-golf course in "iMight Switch Schools" involves this on a cut-out. Freddie groans in sympathy.
• Grounded Forever: Spencer, after seeing Carly making out with Griffin, grounds Carly "for till college". He also actually follows through on the punishment until he learns An Aesop, up to and including making Carly wear a horrible sweater, and disguising himself as a janitor at her school so he can catch Griffin when he visits Carly's school to make out with her.
• Gushing About Guest Stars:
  • In "iMeet Fred", everyone except for Freddie spends the episode gushing about how funny Fred is. The fact that Freddie dislikes his content is the whole conflict of the episode, and he ends the video being forced to admit the videos are funny.
  • In the "iParty with Victorious" crossover episode, Kenan Thompson guest stars. Accordingly, everyone gushes about how awesome and rich he is, especially as its his house they're throwing the party at. It's slightly downplayed, however, in that his role is pretty minor.

H

• Hacker Cave: "Well, we found Nevel's nerd cave."
• Half-Identical Twins: An In-Universe example in the episode "iToe Fat Cakes". As Carly is flipping through the channels, she comes across a Dingo Channel promo for a new show called "Twinjas", a show about identical twins brother/sister who are also ninjas.
• Halloween Episode: "iScream On Halloween" and "iHalfoween" (although the latter is a celebration of the halfway mark from the previous Halloween to the next Halloween).
• Hand Gagging: Happens in a few episodes, notably when Carly licks Sam's hand in "iLost My Mind" and exclaims that it tastes like peanuts and dirt.
• Hands-Off Parenting:
  • At the very least, Spencer and Carly's father. Possibly their mother, if she's alive. Most of the time Carly is the one taking care of Spencer, so he doesn't really count either. Sam's mom would be a "lives with the child" version of this. Mrs. Benson is the exact opposite.
  • "iSpace Out" implied that their dad is stationed overseas for so long, he's not even aware that Spencer had dropped out of law school.
  • Spencer has his moments of parenting ("iWanna Stay With Spencer" being a prime example), and he has his moments of Hands-Off Parenting, like in "iGot Detention":
    Spencer: Did I hear you say you got detention?
    Carly: Yeah.
    Spencer: Should I be concerned?
    Carly: Not really.
    Spencer: Later!
• Hand Signals: The broadcasters' countdown (from five with one unspoken and pointing to indicate ("you're live on the air") became Freddie's Catchphrase. He didn't use the others listed on the trope page because as a webcast they have no fixed time slot or Standards and Practices so "stretch", "finish it up" or "stop NOW!" weren't relevant.
• Hand Wave: "iDate Sam & Freddie" ends with a serious talk where Carly tells Sam and Freddie they need to sort out their dysfunctional relationship and actually solve problems together. They spent the entire episode fighting constantly. The next episode ignores that plot completely and has Sam and Freddie working together just fine, ignoring and hand waving away that Sam and Freddie have 'worked' on their problem.
• Handy Feet: In one episode, Sam texts with her toes.
• Happy Birthday to You!:
  • An initial reference was made to this trope when Carly and the gang had to come up with an excuse explaining their invasion of Ms. Briggs' home in one episode: "Let's sing our public domain birthday song!" Only the only possible justification is Busman's Vocabulary for people who produce user-generated Internet content.
  • "iMake Sam Girlier", played with this at the beginning when the gang begins to sing said song for Sam's birthday before switching to an altered version of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".
• Happy Dance:
  • Sam and Freddie when they win the iWeb Award in "iGo To Japan". Carly sort of sways along.
  • Carly and Freddie (...and Judge Marla?) in "iCook".
  • Carly, Freddie, and Spencer halfway through "iFight Shelby Marx" after Carly and Shelby made up.
  • Carly, Sam, and Freddie when they watched Nevel's Jerkass video that caused him to be a social outcast in "iPity the Nevel".
• Happy Ending Override: Sam and Freddie decide not to break up in "iCan't Take It", only for them to break up anyway the very next episode.
• Harmless Villain: Nevel's evil plan is to destroy iCarly.
• Harsher in Hindsight: If you only watched "iWill Date Freddie" (from Season 1) when it originally premiered, the joke about Valerie wanting to date Freddie that Sam makes isn't harsh at all, just typical Sam versus Freddie banter. But if you've seen "iLost My Mind", then watch "iWDF", it becomes harsher and ironic. Sam tells Valerie ..."to email the address of the mental hospital she is staying in and he'll meet ya there." Implying that someone would have to be crazy to like Freddie. Fast forward nearly 4 years into the future and in "iLost My Mind", when Freddie tells (and shows) Sam that he likes her too, guess where he does it. A mental hospital. Why is she there? She thinks she is crazy for liking Freddie. Both occurrences took place live on their webshow. So it's possible that fans of the webshow in-universe also might be aware of this.
• The Heart: The title character of the series will rebel against authority if she perceives unfairness in the treatment of her friends and has given her "Why can't we all just get along" speech to a crowd of people at least a couple of times. She's also contrasted with her much more violent and tomboyish best friend Sam.
• Heel–Face Turn: Subverted. It seems Nevel ended up being on good terms with the iCarly gang, until he hits a guy in a wheelchair and is filmed insulting him.
• Hell Hotel: Come On Inn. It's not scary, but the fact that the room Sam reserved is dilapidated by a shootout and a crime scene, coupled by poor maintenance and a hobo waiting outside the window with easy access will sure get the creeps out of anyone.
• Here We Go Again!:
  • "iPity the Nevel" ends with Nevel restoring his reputation and is about to form a friendship with the iCarly gang... then he gets bumped by a man in a wheelchair and insults him, and is once again filmed.
  • Subverted in "iGot a Hot Room". Spencer makes Carly a chandelier for her new room which is once again made of gummy bears, but this time they're fire retardant.
• High-School Dance: Although the actual dance is never shown, "iSpeed Date" revolves around the trio finding a date to the Sadie Hawkins/Girls Choice dance and then the aftermath of the dance back at the Groovy Smoothie. Carly and Freddie end up slow dancing together after their crappy dates leave.
• Hidden Depths: "iEnrage Gibby" focused on Gibby's Unstoppable Rage side, as well as this dialogue.
  Freddie: You play the ukulele?
  Carly: Yeah, a little.
  Freddie: Wow, that's never been established.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood:
  • Sam is a hilariously abusive childhood in progress. It isn't hard to imagine how bad it could be, with a father who has apparently abandoned them, a mother who is most likely an alcoholic at the least, is constantly in jail, just like most of the rest of her family. All played for laughs on the show though.
  • One has to remember, though, that Melanie apparently spends most, if not all, of the year in a boarding school. Therefore she'd turn out okay, she doesn't have to deal with Mrs. Puckett.
  • Freddie's childhood is Hilariously Abusive in the opposite way.
• Hilarious Outtakes:

&& iBloop, entirely dedicated to the bloopers and outtakes of the cast throughout the series.

• There was also a sequel (iBloop 2: Electric Bloopaloo).

• Hippie Teacher: Mr. Henning. He loves nature, disproves of modern methods (or rather just major energy wasting ones), and takes students on a Root and Berry Retreat.
  Spencer: You know, when I was at Ridgeway, I had a teacher who was such a loser! He's a freaky weirdo and smells like rotten wood...
  Mr. Henning: Spencer? That's me.
  Spencer: What? (pauses) Oh.
• Hired for Their Looks: When the Power Trio need to hire an assistant to help with the eponymous show-within-a-show, Sam and Carly hire a hunky and INCREDIBLY stupid guy. Freddie retaliates by hiring a really dumb girl though it turns out that she was a college student using the experience as source material for a sociology class.
• Hired to Hunt Yourself: In "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love", Chuck was hired to be part of the building watch patrol to deal with a spate of robberies where someone was stealing tv remotes. Chuck was ultimately the one who was stealing them as he was grounded with no tv and didn't want anyone else in the building to be able to watch tv.
• History Repeats: In "iAm Your Biggest Fan", Carly recalls Spencer's present for her then 14th birthday is a lava lamp that burst into flames (and then exploded). And when Spencer makes her a gummy bear lamp for her 16th birthday...
• Homage:
  • "iBelieve in BigFoot" is a direct homage to Scooby-Doo (further lampshaded by Freddie) sans the dog. There are 2 males and 2 females; they are investigating a certain creature; they have a vehicle; and also turns up that the said creature is actually a guy they know, in a costume.
  • Dan Schneider stated that Sabrina's thrashing of Carly's project in "iBeat the Heat" is a reference to Godzilla.
  • "iChristmas" tops this with a It's a Wonderful Plot premise (a granted wish that gives unexpected circumstances; the protagonist is someone's Morality Chain) with hints of A Charlie Brown Christmas (Spencer's electromagnetic tree and Carly's small Christmas tree).
  • The Paintball Episode "iSaved Your Life" with its amusing homage to HBO's The Wire episode "Late Editions".
    Gibby: How my hair look, Sam?
    Sam: You look good, Gib. (Shoots him in the forehead with a paintball)
  • The Random Debates at icarly.com have taken place in a wall very much like the iconic Laugh In joke wall.
  • "iQuit iCarly" contains references to Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys, with Carly and Sam and their webshow's guest comedians Fleck and Dave sharing similarities with vaudevillian team Lewis and Clark, who were successful professionally but argumentative personally, which the special was focusing on when exploring the comedy teams' strained relationship over the differences with one another. Carly and Dave acts as the seemingly reasonable Al Lewis to Sam's and Fleck's stubborn Willy Clark (though inversely most of the time, Carly/Dave acts as the head-strong Clark to Sam/Fleck acting as the laid-back Lewis), while Freddie helms the role of the middleman Clark's nephew Ben.
• How Much More Can He Take?: "iPsycho Part 2": Gibby figures out a hidden code from the iCarly crew, and comes to the rescue. He finds the kidnapper girl's house, proceeds to break down the front door with a single blow and engage in a supremely vicious (especially for a Nickelodeon show!) fight to the death with the girl. Furniture is smashed repeatedly, a fireplace poker is used with intent to kill, they fall down a flight of stairs at top speed, proceed to perform a number of technical fighting maneuvers, and then Gibby starts to bleed. Both of them should be severely injured, but Gibby barely needs a Band-Aid.
• Humiliation Conga: Sam in "iSpeed Date". She insults Freddie by claiming no-one wants him, only to find he had 3 girls ask him. She refuses to ask any boy to the Girl's Choice dance, until Carly convinces her to ask Gibby out because Sam embarrassed her on the webshow. Sam is then rejected by Gibby and Freddie laughs at her. She tries again to have Gibby take her to the dance, only be rejected a second time and he's got a stunning girl at his house already. Sam stumbles back to the Groovy Smoothie, only to find Carly and Freddie slow dancing together, leaving Sam completely and utterly alone.
• Hurricane of Puns: Taken to the extreme in "iPity the Nevel" by the main trio, most especially their Karma Party for Nevel's "fall from grace" where they serve chicken karm-esan, karma-corn, karma-apples, and later "Karm-again!"
  Gibby: What do you serve in a Karma Party?
  Freddie: Just desserts. (Impressed by his own pun) Oh! Oh!
  (Carly and Sam cheer him on)
• Hypocrite: The show aired the episode "iStart A Fan War", which ended with a dual Author Filibuster (as it was directed against a group of in-universe fans but also aimed at the real life fandom by the writer Dan Schneider) against Shipping. The next episode filmed had a huge change in the Shipping makeup and basically created a Love Triangle.
• Hypocritical Humor: Many of the episodes use this a lot. Each character even has at least one of these.
  • While Gibby walks out of the studio:
    Carly: Poor kid. It must feel bad to love someone who doesn't love you back.
    Freddie: (turns to stare at Carly)
    Carly: Sorry.
  • When the gang is cleaning up the mess of the police stakeout:
    Sam: Some people just have no manners. (throws an empty soda can on the floor for Freddie to pick up)
  • Same episode and scene:
    Spencer: Do you know what it's like to be harassed every day by some kid?
    Freddie: (turns to stare at Sam)
    Sam: (grins widely)
  • After Spencer's high-powered sculpture destroyed their longest webcast World Record attempt:
    Spencer: Hey guys, don't make me look guilty, like it was all my fault.
    Carly, Sam, Freddie: (ALL stare at Spencer)
    Spencer: Oh yeah.
  • When discussing about the Dingo Channel:
    Spencer: Aw, I hate that channel! They always make adults look like buffoons!
    Carly: You forgot to wear pants again.
    Spencer: Oh my god.
  • Same episode, when Sam forcefully invites Gibby for the Bikini Dog Food Fight:
    Sam: Come on, why won't you wear a bikini?
    Gibby: Because I have some dignity!
    Sam: Since when?
    Gibby: (leaves, but returns shortly) OK. No fighting, no dog food, but I'll wear the bikini top.

I-J

• I Ate WHAT?!: Done many times. After coming back from a jog with his Girl of the Week, Spencer reaches for a glass of what appears to be water, then spits it out.
  Spencer: That's not water!
  Veronica: What is it?!
  Spencer: I don't know!
• I Can't Hear You: Freddie to Carly in "iFence", so she won't stop them from going to the fencing studio.
  Freddie: Uh, sorry! Can't hear you! You're breaking up. (Opens the door).
  Carly: (Gasp) But we're not talking on cell phones!
  Freddie: Byeeee! (He and Spencer run out).
• Identical Stranger:
  • Two characters Miranda Cosgrove play—Carly Shay and Megan Parker—share the same universe, since iCarly, Victorious, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101 and Sam & Cat are all interlinked. This is made even funnier when you consider how different they are. Virtually the only thing they have in common (besides their appearances) is that they're both Girly Girls.
  • True for Shelby Marx, Tori Vega, and Lola Martinez, who are all played by Victoria Justice. The similarity between Shelby Marx and Tori Vega is lampshaded by Sam in "iParty With Victorious".
    Sam: She looks kind of like that Shelby Marx chick, doesn't she?
    Freddie: Nah, this girl's way hotter.
  • True for Crazy Steve and Spencer, who are both played by Jerry Trainor, as well as both Trisha Kirby and Sam, who are both played by Jennette McCurdy.
• Identical Twin Mistake: In the episode where Sam's polar opposite twin Melanie is introduced, Freddie spends the entire episode under the delusion that Melanie doesn't exist, and is just Sam playing a trick on him. As the two are never seen together until the very end, the episode is set up so that the viewers are just as uncertain as Freddie.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All of the episodes start with a lowercase "i."
• Idiosyncratic Wipes:
  • The view zooming out to a viewing window in a media player followed by the next scene being clicked on the right side of the screen and that zooms in.
  • A seek bar appearing at the bottom third of the screen which the cursor arrow uses to fast forward to the next scene.
• Idiot Ball: All of them.
  • Spencer is especially prone, as he can switch between intelligent protective older brother into someone who will build a machine seemingly intended to fling hammers at high velocity at head height, or a "sculpture" which seems tailor-made to catch fire at random.
  • Carly in "iSell Penny Tees". Why on earth would she pay the kids up front? They were apparently being paid $10 a day, there were at least a half-dozen of them, so she'd have paid out anywhere from $400 to $1000.
• If It Was Funny the First Time...: Spencer's works bursting into flames is a recurring gag that was somehow toned down in Season 3, but becomes another plot device in the Season 4 premiere "iGot a Hot Room".
• Ignorant About Fire: A Running Joke was of the main character's brother, Spencer, accidentally making things spontaneously combust. Somehow.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Carly is a type A while Freddie has shown signs of being a type B.
• Imagine Spot: In "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love", Carly and Freddie have a synchronous daydream on how life in the Bushwell will be much better if the irate doorman Lewbert is "a happy man". Carly, Freddie and Lewbert dance around as balloons fall. Sam breaks them out of their over-the-top fantasy.
  Sam: I really doubt balloons would rain down.
• Implausible Deniability: In "iHave My Principals"
  Sam: I haven't done one bad thing this week!
  Mr. Howard: Oh, please! I know you put that big snapping turtle in the teachers' toilet.
  Sam: You got it on video?
  Mr. Howard: ...no.
  Sam: Then I didn't do it.
• Improbable Food Budget:
  • Zig-Zagged: It seems like the food they waste for comedic purposes on the websow is better than the food Carly and Spencer actually eat.
  • They used quite a load of expensive cheese making the gibby with cheese and sauce.
  • Justified as their show have high viewership ratings that directly translates to advertising and product endorsement.
• Improvised Lockpick: In "IPsycho", Sam gnaws on a duck bone into a lock pick to unlock the door out of the recording booth that she, Carly, and Freddie are trapped in by Nora.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug:
  • In the episode "iSpy a Mean Teacher", Freddie gets a giant plastic piece of pie with a very obvious camera lens in the side.
  • In the episode "iStakeout", Carly and Sam wear glasses and a hat which are obvious cameras.
• Informed Attractiveness: Kyle and Cort are the most glaring examples. While the majority of the earlier love interests (usually Carly's) definitely have the looks, Cort's appearance does not really live up to how Carly and Sam praise and drool over him compared to Brad. Likewise with Kyle who only had the fake-Brit accent and the insufferably sophisticated genius attitude up his sleeve.
• Inherently Funny Words: Being a comedy.. uses these quite often.
  • Specific examples include hobo, Gibby being called a shirtless potato. They once used doodle as part of fladoodles an invented snack item and Yak as part of Yakima.
  • Repeated mentions of the word ointment, which the creator himself has admitted is "just a funny word."
• In-Joke: In "iToe Fat Cakes", Carly says that it's lame that her date's sister is 18 and doesn't have her driver's license. Miranda Cosgrove is 18 and only recently got her license.
• Inner Monologue Conversation: In "iParty with Victorious", Carly, Sam, and Freddie use this to figure out how to get revenge on a cheating boyfriend. Tori lampshades this by asking to be included.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • The iCarly trio all prefer to be known by nicknames rather than their names: Carly is Carlotta, Sam is Samantha, and Freddie is Fredward. There's also their classmate Jeremy aka "Germy," the kid with the perpetual allergies.
  • Sam is fond of coming up with Embarrassing Nicknames for Freddie, such as "Fredwad," "Fredwiener" "Freduccini" or "Fredlumps." He does retaliate a few times with lame counter-remarks though (like "Sam-jerk") which only gives Sam a reason to ridicule him more.
  • Sam is also quick to shorten the original nickname of Carly to simply Carls instead. Sam uses Carls so much that it's almost a pet name she alone has for Carly.
• Instant Web Hit: In the Pilot, the funny video that started it all has an amazing 27,000 hits on the first evening it has been online.
• Insult Backfire: Freddie in the end of "iHeart Art". He takes the insults so well because he gets $5 richer for each insult Sam made as part of their bet, to the point he doubled the $40 Spencer gave him.
• Insult to Rocks: In "iWin A Date":
  Sam: (sees Carly's painting) Who's that? Freddie?
  (Freddie rolls his eyes)
  Carly: No! It's a clown!
  Sam: Oops. Sorry, Clown.
• Intoxication Ensues: In "iThink They Kissed", Sam gets high from the dentist's nitrous oxide, and loses the ability to censor herself.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Freddie for Carly in "iSaved Your Life". Quite an unusual example, because Freddie himself pulls out of the relationship in order to make sure Carly would be happy, instead of potentially taking advantage of a situation where she might not really like him but just thinks she does.
• Ironic Echo:
  • The source of Nevel's outburst is about the last jar of pickles that got shattered. While walking around Seattle suffering the consequences of his action, he sits on a bench displaying an ad of numerous jars of Schneider's Pickles while being ridiculed and shouted at by the passers-by.
  • Sam sees Carly and Freddie dancing alone in "iSpeed Date" is echoed with the end of "iOMG" by Carly watching Sam kiss Freddie.
  • The Dirshlitts trapped the iCarly gang and, channeling a certain line from The Shining, let them suffer a birthday party that would go on "forever... and ever... and ever...", speaking in a creepy monotonic unison as they do. After Mrs. Benson and T-Bo rescue them, Carly, Sam, and Freddie all say, in the same creepy monotonic unison the Dirshlitts had used, that they'll be going to prison, "forever... and ever... and ever...".
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In "iDo", Spencer is more than willing to swallow the kids' insults to him to "turn off" the bride Jodi, except...
  Carly: Come on! You don't really want Spencer!
  Spencer: I'm a mess.
  Carly: Such a mess!
  Sam: He has no job.
  Spencer: Who would hire me?
  Freddie: He doesn't hang out with anyone his own age.
  Spencer: I've never been popular!
  Carly: He drinks milk in the shower.
  Spencer: All naked and wet!
  Carly: Oh, and he has not a steady girlfriend since high school.
  Spencer: Oh, maybe not a steady girlfriend per se...
  Sam: And look at his flat butt.
  Spencer: TOO FAR!
• It Runs in the Family: Nora Dershlit's parents are crazy psychopaths just like their daughter, and become her Mooks when trapping the iCarly gang and permanently recreating her 16th birthday.
• It's All About Me:
  • Lampshaded by Freddie in regards to Sam in "iHurt Lewbert".
    Carly: Lewbert's gonna be okay. Well, not okay but at least back to the way he was before.
    Sam: Oh, good. We could've been in so much trouble.
    Freddie: Can't you ever think of anyone besides yourself?
    Sam: I could, but I choose not to.
• It's A Small Net After All: When looking for information on baby chicks for a science projects, Freddie types "chicks" into the search engine and gets "Chickapedia".
• It's a Wonderful Plot: "iChristmas". Somewhat unusual in that it's about someone else other than the person actually experiencing it having key personality traits absent (Carly wishes for Spencer to be "normal").
• It's Personal: Trying to take down iCarly.com is one thing... hurting Carly herself will get your ass kicked by Sam.
• iPhony: The characters on the show, just like in other Dan Schneider shows, use Pear company products, which is a parody of Apple.
• iProduct: iCarly.
  Freddie: i, Internet... Carly, you...
• It Makes Sense in Context:
  • A group of "bullies" invade Spencer's prize boat; said group are members of the Pirates baseball team.
  • Sam blows her nose on a handful of noodles, which Gibby and Guppy unknowingly eat later.
    Gibby: Whoa! I'm in love with this sauce! What is it?
    Sam: Uh, it could be a lot of cheese sauce...
    Carly: But it's not'''.
  • Carly's expression to Spencer's words clearly invokes this trope in "iFence": "He sliced my banana!"
  • The "Random Debates" usually start well, then the debaters will suddenly change topic (as early as Round 2), and Hilarity Ensues once their arguments are not anymore related to the topics they defend.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Freddie pulls out of the relationship with Carly in "iSaved Your Life" because he doesn't want to take advantage if Carly wasn't thinking straight about being smitten over being indebted to him.
  • Aside from iDate a Bad Boy, another example is "iStart a Fan War". Freddie is evidently jealous about Carly's flings with other boys, but the latter has him rather being supportive that Carly likes Adam and reprimands Sam to pacify the riot she made. Though Freddie's schadenfreude toward the Romantic False Lead is still there.
• Japanese Ranguage: The voice-operated Japanese lamp turns on and off by saying "RANPU!" like an angry Japanese man.
• Jerkass:
  • Sam in her less sympathetic moments, Lewbert the doorman, Nevel, Wade Collins.
  • This quote by Sam says it best:
    "Niceness disgusts me. It took me years to get used to you [Carly]."
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Despite her actions, even the school system is forced to listen to Sam and understand why Carly and Freddie puts up with her. Sure, many like Mr. Howard and Miss Briggs hates her rebellious ways, but Sam does have her way on reminding them who's also a really Jerkass, even worse than Sam.
  • She may have been saying it to manipulate Freddie into joining her web show, but Valerie wasn't incorrect about how awful Sam is to Freddie and how Carly does little to nothing to stop it. Carly herself acknowledges this at the end of the episode.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sam, usually under Carly's influence. She has a genuine friendship with Carly, is usually respectful to Spencer, and has her moments where she shows that she cares for Freddie deep down.
• Just Friends:
  • Carly and Freddie. Since their first appearance together, in the first episode, Freddie has wanted to be more than friends, whilst Carly just wants to be friends.
  • The roles are reversed in "iSaved Your Life". Carly is now very willing to be Freddie's girlfriend, but Freddie became aware that she might only have loved him "for saving her", not "as himself". Freddie tells Carly that they remain the way they used to be and they both agree that they could resume their relationship once Freddie recovers and if Carly still has her feelings for him.
    • In "iGoodbye", Carly comes up to Freddie as he's packing up the iCarly studio and she makes her move, finally kissing him and returning his feelings for her.