YMMV / I Carly S 02 Ep 13 I Meet Fred

• Character Shilling: Being one of Nickelodeon's biggest contributors, the Fred web-show is absolutely glorified in this episode, which portrays everyone apart from Freddie as loving the show, and Freddie as being in the wrong for not liking it. Needless to say, the web-show is nowhere near as universally praised as the episode depicts.
• Don't Shoot the Message: It's very possible this episode was meant to be a satire of fandom culture, taking the idea of somebody being flamed for not liking something popular and greatly exaggerating it. However, many felt, even if this was the intended message, that the treatment Freddie gets for simply stating he didn't find Fred amusing was far more mean-spirited than it was funny, not helped by Fred's divisive status in real life (compared to the nearly godlike portrayal he gets in the episode) making many sympathize with Freddie all the more.
• Fanon Discontinuity: While this episode was obviously intended to come off as Comedic Sociopathy, it instead comes off as needlessly cruel and unfunny. As a result, many fans choose to pretend this episode doesn't exist.
• Funny Moments: Spencer's subplot of him following orders from a magic meatball.
  Spencer: COME ON! I drink ketchup, I bought an ostrich, I did everything you told me to do, just help me out this one time!
  Meatball: The answer is no.
  Spencer: THAT'S IT! You're not magic, you're just a mean meatball!
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • While the humor of this episode comes down to Lucas "quitting the internet" as a publicity stunt, it did prophesize the epidemic of popular content creators weaponizing their fanbases to brigade people who earned their ire.
  • Freddie's situation in this episode becomes even more uncomfortable to watch considering the real-life toxicity of fandom culture.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The "Fred is Dead" part becomes this when Lucas Cruikshank decided to retire his persona in 2014.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Due to the episode's reputation, some viewers will only watch this episode just for the subplot involving Spencer and the Magic Meatball, and so they can see the origin of the "whatcha got there?" meme.
• Memetic Mutation: Spencer's Comically Missing the Point reaction when Carly asks him about his newly-acquired ostrich has made rounds on the internet.
• 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, 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 this episode put her beyond redemption in some viewers' eyes despite her later Character Development.
• Realism-Induced Horror: The reason this episode comes off as less funny and more uncomfortable is that Freddie's predicament, where he is harassed by the Fred fandom for his public opinion, directly parallels the real-life toxicities among fandom culture and how often they lead to violence.
• Squick: Spencer at one point decides to drink ketchup in favor of the magic meatball.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Freddie falls into this. He says he doesn't find Fred's videos that funny, and that's it. He never acts rude or condescending, making his torture hard to watch.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Carly falls into this. While she is victimized for the whole thing, she shows no sympathy towards an ostracized Freddie and even blames him for the whole ordeal. At some points, she even agrees that Freddie is "wrong" for disliking Fred. She definitely is shown to care more about her own reputation than Freddie's feelings.

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