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    P 
  • Pac Man Fever:
    • Inverted with the version of Rock Band created specifically for the show. It's very good for what only shows up for maybe half a minute or so once in a blue moon. "iSaved Your Life" took it to another level, when they created Violin God, with its Bow Power. The first airing of the show had an error where the notes kept being hit even though Carly stopped playing to talk to Freddie, but after that error was pointed out to them, the Re-Cut extended episode aired a month later had fixed it.
    • Not done quite as well with Pak Rat during "iStage An Intervention". It seems to be a pre-recorded video set into an old arcade machine box. Spencer and Sasha play it like that type of game actually would, but Carly's actor Miranda Cosgrove probably had no experience with that type of game, and at the end, Carly plays the machine by wigging the control stick around so hard the box keeps shifting, in a way that would be unplayable on a real Pac-Man type arcade game.
  • Paintball Episode: In "iSaved Your Life", Sam and Spencer engage in a cutthroat no-holds-barred paintball war game called Assassin using only blow tube guns (minus wearing goggles). This episode primarily focuses on Carly and Freddie's romance, leaving behind extreme mind games between Sam and Spencer.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: In "iParty With Victorious", to infiltrate the party without drawing attention to themselves, while the other three are well disguised, Gibby was simply given a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mole.
  • Paranoia Gambit: Sam's Assassin strategy against Spencer to lure him to point-blank range in "iSaved Your Life".
  • Parental Abandonment:
    • Carly and Spencer's father is in the military. The whereabouts of their mother, as well as Sam's and Freddie's fathers is unknown, and Sam's mother is a depressed lump who rarely gets up before noon.
    • Sam's father's abandonment was finally acknowledged in "iParty With Victorious". In "iGoodbye", Sam confirms she doesn't even know who her father is.
  • Parental Bonus: Episodes may feature homages or Shout Outs to old shows, as well as subtle lines or jokes (green or not) aimed at adult audiences.
  • Parody: The fake movie trailers. "Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie" is about cliched teen chick movies, and "The Blowing" pokes fun on disaster films, mostly The Happening where the monster is essentially the wind .
  • Parody Commercial: The Sack is a dead-on spoof on the many uses of the sleeved blanket Snuggies, but sans the sleeves. Hilarity Ensues.
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": "iWant My Website Back" reveals the password to access iCarly.com is "Samlovesham".
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: In "iReunite With Missy", Missy broke Sam's cellphone on purpose and offered to buy her a new one. When Missy wins the 6-month cruise (Freddie is really the one who won it, but he gave it to Missy instead), Carly asks Sam how Missy could still compensate for her phone. Sam then reveals that she stole Missy's phone.
  • Paying in Coins: Invoked. Carly, Sam and Freddie agree to promote a new sneaker on their show, and got paid $8000 a week. They were to be cut a check, but Sam then insisted on cash. Cue a bunch of ad executives digging in their pockets for $8000 in bills. When they got bought out of the contract for $30,000, Carly then insists on being paid in cash.
  • People Jars: Comedic version used for Stu Stimbler's kid in iStakeOut. "Watch me spank your daddy!"
  • Perfect Health: Minor character Jeremy is almost perfect inversion. He sneezes every few seconds, all day, every day (at least when he appears).
  • Perfectly Cromulent Word:
    • In "iAm Your Biggest Fan", Carly tells Mandy that they need "fladoodles" for their web show just to get her off their backs. Sam asks what it is, but Carly says that she just made it up. Even subverted when Mandy actually manages to find them!! Sam blurts out how it happened when they didn't even exist, only for Carly to immediately elbow her in the gut.
    • In "iStakeout", Freddie tries all his best to hide his tattoo of Sam's face from his mom, to the point of giving an excuse of not taking his shirt off to avoid "cloud burn". Mrs. Benson sends him to several pharmacies to find "cloud block", which she later manages to find and lather her son's face with.
  • Persona Non Grata:
    • In "iMust Have Locker 239", Carly and Spencer get permanently banned from a community center where Carly had been taking art lessons, after Spencer got jealous and embarrassed her in front of the teacher. The staff even took their pictures and thumbprints.
    • In "iMove Out", the main characters get banned from an ice skating rink after Sam attacked the skater in front of her.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Gibby!"
  • Plot Hole: In "iPsycho", Carly strangely does not have a claustrophobic freakout when she, Sam, and Freddie are locked up by Nora in a recording booth.
  • Plot Parallel: "iLove You". In the A-Plot, Sam and Freddie were trying to become closer. In the B-Plot, Spencer and his older babysitter (he was 10, she was 15) entered a relationship that got creepy as she started acting like his babysitter again and bossing him around. Carly ends the B-Plot by telling Spencer and the babysitter that their relationship is creepy and weird, and that they were forcing a romantic connection out of their babysitter/child relationship. Sam and Freddie overhear this, and both realize that even though Carly wasn't talking about them, they were forcing their connection into a romantic one. They discuss it, then break up, then declare their love for each other.
  • The Prankster: Spencer used to be one and temporarily becomes one again when he gets addicted to pranking in "iGet Pranky".
  • Precocious Crush: Sam has a crush on Spencer.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
    • Attempted by Spencer when he surprises Sam by hiding inside her locker. Sam shuts the locker, and he lampshades the trope:
      Spencer: (annoyed at himself) I've gotta quit saying witty things before I blow.
    • Later played straight by Sam by conniving with a delivery man to distract Spencer in one of her best Moment of Awesome.
  • Primitive Clubs: An in-universe sketch about the first tantrum features a young cavegirl screaming and bashing everything with a big club because her parents won't let her get a pet dinosaur.
  • Production Throwback:
    • Some of the movie titles shown in the Premiere in Drake & Josh were shown in a video shop in one of the episodes.
    • Carly has also been shown watching Megan-centric scenes of Drake & Josh episodes "Megan's Revenge" and "The Peruvian Puff Pepper" on TV in the episodes "iGet Pranky" and "iToe Fatcakes" respectively, and Spencer has been shown watching a Crazy Steve-centric scene in the Drake & Josh episode "The Storm" in the episode "iGet Pranky". Also doubles as an Actor Allusion since Carly's actress, Miranda Cosgrove, played Megan Parker in Drake & Josh, and Spencer's actor, Jerry Trainor, played Crazy Steve.
  • Poke the Poodle:
    • Carly and Freddie's attempts (major emphasis on the latter) to misbehave to deliberately get detention prove futile.
    • Freddie tries to impress Carly with his "dark side" by sending a prank pizza to Ms. Briggs and ends up running away in panic when the pizza store called back.
  • Poorly Disguised Pilot: In the series finale, a lot of emphasis was put on Gibby taking a ferret from it's abusive owner, which was supposed to set up the cancelled Gibby spinoff.
  • The Pornomancer:
    • Spencer. Scores with every woman on the show older than 18, and younger than Mrs. Benson. Also scored with Mrs. Benson in the Christmas Episode. And a 80 year old guy whilst Spencer was pretending to be a busty old woman. In Locker 239 he may have had a girl in his room at the start of the episode, and then scored with the art teacher at the end of that episode.
    • Gibby has been doing pretty well for himself.
  • Porn Stache:
    • Spencer included one in his janitor disguise in "iDate A Bad Boy".
    • The Idiot Farm Girl loves to pet the 'squirrel' on the Cowboy's face.
  • Power Trio: Sam, the voracious and meat-loving brawn (id); Freddie, the goody-two-shoes and cool-headed brains (superego); and Carly is the main link of the trio's friendship and mediator between the two (ego). Whenever Carly and Sam gets into a quarrel, Freddie takes over the mediator role.
  • Post-Kiss Catatonia:
    • Freddie did this twice in "iSaved Your Life".
      • When Carly finally kissed Freddie on his bed, the show abruptly cuts into a commercial break. When the scene resumes, Freddie became stiff and wide-eyed as he and Carly continue kissing throughout the half-hour absence of his mother. In the extended version, Freddie was dumbfounded and tased himself to prove that Carly had really kissed him.
      • After he broke up with Carly, Freddie requested for a kiss that would be their "last" for a while, so she gave Freddie a goodnight kiss on the cheek. As he leaves by the elevator, Freddie goes rigid and blurts, "What did I do?"
    • In "iOMG", Freddie also does this when Sam kisses him. He also stutters a little bit.
  • Practically Different Generations:
    • There's a 13-year age difference between Carly and Spencer (Carly is 13 and Spencer is 26 in the first season.) Spencer is Carly's legal guardian as their father is in the military. It's never said what happened to their mother.
    • Chuck has an older sister named Gia. Her age isn't given, but seeing as Spencer hits on her, one can assume that she's a legal adult while Chuck is a young boy.
  • Practice Kiss: In "iKiss", Freddie confesses that he's never had his First Kiss, and is ridiculed for it. He talks to Sam about it, and (even though they usually can't stand each other) they end up kissing just to get it over with, and declare not to tell anyone. Ends up being a plot point several episodes later.
  • Privacy by Distraction: In "iOwe You", Sam tells Freddie his relative got hurt, sending him running back to his apartment, so she could cry to Carly without him seeing.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Noah Munck (the actor who plays Gibby) was promoted to opening titles towards Season 4.
  • Promotion to Parent: Spencer, in the Back Story.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: All over the place. Biggest example would be "iMake Sam Girlier". There is a bully who ends up being the villain of the episode. There is zero difference in her actions compared the actions Sam has done in the past and continued to do so, except that Sam is "strong for her size" whilst the bully is physically large, and that the bully picked on Carly whilst Sam bullies on everyone except Carly.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend:
    • Lewbert's ex-girlfriend Marta Trundel in "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love". She's violent and abusive.
    • Arguably, Sam counts as this considering the amount of people she's injured who either liked or were her boyfriend.
  • Pun:
    • In "iNevel", Spencer is repairing his commissioned statue made of butter.
      Spencer: Don't worry, Mr. Toasty, soon you'll be back and butter than ever.
      (Spencer looks around the room)
      Spencer: Thank god no one heard that.
    • In "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love", Spencer is annoyed because of the recent remote-control thefts.
      Spencer: What kind of burglar will break into people's apartments just to steal TV remotes?
      Carly: (stifles laughter) A remote control freak?
      (Spencer sprays whipped cream on Carly's nose bridge)
    • In "iEnrage Gibby", Spencer tries to convince Veronica that he is not really "dead", much to the fright of the girl.
      Spencer: I am Spencer's twin brother, S-pun-cer!
      Carly: If you had a twin brother, why would his name need to sound similar to yours?
    • In "iFix A Popstar", Wade Collins is brought up on the webshow.
      Carly: One might call him... hobnoxious. (laughs)
      Sam: Ohohoho, Carly... (looks away in horror)
    • In "iQuit iCarly", as they introduce Fleck and Dave.
      Sam: Their videos are hi-larious.
      Carly: Which is the opposite of low-larious. (chuckles)
      Sam: I begged her not to say that.
      Carly: I should have listened.
    • In "iRue The Day", Spencer asks Carly which of two pairs of luminescent socks he should wear when the Plain White T's come to iCarly. She distractedly tells him to wear one of each. He loves the idea and congratulates his little sister for "thinking out of the socks." Then he laughs at his own pun, while the trio simply stares.
    • "iPity The Nevel" has quite a few. Notably, Gibby asks Freddie what kind of food you have at a Karma party (a party where you celebrate the misery of your enemies) and Freddie answers "Just desserts." Even Sam slaps him five for that one.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Sometimes the girls will do this when describing comedy bits they do on the webshow, i.e. "MESSING! WITH! LEWBERT!"
  • Punctuated Pounding: The suit actor of Zeebo in iCarly Saves TV, except he is the one being pounded (by Sam, no less).
    Zeebo: I! (Smack) Can't! (Smack) Believe! (Smack) This is! (Smack) Still! (Smack) Going! (Smack) On! (Smack)
  • Punny Name:
    • Spencer's friend, Socko, makes cool, light-up socks. His hierarchy of relatives is a Hurricane of Puns of names related to their jobs: His brother, Tyler (tie maker); His cousins Rob (thief), Taylor (tailor), Penny (the Penny Tees creator) and Isaac (optometrist); His uncles Otto (used car dealer) and Dr. Paxil (psychologist); and Freight Dog (air freight forwarder).
    • Another cousin, Bernie (The Depressed Welder), torches various food items.
      • "iFind Spencer Friends" has Socko gone away on a safari with his cousin Hunter.
      • In "iGoodbye", Spencer restores a motorcycle for Socko's cousin Ryder.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Carly towards Freddie or Spencer when making a request with a usual (or variation of) catchphrase "Please, for me?"
  • Put on a Bus: Ms. Briggs, Sadist Teacher, after playing a prominent role for the first half-season, disappeared until mid-season two. Sam's Character Blog mentions that she accessed the school computers and manually removed any trace of Ms. Briggs from the schools' files during that time.
  • Putting the "Pal" in Principal: Principal Franklin is popular with his students, probably because he's the only adult in the school who is not a kid-hating sadist.

    R 
  • Race Against the Clock: In "iHatch Chicks", the baby chicks have to be found before four hours pass, or... bad things will happen.
  • Real After All:
    • The beevecoon in "iBelieve in Bigfoot". The ending also implies Bigfoot itself.
    • Subverted with Sam's sister Melanie in "iTwins". The audience knows Sam is right, but Freddie doesn't.
  • Really Gets Around: Rebecca Berkowitz. It's implied in "iSpeed Date". Sam's mother also seems to date a lot of different men, and Spencer!
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Carly finds out that Griffin, the bad boy in "iDate a Bad Boy" in spite of his tough habits and demeanor, has a collection of Pee Wee Babies (plush toys) which creep her out.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
    • Carly delivers a scathingly frustrated version of this tirade to Sam after she and Freddie snap her patience after spending the entire "iDate Sam & Freddie" episode aggressively clashing, butting heads, and locking horns at each other's throats, even dragging Carly into it.
    • Freddie drops one of Sam after he gets fired in "iPear Store".
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Principal Ted Franklin. His login name for the school computer system is Big Teddy. Aww. Ted is short for "Tedward," just like Freddie is short for "Fredward."
  • Recognition Failure: In "iLost My Mind", the main security guard of the mental institution has never heard of the web show iCarly, so he's not impressed when Carly and Freddie try to use the fact they are its stars as credentials.
  • Recycled Premise: It has been noted iCarly shares almost the same identicial premise as What I Like About You, another sitcom Dan Schneider created, from the Disappeared Dad going overseas, to the older sibling having to raise their younger sibling. The only difference is that the younger sibling has a very popular webshow.
  • Recycled In Space:
  • Recut:
    • Nickelodeon aired a special in-cut extended version of "iSaved Your Life" in Season 3 on Valentines Day 2010 that included an extra eight minutes of previously cut footage.
    • Other episodes have extended versions, like "iPilot", "iCarly Saves TV", and "iSaw Him First". Some are DVD only, and some are only available through online bootleg downloads.
  • Redundant Romance Attempt: Sam tries to attract a boyfriend by being girlier. Turns out he likes her the way she is—tomboyish and rough around the edges.
  • Red Sock Ruins the Laundry: Happens to one of Freddie's loads in "iStageAnIntervention" offscreen. It was an effort by Sam to trick him into thinking he was cursed by an internet chain letter.
  • Remember the New Guy?:
    • Every school kid who ends up in the plot except Wendy, Gibby and Rebecca Berkowitz. Some of the teachers, too. For some reason, most of the guys (who are usually a love interest) are introduced as seniors, which kinda makes it creepy in the couple seasons when they hit on Carly and Sam who haven't even reached the 'growth' stage of puberty yet. Then they give Chuck Cunningham Syndrome to them all anyway. It's averted once, where Brad is looked over as a new intern to drive the plot of "iHire an Idiot" then gets re-introduced in "iOMG" in a way that makes it obvious he's a New Transfer Student.
    • The most famous example is Sam's identical twin Melanie who Carly and Spencer seemed to know that was at boarding school. Freddie thought she was just Sam but her existence was confirmed.
  • Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Spencer is thought to be dead in an episode due to a misleading newspaper article which never explains why they presumed that. It results in Spencer's artwork being worth a lot more money, which causes him to continue the illusion.
  • Rescue Romance: Deconstructed as a means of a Reset Button. When Freddie saves Carly and she starts developing feelings for him, he eventually realizes that she isn't in love with him, just what he did.
  • Restaurant-Owning Episode: "iOwnARestaurant".
  • Retcon: A barely noticeable example is Carly's birthmonth. Earlier versions of the iCarly site stated Carly was born in January, Sam in April (a year before, since she repeated 3rd Grade), and Freddie in February, making Freddie the youngest of the trio. It even makes more sense since Carly mentioned her astrological sign Capricorn in "iScream on Halloween". However, before the Season 4 premiere aired, the website changed Carly's birthdate (and birth sign) to July in lieu of Carly's birthday episode airing on the said month, making her the youngest of the three and breaking the continuity of her being a Capricorn.
  • The Reveal: In a behind the scenes look of the crossover that aired with the extended version, after it ends we find out who's behind that panda suit. Guess who it is? T-Bo.
  • Right Behind Me: Has been done multiple times.
    • Mr. Howard has a rant against Principal Franklin, secretly aired live on their webcast. After Howard catches the kids and resumes ranting, the Principal does turns up right behind him.
    • Griffin hears Carly and Sam making fun of him for his bizarre obsession over Pee Wee Babies, offending him and causing their breakup.
    • Missy confirms that all the deeds accused to her by Sam are true. Carly then passes behind Missy and overhears the conversation, finally siding with her "meat-loving" best friend she did not believe at first.
  • Roadside Wave: Happens to Carly, Sam, and Freddie in "iGo To Japan".
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Sam in "iRescue Carly", and Gibby in "iPsycho".
  • Romantic False Lead: Carly's love interests Griffin in "iDate A Bad Boy" and Adam in "iStart a Fanwar". Freddie suffers some severe Green-Eyed Monster and schadenfreude towards Griffin, but doesn't sabotage their relationship beyond questioning Carly's choice to date him. Despite his sarcastic groaning on Carly's reactions toward Adam, Freddie rather became supportive of her especially during the Webicon proper.
  • Rube Goldberg Device: Spencer builds one so that he won't forget to feed his fish. It works, until Carly tells him that he's going to have to remember to reset the machine every day.
    Spencer: Hey, come check out my automatic fish feeder! I'm making it a lot more complicated than it needs to be!
    Freddie: Why?
    Spencer: Because it's fun!
  • Rule of Three:
    • "iSaved Your Life":
      Freddie: My mom thinks I'll choke on pills so she pounds them with a mallet and puts them in my fruit sauce.
      Spencer: Fruit sauce?
      Freddie: My mom thinks I'll choke on fruit so she pounds it with a mallet—
      Spencer: Okay yeah, we get it.
      Spencer: What happened to those flowers?
      Mrs. Benson: I soaked them in bleach and then pounded them with a mallet!
    • In "iTwins", Freddie was pranked twice, first into thinking it was Clown Day, and again thinking he got a gift card when it's really lettuce. The third time (Sam's sister visiting), he assumed it was a prank, but this time Carly and Sam are really telling the truth; however, he doesn't believe them.
    • In "iFight Shelby Marx", Carly is VERY worried about the outcome of the match on her facial appearance. She asks them for assurance, but got unanswered twice. She got fed up on the third one.
      Carly: But I won't get hurt, right? Someone say 'right'!
      • In the same episode, Spencer accidentally swatting Gibby's popcorn out of his hands.
    • In "iHave My Principals": Carly asks thrice why they were called to the Principal's Office.
      Carly: (frantically) Why are we in trouble?!
    • In "iQuit iCarly", after Sam and Carly have been pulled inside the building, they burst into tears and Spencer turns them to face one another so that they hug, whilst Fleck and Dave do the same thing. Spencer and Freddie look at each other & shrug, before hugging too.
    • In "iToe Fat Cakes", Carly sticks her big toe in the tub spout 3 times to prove that it won't get stuck. Guess what happens the third time.
  • Running Gag:
    • A LOT. The "could that happen"-"will not happen" exchange between Freddie and Carly; Anything Spencer sculpts or fixes has a high chance of bursting into flames (Season 2 onward); Gibby almost always takes off his shirt in every appearance(Until Season 3-4, with Gibby even mentioning he wasn't going to do it anymore); Sam equipping her locker with cooking or entertainment appliances; T-Bo's serves various food items by the stick, someone yells "GIBBY!" if he gets too random or weird.
    • Every episode has a "unique" gag or dialogue that will be mentioned at least twice throughout that episode. Examples:
      • In "iHave a Lovesick Teacher", when Ms. Ackerman leaves in frustration, just before exiting, she swats the tiny vase off of the bureau and it breaks.
      • "iMust Have Locker 239" has Freddie getting in trouble with Mr. Howard from stuff that Sam does.
      • "iMove Out" has the gears in Freddie's apartment turning when someone uses the elevator, etcetera.
    • The frequent mention of hobos, ointments, Ryan Seacrest and David Schwimmer.
    • Every time Spencer mentions any of Socko's relatives, showing that they have names relating to their professions.
    • Whenever Gibby visits the Groovy Smoothie's restroom, an elderly Asian guy freaks and runs out of the door.
    • Spencer reacting with increasing annoyance when people walk into his apartment uninvited.
      "You don't live here!"
    • "RANDOM DANCING!"
    • Lotion.
    • In later seasons, Gibby saying "Gibbay!", usually as his first line of the episode.
  • Ruritania: Sam refers to the origin of Norwegian air-conditioners as from Norwegia (Norway).

    S 
  • Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: "Spanky" in iStakeout, who used to spank Spencer when they were both kids. It ends with Spencer handcuffing "Spanky" over a couch and spanking him with a broom, much to Spencer's delight. Spanky's son is watching and enjoying it? And yes, the writers do seem to know just how wrong it is, as Carly walks downstairs to get something, sees the scene, and heads right back upstairs.
  • Scout-Out: They had two named girl scout expies. In "iWill Date Freddie", Spencer was on the phone with someone selling Girl Sprout cookies, including Twin Mints flavor. In "iOwe You", Spencer helped the daughter of a woman he had a crush on sell cookies for her Sunshine Girls troop.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Nevel has a bloodcurdling scream.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Petographers in "iMove Out" get away with trashing the iCarly studio because they have bribed Officer Carl by taking free pictures of his daughter's bunny. Not exactly the most expensive bribe ever, but it still counts.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
    • In "iMight Switch Schools":
      Spencer: Okay. There's two roads in front of you. Road A, and... the-the... one on the left. (Pauses, then runs out of the room).
    • Also, in "iBalls":
      Freddie: Uh, if you watched iCarly's 3D webcast tonight, raise your hand. (everyone in the Groovy Smoothie except him, Sam and Gibby do so) Okay...and uh, if you're having vision problems right now, raise your hand. (they do so again) Okay. Well! Obviously this means that there's some- (he, Sam and Gibby frantically run out of the place)
  • Security Cling:
    • In "iMove Out", Carly grabs onto the back of Freddie and pulls him toward her when a loud noise is heard in Freddie's apartment.
    • Once again in "iBelieve in Bigfoot", Carly backs off and holds close onto Freddie's arm when the gang encounters the alleged "Big Foot".
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • Some of the iCarly writers themselves cameo in the very weird clips (i.e. shrimps up the nose, biting off heads of dolls) that the trio shows whenever they have a technical difficulty.
    • Andrew Hill Newman, one of the show's writers plays as Mr. Henning in "iGo Nuclear", where his hippie looks garner himself most of the jokes and insults from his students and Spencer, a Ridgeway alumna.Newman himself co-wrote the said episode. Newman also voices George, the "sentient" Bra who tells Ghost Stories (which are actually NOT horror stories) who is also poked fun by Carly and Sam in their webshows.
    • The iHave a Question segments, which sometimes actually answer a question and usually just poke fun at the webshow's silliness.
    • Carly admits herself that she considers the webshow's comedy quite pointless and dull in "iStart a Fan War".
  • Series Continuity Error:
    • Carly never takes baths because she hates sitting in her own wet dirt. A couple of seasons later, her taking a bath is the focus of her entire B-Plot for "iToe Fatcakes".
    • Carly in Season 1's episode "iPromise Not To Tell" has straight A's except for the B-Grade that Sam changes. Season 5, in "iQ", she's suddenly a complete moron who needs to cheat to even appear to be smart enough to go out with a worldly British guy.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Kyle, the British boy Carly dates in "iQ", almost entirely speaks this way.
  • Sequel Episode: "iStill Psycho" to "iPsycho" featuring the return of crazy fan Nora.
    • "iRue the Day" is the sequel to "iNevel" as those were the words Nevel used when Carly spread tapenade on his face when he kissed her without permission in "iNevel".
  • Sequel Hook: The final episode has Carly and Sam have the last iCarly "for a while" as she goes to live with her dad in Italy for an unspecified period of time. The last scene featuring Sam riding her motorcycle out of Seattle marks the start of her own series, Sam & Cat.
  • Serious Business:
    • The webcast has a massive cultural impact. Sneaker manufacturers beg Carly to endorse their product. Television producers ransack the show for ideas in two separate episodes. It's watercooler discussion material, even amongst adults.
    • The school ridicules Freddie after Sam reveals he hasn't yet had his First Kiss, and he ends up missing school and avoiding his mom as a result. Carly claims that Sam ruined his life. Because she did ruin Freddie's life for the remainder of the episode until that moment.
    • In "iFight Shelby Marx", Carly makes some joking comments about being able to "take down" an MMA fighter. Said fighter appears at her doorstep the next day, proposes an exhibition match for charity that is apparently so popular, it fills a stadium and is sold on pay-per-view. Lampshaded when the MMA announcer introduces her as "Carly Shay, who... has a web show."
  • Sequential Symptom Syndrome: In "iGo One Direction", Spencer tells the gang the symptoms of Jungle Worms that Carly has. Each one he tells them about, Carly complains about.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story:
    • "iSpaceOut". The A-Plot and B-Plot. Carly freaks and they lose the chance to go into space, and the freaky little girl just leaves without talking or any explanation about who she is or where she came from.
    • The Laptop a-plot in "iBust A Thief". They find the supposed thief, but it turns out Freddie read the laptop serial number wrong (though Sam is blamed for giving them the wrong number), and the so called 'thief' has the wrong color laptop. The ending is Sam finding her laptop in a pizza box in the Shay's fridge.
  • Sham Supernatural: In "iBelieve in Bigfoot", the Bigfoot sightings turn out to be scientist Dr. Sydney Van Gurbin dressing up as Bigfoot so he can generate public interest in his book "Bigfoot: True or Real?" He continues doing this even after he's been caught once, admitting he's "a sick person".
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: The focus of the episode "iMake Sam Girlier", both played straight and subverted when Sam is feeling down about her tomboy/Ladette image and decides to get a Girliness Upgrade to impress a boy named Pete. She looks quite good in her more feminine outfit, prompting an audience reaction, and though Pete is quite smitten with her, he reveals that he actually liked her tough girl image better.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Gender Flip version. In "iGo To Japan", the check-in clerk at a hotel mistakes the 15-year old pair for a honeymoon couple. Freddie looks at Carly with a grin and eyebrow raise, thereby getting slapped across the face for his stupidity. In "iLike Jake", Carly gives Freddie a kiss on the nose for helping her to fix his terrible singing voice, and Jake mistakes their kiss for them being together.
  • Shipper on Deck:
    • Mrs. Benson seemed to be a Creddie shipper in "iWill Date Freddie" and through other parts of Season 1.
      Mrs. Benson: WHY WON'T YOU LOVE MY SON???!!!
      Freddie: Mom!
    • In Season 3, she Zig-Zagged and turned against Carly, blaming Carly for Freddie getting hit by the truck in "iSaved Your Life" and for Freddie deciding to move out during "iMove Out":
      Mrs. Benson: You're the one who got Freddie interested in girls, and ever since then his boy chemistry's been all out of whack.
    • Sam's motivations and actions in "iSaved Your Life" seem to show that Sam would be fine with them being together, as long as it was for the right reasons.
    • Sam also jokes about their relationship, making her appear to support the relationship without being negative or jealous about it, as well as this line from "iStart A Fan War":
      Sam: It's true, Carly and Freddie are deeply in love.
    • Also from "iStart A Fan War", Creddie and Seddie fan wars exist in-universe. The episode's main plot involved the iCarly gang trying to pacify a roomful of rabid shippers. Some shippers originated in other shows
    • Carly has moments where she seems to ship Sam with Freddie, such as when she asked them if they liked their kiss (iThink They Kissed), chanted "SAM LOVES FREDDIE" multiple times when Sam was trying to deny it (iLost My Mind), and interrupted an iCarly broadcast to ask viewers if Sam and Freddie should be together (iLost My Mind). She also looked pleased when Freddie kissed Sam.
    • Zig-Zagged in the next episode (which revolves around the duo aggressively locking horns at each other's throats) where Carly becomes frustrated and fed up with their contentious clashing that angrily calls them out on it, declaring that the duo might as well break up if they can't learn to sort out their own issues themselves since they can't coexist peacefully without frequently dragging her into the midst of their antagonistically adversarial falling outs/blowouts,
      • And finally, Carly indirectly splits them up when her Spencer and his old babysitter apply perfectly to Sam and Freddie, causing them both couples to break up.
  • Ship Sinking:
    • When Sam ultimately breaks up with Freddie in "iLove You". Despite the numerous agonizingly dreadful issues with their abusively toxic and dysfunctionally dissonant love-hate, they agree to remain as friends.
    • As the result of the Sam's story arc with Freddie, this is still the case for Carly and Freddie. Freddie's feelings die and are explained away as being because of the 'intense' kiss, they break up because they are dissonant incompatible polar opposites. Freddie says he has to be in a relationship with someone closer to him personality wise, that is more 'normal', which is exactly what Carly is. Nowhere during the arc was his feelings for Carly even brought up once. This was likely done deliberately so both shipping pairings could remain 'alive' as the show went on.
    • With "iGo One Direction" showing Sam dragging one of the boys into the elevator, and then "iOpen A Restaurant" showing that Freddie still Carly (he is into her) and that Sam smiles when she finds out, it would appear Seddie is done and sunk. Sorry, Seddie shippers. Maybe Sibby has a chance.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Every viable ship on this show gets teased with the tie in website, youtube, twitter pics and Word of God. Also some made canon in the Christmas Episode alternate universe.
    • An in-universe example is that Carly appears to not be averse to giving Freddie Ship Tease for her own satisfaction/ego/amusement, to the point where it seems cruel. The most obvious example of this was asking Freddie if he wanted to taste the lip gloss she just put on, making him close his eyes, then rubbing it over her hand and smashing his mouth with it.
    • "iOpen A Restaurant" is full of Creddie and Sibby teasing. Freddie outright states he still has a crush on Carly, that could easily be love.
    • Dan couldn't resist egging shippers on one last time in the finale "iGoodbye". Sam gets one brief Ship Tease moment with Freddie where they briefly chat over the phone, and he jokingly asks her if she wants to 'get back together'. It gets out of hand causing him to quickly change the subject perhaps worried Sam will reply in the positive. For what it is worth Sam doesn't bring it up again and the whole exchange is peppered with canned laughter. At the end of episode, Carly goes up to the studio to see Freddie and kisses him, he returns the kiss and as they are leaving the room, he celebrates. That's cold Dan. Ice cold.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: In-universe, this is the focus of "iStart A Fan War", where Creddie and Seddie fans fight.
  • Shipping Torpedo: Several occasions where one of the main characters ruined a relationship for the others:
    • In "iSaved Your Life", Sam puts the idea into Freddie's head that Carly is only into him because of hero worship after Freddie saved Carly's life.
    • In "iLove You", Carly torpedoes Spencer's girlfriend of the week relationship with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, which simultaneously causes Sam to rethink her dating Freddie, causing them to break up.
  • Shirtless Scene: Gibby takes off his shirt so often he could give Armstrong a run for his money. In Season 1-2 anyway. It was toned down and eventually faded away by Season 4 onward.
  • Shockingly Expensive Bill:
    • In "iOwe You", Sam owes Carly and Freddie a total of $526 after borrowing from them so many times.
    • In "iShock America", the NCC's fine for nudity is a whopping $500,000. Since the iCarlys took the blame, they have to provide the money or iCarly will be shut down.
  • Shout-Out: In "iToe Fat Cakes", while in the bath, Carly was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show where Laurie gets her toe stuck in the bathtub faucet. Carly doubts it was real and tries it, getting her toe stuck as well.
  • Shower of Angst: Carly takes showers that can be one or two hours long when she is unhappy.
  • Show Within a Show: The iCarly webcast.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss:
    • Sam does this to Freddie in the Season 4 finale "iOMG".
    • Freddie returns it in "iLost My Mind".
  • Sibling Yin-Yang:
    • Carly and Spencer. Carly is responsible, Spencer is foolish.
    • Sam and Melanie. Sam is mean, Melanie is nice.
  • Signs of Disrepair: In "iWant More Viewers", the sign that Freddie and Spencer hung above a highway originally read "Please go online to iCarly.com." However, after it started shorting out, the bulbs that stayed lit read "Pee on Carl". The officer who came on the scene wasn't too pleased as his name was Carl.
  • Single-Issue Wonk: Mr. Devlin, who gives Carly a letter-grade reduction on her history report because he hates three holed paper (officially axing her straight-As).
  • Sissy Villain: Nevel's behavior is slightly effeminate. It doesn't make him any less intimidating.
  • Sitcom Character Archetypes:
    • Square: Carly, Freddie.
    • The Bully: Sam (who is also a Wisecracker in her less Jerkass moments).
    • The Dork: Freddie.
    • Goofball: Spencer (who can also count as The Charmer on occasions), Gibby.
    • The Stick: Mrs. Benson.
  • Sixth Ranger: Played with in terms of the web show itself, and subverted outright in "iCarly Saves TV" (when the TV exec gets rid of him from the network version of the show.) Even though Sam berates him constantly and occasionally alludes to the fact that he's not as important to the show as herself and Carly (because he does the tech work), the fact is that Freddie actually is the third cast member of 'iCarly' . If "iWill Date Freddie", "iDon't Want To Fight", and "iKiss" didn't hammer the message home, the upcoming "iStart A Fan War" proves it beyond all doubt. Otherwise, why would any of the fans care about who Freddie is, what he does on the show, or which of the girls is dating him?
  • Slap-Slap-Kiss:
    • Sam does this to Freddie.
    • Carly and her Temporary Love Interest Griffin in "iDate a Bad Boy". Carly makes it clear they were in the middle of a pretty heavy fight when she suddenly kissed him.
  • Sleep Cute: "iDream Of Dance". Carly and Freddie, Freddie and Sam, Sam and Carly all have their own moment. With Carly/Freddie and Sam/Freddie, it's textbook shoulder to shoulder.
  • Sliding Scale of Continuity: Level 2 (Status Quo Is God).
  • Slower Than a Snail: In "iGo Nuclear", Carly tries to make a battery-powered scooter as an alternative to taking the bus for her Earth Day project. Unfortunately, said scooter only goes at four miles an hour, and a kid with a tricycle and two old ladies manage to move much faster than her, the latter group of which giggles as they speed past.
  • Sniff Sniff Nom: Spencer almost does this on more than one occasion, but either he stops himself or Carly has to stop him. Happens with rotten food in "iHatch Chicks" and again when we find out Chuck filled Spencer's helmet with a strange red goop in "iTwins".
  • Snipe Hunt: In "iAm Your Biggest Fan", Carly tells Mandy that they need 'fladoodles' for the show to get her off their backs. Mandy eventually finds them.
  • So Bad, It's Good: The show has at least two in-universe examples.
    • The parody "Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie" falls into this category.
    • In "iFix a Pop Star", a pop star's comeback appears to be disastrous, since she looks extremely slipshod and does a terrible lipsync job. Everyone loves it anyway.
  • Sock It to Them: Played with. Sam lays into a writer with a sock full of butter.
  • Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Ginger Fox does this to her own song during rehearsals, triggering a hilarious WTF expression from the trio.
    Ginger Fox: Hello, is everybody watching? Before let everybody bla-bla, step right up and na-na-na-na invited!
  • So Unfunny, It's Funny: In "iBalls", Freddie co-hosts the webcast with Sam. His Fred-Bot 3000 sketch invokes this trope.
  • Space Madness: Carly manages to suffer from this after a few hours in "iSpaceOut" even though she, Sam and Freddie never go to outer space and are just in a simulation room.
  • Speaking Simlish: Every character except Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, and Gibby in the iCarly 2: iJoin the Click! video game.
  • Spear Counterpart: Dave is the hotheaded male version of Carly, while Fleck is the male version of Sam albeit less violent.
  • Spiritual Successor:
  • Spiteful Spoiler: In "iGive Away a Car", two furniture movers Spencer hired triple the usual price because Spencer made them miss a meeting of their book club. When Spencer reveals that he doesn't have enough money, they take the couch back to the storage. As they're leaving, Spencer yells out the ending of the book for them, before locking the door so they can't attack him.
  • Spit Take:
    • Carly and Freddie in separate skits of the webcast.
    • Sam spits out her root beer in "iOweYou" after hearing she owes Carly and Freddie over $500.
    • Spencer spits out the punch in "iThink They Kissed" that his prisoner student had prepared... from his own toilet.
    • Sam, Carly, and Shelby Marx did one at the end of "iFight Shelby Marx".
    • A real-life version is in iBloop 2: Electric Bloopaloo where Jerry Trainor makes Jennette Mc Curdy spit out her water.
  • Spoiler Title:
    • In "iGo Nuclear", for a Green week school assignment, Carly eventually gets the help of a guy who builds what is eventually revealed at the end to be a mini nuclear reactor.
    • In "iMeet the First Lady", the gang tries to contact Carly's father in a secret location when the government tells them they know about their contact. After a good part of the episode of them fearing the worst from what could happen to them, the agents bring them to Carly's home to visit with then first lady Michelle Obama.
  • Spy Cam: Parodied in "iSpy a Mean Teacher". Freddy buys a spy cam that's hidden in a fake pie. Pretty much everyone notes the pie looks fake and the camera lens is large and noticeable. Later played straight with the characters hiding cameras in objects for pranks more effectively and in universe, covertly.
  • The Stakeout: In the aptly titled episode "iStakeout". Police officers use the Shay residence to spy in the video store across the street.
  • Stalker with a Crush:
    • Freddie is something of a mild version through Season 1 and parts of Season 2. He and Carly are friends, and the stalker side of things is limited to him waiting for her to come home after school by looking through his peephole (they live in opposite apartments), but it weirds some people out. Limited to Played for Laughs.
    • From the latter half of Season 2 onwards to Season 3, Freddie has practically eliminated this in relation to Carly, with his crush for Carly perhaps evolving into something more mature. The change has helped Carly and Freddie to become far more comfortable around each other, and they have evolved from being just "buds" with in the pilot, to true best friends.
  • Stalker without a Crush: Mandy to the iCarly crew.
  • Status Quo Is God: Every plot that involves a conflict between Carly and Sam, or a certain incident threatens the loss of one of the trio ends up being resolved on the same episode.
  • Stock Audio Clip: Spencer's falling and grunting sounds from "iPilot", Carly's yelp, all that jazz.
  • Story Arc: A 5 episode arc that starts with "iOMG" about Sam's feelings for Freddie.
  • Straight Man:
    • Carly provides the setup for most of Spencer and Sam's general jokes. Her main comedic role is to deliver rejections to Dogged Nice Guy Freddie, who has a crush on her. Even so, half the time Sam delivers them instead.
    • Freddie is the secondary Straight Man to Sam and Mrs. Benson.
  • Students Playing Matchmaker: The show has "iHave a Lovesick Teacher", where Carly, Sam, and Freddie try to hook their teacher up with Spencer.
  • Stylistic Suck: Subverted. The episodes present the webshow segments in Freddie's perspective being the one behind the video camera (with a battery charge indicator, frames, etc.) The "uploaded" videos on the actual iCarly website looks quite similar to what is seen on YouTube (with a small rectangle video frame, with comments and the rest of the site around it). Going "full screen" doesn't seem to ruin the quality though.
  • Sudden Downer Ending: In "iGo Nuclear", Carly ends up getting a D- on her Green Week project and seeks help from new neighbor Cal, who assists her in creating a nuclear power generator. When science teacher Mr. Henning changes her grade to A+, it is revealed Cal is wanted by the FBI because the power rod he used for the generators' fuel supply was made by black market uranium, which is extremely illegal. As a result, Carly's project reverts to D- and she is forced to attend the "Root and Berry Retreat" for extra credit.
  • Sudden School Uniform: In "iHave My Principals", Briggs and Howard have a uniform policy in effect at the start of Act III with no indication that more than a day has passed since Act II. And by Act IV it's gone.
  • Suggestive Collision: Happens in "iEnrage Gibby" when Gibby's girlfriend accidentally trips and falls and knocks Freddie down, falling on top of him. Gibby sees the result and gets upset at both of them.
  • Super Window Jump: At the end of "iGo Nuclear", the guy who helped Carly build an illegal nuclear reactor (unwittingly on her part), jumped out of the glass door at the Groovy Smoothie to escape the police.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • Throughout the series, Spencer's various artworks often put Carly and himself in danger, usually by power outages or fires. This is almost always Played for Laughs until Spencer creates a "Fan of Hammers" that nearly kills Carly after one of the hammers detaches and is flung towards her head. Afterwards, their grandfather makes a surprise visit, only to reveal that he came over because he saw the incident live on the Internet and now he wants to take Carly away from Spencer because he believes that he's an unfit guardian.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial:
    • "Well hello, ladies; we were not just playing with a hand laser from Galaxy Wars; won't you come in?"
    • "Don't mind me. This is just a normal piece of pie that doesn't - record - anything!"
    • "I was not looking at my peephole waiting for you to come home!"
  • Sympathy for the Devil: The plot point of "iPity the Nevel". (See also Enemy Mine.)

    T 
  • The Tag: Sometimes its another regular short scene, others its sent-in videos of kids performing talents for the webshow.
  • Take a Third Option: In "iDon't Want To Fight", on a poll asking whether Sam or Carly is right, the voters take one offered by Freddie. "Carly and Sam are both acting dumb and should just make up and be friends again." It won by around 200 times the other two options combined.
  • Taking the Heat:
    • In the first episode, Carly was forced to take the blame for Sam putting up posters with Ms. Briggs' head on a rhinoceros' body, resulting in her being forced to work the talent show auditions.
    • In the climax of "iPromise Not to Tell", Carly tried to take the heat for Sam hacking into Principal Franklin's computer and changing her grade to straight As because of the promise she made with her. Freddie tried to do the same before she came in. Then Sam confesses that she was the one who changed the grade, which Principal Franklin immediately believes.
  • Take Our Word for It:
    • The B on Carly's history report in "iPromise Not to Tell", though we do get to see it for a split second when Mr. Devlin hands it to Carly.
    • The neck infection video and Freddie's scar in "iDate a Bad Boy".
    • Carly's first poorly drawn bunny in "iMust Have Locker 239".
    • The iCarly ripoffs on Totally Teri in "iTake on Dingo".
    • Gibby's Wardrobe Malfunction in "iShock America" completely avoids showing his crotch area.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: In "iSaved Your Life", Carly victoriously shuns away a girl who is hitting on Freddie by engaging him in a lengthy French Kiss right in front of the girl.
  • Take That!:
    • The focus of "iTake on Dingo" is clearly a Take That! aimed at Disney (most explicitly a reference to the urban legend about Walt Disney's head being frozen).
    • In "iGo to Japan", when Carly snipes (at a Japanese security guard who can't understand them and uses a sign to communicate) "You're 'So Random'!"
    • When Carly learned that their female guests for the dating special did not show up:
      Carly: Why is that whenever there's a popular TV show, they gotta put it ON ICE?!
    • Carly and Gibby tune Spencer in on Radio Dingo. He complains that the music in it is horrible.
    • During "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love", while the iCarly team watches Lewbert and his ex-girlfriend fighting, Sam quips about how that would beat anything on NBC if it were a reality show, mildly poking at the ratings troubles of the said actual network.
    • "iFix A Pop Star'" is one big negative dab at Britney Spears, in particular at her VMA Awards debacle.
    • The episode "iMeet Fred" is probably written as a Take That! to those people who don't like the Fred videos. However, it just backfired considering on the abuse suffered by Freddie from the hands of Fred fans everywhere.
    • Moonlight Twi-Blood is a shot at The Twilight Saga and it ridicules the entire vampire vs. werewolves fad.
    • "iStart A Fan War" ridicules fan shippers. Every time any of the three deny any romance between them, the fans tell them they're wrong as if fans knew the relationship status of the three better than the three themselves, but the Creddie shippers accept the Word of God from Sam that Carly and Freddie are dating, whereas the Seddie shippers deny it. And when Carly points out who her love interest of the episode is, they decide it's time to beat up the poor guy.
  • The Talk: Spencer tries to give Carly the talk about sex, only for Carly to shut it down completely. How much could he explain when her date comes to the door about 10 seconds later? Perhaps it was supposed to be a short version, a "be safe" thing.
  • Talking in Your Sleep: Sam and Freddie's skit "Wake Up Spencer" involve ridiculing Spencer in his sleep in the middle of the night, causing him to talk randomly.
  • Tastes Like Friendship: Played with. Carly and Sam first met when Carly was about to eat her tuna fish sandwich at school when Sam came over and pushed her off the seat to steal her lunch. Carly then got up and retaliated, pushing Sam off the seat, impressing Sam and starting their friendship.
  • Team Mom: Carly takes the "parental" role towards the other 3 main characters: to Sam in "iWas a Pageant Girl", to Freddie in "iWill Date Freddie" and to Spencer in majority of the episodes. "iKiss" had her to be a "mom" to all 3 of them in a single episode by motivating Spencer's workout, sympathizing with Freddie and later reprimanding Sam for her on-air attack on Freddie.
  • The Tease: When Carly is trying to combine 2 lipgloss flavors into one, Freddie asks if it's working; she seductively replies You wanna find out? Freddie practically faints, closes his eyes and is expecting a kiss. She then smashes his face with her hand after rubbing the lipgloss on it. That is not the way to make someone who has a crush/love for you stop doing it.
  • Temporary Love Interest: Whenever one of the Power Trio (even Spencer) enters a relationship, their partners only last for a single episode. They disappear afterwards even if he/she also attends the same school as the iCarly trio, though these ex-flames might be referenced in later episodes.
  • Ten Minutes in the Closet: Played straight in "iOMG" when Carly and Freddie trick the other students into leaving Sam and Brad alone, and played with (almost to the point of an Inverted Trope) when Freddie goes outside to talk alone with Sam.
  • Testosterone Poisoning:
    • Freddie's bodyguard Gunsmoke in "iSam's Mom", who thinks even drinking lemonade is "for ballerinas"!
    • The bullrider in "iHave My Principals":
      Bucky: This ain't a real bull. Real bulls kick, buck and stomp you on the chest until your ribs are broke and you're coughing up blood. And mucus!
  • That Liar Lies: Spencer talking with Freddie about his fake Galaxy Wars spaceship prop.
    Spencer: Okay, you're lying. What makes you lie? Feel like a big boy telling your big boy lies?
    Freddie: Spencer!
    Spencer: Yes, little Larry lies a lot?
  • That Poor Plant: Carly devises a homemade pesticide for her science project and tests it on Spencer's healthy tomato plant. Said plant smokes profusely and withers instantly. Carly exasperatedly deems herself (and later Spencer) as "The Plant Murderer".
  • Themed Party:
    • The pilot episode ended with Carly, Sam, and Freddie hosting a crazy hat party (suggested by Spencer) to celebrate their successful first epsiode of their webcast.
    • One episode has the characters throwing a "Halfoween" party, as they wanted to celebrate Halloween again despite the holiday being six months away. Everyone is in costume, and the room is decorated not only with Halloween-decor but also "Half"-decor.
    • Downplayed in "iPity The Nevel". The gang throws a "karma party" after Nevel's public humiliation. For the sake of a pun, the food served is "just desserts".
  • Theme Naming:
    • Socko and his relatives. See the Punny Names entry above.
    • The names of the chicks in "iHatch Chicks" are related to eggs: Poachy, Shelly, Yoko (pronounced Yolk-O), Omelet, Huevo (Spanish of 'egg'), and Benedict.
  • Theme Twin Naming: Discussed in "iEnrage Gibby" when Spencer was pretending to be dead to sell his art for more money, a women he went out with came by to express her condolences. Spencer appears to tell her he was still alive, which shocks her, but then he tells her he is actually Spencer's twin Sponser.
    Carly: If you did have a twin brother, why would his name have to be similar to yours?
  • Think of the Children!: The girls ask the webshow audience for their coconut cream pie recipes, ending it with this line.
    • Carly and Sam's beauty pageant Q&A strategy is bringing up "ending world hunger... for the children!"
    • Parodied on "iGet Pranky" after the bloody-pickle-prank bit on the webcast.
      Sam: When is it not a good time?
      Carly: When the pickle's children are watching.
  • Third-Party Peacekeeper: Exploited in "iDate Sam & Freddie", in which Sam and Freddie, known for being very Vitriolic Best Buds, have Carly accompany them on a date in an attempt to save their romantic relationship. However, they end up heaping most of their insults and abuse onto her, culminating in them destroying their table and making a big mess. A livid Carly then blows up at them, saying that if that if all they're going to do is fight, then they shouldn't be together at all.
  • Third-Person Person: At times, Sam refers to herself as Mama. Mama knows her fat cakes. Mama does love the meat. Mama came at the right time! and Mama plays to win! She also refers to herself as "Sammy". "Look at Sammy's wad!".
  • This Loser Is You: The series is quite fond of making fun of its audience using in-universe Audience Surrogates who are fans of the web-show. Gilbert, the guy in the yellow shirt who yells "SEDDIE!" constantly in "iStart A Fan War" and "iLose My Mind" is a blatant parody of a specific fan who has had some memorable and not always positive interactions with Dan Schneider in the past and was well known for his tactic of spamming "SEDDIE!" into every Word of God blog post.
  • Those Two Guys: The longer the show has gone on, the more the trio has split into duos long enough for all three combinations to appear like this:
    • Carly and Sam are practically inseparable, pre-series and in the first season with only Freddie and very rarely Gibby or Wendy breaking up the Those Two Guys vibe.
    • Carly and Freddie would have started to be seen like this in Season 2 and 3. Especially after they got together in iSaved Your Life.
    • In Season 4, Sam and Freddie had been been hanging out together without Carly more and more, although Sam may have had an ulterior motive for that.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: "iBalls" was this for Freddie. After feeling unapreciated due to his lack of creativity, he decides to write a skit with predictable results (even causing a garbage bag filled with yogurt to be more popular than him). After a pep talk from Sam, he decides to test out his 3D technology on the latest webcast. However, it goes horribly wrong when it damages everyone who watched's vision. At the end of the episode, Freddie learns that the 3D webcast helped fix a girl from earlier in the episode's eyesight, something worthy of a Nobel Prize.
  • Time Skip: Pops up at random, like in "iParty With Victorious" which has a three month time skip as a way of explaining Carly's feelings for her Guy of the Week.
  • Tim Taylor Technology:
    • Spencer's magnetic Christmas tree. He could have just made a regular metallic Christmas tree. Instead he added a supercharged magnetic generator. It caught fire after he left it on during the night.
    • He also fixes up a fire extinguisher to "make it more powerful." It turns the fire extinguisher into a flamethrower instead.
  • Toilet Humour: At the beginning of "iParty With Victorious", Mr. Howard catches Carly and Sam texting back and forth to each other and has them read the messages back to the class. Carly mentions she used the emoticon :P saying it ("colon 'P'). Mr. Howard says he knows the colon 'p' emoticon, to which everyone starts laughing, as they heard him saying he knows all about "Colon Pee".
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: In their own words, Sam and Carly are the "dirty blonde" and the "sweet (and prissy) brunette".
  • Too Upset to Create: In "iHeart Art", Spencer becomes crushed after his art gets criticized harshly by his artistic idol. He gives up on art altogether and becomes a dental assistant, refusing to do art until the kids convince him that his art is good.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Freddie at the start of each new season. In Season 2, he comes back with a noticeable voice drop, and in Season 3, he's strong enough to overpower Carly. In a Dan Schneider show, that says a lot.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Sam was a bully from episode 1, but she takes level after level. A couple of her points include the episode she bashed Freddie with a tennis racquet and chucked him out of a treehouse for a differing opinion, and then later starting a basement sweatshop using elementary school kids to mass produce their Penny Tee Shirts.
    • Freddie takes a level in "iCan't Take It"; while he is dating Sam, he edits Carly out of a webshow skit (something he never did even to Sam when they hated each other), and taunts her about being jealous of their relationship as well as being dismissive of how him and Sam are excluding Carly.
    • Carly too. In the early episodes, Carly would normally at least try to keep Sam under control, but later on she just tends to ignore it.
  • Tonight, Someone Kisses:
    • Trailers teased a potential kiss between Sam and Freddie for the episode "iTwins". "iSaved Your Life" didn't bother teasing a potential Carly/Freddie, and showing them actually kissing. Also done that way with Griffin and Carly for "iDate A Bad Boy". Melanie and Freddie in "iTwins" showed their kiss, but teased the idea that Melanie was fake and didn't exist and that Freddie was actually kissing Sam.
    • Oddly averted for "iOMG". Maybe they wanted to preserve the 'mystery' or shock when it actually happened, maybe they were worried about a reaction similar to their trailer fail from "iStart A Fan War", but for whatever reason the trailers for "iOMG" didn't even suggest Sam would kiss anyone.
  • Too Much Information: Despite the subtleties, innuendos may be lampshaded in the show time by time.
    • In "iCarly Awards":
      Carly: You know, it's always been a dream of mine to host the iCarly Awards.
      Sam: Whoa, too much information!
      Carly: Hey, don't go there!
      (much later in the show)
      Sam: These guys take this (blows through bottle) to a whole new level.
      Carly: This -- will ''blow'' you away. (laughs)
      Sam: (shaking her head) Oh, Carly...
      Carly: Just watch.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Spaghetti tacos. More of a meme associated with the series than one character's fave, though. Fat Cakes, and ham, for Sam. Horrible crap like Cucumber Cups with unflavored yoghurt for Mrs. Benson.
  • Trailers Always Lie: A number of the trailers shown by Nickelodeon have parts that are cut from the aired episodes themselves.
    • A longer fight scene in "iFight Shelby Marx" even had Carly hiding behind the referee.
    • In "iThink They Kissed", Freddie was so ecstatic of Carly's reaction to the revelation of him kissing Sam, prompting him to ask, "Are you jealous?"
  • Trailers Always Spoil: Any trailer for an upcoming episode marked as a special or movie that usually gives away the premise, the twist, and everything but the ending. In the case of "iSpace Out", they gave away the ending by showing that the test finishes when Carly gets Space Madness, smashes the glass window of the testing pod and jumps out of it. This was also the funniest joke in the otherwise mediocre episode.
    • The most egregious example of this was the "iGot A Hot Room". They spoiled that it was Carly's birthday, that Spencer burns down the room trying to do something nice for her, that Carly is upset at it, that Carly has a job as part of the episode, that Spencer rushes to redo the room as a surprise, the fact that Carly loves the new room and what the new room itself looked like.
    • Inverted or Averted depending on how you look at it, for "iOMG". The creators went to great lengths to hide the ending from being leaked, doing a full cast run-through with a fake out ending, then only telling Nathan and Jennette the real ending a week before it was to be filmed, and then filmed it on a closed set, and the trailers continued this. The ending wasn't spoiled, and every clip was about Sam liking Brad, with only some mild subtext that it could be Freddie. They even used Gibby as a trailer Red Herring.
    • "iCan't Take It" aired nine minutes of sneak peeks out of a 22-minute show, including the final two scenes of the episode.
  • Trash Talk: Carly and Sam during "iFight Shelby Marx"; Aruthor (Spencer) and Aspartamay's taunt war in "iStart a Fan War".
  • Trash the Set: An inversion of sorts. The first time they showed Carly's bedroom was after it had burned up in "iGot A Hot Room". They then rebuilt the room and it was shown in a few episodes later on.
  • Troubled Fetal Position: Since it's a kid-tween show, depressed adults are extremely prone to this trope.
    • Spencer in "iHeart Art". Lies down on the dining table with his face in a bowl after being criticized by his art idol.
    • Lauren Ackerman in "iHave a Lovesick Teacher". Curls on the teacher's table and bawls in front of class after her recent bad breakup.
    • Ricky Flame in "iCook". Slumps to the ground after losing in the cooking competition, then once again after Sam pins him down in the wrestling gym.
    • Lewbert in "iFind Lewbert's Lost Love". Traumatized after seeing his abusive ex-fiancee once again, he locks up himself in his office, rocking to and fro in the corner.
    • In "iPear Store", Gibby is indecisive about which PearPhone cover to buy, which gets on salesman Woody's already frayed nerves. When Gibby finally says he has no money to buy one, Woody crawls under the nearest table and engages in said trope.
  • Truth in Television: The British singer Wade Collins trying to use a sob story to get more votes than his more talented rival, is actually very similar to the various sob stories heard from contestants on the British equivalent to American Idol.
  • Tsundere:
    • Sam is of the Type A: it's "her thing" to be "abrasive" and "naturally obnoxious." However, she can be very sympathetic when push comes to shove, and makes up to Freddie for exposing on their web show that he'd never kissed a girl by admitting in the next episode that she'd never kissed anyone, either. She then left in the middle to have an uncharacteristically calm and rational conversation with him on his balcony and ending up sharing their First Kiss.
    • Carly is of the Type B. She is usually sweet, kind-hearted, calm and collected. Just don't let yourself get into her nerves way too much, since things won't get pretty once the fuse of her temper snuffs out. It gets worse if you even try to calm her down.
  • Tuckerization: Used occasionally, such as St. Schneider's Hospital and Schneider's Convenience Store.
  • Two Girls and a Guy: Carly, Sam, and Freddie provide the trope image.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: The A-Plot (Carly, Sam, Freddie) and the B-Plot (Spencer, and in Season 4, Gibby) is the formula for dozens of episodes. Their plots occasionally overlap at the end. Most of the other episodes still follow this formula, but mix up the splits up such as Carly/Sam and Freddie/Spencer in "iTake On Dingo".
  • Two Roads Before You: Spencer uses this analogy to help Carly decide between staying at Ridgeway or switching to Briarwood in "iMay Switch Schools":
    Spencer: Listen, I'm your older brother. So I will help you through this difficult decision. Just... just close your eyes.
    Carly: Okay. (She closes her eyes).
    Spencer: Okay. There's two roads in front of you. Road A, and... the-the... one on the left. (Pauses, then runs out of the room).
    Carly: (Opens her eyes, then laughs) Thank you!
  • Two-Teacher School: Averted, with Principal Franklin, and Mrs. Briggs and Mr. Howard as the main recurring teachers. Other teachers like Miss. Ackerman and Mr. Henning have episodes centred around them, whilst others like Mr. Devlin show up as recurring background characters.
  • Two-Timer Date: "iWon't Cancel the Show" features Spencer dividing his time between dating the sophisticated woman Candice and filling in for Sam's (temporarily) vacated co-hosting position in the webshow.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: In "iHave My Principals", Mr. Howard and Ms. Briggs turn the school into something out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.

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