iGo to Japan is the fifth episode in the second season of iCarly, and the first "movie".
When iCarly is nominated for an iWeb award for best comedy, Carly, Sam, Freddie and Spencer are scored a free trip to Japan where the award show is held. However, one of the nominees plots to sabotage their appearance, and they must find a way to expose them and get to the show in time.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Sam starts laughing at Kyoko and Yuki's banter in the car, which she says it's because there's something about Japanese arguing that cracks her up.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Spencer tries this to get him and Mrs. Benson out of the massage room they’re trapped in. He fails miserably, and just comes out all the way from another vent in the same room.
- Artistic License – Cars: The vehicles that are driving along Japan have the driver's seat and wheel on the left side, even though it should be the other way around because cars there drive on the left side of the road.
- Artistic License – Geography: Japan apparently has a desert just outside of Tokyo that looks like one from California. Also, apparently Tokyo is smaller than it is.
- Artistic License – Law: Japan has pretty strict immigration laws that would make just parachuting into the country pretty hard to get away with for foreigners. Police can also arrest you for not having proper identification or passports on you at any time. Carly, Sam, Freddie, Spencer, and Mrs. Benson would probably be detained by police after entering Tokyo.
- Argument of Contradictions: The episode starts with a webcast of Carly and Sam arguing over which is better: legs or pudding.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: After Spencer gets knocked out of the Japanese taxi, Carly comes back out of it and asks why he's just laying on the ground. He sarcastically says that he's lazy.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Most of the actual "Japanese speaking" is just nonsense made to sound Japanese.
- Ass Shove: Apparently, given the way Mrs. Benson implies and Freddie's distress upon figuring out what she means, her last vaccination shot for him goes up his butt.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kyoko and Yuki seem nice at first, but they are jealous of the iCarly trio and plot to stop them from showing up.
- Brick Joke: Spencer mistakes the soap in the Japanese hotel bathroom as candy, which he shares to the iCarly crew, and they eat it and are disgusted. At the end, when they are on a cargo boat headed back to Seattle, Spencer offers them candy that they eat to pass the time. Guess what it turns out to be?
- Brutal Honesty: When the iCarly crew and their adult figures head to Japan, they get there by a cargo plane carrying opossums. When Mrs. Benson asks the pilot if they are vaccinated, he replies straight up no, and that they are full of disease.
- Covered in Gunge: When the main iCarly trio try to head back to civilization while in the middle of nowhere, they are on a large mud puddle. When a large truck comes by, it washes a wave of mud onto them, covering them almost head to toe.
- Creator Cameo: One of the signs that the first Japanese guard shows is a photo of Dan Schneider.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Sam takes out both Kyoko and Yuki with a single flip on both.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Freight Dog, the pilot of the gross jumbo jet that the iCarlys and their guardians have to fly on to Japan, holds and eats a small roll of pepperoni like one would smoke a cigar.
- Dope Slap: When the clerk at the hotel mistakes Carly and Freddie for a honeymoon couple, the two exchange glances. Freddie can't help but look amused and pleased with the assumption, causing Carly to slap him across the face.
- Eating Solves Everything: Spencer and Mrs. Benson are trapped in sea weed wrap as part of a ploy to get iCarly out of the competition. Spencer decides to get out by eating through it. And since Mrs. Benson has a short neck and therefore cannot eat her way out, Spencer has to use a katana to free her after he is freed.
- Engineered Public Confession: When the iCarlys get trapped in the control room (due to the guards bringing them there) as Kyoko and Yuki take their place, they are forced to act out what they've went through for the guards who cannot speak English. Freddie takes this to project their confession onto the big screen onstage, which the audience witnesses and Kyoko and Yuki's actions are exposed, and also alerts the crew that they're present, and granting the iCarlys the victory.
- Episode Title Card: The first to have this.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The passengers on the freight plane call the pilot Freight Dog. And apparently, that's his actual name.
- Exact Words: Socko told Spencer that Freight Dog would "take them to Japan"; this doesn't necessarily mean he's going to drop them off at the airport, he's only taking them over Japan and they have to skydive out of the plane.
- Extra-Long Episode: The first iCarly episode to be longer than a half hour.
- Evil Plan: Kyoko and Yuki's is to take the iCarlys far away from the iWeb Awards so they miss their appearance, and win in their place.
- French Jerk: Sam says that this trope is the reason she does not want the iWeb Awards to be hosted in Paris, because it would be full of French people. And indeed, one of the contestants for the show named Henri is French and a selfish prick.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The Japanese guards protecting the back lot of the iWeb Awards hosting studio are utterly incapable at understanding the English-speaking main characters. The original one who simply holds up signs is explicitly called stupid by the producer of the Awards. Also, when they chase after Mrs. Benson, not a single one of them stays behind to guard the back entrance, giving the iCarly team a chance to run inside.
- Harmless Electrocution: Spencer wears an electronic neck bracelet as part of a Japanese learning device, and he would get a shocking sensation if he gets a wrong answer. Although he struggles in agony each time and says that it sizzles his flesh, he seems fine and there are no burn marks after he gets it off.
- Insult Backfire: When Freight Dog asks Sam how she likes the plane, she replies that it's almost as "charming" as a gas station’s men's room. He says, "Thank you!"
- Look Behind You: Mrs. Benson uses this tactic to distract the guards and have the iCarly team sneak inside. She walks to one of them who wears a wig, then suddenly looks up and point with a gasp. As soon as that guard is turned, she snatched the wig off his head, causing him and the rest of the guards to chase after her.
- No OSHA Compliance: The jumbo jet that the iCarlys and Mrs. Benson travel in to Japan is very unsafe. The atmosphere is cold, it's carrying very unsanitary possums, the pilot sometimes doesn't even fly the plane and just steers it with a rope, and they actually have to skydive out of it in order to enter Japan.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Carly realizes something is wrong when Kyoko and Yuki don't take them shopping and they come to the middle of nowhere instead, meaning they'll have no time to get to the iWeb Awards on time.
- At the spa, Spencer and Mrs. Benson have this reaction when the massuese tells them they are staying until the iWeb Awards are over and Kyoko and Yuki have won, which is the first clue that those two are not as nice as they seem.
- Shock Collar: Spencer wears one when using the Learning Wizards.
- Skewed Priorities: When their luggage falls from the sky by being dropped down by Freight Dog, Sam immediately starts searching for her Fat Cakes, instead of more necessary items such as clothing and water.
- Slasher Smile: Kyoko and Yuki secretly trade this when they get the text that Spencer and Mrs. Benson are tied up. Carly notices this, which clues her in that something's not right.
- Spanner in the Works: Kyoko and Yuki's plot to cancel iCarly's appearance would've worked if Freddie didn't secretly record them backstage and project them onto the big screen.
- Speak of the Devil: When she gets on the ground after parachuting, Mrs. Benson says that she will chew out Spencer for making them travel to Japan this way. He then immediately comes down in a parachute, knocking her down in the process.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When watching Henri feeding Oompe, Carly remarks that it eats like a pig. Henri on the show immediately says the same thing.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: After being caught looking at Carly through his peephole, Freddie comes outside to assure Carly that he was not doing such thing.
