iChristmas is the 7th episode of the 2nd season of the Nickelodeon sitcom iCarly.
After Spencer accidentally burns down their Christmas tree (by building a metallic, magnetic one instead of getting a real tree), Carly wishes that her brother was more normal. She is approached by her guardian angel Mitch, who grants her wish and shows her a universe in which Spencer is normal.
Tropes
- An Aesop: Appreciate your family for who they are.
- Alliterative Name: Mitch, Carly's guardian angel, is a midget (dwarf).
- Artistic License – Education: It's Christmas. Why is school open? Then again, this is implied to take place in a dream of Carly's.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Carly wishes for Spencer to be normal. She enters an alternate universe with all of these consequences after her wish was granted.
- Spencer is not an artist anymore. Instead, he graduated law school and is a successful attorney who's always on the phone talking to his clients, being too busy to spend any personal time with Carly to even know her personality. He did buy a real tree for Christmas just as Carly wanted, but he also never gives her the time of day, not even on Christmas, as he now cares much more about work than family. He also does not possess his artistic creativity anymore, which was a huge inspiration for his younger sister to do the web show iCarly. He becomes a devout, born-again Christian who doesn't create art or sculptures and instead reads books such as the Bible in his leisure time, and instead of singing songs for fun, he only sings in church. Finally, Spencer never invented Spaghetti Tacos, which Carly absolutely loves.
- Sam and Carly are not friends because Spencer forbade their friendship. Sam started committing crimes even more malicious than normally seen on the show since Carly's not there to reign her in or mother her anymore. Eventually, she wound up in juvie with no chance of parole and has to stay behind bars instead of attending high school like a normal teenager. As a result, the web show iCarly is never made.
- Freddie and Carly also never became friends, and Freddie is now dating a materialistic Fetishized Abuser, Rona Berger, who bosses him around and forces him to wait on her hand and foot and spend money on frivolous luxuries for her. Freddie's fate here has nothing to do with Spencer turning normal, but rather with the fact that Carly already has a boyfriend (see below).
- Nevel is now dating Carly since Spencer warmly accepted him into the Shay family. Carly is especially freaked out by this and shoos Nevel away, ordering him to leave the country.
- Spencer and Freddie's mother Marissa Benson become engaged and plan to marry on Christmas, thus making Carly and Freddie step-aunt and step-nephew.
- Berserk Button: Carly flips when she finds out Nevel is her boyfriend in the alternate universe where Spencer was born normal.
- Christmas Episode: Despite that school is shown to be open, this episode is said to occur on Christmas.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Discussed. Carly ends up in a world where Spencer was born normal. One of the changes made is that Freddie is now dating a girl named Rona Berger, who everyone hates. To demonstrate this, Freddie is shown giving her a thoughtful Christmas present: a digital picture frame filled with pictures of them. She yells at him for not getting her a Pear Pad and stomps on his foot before storming off.
- Five Stages of Grief: Carly experiences all five stages throughout the episode.
- Denial: Carly doesn't approve of Spencer's Magnatree and wishes he got a normal tree instead.
- Anger: When the Magnatree catches fire and burns Carly's presents, she gets so angry with Spencer that she wishes he were normal.
- Bargaining: Mitch appears and grants Carly's wish, and she sees how terrible her life would be if Spencer were normal.
- Depression: After seeing the alternate universe, Carly learns her lesson and breaks down, pleading to Mitch to give her her old life back.
- Acceptance: Back in the real universe, Carly accepts Spencer for the loving, well-meaning goofball he is.
- Forbidden Friendship: Normal Spencer never allowed Sam to befriend or interact with Carly.
- Genre Shift: Normally, iCarly mostly stays within the perimeters of a live-action sitcom for teenagers in which the problems the main characters deal with are often realistic such as a rival malicious blogger (Nevel), financial issues, strict overbearing parents (Freddie's mother), school teachers, and fire hazards. Here, magic and fantasy play a crucial role in the episode and Carly ends up entering an alternate universe where she wished Spencer was born normal. It's not confirmed onscreen if Carly was dreaming all of this.
- Henpecked Husband: Freddie becomes a constantly abused and exploited boyfriend to Rona, who forces him to buy her expensive luxuries such as the newest Pear Pad for her as a Christmas present.
- Heroic BSoD: Normal Spencer announcing he's getting married to Mrs. Benson is what pushes Carly over the limit, causing her to completely break down and want her old life back.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: In the alternate universe, Spencer doesn't make tasty foods nor is he creative with cooking, so he never invented Spaghetti Tacos. Instead, he enjoys steamed halibut and thinks of that as a special Christmas dinner, which Carly whines is boring.
Most likely, Spencer is letting his fiancée Marissa do the cooking because she is said to be a mundane cook who makes bland-tasting foods, according to Carly back in Season 1's iHeart Art. - Instant Costume Change: When Carly is breaking down and the alternate universe goes back to normal, her shirt magically changes color without any type of edit or stop tape.
- It's a Wonderful Plot: Carly is approached by her guardian angel Mitch to see what life would be like if Spencer were born normal - that would mean iCarly wouldn't have been made while Sam and Freddie wouldn't be friends with Carly.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Carly felt this way after Mitch shows her what her life would be if Spencer was born normal, and she begs to go back to her true life.
- Plot Hole:
- For some reason, Normal Spencer still lives in the studio apartment at Bushwell Plaza even though as a successful attorney, he could afford to move himself and Carly into a proper house. It would seem that the show's crew didn't have the budget to create a whole new set.
- Mitch claims that Carly, who he just pulled into an alternate reality, needs to accept Spencer for who he is in her home universe before he can send Carly back. However, Carly already did wish for Spencer to be changed back midway through the episode, and yet Mitch still didn't grant her second wish.
- Freddie dating Rona is (sort of) this because Carly's wish for Spencer to become normal probably should have not changed his fate. The only explanation Mitch gives as to why Freddie ended up with Rona instead of her is that Carly was already dating Nevel. The iCarly Wiki makes note of this in the Goofs section of the episode's page
, but neglects Mitch's explanation.
- Remember the New Guy?: Rona Berger hasn't been seen before or since this episode, only appearing in the Alternate Universe.
- Say My Name: Several times, by Carly to Mitch. Lampshaded: "You do say "Mitch" a lot."
- The Scream: Carly lets out a shrill shriek when Nevel, her boyfriend in the alternate timeline, kisses her.
- Shout-Out: The ending has a few elements to the ending of A Charlie Brown Christmas:
- Carly saying about the tree, "That's not bad at all, just needs a little love," is the same thing that Linus said about Charlie Brown's tree.
- She then eventually says, "Spencer, you're not normal but you did build a nice tree," which is a parody of Lucy's line "Charlie Brown is a blockhead, but he did get a nice tree."
- The final scene has everyone hum "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" around the Magnatree like how the special ends.
- Stealth Pun: Mitch (Carly's guardian angel) claims that Carly can only exit the bad universe that she created and entered by wishing Spencer normal when Mitch gets his wings. In the end, we see that Mitch meant fried chicken wings! Mitch probably meant the wings were being cooked and prepped at the time.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Nevel is actually much more polite and kinder in the "Normal Spencer" universe than the home universe of iCarly, most likely because Carly accepting him as her boyfriend is what gave him the change of heart that prevented him from becoming the main villain. He's still just as socially eccentric as he was in the "Abnormal Spencer" universe, but he's seen as normal by Carly's soon-to-be family.
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: "Normal Spencer" has converted into an implied devout Christian and is a credentialed, no-nonsense lawyer who mostly pertains to classic literature while finding art, sculpting, blend-fusion foods, and singing (except for church hymns) all pointless and irrelevant to his daily life because of Carly's wish.
