YMMV / iCarly

YMMV for the revival goes here

A-H

• Abandon Shipping:
  • The Seddie (Sam/Freddie) ship seems to lose shippers every time Sam does something of a higher level of Comedic Sociopathy than her previous levels. Examples include throwing Freddie out of a treehouse after delivering to him a harsh beating with a tennis racquet in iMeet Fred and running a child labor sweatshop during iSell Penny Tee's.
  • Like most pairings that happen then break up, the Seddie arc caused a few Seddie fans to fall away, having seen their relationship happen and not be satisfied with it, and not wanting it to happen again.
  • The finale that showed Carly kissing Freddie and him celebrating caused many a Seddie shipper to abandon the pairing, blamed on Freddie who is seen by them as a player, or sleazy double timer or simply 'not good enough' for Sam any longer.
• Accidental Innuendo:
  Sam: I want to do bad things to that chick.
  Freddie: You should.
  Sam: I will.
• Actor Shipping:
  • Elements of the Creddie and Seddie fandoms also like pairing up Miranda Cosgrove / Nathan Kress (Niranda) and Jennette McCurdy / Nathan Kress (Jathan), respectively.
  • There is Jennette McCurdy / Miranda Cosgrove (Jiranda/Minnette) interest amongst Carly/Sam shippers.
  • There is occasional cracky Real-Person Fic smutfic based around Jerry Trainor, who plays Spencer, being involved as well. Usually with Jennette, who had a crush on him when she was younger. Miranda/Jerry is generally ignored due to Jerry having known Miranda since she was a little kid.
  • Max Ehric and Jennette McCurdy have in the past created videos together and spent time together giving rise to people who ship them together. This has lead to some Ship-to-Ship Combat between people who bring up that relationship and those who ship Jathan.
  • James Maslow of Big Time Rush and Miranda Cosgrove have some supporters. This might be one of the more realistic pairings, since James and Miranda have brought up or had each other brought up in interviews. James once opined that their careers would prevent them from giving each other the attention a relationship deserves.
• All Animation Is Disney: Live-action variant. People magazine once identified Miranda Cosgrove as one of Disney's child stars.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Sam Puckett displays classic signs of sociopathy such as a lack of empathy and guilt, a parasitic lifestyle (leeching money off Carly and the gang), impulsiveness, poor behavior control (always beating Freddie and everyone else), being manipulative (any time she makes up a plan), being emotionally shallow, a poster child of juvenile delinquency, superficial charm, need for stimulation (the eagerness of her wanting to hurt someone or make them suffer) as a way to relieve boredom. Also Carly could know this already and willing to exploit it as she rarely has qualms about Sam beating Freddie mercilessly on any occasion and the fact that in "iLook Alike" she doesn't mind Spencer get beat up and go against his wishes a lot of the time. She could be a two-faced bitch that just manipulates people to get the highest ratings on the internet for her show in a smaller case of sociopathy.
  • The earliest one was that Sam was either Ambigulously Lesbian or Bisexual.
    • Sam(antha) being in love with Carly, just like Freddie is, and that being the source of their conflict is a very popular Alternative Character Interpretation.
  • The fact that Jonah kissed Carly because Sam wouldn't kiss him or put out speaks alot about Sam's true character: A girl who is brash and mean in public, but doesn't kiss her boyfriend in private, at least until she's gained their trust. Maybe underneath her tough exterior is a very sad, lonely, insecure girl. Or a secret lesbian. Or just a Tsundere.
  • Some fans like to interpret Sam's obsession with food in many ways than one. Was Sam's Big Eater obsession with food and constant hunger all a red flag of her not having been fed or loved as a child growing up? Was she secretly battling a eating disorder?
  • Is Carly the Alpha Bitch of her school? She has Sam as The Dragon and Freddie, a guy who will follow her to the end of the earth as her clique. The trio are treated very differently by the principal than regular students would. Carly also goes out with the hottest guys at the school who other girls want even if she is younger than them, the trio is legitimately famous, all are incredibly beautiful, other girls know she has Freddie wrapped around her fingers, Carly has a massive apartment, loads of money and freedom from typical parental influence. It's easy to see how the less popular students at the school might envy and/or dislike her, Sam and Freddie.
  • The gag in "iCarly Saves TV" in which Mrs. Benson holds out screwdrivers for Spencer to grab, warning about the sharp point, with Spencer brushing her off but accidentally stabbing himself with the screwdriver, prompting her to take care of his injury. Mrs. Benson holds the screwdrivers out with the points facing Spencer despite knowing about the danger. Given how much of a Control Freak she is, it's possible she wanted him to grab the screwdriver point-first and stab himself so she would be seen as right and he'd need her to take care of him.
  • Harry Joyner in "iHeart Art". He was initially very critical of Spencer's art until Carly informed him that Spencer gave up art altogether afterward, only for Harry to later tell Spencer that he actually loved his art and merely trashed it out of jealousy. Is Harry being truthful, or did he lie so that Spencer would be motivated to continue his art career? Harry may not have personally liked Spencer's sculptures, but he also may not have wanted to be responsible for crushing someone's dreams.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In "iReunite with Missy", Spencer is preparing for a camping trip with Socko and explains that they're bringing Socko's grandmother along "in case there are bears." It's never explained why Socko's grandma would be useful in the event of a bear attack: were Spencer and Socko planning on sacrificing her to the bears while they escape, or is Socko's grandmother a scary badass that bears would stand no chance against?
• Anvilicious: Piracy is bad. One episode had the trio working a sting operation to try to bust some guys apparently selling pirated movies (only for it to turn out the guys they were tailing were making cheesy pirate movies), and one of Spencer's insane love interests is defeated when the group reports her for illegally downloading music off the Internet.
• Ass Pull:
  • In "iSpace Out", Carly is suddenly revealed to be aggressively claustrophobic and breaks the window of a training space station module to escape, despite multiple occasions earlier where Carly is perfectly normal in spaces that are half that size or less. This noticeably results in the protagonists failing their goal as opposed to achieving it.
  • Sam liking Freddie in iOMG is an Ass Pull because of the desire to create a season finale Cliffhanger ending. In iOMG Sam liking Freddie just happens. There's no previous episode arc or more than a minimal amount of foreshadowing or explanation to the audience that Sam likes Freddie. The focus is on protecting a cliff-hanger ending where Sam only reveals she likes Freddie right at the end of the episode, leaving Freddie's response as the cliffhanger. Having any indication that it's Sam and Freddie would kill the swerve. They also use Brad as a Red Herring. In fact, the characters on the show itself make reference to how suddenly and strange it is, as they only mention that Sam's behavior only started when Brad showed back up, which was only for that episode. Sam showing signs of liking Freddie before it would kill the plot of the episode and spoil the dramatic ending. Later on in the short arc the reason is revealed to have been an incident that was never shown, took place entirely off screen, with no reference as to when it happened.
• Award Snub:
  • Snubbed in every single Emmy award show since it debuted to 13 million people, and followed it up with an 11.2 million episode early in 2010 along with critical acclaim and a fresh outlook on children and teenage television plot, characters and comedy.
  • Emmy Awards 2010: Along with Hannah Montana, it was snubbed in 2010 by the Wizards of Waverly Place movie (the series itself was also nominated) for the 2010 Best Children's Show Emmy.
  • Emmy Awards 2009: Where it lost outright to the Wizards of Waverly Place series, along with the only other nomination, Hannah Montana.
  • Emmy Awards 2008: Where it was not even being nominated for the Best Children's Show Emmy.
  • Teen Choice Awards 2008: Hannah Montana winning Best TV Show Comedy and Best Comedy Actress for Miley Cyrus, with iCarly getting no nominations at all. Not even the 13 million viewers for "iPilot" got them a Breakout show nomination.
  • Teen Choice Awards 2009: Hannah Montana wins Best TV Show Comedy and Best Comedy Actress for Miley Cyrus, again. The Jonas Brothers, being nominated as a group and winning the Best Actor Comedy award over Jerry Trainor (of course, the Jonases were huge at the time, and are far more relevant to their show than Trainor is to his) and other far more worthy nominees.
  • Teen Choice Awards 2010: Sonny with a Chance and Wizards of Waverly Place were nominated for the Best Comedy show but not iCarly. The Jonas Brothers, again win the Best Actor Comedy award despite being 3 people, whilst Jerry Trainor wasn't even nominated (neither was Nathan Kress, by the way).
  • Kids' Choice Awards 2008: Despite being run by Nickeldeon, Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy were not nominated for Favorite Television Actress. It took till 2009 before the show itself won the Best TV Comedy award, but Miranda Cosgrove lost to Selena Gomez for Best Actress every year since Wizards premiered. Of course, Selena is much more famous than Miranda is; the fact that she has dated Justin Bieber only gave her more of an advantage.
  • Kids' Choice Awards 2012: While Jennette McCurdy won Favorite Sidekick for the second year in a row ^note  nominated with Nathan Kress, Jerry Trainor, and Wizards' Jennifer Stone, the show itself lost Favorite TV Show to Victorious, while Miranda Cosgrove again lost to Selena Gomez for Favorite Actress (with the Bieber effect in full swing).
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Depending on who you ask, Carly Shay is either a flawed, yet likable Nice Girl or an unlikable Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who whines when she doesn't get what she wants.
  • Sam Puckett, much moreso than Megan, her counterpart from Drake & Josh, who was near-universally hated by the fanbase. Sam is either the best or worst part of the show, depending on whether or not one finds her funny or wishes that she would get punished for once. The announcement that she wouldn't be returning for the revival has likely pleased some and upset others.
• Broken Aesop: The pilot makes a big deal about how kids should be allowed to like whatever they like and share their talents even if others find them strange; this provides the inspiration for the webshow in-universe. The rest of the show, however, is more than eager to mock characters with strange interests, such as Carly and her friends being incredibly put off by her boyfriend collecting tiny plushies, or even Freddie regularly being bullied for his nerdy interests.
• Broken Base:
  • The Sam/Freddie and Carly/Freddie divide eventually shattered the base completely. Even more so than in most series that involve opposing canon couples, there is almost no interaction between the 2 sides and what little there is either a free for all shipping war on Tumblr, or heavily regulated on the iCarly Wiki.
    • Probably the best example of this is the Groovy Smoothie LiveJournal community. In Season 1 and through most of Season 2, it had become the center of the fandom, and had a large, active fandom, which included the Word of God posting there because of it's size and maturity. From the second half of Season 2 to the start of Season 3, it ended up being perceived as 'pro-Seddie', and was abandoned by Creddie fans who started their own forum. Additionally, the Word of God left to make his own separate blog site, taking even more activity away from it. When Season 3 aired, it contained multiple episodes that advanced the Creddie ship but nothing for Seddie. Which caused the community to dwindle further as Seddie fans left, leaving the community a graveyard for the fandom when the extreme Schedule Slip caused episodes to air months apart. Even though the show has swung back to Seddie, there's hardly anyone left to discuss it.
  • The Sam/Freddie arc at the start of Season 5 is causing even the Sam/Freddie base to break in parts. Some love it and think it's the best the show has ever done, others are giving up on it, seeing it as Shipping Bed Death and being critical of how Sam and Freddie's relationship is being portrayed.
• Bizarro Episode:
  • Well, half an episode, specifically Spencer's subplot in iSpace Out involving the creepy little girl.
  • The entire plot of "iApril Fools".
• Catharsis Factor: In "iCant Take It," Mrs. Benson humiliating Sam on the iCarly webshow when it's live by revealing that Sam sabotaged Freddie's application to a high-end science camp, so as to break the pair up. It doesn't last due to Carly intervening out of guilt at seeing her friends' hearts breaking, but Mrs. Benson's smugness is satisfying as she shows Freddie that someone wrote "looking at clouds and eating poop" as his hobbies on the form submitted in his name. Sam goes Oh, Crap!, stares into the distance, and tries to change the subject by suggesting to Freddie that they go look at clouds. In fact, it's the only time that Freddie being angry at her had any type of emotional impact because she desperately tries to apologize but from her tone, she knows her reason— petty enough that he wasn't able to tell her the time— was no excuse. The next episode goes further by showing that they break up on realizing they're too incompatible.
• Designated Hero:
  • Carly and Sam. Sam is known for being an insufferable bully with no karma for her actions. Carly just sits there and spectates while Sam abuses Freddie and emotionally manipulates him. Both stole a prized possession of Gibby's and sold it to a Japanese tourist (Although it was to bail Sam's mom out of jail, after Gibby accidentally let the money go for a "moon rock"). They will also resort to underhanded tactics to deal with their antagonists. One example was iRocked the Vote. While Wade Collins was an asshole who lied about his mother's condition to fish for sympathy, their course of action was to dox him by telling people what hotel room he was staying at with the intent of him possibly getting beaten up.
  • This created some unintended consequences. For example, in "iParty With Victorious," the audience was expected to hate Steven for cheating on Carly. Many fans did hate him - but not all. Some viewers openly said that, although they disapproved of Steven's lies and cheating, they found it difficult to be outraged on Carly's behalf when there were so many times on the show when Carly should have been punished or called out for something and she wasn't.
  • Similarly, during Season 4, one blogger said that she had hated Jonah for hurting Sam in "iHate Sam's Boyfriend," and cheered when Jonah got his comeuppance. But the blogger went on to say that if she had known just how horrible Sam was going to turn out to be, she wouldn't have bothered to expend so much emotion on Sam's behalf.
• Designated Villain:
  • Mrs. Benson in iCan't Take It. She's only genuinely worried about her son dating an abusive jerk, but everyone treats her as the jerk. Yes, the way she handled it could've been better but as far as parenting goes, she was completely in the right for trying to put the brakes on her son's relationship with a physically and verbally abusive delinquent. The next episode proves Mrs. Benson right as Sam and Freddie break up.
  • Missy in iReunite With Missy is treated as generally worse than Sam even though Sam probably would do the same things Missy did and probably worse.
  • Spencer in iDate a Bad Boy for the same reasons as Mrs. Benson listed above. The guy that Carly's trying to date is a known troublemaker and possible criminal. He has every right to be protective of Carly in this situation. His only real crime is that he went massively overboard by installing an alarm system (that didn't work) and invading Carly's high school to spy on her.
    • Griffin himself ends up getting this treatment later in the episode too. Once Spencer finally relents and lets them date, she goes to his apartment only to discover that he...collects plushies. And we're supposed to think of him as the weirdo for having a non-masculine hobby and sympathize with Carly's disgust. She isn't even willing to talk to him about them in an honest manner, instead getting caught mocking him behind his back with Sam and getting dumped.
• Die for Our Ship:
  • Sam: Seen by some Creddie fans as a villain for subjecting Freddie to years of physical and emotional abuse, not helped by the fact that the canon Seddie arc of the show was essentially a load of Romanticized Abuse.
  • Carly: Seen by some Seddie fans as a spoiled Mary Sue who kissed Sam's first kiss.
  • In-universe example in the episode iStart A Fan War — When Carly points out the guy she currently has a crush on, the in-universe Carly/Freddie shippers scream that he's the one who "stole Carly from Freddie!" and attack him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Specifically in the way Jonah and Steven were dealt with. While both of them certainly brought it on themselves, some people might think that humiliating them on iCarly, which has been repeatedly established to rake in millions of views per webcast, is excessive, since internet infamy can have disastrous repercussions. They'll likely never live normal lives again, or at least for a few years. Wade Collins is an even bigger example. While he was a cartoonish jackass, the iCarly crew's idea of revenge essentially amounts to doxxing him, which can have consequences far beyond anything he subjected them to.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Sam gets this treatment by a large part of her and the Seddie fandom. Quite unusual example because she's not really a villain so much as someone who acts like a Jerkass most of the time.
• Dry Docking: Each of the trio get this treatment. Nathan especially, although Miranda and Jennette get their fair share.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The gang's friend Wendy was a popular character in the earlier seasons of the show, before she vanished.
  • Gibby! So popular that he eventually became an Ascended Extra.
  • T-Bo has taken up this mantle, being involved in the show much more.
  • Gibby's brother, Guppy seems to have his own fanbase too.
  • Sam's twin sister, Melanie, is very popular for liking Freddie the way he is. She only appeared in one episode of the original series.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: iCan't Take It. Freddie and Sam stay together despite Mrs. Benson's protests and Sam's past mistakes, which is good and all, if it weren't for the fact that Mrs. Benson understandably doesn't want her son dating a physically and verbally abusive delinquent and the fact that Sam's past mistake consisted of her fudging up Freddie's camp application, said camp could've helped him get into any college he wanted to. Sam effectively ruined an amazing opportunity for Freddie (and for not knowing the time, no less), and the show basically shrugs it off as "Oh well" and treats them staying together as a Heartwarming Moment. Many fans did not see it that way.
• Fandom Heresy:
  • Telling someone else you know is a big fan of the show that you ship Creddie is likely to get this response, because a huge majority of the vocal fans are Seddie fans. Also gains plus points for with the plus point that the phrase 'not a true fan' is thrown about with abandon all over the fandom.
  • A civil war version, Seddie fans who aren't happy or actually dislike the Sam/Freddie relationship arc in Season 5 have been called 'not true fans' by the rest.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • iCarly vs Sonny with a Chance: Stems from the idea that Sonny with a Chance was ripped off from an original idea Dan pitched to Disney Channel that eventually became iCarly when Disney rejected it, only to turn around later and produce Sonny with a Chance as a star vehicle for Demi Lovato which just happened to be nearly identical to the original idea for iCarly. The episode "iTake On Dingo" was made as a response to this, with the "Dingo Channel" (a parody of the Disney Channel) stealing ideas from Carly's show to use in its own shows. Interestingly, the shows share an actor- Doug Brochu, who was in a few Season 1 episodes of iCarly and is a supporting character on Sonny.
  • iCarly vs Victorious: Stems from Victorious being the sole reason for Schedule Slip and the heavy reduction in episode orders. They simply can't use the studio because it's shared with Victorious. The other major issues are that all the best ideas, comedy and writing is used on Victorious because Dan Schneider's new favorite girl is Victoria Justice.
  • iCarly having One Direction as guest stars caused instant drama, mostly on Tumblr. One Direction fans derided the iCarly fandom as being comprised only of "immature 12 year olds" that would somehow swamp the One Direction fandom, iCarly fans shot back with "who are One Direction and why have I never heard of them?", that iCarly is far more popular than One Direction ever will be, and reminding the One Direction fans that the majority of it's fandom are much older due to how long the show has gone for as well as having a lot of mature humor. However, it seems like One Direction have become bigger than iCarly (teen idols do have bigger and more rabid fan bases than TV shows, after all). It's saying something when "iGo One Direction" topped the iTunes chart and became the fifth best selling episode of 2012, whereas other iCarly episodes peaked in the mid teens upon their release.
  • iCarly fans (or rather, troll accounts posing as fans) spam on the Twitter accounts of Nintendo or Pokémon GO demanding some kind of crossover between their TV show and generally pissing off the followers of those accounts for no reason whatsoever.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Everyone's parents. Only Mrs. Benson actually appears regularly. Pam Puckett was only referred to until she showed up in a single episode. Spencer and Carly's dad is in the military and only up in one-sided phone conversations. Sam's father, Freddie's father and Carly/Spencer's mother have never even been mentioned.
  • Why did Freddie end up in Seattle, or more accurately, why did his mother come to Seattle on her own, with him. Often combined with the father question.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Some people who hate the Sam/Freddie pairing have called the the second half of Season 5 "iSeddie" or "iSam" due to the story arc taking up 4 out of the 9 episodes filmed, since Sam with Freddie together continually taking the A-Plot with Carly pushed down to the B-plot or C-plot in pretty much every episode, especially as some episodes had Carly in a plot completely away from the rest of the main cast. Many consider it a Spinoff or Continuity Reboot instead of a new season with characters who look, sound and share the same names, but aren't the same characters from previous seasons.
  • Ironically, Sam was eventually given a spin-off show called Sam & Cat.
  • The imaginative, pejorative names of "Sucky" and "Cruddie" for Seddie and Creddie respectively.
  • Guppy: Mini-Gibby.
• Fanon:
  • Wendy has had her Mister Exposition moments, and blown them up so that Wendy is the Ridgeway equivalent of Gossip Girl.
  • Rebecca Berkowitz Really Gets Around.
  • Carly being afraid of thunderstorms. Most prevalent in the Carly/Freddie Fan Fic community.
  • Certain fans gave the main characters their "full names" that are not canon in the show, though part of the fandom have treated those names like Ascended Fanon in wikis and fanfiction:
    • Carly is "Carlotta Taylor Shay", where Taylor is Miranda's actual middle name. Sam called Carly "Carlotta" only in one episode, while Ridgeway teachers and school records always called/listed Carly as 'Carly Shay' and never Carlotta.
    • "Fredward Karl Benson" and "Spencer Gerald Shay" for Freddie and Spencer, where Karl and Gerald are Nathan's middle name and Jerry's real name respectively.
    • Sam is an interesting example: "Samantha Joy Puckett". Samantha is Sam's canon first name; weirdly enough, she was "assumed" a girly middle name to contrast her tomboyish persona when Jennette herself has TWO feminine middle names: Michelle and Faye. And there's "Melanie Audrey Puckett".
    • The mother of Spencer & Carly is named Taylor Shay (nee Dorfman), and is usually an artist like Spencer, or a botanist.
• Fanon Discontinuity:
  • iMeet Fred especially among Seddie shippers due to Sam's Jerkass behavior towards Freddie reaching an all-time high as she hits him with a tennis racket due to him not finding Fred's videos funny. Even disregarding that, it's still a full-on Fred torture episode in which everyone turns their backs against Freddie just because he expressed a dislike for Fred's videos, leading the YouTube sensation to retire.
• Fan Wank:
  • Copious amounts related to shipping. One large pro-Seddie group interpret any form of communication or interaction as supporting their ship.
  • The "Seddie is going to happen because Dan said so" shippers. See Shrug of God for why they can never actually back their claim up with any evidence, confirmed with the final episode. No Seddie.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • Not a true example of the trope because its massive popularity in the USA, but the show is wildly popular in Australia, the UK and the Philippines, with huge amount of fans following it when aired in those countries, and by internet streaming or downloading when they air in the US. If you join the iCarly fandom, you're as likely to encounter someone from these countries as you are someone from the USA or Canada.
  • This show also has quite a following in Japan. Many Japanese Virtual YouTuber's have went on record to say that becoming a VTuber is essentially them being able to live their "iCarly fantasies". Nene from Hololive is one who spoke about watching the show when she was younger while thinking it was a 'serious drama'.
  • Miranda Cosgrove has a huge following in Brazil of all places.
• Growing the Beard: Season 2: Freddie's a much rounder and mature character, old jokes fall into disuse, the plots are better... Season 1 was OK, but season 2 is where the series really got good.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The episode “iOwe you’’ plot involves Sam getting a job in order to pay Carly and Freddie back the money she owes them. Sam later cries to Carly about how she hates the job and when her manager asks her if she wants to keep the job, she replies ‘No, but I need to’. This plot is kinda sad when you think about how Jeanette can relate to Sam’s experience as Jeanette herself has stated in her memoir and in interviews that she didn’t enjoy acting but was pushed into it by her abusive mother in order to support the family.
  • The episode “iFix A Pop Star” straight up mocks Britney Spears’s infamous public breakdown by creating a fake pop star (Ginger Fox) and saying she has no talent, parodying both her hair-shaving incident and her appearance in the 2007 MTV's Video Music Awards. This whole parody became harsher over the years as Spears opened up about the abuse she'd suffered in her career, which led to the breakdowns parodied in the episode.
  • A lot of Sam's quirks become this when Jennette McCurdy wrote about suffering from anorexia and bulimia in 2019, as well as her later in-depth accounts of the trauma she suffered in her acting career:
    • Sam is known to be a Big Eater who jokes about being an Extreme Omnivore. Jennette's eating disorder meant that she was bingeing and purging from the stress of eating and kept getting roles because she was "small" as well as her mother's cancer diagnosis. McCurdy pointed out the irony herself in her 2022 memoir.
    • Second, Sam also lost a tooth from eating corn in-show, due to not having seen a dentist for several years. In real life, Jennette had a tooth fall out due to her bulimia causing stomach acids to corrode the enamel.
    • Finally, Sam's mom is emotionally abusive and can only make partial progress with her when a therapist traps them in a room. Jennette's mother was the one who encouraged her eating disorder and encouraged her to hide it from a concerned fellow parent, though Jennette maintained that her mother was doing the best she could in competitive Hollywood. Even so, she eventually released I'm Glad My Mom Died, a memoir chronicling just how horrible her mother truly was to her, as well as her negative experiences playing Sam.
    • In the episode "iWon't Cancel the Show", Sam doesn't appear at all due to Jennette being in the hospital during filming. The "Sam-less" episode and the reasoning behind it are both harsher in hindsight due to Sam not appearing at all in the 2021 revival, in large part due to Jennette's personal struggles during the original show (as well as Sam & Cat) leading her to quit acting altogether.
    • In "iCarly Saves TV" Sam (along with Freddie and Harper) leave the TV version of iCarly, and Carly says, "This isn’t even iCarly anymore!" This ended up reflecting how some people feel about the revival due to it not having Sam, among other things.
    • Sam's mother coerced her into the beauty pageant circuit as a child despite how miserable it made her, eerily similar to how Jennette's mother coerced her into an acting career despite how miserable it made her.
    • While there are parallels between Pam Puckett and Jennette's mother, Mrs. Benson's overprotective behavior also became harder to watch after Jennette released the details of her childhood. Most infamously, Mrs. Benson gives Freddie regular "body checks" and tick baths despite his protests that he's too old for such things. After Jennette revealed her own mother would molest her in the shower under the excuse of checking her for cancer, it makes it harder to see Mrs. Benson's behavior as funny.
    • The Running Gag that Sam had a crush on Spencer was written in after Jennette's mother revealed to Jerry Trainor how Jennette had a crush on him. While this was spread around as a cute anecdote for some time, the joke became an example of Jennette's mother invading her privacy incorporated into the show itself.
  • "iRock the Vote" is about an American Idol stand-in where instead of David Cook, David Archuleta competes against Wade Collins, who garners sympathy by claiming his mother is sick (similar to how Cook discussed his brother's brain cancer). In reality, Collins' mother is fine — she and Collins are just both jerks. Three weeks after the episode aired, Cook's brother died of brain cancer, and Cook thusly raised awareness and funds for cancer research. Following Cook's loss, the episode looks like a much crueller parody of that Idol season.
  • "iLost My Head in Vegas" has a gag where Chumlee of Pawn Stars fame takes Gibby into a back room to buy Gibby's pants, leaving Gibby in his underwear. Already suggestive, it gains a much creepier undertone since 2016, as Chumlee was accused of sexual assault (though he wasn't charged).
  • "iMeet Fred" sees Fred, as a publicity stunt, end his show after Freddie mildly criticizes his show on an episode of iCarly, and directly blames them for it. This causes his fanbase to brigade and harasses the show until Freddie is finally forced to publically retract his criticism. While innocuous at the time, throughout The New '10s it became a major discussion point of Content Creators using their platforms to harass others who crossed their ire and "weaponizing" their fanbases to attack others, as well as creating irresponsible "publicity stunts".
  • The web show's pranks towards Lewbert and others is this thanks to the rise of controversial prank channels online where the hosts harass and humiliate unwitting and unwilling participates on camera and claim that it's all just innocent fun.
  • Gibby getting mauled by Sam and losing a clump of his own hair in "iCan't Take It" can become a little upsetting to watch because Noah Munck has gone bald in recent years if one checks out any of his Sad World videos.
  • In "iBelieve In Bigfoot", Freddie watches an episode of "Celebrity Underwater" in which David Schwimmer drowns and comments how there won't be a Friends reunion. While a reunion of the show did happened 10 years after this episode aired, one of the main cast (Matthew Perry), died on October 28, 2023 from an apparent drowning accident in his hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
  • "iCarly Saves TV" was meant as a Take That! against Executive Meddling as the iCarly crew fight producers disrespecting them and their craft, but after the toxic workplace allegations against Dan Schneider, it feels more like Reality Subtext. One particular uncomfortable subplot is Freddie being given the "supervising producer" role, only to be coerced into performing demeaning and unprofessional tasks like rubbing ice onto a sweaty guy's stomach, with the implication that said guy wants to take Freddie out for dinner. There were numerous allegations of unprofessional behavior towards staff on Dan Schneider's sets, from Schneider allegedly soliciting massages from female cast and crew, to serious sexual abuse allegations (and two arrests) towards crew members.
  • The plot of "iRock The Vote" involves a guy telling a serious lie about a personal tragedy in order to garner sympathy. After this lie is exposed, the retribution he receives goes into Karmic Overkill territory when people not only reveal the lie to the public online, but also doxx him and even encourage the outraged public (who now know his location) to attack him on sight. This storyline is eerily similar to the later-released film Not Okay, albeit said film's story is not played for laughs in the slightest, in order to demonstrate just how problematic cancel culture can be.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The last iCarly webcast in "iGoodbye" mentioning that the show would be on a break due to Carly going to Italy with her father becomes this in December 2020, when it was confirmed that the show would be revived on Paramount+.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "iLikeJake" centers around Carly's Hollywood Tone-Deaf crush Jake coming on the web show to sing and play guitar. He's played by Austin Butler, who would go on to receive enormous critical acclaim for his singing abilities as Elvis Presley in Elvis (2022).
  • A throwaway line in "iKiss" has Sam respond to Spencer's newfound dreams of being an NFL player by saying "If lions eat all the other professional football players." This episode aired at the beginning of 2009, when the Detroit Lions were just about to wrap up one of the worst seasons in NFL history - they went 0-16.
  • The episode "iTake on Dingo", was a Take That! to Disney with the studio, Dingo Studios, who plagiarized their webshow. In Real Life, there is a studio called Dingo Pictures that plagiarizes Disney's works. Even more hilarious, the real-life Disney Channel would later debut Bizaardvark, a sitcom very similar to iCarly in its concept. The Disney Channel would also later release Coop & Cami Ask the World, another Kid Com about two kids who make content on the Internet.
    • Even more hilarious is how one writer complains coming up with their own ideas is hard. Disney itself has come under a lot of fire since 2019 for becoming over-reliant on sequels and live-action remakes that get progressively more panned, yet they refuse to learn from it.
  • "iBelieve In Bigfoot" has Freddie watch a reality show called "Celebrities Underwater" where David Schwimmer drowns, leading to Freddie remarking "I guess there's never gonna be a Friends reunion." There was a Friends reunion on HBO Max.
  • The episode "iFight Shelby Marx," in which Carly accidentally starts a feud with the titular MMA fighter, eventually joining a televised fight. An Internet celebrity going up against a professional fighter was just a joke at the time, but now it sounds like a prediction of the YouTuber boxing trend, particularly the Paul brothers becoming professional boxers.
  • In Colleen Ballinger’s infamous video where she sings, plays the ukelele, and responds to allegations, she says, "Even though my team has strongly advised me to not say what I want to say, I recently realized that they never said that I couldn't sing what I wanna say". People have compared this to the part in iParty with Victorious where Tori tells Cat that her doctor said that she’s not supposed to talk and Cat sings, "He didn’t say I couldn’t sing."
• Ho Yay: Has its own page
• Humor Dissonance:
  • Many of the web show's sketches are supposed to be funnier than anything on live-action TV. Seeing some of the show's sketches, it's kind of hard to believe. Granted, the only parts of the sketches seen by the viewing audience are usually the very end, but "Random Dancing" does not seem to warrant the praise the (web) show gets.^note  As Pickle Rick showed us though, since it was a heavily used part of the show and advertising, it may just be an in-universe Memetic Mutation. Although given the live-action TV shows they've shown to exist in universe, it's not as big of a stretch as it may seem.
  • Sam's actions on the show are very much this. Her abuse of Freddie is Played for Laughs, but it's often seen as quite cruel. She also clearly has no respect for the First Lady, who praised her along with Freddie for what they did for Carly, interrupting her mid-phrase about wanting a sandwich. This was also Played for Laughs. Many viewers just found it unfunny.

I-Q

• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Nora was a psychopathic kidnapper who tried to outright murder Gibby, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her. The girl's parents left her alone on her birthday (the way she said it implies that this is a common occurrence), she had no friends except her chicken, and her insanity was likely because of it. In-universe, Carly actually feels sorry for her. However, that goes out the window in iStill Psycho. Nora tricks the gang into convincing the judge to let her go free and then she and her parents hold the iCarly gang hostage. Nora even admits she knows she and her parents are psychopaths and none of them seem to have a problem attempting to kill people! Some fans are now even thinking her parents may have been in on the birthday party in iPsycho.
  • Sam is a violent budding criminal, but she comes from a neglectful home, and it's clear that she'd have no stability if not for the Shays letting her hang at their apartment. A few episodes show that she's more insecure than she lets on. One episode in which you feel bad for her is in iOwe You, when she gets a job in a chili restaurant. She has to deal with a rude customer, is forced to apologize to said customer when she fights back, and has to clean the men's room as punishment. Thankfully, she gets all the money she owed Carly and Freddie, and quits in an epic way.
  • Ms. Ackerman from iGot a Lovesick Teacher. While she's not in the right to lash out at her students after a nasty break-up, the woman was still dumped and has obvious issues, with the main characters merely ratting her out to the government for illegally downloading songs instead of actually doing something to help her.
  • Lewbert is a gross jerk who bullies children just for fun, but it's because he hates everything about his life and likely suffers some mental illness. His mother is reportedly cruel to him, and his ex-girlfriend is so abusive that he'd prefer prison to being around her. When the iCarly gang pranks him, it's hard to decide whether to laugh that a jerk like him got knocked down a peg or to feel bad that they knock around a man who's already so miserable.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Some people only really cared about the webshow sketches and Spencer subplots, the quirkiness of which would explain the show's boy fanbase. Younger kids and boys didn't really pay attention to the storylines and otherwise would have brushed it off as another generic girly teen sitcom.
  • The only reason that "iGo One Direction" sold as strongly on iTunes as it did was...take a guess.
• Karmic Overkill: Some of the punishments on this show have been seen by viewers as needlessly cruel:
  • "iMeet Fred". Freddie mentions he doesn't think Fred is that funny on video. Fred responds by claiming he won't make videos anymore, which results in social isolation and emotional and physical abuse to Freddie until he took it back. Sam beat him with a tennis racket until it broke. And it turned out it was a publicity stunt by Fred.
  • "iHate Sam's Boyfriend": The trio's revenge on Jonah for trying to kiss Carly while he's with Sam is wedgie-bouncing him on iCarly. And he's still left in the device even after the show's over.
  • "iParty with Victorious" has probably the most glaring example in the show's history; if not that, then of all Nickelodeon's. Carly and Tori have discovered that their boyfriend Stephen was two-timing each of them with the other. Their response is to expose him over iCarly so the whole world knows. While what he did was bad, their revenge is the equivalent of cyberbullying.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Sam. Mostly because she is not related to any of the other main cast like Carly/Spencer and Mrs. Benson/Freddie are. If Carly or Freddie are shipped with a 4th person like Griffin or Valerie, Sam is usually paired with the leftover.
  • Wendy has been paired up with all 4 of the main cast.
  • Freddie is the male version. He has been paired with Carly, Sam, Spencer, Gibby, Wendy, Melanie, Shelby, along with several girls of the week, and two reasonably popular Crossover Ship pairings, one with Megan from Drake & Josh, and the more recent one with Cat from Victorious.
• LGBT Fanbase. Has a large LGBT fanbase due to the Carly/Sam pairing.
• Magnificent Bastard: "I Carly S 02 Ep 13 I Meet Fred": Lucas Cruikshank is portrayed as a cunning prankster with aims on using internet drama to increase the popularity of both himself and iCarly. Under his popular Fred persona, he feigns offense at Freddie expressing distaste for his humor and proclaims that he'll never make another Fred video. Cultivating controversy against iCarly for days in which the internet turns on them, Lucas eventually reveals he schemed the whole thing to set up a friendship and team up with iCarly, bringing them more viewers than ever before. Lucas sincerely apologizes for manipulating everyone, and even makes up with Freddie to publish a collaboration between "Fred" and iCarly.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Fatcakes, YEAH!"
  • The Carly/Freddie fandom have two: Ariana Approves! and the Miranda/Nathan Real-Person Fic sub-forums having Nat Wolf become known as The Goober.
  • There was a troll meme where people would say that Sam was, or was going to get, pregnant with Freddie's baby in a future episode.
  • A clip of Gibby falling from the ceiling later became a popular meme, particularly mashing it up with other scenes of things/people falling.
  • "What's Gibby Thinking About?"^Explanation A brief funny scene plays inside of Gibby's head.
  • Gibby hitting Spencer with a stop sign is a common reaction image in response to offensive Internet content.
  • "Whatcha got there?" "A Smoothie".^ExplanationA scene from "iMeet Fred" in which Spencer arrives at the apartment with an ostrich and misunderstands Carly's inquiry about it. It's common to replace Spencer, Carly, the ostrich, and the smoothie with characters and concepts from other fandoms to make Comically Missing the Point jokes.
  • Spencer Launches a Bagel into Griffin's Rectum is a famous quotable Youtube Poop that is also included in the Important Videos Playlist. WARNING: It is EXTERMELY loud and flashy. One commonly circulated image is the edit of Freddie's Big "YES!", which is used as a joyful reaction image.
  • "WHO WROTE THIS?! WHO WROTE THIS LIE?!"
  • Freddie snapping his fingers and gaining a leather jacket.
  • Carly getting blinded by Spencer's burglar alarm is often used as a visual metaphor for logging onto social media and instantly being greeted with shocking and/or upsetting news. Alternatively, it can also be used as a response to the revelation that someone uses light mode.
  • “Half of you are stupid! Discuss!” from iBelieveInBigfoot for situations where a group is divided and/or arguing about something one considers “stupid”.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Word of God occasionally implies that all the Shipping nonsense detracts from what the shows core is about, that being the comedy/jokes, and the friendship of the Power Trio.
  • Many fans of the Sam/Freddie relationship claimed that if Freddie chose to be with the "damaged" girl, Sam, instead of the "perfect" girl, Carly, then it would send a positive message to teenaged girls - "You don't have to be perfect to get the guy." These fans never seemed to understand that using Sam and Freddie's relationship as a real life lesson would also convey a seriously Family-Unfriendly Aesop - "You can insult, publicly humiliate, and physically and emotionally abuse somebody for years, and they will not only accept it, but appreciate it, and even fall in love with you. You can even continue the abuse during the relationship, and it will still be fine."
• Moff’s Law: Dan Schneider, the Word of God and his constant claim to focus on the comedy rather than the romantic vibes of the show amidst the heavy Ship Tease post-season 2 onwards. Done in-universe as well through an Author Filibuster in iStart A Fan War.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Nora and her family gleefully holding Spencer hostage to keep the iCarly gang imprisoned, torturing him if they do anything they don't like. What really pushes this over is Nora's implying that she can and will kill him if they make a wrong move.
    • She could've also crossed it when she tried to kill Gibby in iPsycho.
  • In iPear Store the fire department refuse to answer the Shay's calls because Spencer keeps lighting things on fire (which he appears to have no control over). Now what if one of Spencer's fires spread across the Bushwell Plaza? The Fire Department might just leave them to die. Even worse, that subplot is Played for Laughs.
  • Nevel Papperman crosses it in iFight Shelby Marx. After the titular Shelby Marx, who's a female boxer, gets over an argument of Carly accidentally pushing her grandmother down, she promises to go easy on her. Nevel would have none of it due to a petty vendetta he has on Carly, so he frames Carly for intentionally pushing down Shelby's grandmother, in hopes that Carly will be injured.
    • This one is also Played for Laughs but proves a point in iPity Nevel, after Nevel is seemingly redeemed, he yells at a man in a wheel chair for bumping into him and refusing an apology. Now Nevel has done worse, but it proves that even if he tries to redeem himself, he can't fight his nature.
• Narm Charm: Purposely invoked in many of the webshow's segments; in particular, Kelly Cooper is so deliberately over-the-top it's hilarious.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Viewers will never forgive Sam for nearly killing Freddie by beating him with a tennis racket and throwing him out of a treehouse in "iMeet Fred", all for simply stating he didn't find Fred funny. While she did become much nicer to Freddie later on in the series after the "Seddie" arc, her near deadly beating of him in that episode put her beyond redemption in some viewers' eyes despite her later Character Development.
  • Considering the premise of Sam & Cat, people are skeptical of Sam being a babysitter considering the time she enslaved children in iSell Penny Tees.
• One True Threesome: Carly/Freddie/Sam. Known mostly as Crediam.
• Padding:
  • iStart a Fan War had a lot of going back and forth between Spencer vs. Aspartamay and the fans ooh-ing and aah-ing about the levels of awesome of that particular debate, and then the iCarlies swearing up and down that there was nothing romantic between them only for the shippers to flat-out refuse to see this. Rinse, lather, repeat.
  • Same with iQuit iCarly. Instead of using Dave and Fleck to cause the Carly and Sam split, they could easily have had a live skit blow up in the opener because Sam didn't bother to rehearse and skip about 15 minutes of pointless filler. Also they could have removed the especially bad webshow skits, and just told the viewer that Dave and Fleck were funny.
  • For a Crossover, the Victorious Crossover had very little actual cross over between the two casts.
• Pandering to the Base: Two main ways can be identified for this trope:
  • Dan Schneider pandering to the Sam/Freddie ones with his overblown hype and expectations for the Sam/Freddie 5 episode story arc.
  • A more general example, but he clearly flips pack and forth to pander to the opposite side of whatever ship trolling he's written. Examples include pandering to Seddie fans after iSaved Your Life (A major Creddie episode), then Carly/Freddie fans after iOMG (a major Seddie episode), and then back to pandering for Seddie fans after iOwn A Restaurant had Freddie reveal he still had a crush on Carly.
• Periphery Demographic: Each season skewed older than the last due to a number of factors:
  • The aging of the main cast from tween to mid/late teens.
  • Along with that of the original target audience.
  • Dan Schneider pursuing more and more references to television shows from decades past.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Creddie (Carly/Freddie), Seddie (Sam/Freddie), and Cam (Carly/Sam).
  • Also lesser couple Carmel (Carly/Melanie) and Sharly (Shelby/Carly).

R-Z

• Realism-Induced Horror:
  • Part of why the Seddie arc is so panned is how the relationship is viewed as romantic, despite the fact the two constantly argue and Freddie is abused by her even while dating. Even though Carly flat out tells them they should end it, she forgets about it and thinks it's cute that she doesn't punch him in the face. The worst part is how this was around the same time her actions became viewed as mean rather than funny so it feels like Freddie is too in love to dump Sam for her abuse, something that resonates with many abuse victims.
  • One of the most unnerving scenes from iCarly is when Carly is nearly G-rated date-raped by her date Trey in iPear Store. The scariest part about this is how out of left field it came. Trey just seemed like a awkward Adorkable guy who seemed disinterested in Carly, but was willing to go out with her. Suddenly he drops the act and is incredibly forward with her. Many rapists are very adept in earning victims' trust without trying.
• Replacement Scrappy: After Chuck's actor outgrew the character, the writers decided to replace him with his younger brother Chip, who was never mentioned before and the writers didn't even try to Hand Wave that. And while Chuck was a deliberate Hate Sink and Spoiled Brat, who at least had his (exaggerated) reasons to attack Spencer, Chip only targeted Spencer because Chuck did it before, and then tried to mess with Carly too, for similarly shallow reasons. Chip was only used for one episode and wasn't missed for the rest of the show, not that the show had much airtime left.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Freddie's lab partner Duke is played by Doug Brochu prior to joining rival series Sonny with a Chance.
  • Tasha, the girl in iNevel whom Sam wanted to "...do bad things to" is played by Jonas' Nicole Anderson.
  • One of the trio's classmates in iHave a Lovesick Teacher is Ashley Argota, later known in another Nick sitcom, True Jackson, VP.
  • James Maslow who played Shane, the object of Carly and Sam's affection in "iSaw Him First" made into a major starring role in Nick's sitcom Big Time Rush.
  • Eric Nelsen, who played Zeke in iDream of Dance, later played the Jerk Jock Brett in 13.
  • iGo to Japan's Yuki is played by Harry Shum Jr., of Glee and Web Original Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, as well as the Step Up movies and Shadowhunters.
  • Tori Vega and André Harris played Shelby Marx in iFight Shelby Marx and Harper in iCarly Saves TV respectively. Trina showed up at Nora's party in iPsycho.
  • Brennan Yubberly from "iPilot" would later become the leader of the Dino Charge Power Rangers.
  • Carly accidentally spits in Adam Davenport's eye when asking him to the dance.
  • Emily Ratajkowski's first role as an adult was as Gibby's girlfriend in "iSpeed Date".
  • Justin Prentice played Brad in two episodes of the show before playing Bryce Walker in 13 Reasons Why.
  • Philip Brownley from "iMight Switch Schools" was played by Shayne Topp, who became much more well known as a cast member on So Random! and a performer/host on Smosh.
  • Austin Butler played Jake in "iLike Jake" 15 years before playing Elvis in Elvis.
  • Molly Tarlov had a small role in "iThink They Kissed" 2 years before being cast for Awkward. as Alpha Bitch Sadie Saxton.
  • Taylor Zakhar Perez’s first credit was as Keith in "iGet Banned".
• Seasonal Rot:
  • Season 4 was somewhat less received than the prior seasons as the show became more reliant on Guest Stars (where the show hadn't really used them at all in the past) and Black Comedy; in addition, the start of Seddie arc was handled pretty bizarrely (as seen in Strangled by the Red String below).
  • Season 5 has taken the show to new lows of ratings. While Seasons 2, 3 and 4 were all roughly similar rated on average, Season 5 with it's continuation of Seddie arc dropped the average of the other 3 seasons by millions, and the final episode of the Seddie arc, iLove You, is the 5th lowest documented audience to date. The iBloop sequel was even lower than iLove You.
  • Season 6 for the most part, however, was considered by many to be an improvement due to the more unique plots and the significant downplaying of the Comedic Sociopathy within the characters. Nonetheless, this did nothing to help improve the ratings; iApril Fools only had 3.408 million, the very hyped iGo One Direction only had 3.9 million, and then iOpen a Restaurant had a shocking 2.828 million. The show's lowest documented audience is iBattle Chip, which premiered to 2.362 million viewers.
• Second Verse Curse: The theme song is a full-length song. The full version was on the iSongs page before it was taken down.
• Signature Scene:
  • Carly tossing her hat into the air at the end of "iPilot"; this scene is notable for being the only one that stayed in the theme song for the entire show's run.
  • The scene from iMeet Fred with Spencer and the Ostrich is a scene that stayed in the theme song for the show's run since Season 2.
• Shallow Parody: "Girly Cow" is meant to be just as absurd as SpongeBob SquarePants, according to Word of God. What little we see from the show, it looks more like a parody of Rocko's Modern Life or Ren & Stimpy instead, especially the latter, since Spencer talks about watching the "uncensored" version.
• Ship Mates: Despite having a quite small circle of characters to ship, it still has a good amount of Ship Mates.
  • Sam/Gibby has increased in popularity as Ship Mates with Carly/Freddie. It happened as Gibby gained a larger role in the show. In fandom the Sam/Gibby pairing is often used in fic set during high school as an opposite to the Spam ship.
  • Seddie fans have had a long-term like for the Carly/Gibby pairing. It stemmed from clinging to a ship that could work on the show itself that also gets Carly away from Freddie. The other 'go-to' pairings are Carly/Griffin, and Carly/Shelby for the Les Yay option.
  • Some Seddie fans ship Spencer/Marissa (Freddie's Mom), as another way to kill off Creddie in a story or on the show itself.
  • Before Brad was Chuck Cunningham Syndromed, both sides enjoyed the idea of a new potential recurring character that could become Ship Mates for their chosen pairing.
• Shipping
  • The most popular ships are:
    • Seddie (Sam/Freddie), Slap-Slap-Kiss.
    • Creddie (Carly/Freddie), Just Friends.
    • Creddiam (Carly/Freddie/Sam).
    • Cam (Carly/Sam), Les Yay and Pseudo-Romantic Friendship.
    • Minor ships include Spocko (Spencer/Socko), Spasha (Sasha/Spencer), Frendy/Sandy/Candy (Wendy with Freddie, Sam or Carly), Jalerie (Jonah/Valerie), Cibby/Sibby/Fribby (Gibby with Carly, Sam or Freddie), Sharly (Shelby/Carly), Fiffin/Criffin/Siffin (Griffin with Freddie, Carly or Sam), Felanie (Freddie with Melanie).
    • To give an indication of how big the shipping fandom was, on FanFiction.Net it reached the top 20 most written about TV Shows when it had 12,000 stories.
• Shipping Bed Death: When iDate Sam & Freddie showed how an actual Seddie relationship would look like, this was the reaction of many fans. The generally accepted reason for it is Nathan Kress and Jennette McCurdy's long friendship ruining their ability to show or feel passion for each other. Nathan has said on several occasions statements that show he would prefer Freddie not end up with either of the girls (although once the show was over he commented about how he thought Carly & Freddie would end up together), while Jennette has said that she dislikes filming romantic scenes.
• Shipping Goggles:
  • Shippers of the Sam/Freddie pairing fandom are well known for their 'secret Seddie', where they consider any form of interaction, chatting, talking, Sam hitting Freddie, fighting, both having the colors red, blue OR purple on, mentioning the other or just being in the same room together as blatant evidence that they are going to become a canon couple. They examine the 'evidence' so minutely in a show the creator has repeatedly said is about the comedy and not about the Shipping, that the extent they go is pretty much the live action version of Zutara shippers.
  • Seddie fans are quite prone to this. They regularly screen-cap a single freeze frame of Sam looking at Freddie, call it "eye-sex" and proclaim it canon evidence that they really love each other. The ending of iSpeed Date with Carly & Freddie slow dancing is only about Sam. Not Freddie or Carly, who are props used to show Sam's deep angst about her love for Freddie. The freeze frame tendency was mildly parodied (ironically by using an in-universe Creddie shipper) in iStart A Fanwar.
  • It got to the point that the whole "Seddie color is purple" thing eventually became Ascended Fanon with the color being all over the restaurant set for Sam and Freddie's first on-screen date.
  • iCarly shippers sometimes had difficulty distinguishing between actual canon and what the shippers believed the canon should be. For example, after "iOMG," many Sam/Freddie shippers insisted that it was canon that "Sam does not have a crush on Freddie, she is IN LOVE with him," despite the fact that the show had never made any such distinction.
• The Ship's Motor:
  • Seddie shippers use a reply that Word of God left on his blog as their motor. It's along the lines of "their bickering is a game they've been playing since the sixth grade, and maybe they are afraid to stop playing". The 'game' idea has never come up on the show, and the only reference to the sixth grade is that was when Freddie first met and fell in love with Carly. The reasonable idea is that any 'game' is their inability admit they really care for each other. The Sam/Freddie shippers take it as the 'game' is willfully ignoring romantic feelings for each other because they enjoy fighting, and one-day will stop playing and get together.
  • Sam being bi is a big piece of fanon that's very useful in bringing out Carly's If It's You, It's Okay feelings for her in the Carly/Sam fandom.
  • With "iGoodbye" only sinking Seddie because it showed Carly kissing Freddie and him being happy about it the Seddie fans are using the Spin-Off Sam & Cat as a post-iCarly motor that could be used to cancel Creddie's supposed canonicity, or to simply over-write the Creddie ending of iCarly with Seddie in that show.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Really blew up once the iKiss episode featured Sam and Freddie kissing. Nickelodeon's biggest shipping war since Kataang vs. Zutara.
  • Because there is no one "official" fanforum, the war erupted on LJ, FFN, Tumblr, YT, the forums at TV.Com, IMDB and TWOP. A group of Sam/Freddie shippers known as the "Seddie Warriors" are often the cause of these outbreaks. They are lead by an infamous Fandom VIP, are roughly analogous to the Harmonians in the Harry Potter fandom, and are vocal and militant about their hatred of Creddie.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: iChristmas showed that Spencer/Mrs. Benson would have worked if Spencer was more normal.
• Starboarding: Generally restricted to Freddie -> Carly, and Sam/Spencer, with Spencer refusing to go after Sam because of his age, or Sam doing the same.
• Strangled by the Red String: The show does this with Sam and Freddie for their brief hook up in season 4. Regardless of whether you are a Seddie or Creddie shipper, and while Sam and Freddie's fighting could be (and definitely was by their shippers) interpreted as Belligerent Sexual Tension, the actual hook up comes off like this. Rather than a convincing Slap-Slap-Kiss, as most BST couples get, all the audience gets is Freddie using his very strange mood app (which receives no explanation) to read Sam's mood, which reveals it as "in love", which Freddie thinks applies to Brad, and when he confronts Sam about it, she suddenly kisses him.
• Testosterone Brigade: Although the show was definitely more geared toward girls in its early days, that didn't turn males away from the show. They watched it for the quirky webshow skits and Spencer subplots if they weren't interested in the teenage-driven plots, but to cater to both sides the show became more demographic-neutral later on as more episodes focused on Freddie, Spencer, or Gibby while having the girls as the secondary protagonists. Plus, the attractiveness of the two female leads, especially as they grew up, certainly helped surge a male fandom.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Sam's sister Melanie is well-loved for the one episode she did have, but its not hard to feel that she could have been re-used and been mixed up with Sam more often (maybe even as a Running Gag).
  • Wendy, Carly's other friend in school, an energetic Motor Mouth who is always up-to-date. She could have easily been a recurring character or even become an Ascended Extra like Gibby, but she simply stopped appearing for no stated reason.
  • Pete, Sam's boyfriend in iMake Sam Girlier. The two had great chemistry, and one of the healthiest relationships in the whole show with Pete liking Sam the way she and Sam being willing to actually improve herself. He's forgotten about after that, despite the episode ending with the two still dating stronger than ever.
  • Brad, the group's intern who appeared in two episodes. He had great chemistry with the rest of the cast, but never appeared beyond that, again, for no stated reason.
  • Mandy, the show's Loony Fan who even moves into the same town and school as Carly and Sam to be close to them, but only had two appearances. Unlike Nora, who crossed the Moral Event Horizon, Mandy could've gotten actual Character Development stemming from being a tagalong.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Freddie's Chew Toy status was clearly intended to play on the idea that because he's such a nerd, whatever demeaning joke he's the victim of he's supposed to be deserving of. This hits its absolute nadir during the iMeet Fred episode, where Freddie innocuously mentions he doesn't care for Fred and is then subjected to an episode-long harassment from Fred fans after Fred "quits" his series after getting offended, even getting beaten by a tennis racket by Sam to force him to admit he likes the show.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Sam at the end of iSpeed Date. Being determined to take Gibby to the dance due to Carly's insistence gains her a bit of sympathy as a loyal best friend, but if you consider her many misdeeds to Gibby and Freddie, this feels more like she's getting what she deserves for once.
  • Both Sam and Fleck in iQuit iCarly. They break off their friendships with Carly and Dave respectively because Carly and Dave believe they don't appreciate any of the work they do and Sam and Fleck believe they are too controlling and say no to all their great ideas. The thing is, not only did Fleck paint Dave's Father's car purple without asking, but he had also apparently previously set Dave on fire. As for Sam, the great idea Carly said no to was throwing Freddie into the tiger enclosure at the zoo. While this is obviously meant to be Played for Laughs, the entire argument is based on the idea that both sides are supposed to seem unreasonable, which is impossible since nobody would be okay with Sam and Fleck's ideas.
    • And for that matter, while you have to take Dave's word that Fleck doesn't appreciate his hard work, it is very obvious that Sam doesn't appreciate Carly's. Not only are there tons of episodes where Sam shows up late to rehearsal and tries to get Carly to do all the work (she even admitted she wasn't going to help Carly do their science project), the only time Sam shows apprecitation for Freddie's work is when she had to or he'd quit iCarly. Given all this, it's not unreasonable to believe Carly's complaints about Sam are a lot more valid than vice-visa.
  • Carly is obviously intended to come off as a sweet, lovable Girl Next Door. That being said, she tends to be quite shallow when it comes to dating (especially in "iDate a Bad Boy") and she constantly ignores Freddie's abuse from Sam (even saying at one point that she finds it cute just because she doesn't hit him in the face). The 2021 revival has Spencer call Carly out for the former in "iGot Your Back".
• The Un-Twist:
  • The trailers for iOMG qualify. The first trailer suggested both Sam/Brad and Sam/Freddie as the main possibilities, Sam/Freddie was especially considered too obvious for various reasons, as more trailers came out people shifted to the idea that it was going to be Sam/Brad, making it an un twist when it did turn out to be Sam/Freddie with Brad being a giant Red Herring.
  • Carly looks like she's kissing Freddie in the promo for "iGoodbye". Everyone speculates it is some kind of Red Herring that helps Freddie decided to move on to Sam. It's not. Carly kisses him. Freddie enjoys it.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It was actually more marketed to tweens and teens as with most other Nickelodeon live-action sitcoms, but not only did that not stop younger kids from tuning in, but it was also rated TV-Y7 in its early days (the same rating their cartoons like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents! have). It goes without saying that it pushed the envelope quite a bit to say the least for a sitcom that isn't a TeenNick original. The show got away with a lot of innuendoes, particularly in the first season, where they explicitly mention "boobs" in the context of a female's chest.^note Miranada Cosgrove had previously gotten away with that word on Drake & Josh, but in that context it meant two foolish people Sam gets away with saying it again in iSpy A Mean Teacher, and in the same episode the teacher puts her glutes on a cardboard cutout of Randy Jackson, and they actually say glutes. Even in the final season, the innuendo still hadn't been toned down, as the entire plot of iShock America is literally about Gibby exposing his privates on television.
• Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: It's actually mentioned in-show and deconstructed. During a later season, Sam and Freddie hook up, but they demonstrate Belligerent Sexual Tension and neglect their webshow duties, annoying Carly to no end and worrying Mrs. Benson. Mrs. Benson tells Freddie bluntly that "Puckett'' will ruin his life. We then find out that Sam sabotaged Freddie's application to a high-end science camp because of a slight oversight, but when Freddie learns he was rejected neither Sam nor Carly confess, instead they exchange a Meaningful Look. Mrs. Benson reveals this on live-TV, smiling in vindication that her suspicions about Sam were right all along. It's only Carly convincing Freddie to forgive Sam, out of guilt on seeing her friends humiliated for the internet to see, that they don't break up then and there. The next episode sinks the ship when Freddie and Sam realize they're too different and break up, though the sabotage definitely didn't help.
• The Woobie:
  • Freddie, mainly due to the sadomasochistic pranks and insults he suffers from Sam, and the usual Will They or Won't They? rejections he gets from Carly. But in iSaved Your Life Freddie looked appropriately battered to the point there was no way Carly wouldn't fall for him.
  • Spencer, in iGot A Hot Room when he realizes that his birthday present to Carly caused a fire, destroying her room & all of her belongings. The look on Jerry Trainor's face in that scene is enough to make you forget that he's the show's resident Cloudcuckoolander. And for that matter, Carly too.
  • Woody from iPear Store. He makes only $2 for every case he sells, and is deathly afraid of his girlfriend dumping him and dating his brother Bob due to him not making enough money. When we see him we find out he hasn't sold a single case that day. Just when it looks like Gibby is about to buy a case from him, Gibby realizes he forgot to bring money, causing Woody to have a nervous breakdown in front of many customers. Makes you want to give the poor guy a hug.

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