iTake on Dingo is the 18th episode in the 2nd season of iCarly.
The iCarlys discover a show on the Dingo Channel, Totally Teri, has stolen all their ideas, so they go to Hollywood to confront the writers and make them stop.
Meanwhile, Spencer tries to scope out the frozen head of Charles Dingo.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Law: The Totally Teri writers aren't worried about getting sued by iCarly because the Dingo company has enough money and lawyers to defeat them. They're ignoring the fact that the iCarly trio has rock-solid evidence against them (including the practically identical jokes done on iCarly and Totally Teri, the board of ideas that they can steal from iCarly, etc). Even the best lawyers would agree the iCarly team has a pretty solid case.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Spencer pulls this to get inside Dingo Studios by pretending to capture Freddie sneaking in and threatening to report the security guard to a nonexistent higher-up.
- Bland-Name Product: Dingo and the Dingo Channel are very transparent stand-ins for Disney and the Disney Channel.
- Blatant Lies:
- When the gang asks the motel owner if their room had an actual body in the chalk outline, he replies no, and quickly rips the tape off the floor.
- The directors of Totally Teri initially insist that they never stole an idea from iCarly, but the gang don't fall for it as Carly points out that they obviously have a board that's labeled "Ideas we can steal from iCarly".
- Book Ends: The episode starts and ends with an iCarly webcast.
- Brick Joke:
- Hollywood, the hobo that lives in the motel room the iCarlys stay in, is excited about sleeping in the bathtub. Later, he comes out of the bathtub, much to Carly's horror.
- Early in the episode, Sam tries and fails to get Gibby and Freddie to do an iCarly skit she came up with, bikini dog food fighting. At the episode's end, she makes the Dingo writers do it as punishment.
- Chalk Outline: The rundown motel room that the iCarlys stay in had a tape outline of a body. The owner quickly claims there wasn't a real body in the room.
- Chekhov's Gun: The below mentioned head. The iCarly gang threatens to expose it to the world unless the Totally Teri writers agree not to plagiarize their ideas anymore.
- Defensive "What?": Sam says this when the rest of the iCarlys give her dirty looks for suggesting they stay at a terrible motel.
- Evil Laugh: When Carly threatens to sue Totally Teri, the writers respond with this trope.
- Exact Words: The motel owner told Spencer that their room has a great view of Hollywood. What he didn't say is that he meant the hobo living just outside their room, who is named Hollywood.
- Mr. Alt Disney: In keeping with Dingo being the iCarly universe's stand-in for Disney, Charles Dingo is an obvious stand-in for Walt Disney, complete with the urban legend of his head having been served from his body and cryogenically frozen after his death.
- Most Writers Are Male: Although the sitcom in question is apparently girl-focused and targeted, Totally Terri's writing room is comprised wholly of men.
- My New Gift Is Lame: A fan of iCarly complains that he got two wireless controllers for his birthday, but no games or console.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: The main conflict of this episode is the gang confronting the writers of a TV show stealing their ideas.
- Punny Name: The motel the iCarlys stay at is called "Come On Inn".
- Real After All: The rumor of Charles Dingo's head being preserved in the bowels of Dingo Studios.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Carly threatens to sue the Totally Teri writers if they don't stop stealing from her show, to which they point out that a major TV studio like Dingo has plenty of money and lawyers to ride out a lawsuit.note
- Shout-Out: The above mentioned rumor is a reference to a similar legend about Walt Disney being buried under Disneyland in cryo-storage.
- Take Our Word for It: The entirety of Totally Teri and their knock-off sketches were only heard coming from the Shay apartment TV and not actually shown on-screen.
- Take That!: The episode features thinly-veiled and rather scathing parodies of the Disney Channel in general, and the show Sonny with a Chance in particular, as iCarly's writers apparently perceived them as ripping off their material.
- Threat Backfire: In the motel room, there is a discussion going on how Charles Dingo's frozen head is in the bowels of the studio building. Carly, being uncomfortable with the word "bowels" itself, yells that the next person who says that word will sleep in the bathtub. Hollywood takes that opportunity to say it and get the bathtub, causing Carly to take back what she said and shut him out of the entry.
- Writers Suck: The writers of "Totally Terri" admit to plagiarizing ideas because they say it's difficult to come up with original ideas.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: After some students tells Sam and Freddie about Totally Teri ripping off iCarly, Sam had this reaction when Freddie thinks that it's a coincidence.Sam: Can you believe this?
Freddie: We don't know if they stole from us. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Sam: Oh, come on. We've been doing random dancing on iCarly for two years. Now some show on the Dingo Channel starts doing random jumping and you think that's a coincidence?!
