YMMV / Sam & Cat

Before Airing

• Broken Base:
  • Carly/Sam shippers (or those who liked the pairing as a platonic best friendship) not wanting to watch Cat replace Carly as Sam's best friend. However some Les Yay shippers didn't mind so much.
  • There are various ways people believe this show or the people involved are to blame for getting various shows cancelled:
    • In the Victorious fandom there are people who blame Jennette McCurdy for getting Victorious cancelled are refusing to watch the new show because she asked for Ariana to join the show. They also aren't happy at Sam & Cat getting almost instantly another 20 episodes added to the first season order, giving it a total of at least 40 episodes before the first season is done, when Victorious only managed 58 over several years.
    • Blaming Dan Schneider and/or the Nickelodeon Network for cancelling Victorious because they wanted to do Sam & Cat instead, or for not wanting to have Ariana or Dan working on two shows at once.
    • There are people who believe Dan Schneider and the Sam & Cat show is being misblamed for Victorious' cancellation despite Dan Schneider's reassurance that it is not the reason at all. Others take the view that Sam & Cat is the reason for Nick cancelling the majority of their live-action shows (How to Rock had its producer flat out say it) that were cancelled at the same time.
• Fandom Rivalry: Where to start? This show has caused something akin to a multi-show Nickelodeon fandom factional civil war before it was even greenlit for production beyond a pilot.
  • From iCarly fans: There is a split between people who wanted a new show (for Jennette McCurdy), and those who wanted Sam to get a spin-off. That also has elements of the iCarly shipping war involved, as people who want Sam back are mostly those who ship Sam and Freddie. After the finale of iCarly led to a Carly/Freddie Last-Minute Hookup, the Seddie fans know that Sam being spun-off was their only chance at any revival for their ship.
    • There are also those who disliked the way iCarly was ended, and have chosen to avoid or boycott this show so as to not get sucked into Dan Schneider's trolling.
  • The Victorious fans are pissed off that their show was confirmed to be cancelled, and even though it's been said that the show's cancellation was an executive decision, Ariana and Dan are blamed for wanting to do Sam & Cat, resulting in the show's cancellation. Some fans have since stopped hating the show following a Victorious character making a cameo (and Jade and Robbie being slated for a one-hour special), and are hoping that Victorious gets a Fully Absorbed Finale (much like Batman Beyond did with Justice League).
  • The fandom of How To Rock hates the show after show runner David Israel implied that their show got cancelled to make room for this one. The hatred has increased due to Sam & Cat receiving 20 extra episodes even though their ratings have been the same as How to Rock's.
• Funny Moments: In the second promo:
  Cat: I play a cop on the edge who makes his own rules!
  Sam: No, you don't. That's not what you play.
  Cat: And she plays a lonely doctor who's fed-up with the system!
  Sam: I don't play a doctor, and I don't care about the system.
  Cat: And together we fly a starship in search of friends and moondust!

• Pandering to the Base:
  • Even before iCarly had finished, Dan Schneider was teasing the idea of a Seddie reunion on the show.
  • Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande's fanbases, which are best seen on Twitter, are being pandered to by having their characters spun-off into a new show while cancelling one of the parent shows and ending the other.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: The disappointing ending for the Sam/Freddie shippers from iCarly has turned elements of the early fandom for the show into a one-sided shipping war, with the Seddiers trying to push the idea of Nathan Kress guest starring, so that Creddie can be sunk and replaced with Seddie.

The Show

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Sam sticking a pork finger in Sophie's mouth.
  • In #FresnoGirl:
  Cat: What are you doing? Put that down.
  Sam: Why?
  Cat: Because you're mad, and when you're mad, you shouldn't handle wieners.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Some fans assume Melinda, the mom from the pilot, adopted some or all of her children.
  • Goomer's stupidity has split the fans between those who think he was born smart and just suffered some bad blows to the head, and those who think he was born with some kind of condition.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • There is an actual restaurant in China with robot waiters.
  • Sam got a gun that shoots hot dogs, which is actually what happens in PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA.
• Anti-Climax Boss: What Nora thinks it is for Sam when she confronts her and points out she's been working out while Sam has been doing babysitting. Sam simply pushes her into the well.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Sam's jerkass tendencies when they're played up to eleven again break the fans between those who think it's funny and those who want Sam to be punished once in a while, but everyone has admitted that at least the writers aren't forgetting who Sam was in iCarly (the same applies to Cat when she's particularly dumb). Also, thankfully, she's much less of an jerk than she used to be. Mostly.
  • Dice. He himself has been largely well-received, but the LiveJournal community often brings up how Dice's actor seems to be trying too hard to keep up. His fans defend Dice by saying that there are worse shows Nick has made with worse acting, say it isn't too annoying for any reason, or say that the iCarly cast wasn't perfect when they were young and that Dice's actor should be allowed to grow as well.
  • Goomer. He’s either the funniest character in the show or the most annoying, considering he tends to make Cat incredibly saner and more tolerable in comparison. His appearances per episode also diverts the focus from the show's babysitting service plot, which also causes diversity among fans on whether that makes the episode good or bad.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Baberaham Lincoln Starring Cat Valentine." Featuring Honest Abe as a woman. With a red beard. And as a Fake Brit. And wearing a short skirt.

• Cargo Ship: Sam and her motorcycle. Not so notable in the pilot, but "#RevengeOfTheBritBrats" and "#MotorcycleMystery" have led to fans joking that Sam will soon want to marry the bike, and that it's ruining their hopes of Sam and Cat getting together.
• Crosses the Line Twice: When a kid turns out to be accident prone, Cat cites this as an In-Universe Dude, Not Funny! — when said kid gets his own head stuck in a toilet, even she starts laughing.
• Designated Hero:
  • Sam, especially in "#PeezyB" (for being a jerk to Cat and breaking several promises to hang out with the man who just bullied Cat).
  • Cat in "#MadAboutShoe". After finding a pink shoe in a bush, she obsessively tries to find the other one, dragging Dice into it after Sam has had enough. With Dice's help, she finds out where the other one is: At the hospital, belonging to Stacey Dillsen, who had a bike accident. Cat and Sam then go to the hospital to steal the other shoe. The Laugh Track even cheers when they find the shoe.
    • Interestingly though, the shoes are not seen again after this episode, so Cat may have had a Heel–Face Turn and returned them to Stacey.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Following the premiere of this spin-off, the small Crossover Ship Puckentine (Sam/Cat) blew up due to them running a babysitting business together, being roommates, and a lot of Les Yay. Most of the fanfiction about the show features the two getting together and is more popular than Cat's canon ship with Robbie.
• Genius Bonus:
  • If one pays close attention, they can see the passage in "#TextingCompetition" that the competitors need to text is actually Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
  • In "#MadAboutShoe," Sam poses as a nurse while in a hospital. A doctor then barges into the room and asks a lot of short clipped questions, to which Sam responds perfectly. Most are simple things anyone could guess: "How's her vitals? Respiratory? Fever?" but his final question is "Does she have a Babinski?" which Sam answers "It comes and it goes." To which there's a slight pause... before he says that's what he expected, then leaves. It seems nonsensical, but a Babinski reflex is something that is normal in babies but can be a sign of spinal injury in adults. It's fully possible for someone to have a Babinski reflex that "comes and goes" and therefore what it indicates be muddled.
  • In "#BlueDogSoda," the gang is forced to defend their illegal brewing business against a strawman government agent by comparing to all the other things that should be banned just for existing in obscene amounts. Dice brings up hugging, at which point Goomer steps in and affirms this. Considering he's in MMA, he WOULD know.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The episode "#Lumpatious" (which features an Expy of New Jersey governor Chris Christie) aired very shortly before the "toll bridge" scandal involving members of Governor Christie's staff broke out.
  • A gag about the Show Within a Show getting cancelled, meant to allude to past Dan Schneider works, immediately becomes this now that Sam and Cat itself met that fate.
  • The final scene of "#YayDay" when Sam talks about her mom becomes a lot more sad when you realize Jennette's mom died around the time this episode was shot. And harsher still when Jennette opened up about her mom's abusive behavior years later, to the point of giving her memoir the title I'm Glad My Mom Died.
  • The whole episode (and re-runs of this show's other episodes and the characters' past outings) becomes this if you believe rumors of the show's untimely demise about Jennette and Ariana. This turned out to not be the case^note the real reason involved sexual harassment allegations against one of the show's producers, but Jeannette did later admit to being jealous of Ariana during this time, as she was granted greater freedom to pursue outside interests while also being paid more to (sometimes not) be on the show.
  • And now there's the overzealous airport security people in "#FirstClassProblems," considering that the missing Malaysian Airlines flight is being attributed to a lapse in security (two stolen passports made it on board) plus calls for increased security due to troubles in the Middle East again.
    • "#FirstClassProblems" especially becomes this when you consider the latest round of overzealous airport security is to prevent people from boarding aircraft while still in the United States for fears of wannabe Jihadists traveling to join terror groups in Iraq.
  • Many of the jokes on Sam's amazing appetite can be this as in early 2019, Jeanette revealed she had been suffering from an eating disorder through the entire filming of the show.
  • #StuckInABox, after Jennette revealed that she was forced to try to emote off an empty box while Ariana was off attending to conflicting musical commitments. She found this experience particularly unpleasant.
  • #BlooperEpisode has the framing device of the real-life cast playing themselves, which makes some aspects age poorly following all the Troubled Production controversy, particularly the poor treatment of Jennette McCurdy.
    • When one fan gushes about Jennette McCurdy's performance, her castmates agree she's just like Sam in real life. Jennette later admitted she hates being known as Sam due to the abuse she suffered during her time as a child star, to the point she specifically asks fans not to bring it up around her lest they trigger her trauma. Both fans and Jennette herself later drew connections between some unflattering aspects of Sam's life and Jennette's, such as disordered eating and an abusive mother.
    • One of the fans who comes up to the cast is an overeager mother who keeps trying to coax her anxious daughter to talk to the cast, casually remarking that her daughter has no friends. This is reminiscent of how Jennette describes her Stage Mom in her memoir, who would put on a cheery face in public (particularly to network with industry professionals) while coercing Jennette to do things that made her uncomfortable.
    • There's a scene where the cast praises Dan Schneider. Jennette would not speak flatteringly of him at all in her memoir, accusing him of emotionally abusing his employees and pitting his young stars against each other.
    • When the waiters take away the cast's incorrect food orders, Ariana begins crying and Jennette has to comfort her by reminding her of her successful music career. Jennette was going through severe emotional distress during this time, and according to her memoir, felt Ariana received special treatment from producers due to her music career. Jennette having to comfort Ariana about a Lost Food Grievance is also uncomfortably ironic given the real Jennette's eating disorder.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The episode "#BrainCrush" is about people being addicted to a new game. This episode came out around the time Flappy Bird was popular.

• Just the idea of something from Justin Bieber as a metaphor for substance abuse, considering what the man himself's been up to lately.
• Sam bashing her way out of a nailed closet is pretty funny after the viral spread of a photo showing the aftermath of an athlete bashing through a faulty toilet door during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

• Ho Yay: Wouldn't be a Dan Schneider show if didn't have its own page.
• Iron Woobie: Dice has to go through a lot of hardships on the show (almost losing his best friend, having to dance for money, and almost losing both of his pets) but he's not miserable.
• Karmic Overkill: Ellie from "#MyPoober was undeniably a total brat who insulted and manipulated Sam and Cat, but being abandoned by the group and left alone with a total stranger for who knows how long was certainly too extreme, especially considering the fact that it's outright child endangerment.
• Moe:
  • Cat's spacey cuteness gets ramped up in this series.

• Never Live It Down:
  • Sam and Cat's mistreatment of Dice will be forever considered to be one of the lowlights of the show, particularly in "#Lumpatious", in which they completely ignore Dice who suffered a bloody nose because of them and refused to take him to Oxnard for absolutely no reason.
  • Goomer's mother's vicious comment in which she tells Goomer she regrets adopting him after learning he's an MMA fighter will remain one of, if not the cruelest moments in Dan Schneider history.
  Mrs. Merr: When I adopted you, I should’ve kept the receipt!
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Unlike its parent series, both of which retain dedicated fandoms despite growing controversy surrounding Dan Schneider, the Troubled Production of Sam & Cat and the circumstances of its cancellation overshadow any discussion to be had about the show's actual story. This began with now-debunked rumors about pay disputes and Hostility on the Set between Jennette McCurdy and then-budding-superstar Ariana Grande. However, McCurdy's 2022 memoir shifted focus onto the poor treatment she faced during the production and the $300,000 offer she received to never talk about it publicly, which she rejected. For some who didn't see the show when it was new, everything they know about the show comes from Jennette's memoir.
• Pandering to the Base: The special episode with Freddie, Robbie & Jade is this.
• Periphery Demographic: There is no other explanation for "#SalmonCat" featuring Laverne & Shirley's Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Puckentine for Sam/Cat.
  • Older Than They Think: The name was actually coined by a fanfic writer named Demon Dreaming, a few years before the series was even thought of.
  • After Goomer's name was revealed to be spelled as Goo Mer, some fans call Cat/Goomer Coo.
  • A rare in-show one in "#TheKillerTunaJump" when Robbie comes up with 'Frobbie' (Fred/Robbie).
• Presumed Flop: Due to the show ending its run prematurely and ultimately proving to be the beginning of the end of Dan Schneider's run with Nickelodeon, as well as lower ratings than its predecessors, people assume the show was a failure. The reality is that the show still had pretty high ratings by most metrics, with even the episode with the lowest ratings still drawing in over two million viewers in a time when streaming and YouTube started taking people away from cable. Not to mention, the show still technically finished the original order for 20 episodes; it just didn't finish its retroactively doubled amount of episodes due to its Troubled Production, which was unrelated to the show's success.
• Production-Related Period Piece: "#Lumpatious" featured Weirdo, a man dressed in jester outfit, making many brief, easy to miss appearances in the background throughout the episode. This was a result of Nickelodeon's "Gotta Spot It Saturday" event where various shows included odd visuals or intentional "bloopers" for viewers to spot.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Some people felt Sam was redeemed as a character as the series went on, with some comments about the series ending going along the lines of "Great, just as Sam gets likable after seven years, the show gets cancelled."
• The Scrappy: The Brit Brats, Gwen and Ruby, get flack for being overly antagonistic for no real reason, along with their Narm-worthy line delivery (although that's more attributed to their age than genuinely bad acting). It also doesn't help that Nickelodeon seems dead-set on turning the two girls into a thing outside of the show.
• Squick: No, that retired pilot didn't lose his tongue. He still has it in a jar...
• Testosterone Brigade: Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande (the latter being especially cute here) are the only reasons why the show has an audience not entirely consisting of preteen girls.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
  • While Sam's cruel traits are downplayed here compared to iCarly, she still comes off as a hedonistic bully who harasses others with little to no provocation and rarely gets punished for it. The other characters can come off as mean-spirited and unlikable, and even the nice characters such as Dice tend to get shit thrown upon them with no way out.
  • Also Sam's "friendship" with Cat. In iCarly, it's very clear that Sam and Carly were genuine friends, and that any mean comments were playful teasing. Here, Sam seems to fundamentally dislike Cat, and she's being honest about all the rude comments she makes to her. The show comes off as mean-spirited when the main form of humor is "Girl repeatedly insults her roommate that she can't stand, with said roommate being too stupid to catch on".
• Uncertain Audience: In Quinton Hoover's review of the series, he observed that Sam & Cat came out during a time where Nickelodeon's teen and preteen viewerbase were shifting away from television in favor of online content. This means that Sam & Cat had to try and appeal to the younger audience that was quickly becoming the network's main demographic while also trying to appease the older, pre-established fanbases of iCarly and Victorious, a likely why the show's writing and humor is considerably more immature either of its predecessors.
• Unexpected Character: The episode #FirstClassProblems features an appearance from Coco of Zoey 101, a series not only older than either iCarly or Victorious, but it wasn't even a sitcom in the same vein as those two were.
• The Woobie: Dice has become this as of later episodes. In these episodes he has been nailed in the face with a large dictionary causing a nosebleed, Sam & Cat refused him to take him to Oxnard for no reason, people refusing to let him drink anything, laughed at for being in a spelling bee, and Sam & Cat putting so much stress on him he started crying. And these were just ones that were Played for Laughs in later episodes.

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