i Sell Penny-Tees is the 4th episode in the 4th season of ''iCarly.
Carly, Sam and Freddie decide to start a business of selling penny tees to customers, and Sam recruits a group of fourth graders who she mistreats.
Meanwhile, Spencer dates a Uzbekestian girl who doesn't speak any English, so he turns to Gibby for help.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: You need to learn how to balance discipline and rewards as motivation for hard work with your children/employees.
- Sam learns that underregulating her workers with very low pay, hazardous working conditions, and continuous verbal and psychological abuse will make them realize their jobs aren't worth it and walk out.
- Carly and Freddie learn that overregulating their workers with treats (muffins and ice cream), rewards, and toys, and paying them before their work is finished will lead to them being unproductive, sluggish, and no longer having any incentive to do their job because you kept showering them with love and refused to let them work hard like they were hired to.
- Bad Boss: Sam in all her jerkassery treats the 4th graders like Chinese sweatshop workers:
- Makes them work in a very hot boiler room of the Bushwell Plaza apartment where steam is pervasive.
- Refuses to let them drink water until they're done.
- Wants them to meet a quota of 50 T-shirts per hour, despite their inadequate equipment and lack of technology to produce that many in such a short period of time, as they're only using their hands.
- Only feeds them animal food called "Chunk Meat" that is said to strengthen hooves. Later tries to feed them food thrown in the dumpster, with the dumpster food having disturbingly and vastly obvious rotten qualities (one sandwich had a moldy toothbrush stuck in it).
- Only pays them $5 a day for many hours put in for work.
- Refuses to do anything about their injuries such as cuts on their arms, only using duct tape to cover up the wounds.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Carly acknowledges it was stupid of her and Freddie to pay the 4th graders their entire wages for the whole month before they finished making the T-shirts.
- Create Your Own Villain: Sam teaching her workers how to be aggressive, demanding, and controlling led to them breaking off from her rule and starting their own company to overthrow her in the T-shirt market.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sam's cruel treatment of the 4th graders is reminiscent of how labor workers get treated in many parts of the world such as in China, Vietnam, and elsewhere that export goods and products to the United States. Or the United States' own history of exploiting child labor in factories long before laws were passed to protect children and underage workers.
- The Dog Bites Back: The 4th graders get revenge on the iCarly trio by partially stealing their Penny Tee ideas and putting them out of business in the funny-saying T-shirt market of Seattle.
- For Sam, it's because she was a complete Bad Boss to them about the working conditions. Though to be honest, stealing Sam's copyrighted idea for funny one-liner T-shirts is not justified, especially after she promised to give them back their jobs for higher pay and better working environments.
- For Carly and Freddie, it's because the two wouldn't let the kids work in peace to make the Penny Tees and kept spoiling them with treats and such, like Mochi ice cream, toys, electronics and blue tea.
- Exact Words: To help Spencer communicate with Krustacia, Gibby calls up his bus driver Foogtor. He only says he speaks Uzbek; only his brother can speak English.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the background of the studio room where the N-Z kids are working for Carly and Freddie, you can see a table laid out with muffins, fresh fruit, bagels, and punch for them to enjoy, which just emphasizes how overly lenient Carly and Freddie were towards their workers.
- Funny Background Event: As Carly and Freddie send off the workers and angrily drink some juice, one child is seen still in the room, sleeping in the background, oblivious to what just happened.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For the iCarly trio when their labor force retaliates against their unprofessional supervision and starts their own company selling Penny Tees, even after their former bosses each apologize and promise to change for the better if they agree to come back to work for them.
- Language Barrier: The girl Spencer wants to date can only speak Uzbek.
- Lazy Bum: Carly and Freddie showering the N-Z kids with treats and presents causes them to slack off and not do their job.
- Never My Fault: Carly and Freddie first start scolding and yelling at their now spoiled, pre-paid workers to get back to work and they're disobeying their rules. It was the two of them who came up with the idea of making their workers take long breaks and enjoy treats and toys. Eventually, Carly and Freddie agree to take responsibility for refusing to let them work productively.
- Not Now, Kiddo: While walking out in defeat from the 4th Graders stealing their Penny Tees idea, the iCarlys are interrupted by T-Bo asking them to buy chicken pot pie. They refuse, with even Sam, who is a BigEater and loves chicken, replying, "Shut up, T-Bo!"
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When Carly, Sam, and Freddie learn that the children they hired have now quit and taken over their business, they are furious. But then the children show off workers who can quickly think of slogans to put on penny-tees, which they list off out loud. The iCarlys slowly back out the door and out of the Groovy Smoothie as the duo keep reading them.
- Team Mom: One of Sam's female employees, Abby, takes on this role for the rest of her co-workers, serving as a union rep for them by asserting that they refuse to work for Sam any longer if their demands of higher pay and better working conditions aren't met. Sam refuses, thus Abby has them walk out and start their own Penny-Tees company.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Carly and Freddie really chew Sam out for starting a non-union sweatshop involving CHILDREN to make penny T-shirts, which is not only highly deplorable, but definitely breaks some labor laws. The iCarlys are VERY lucky they weren't caught and arrested for this, considering there are plenty of witnesses.
