ICarly/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Subjective Tropes

Sam: I want to do bad things to that chick.
Freddie: You should.
Sam: I will.

  • Ambiguously Gay: Sam is believed to be lesbian or bisexual by some fans. Sam likes guys but none of them (outside of Freddie) ever seem to last past one episode, including the one in "iMake Sam Girlier" that such a big deal was made over. Sam and Carly have a lot of Les Yay. There is also speculation that Carly's brother Spencer might be gay, because of the episode where he was wearing a dress and dancing with cute guys saying, "I think I like it."
    • Nevel, the little freak that's alway's trying to shut down iCarly. Granted, all his attempts are made so that he can steal a kiss from Carly, but you have to wonder about his odd mannerisms. Maybe it's a front.
  • Ass Pull: Sam's Love Epiphany in iOMG is the result of an Ass Pull because of the desire to create and avoid spoiling a Shocking Swerve dramatic season end scene. In iOMG Sam liking Freddie just happens. There's no foreshadowing or explanation about why Sam likes Freddie and they have a Red Herring in the form of Brad. An indication Sam likes Freddie would kill the swerve and the dramatic ending so the writers Ass Pull the eventual explanation later. The characters on the show itself make reference to how sudden and strange it is, as they mention that Sam's behaviour started when Brad showed back up which was only for that episode and don't mention the eventual Love Epiphany moment at all.
    • The Love Epiphany is later revealed to have been an incident where Sam pushes Freddie into a bike courier who hits Freddie, pushes him into a fire hydrant that Freddie hits, is knocked out by, suffering hearing loss and bleeding from the ears. It was never shown, took place entirely off screen, with no reference as to when it happened until the moment it was revealed essentially as a joke for the audience to laugh at.
  • Bellisario's Maxim: Unsurprisingly, the answer to the Seddie vs Creddie question that was teased in the promo's for iStart A Fanwar is an Author Filibuster which is basically "shut up and just watch the show."
  • 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.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Sam's abuse towards Freddie tends to get this reaction to a portion of the fanbase. The other portion ships them citing the same exact examples as Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other or Belligerent Sexual Tension.
    • The child-labour sweatshop in iSell Penny Tees.
    • Sam being disrespectful to the First Lady.
    • When Spencer almost leaves Sam in Canada, and says something like, "I'd be in trouble if she had a parent who cared!"
  • Ear Worm: The title song 'Leave It All To Me'.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: 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.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Wade Collins isn't quite evil (but he is a big jerk), but he is pretty good looking.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: The show seems to worship the social hierarchy of High School. Any depictions of unpopularity make it seem like they deserve it (they're crazy, overwhelmingly weird or villains). Not the best concept to reinforce on middle schoolers.
    • Sam is usually the source of this trope, for example: "Lying is not that bad. Soon you will be able to lie and feel nothing at all."
    • Once by Gibby, who ends iGot a Hot Room saying "Is there anything money can't do?"
    • Carly breaks up with her "bad-boy" boyfriend Griffin because he collects Pee Wee Babies. In a show that celebrates quirkiness, eccentricity and colorful, childlike fun, shouldn't the protagonist be expected to show a little more tolerance toward someone with an Out of Character hobby? A What the Hell, Hero? moment for Carly.
    • iMeet Fred has one of the worst lesson's about conformity in the history of television. Freddie does not budge from his perfectly acceptable opinion about Fred not being that funny. He is immediately ostracised by the entire school including several of his school groups, parts of his family, even Carly refuses to stand by him. At the end, Sam beats him to a pulp off-screen with a tennis racket, with some horrible noises, so hard she breaks it. Freddie then gives in and withdraws his opinion under the threat of further beatings.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: iMeet Fred especially among Seddie shippers.
    • The Seddie Arc for some viewers.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Not a true example of the trope because it's massive popularity in the USA, the show is wildly popular in Australia, the UK and the Philippines, with huge amount of fans following it when aired in the country, 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.
  • 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 "iKiss" ends on a sweet note where Sam apologizes to Freddie and reveals she's never been kissed on a live iCarly episode; they end up having their first kiss together, while declaring they still hate each other and will never speak of it again. Jeannette McCurdy reveals in I'm Glad My Mom Died that she actually hated doing this scene as it would be her first actual kiss and not just her character's, then her second, third and fourth for repeated takes. "The Creator" yelled at her for not "moving enough" for repeated takes, and was scaring her, while Nathan Kress was very sweet about it.
  • Hype Backlash: Deservedly so due to Nickelodeon's terribly incorrect promotion of iSaved Your Life. Fans expected the solution and end of the Shipping Wars. They got an Author Filibuster decrying them for Shipping.
  • Idiot Plot: In iGive Away A Car they believe a random kid who shows up on their doorstep, and claims to be the son of a local car dealership who wants to give them a car to give away as a prize on their webshow for answering a riddle. They never thought to actually call or see the guy's father to check out the car that was supposedly on offer until after Nevel wins the contest after he set the whole thing up.
  • Meta Gag: The joke at the end of the Carlyless episode iBalls is clearly a meta joke about not needing Miranda Cosgrove around, as this episode is one of two that Miranda was absent for regular filming and such is missing from almost the entire episode.
  • 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 suggesting that she can and will kill him if they make a wrong move.
    • Nevel crosses this in "IFight Shelby Marx" where he tries to persuade Shelby Marx to beat up Carly, knowing as a professional boxer this could result in Carly being seriously hurt.
  • Narm Charm: Carly's delivery of Big No from iBeat the Heat and Kelly Cooper is so over-the-top it's hilarious.
    • The latter was probably the point, considering the title was Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie. Doesn't make it any less hilarious.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The fact that Mrs. Benson had Freddie lowjacked with a GPS locator chip, which she activated in iGo To Japan (which is also probably the reason behind Freddie's near-instinctive ability to speak Spanish.
  • OOC Is Serious Business: Freddie tells Sam that she has been acting very differently ever since Brad showed up in iOMG.
  • Periphery Demographic: Getting Crap Past the Radar is probably the main reason this show attracts a big audience away from it's teen demographic.
  • Psycho Lesbian: Nora. Definitely psycho and she kissed another girl.
  • Relationship Writing Fumble: Carly and Spencer had an incestuous dynamic similar to Justin/Alex or Ellie/Chuck.
    • Then came the even more blatant Sam/Carly undertones. Although the fumble may have been deliberate considering Dan Schneider and his penchant for including hidden Ho Yay and Les Yay in his supposedly teenage focused shows.
    • Also, Spencer/Sam. People would ship it anyway, but he's nearly twice her age, with her being between 14 to 17 during the show's run and Spencer being 26 to 29. A recent episode had Spencer lean over and tongue Sam's ear so she could hear his pop rocks crackling. In a later episode stated that she had a crush on Spencer.
    • A meta fumble, with the writers creating two opposing Shipping sects, with the Just Friends Carly/Freddie romance vs the Belligerent Sexual Tension couple Sam/Freddie, and then pushing each in multiple episodes, only to turn around and tell the audience they were watching the show wrong.
  • Running the Asylum: iOMG and iLose My Mind Sam/Freddie romance arc episodes utterly match several of the biggest Fandom-Specific Plot lines and the most common fanfic tropes. Sam and Freddie end up Locked in a Room together at the school. Sam giving Freddie a Forceful Kiss to clear up that Sam actually likes him. Carly becoming a Fixer Sue and a Shipper on Deck and Freddie returning Sam's feelings without any explanation or closure for his feelings for Carly.
  • Screwed by the Network: Many fans believe the show has fallen into this lately. Recent episodes falling below three million viewers, and they claim Nickelodeon does not care for the show anymore due to a complete lack of promotion. The general feeling is that the network cares only for Victorious which gains far more promotion than any recent episodes of iCarly have, promotes the actors on Victorious much harder, and has yet to decide if they want to make another final series of iCarly or just stick to the final 13 or so episodes that started with iApril Fools.
  • 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, while Jennette has said that she dislikes filming romantic scenes.
  • Tear Jerker: Is now on it's own Tear Jerker page
  • The Untwist: 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.
  • Unfortunate Implications: iCarly Saves TV, iGo To Japan, iMeet Fred, iWill Date Freddie, iFix A Popstar, iNevel, iMove Out... when you look at all of the episodes where the gang meet other performers and TV/Web celebs like themselves, it seems as if everyone in the entertainment world is a Jerkass, chained to the Idiot Ball, or working their own sleaze-ball. Even in 'iQuit iCarly', meeting Dave and Fleck caused the girls to almost shut down the show and break up their friendship. You kind of wonder what will happen when they meet Tori Vega and the gang from Hollywood Arts...
    • The school the kids attend is called "Ridgeway". The Green River Killer, who haunted the Seattle area for almost two decades, was named Gary Leon Ridgeway and it is doubtful that any real school in King County would have that name after his arrest. Whether or not this was intended by the writers as a sort of Genius Bonus or just a coincidence (it wouldn't have the same implication were the series not set in Seattle), the implication remains.
    • iHireAnIdiot has Carly and Sam hire an intern solely for the fact that he's attractive, even though he's dumb as a post. As revenge, Freddie hires an attractive, dumb female intern. In the end, it turns out the female intern was only pretending to be dumb, and was actually a bright college student. Can you imagine the reaction this episode would have had if the guy who was the smart one while the girl was an still an idiot?
  • 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.
    • Sam of all people at the end if 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 considering her many misdeeds to Gibby and Freddie, this is definitely Sam's comeuppance episode.
    • Spencer, in iGot A Hot Room when he realises 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.

Fandom-related or audience reaction tropes

iCarly has a reasonbly large internet following with a wide Periphery Demographic. It's show runners also encourage the idea by using online blogs, and an extensive tie-in website. These examples are in relation to the fanfiction, fan forums and other community areas that follow iCarly. Arguably, the biggest reasons for this are the Getting Crap Past the Radar humor, the huge Carly/Freddie vs Sam/Freddie shipping war and the continued prescence of the Word of God pitting both sides against each other.


A-H

  • 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) 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.
    • Dan Schneider / Miranda Cosgrove. *shudder*.
    • 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.
  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: When Jane Lynch was announced be playing the role of Sam's mom, unseen before that episode.
    • Also when Jack Black was confirmed to guest-star as Spencer's video game arch-nemesis. One may wonder if he will throw a reference to School of Rock with Carly.
    • Sheldon Cooper a.k.a Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory will be guest staring as Caleb, a psychiatric patient who thinks that he hails from the future.
  • 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.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: The earliest one was that Sam was either Ambigulously Lesbian or Bisexual. Lesbian is probably Jossed as of iOMG.
    • The Les Yay on this show is so thick you can cut it with a knife and the entire show can be seen as two girlfriends and their Lez Bro.
    • 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.
    • Sam has been thought of as a sociopath, as she seems to have pretty much all the major symptoms of it.
    • 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.
  • Ascended Fanon: The colour Purple being the "offical Seddie colour" was around for a long time before it got noticed by the guys in charge. Since it has, every single time the Word of God blogs in relation to Seddie, certain parts are coloured purple. Taken to the show itself iLose My Mind where the entire restaurant that Sam and Freddie go on a date at is covered in purple.
  • Award Snub: Snubbed so far in all 3 Emmy awards 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 The 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 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.
    • Kids' Choice Awards 2008: Despite being run by Nickeldeon, Miranda Cosgrove and Jenette 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.
    • Kids' Choice Awards 2012: While Jennette Mccurdy won Favorite Sidekick for the second year in a row,[1] the show itself lost Favorite TV Show to Victorious, while Miranda Cosgrove lost to Selena Gomez for Favorite Actress.
  • Base Breaker: Sam Puckett, much moreso than Megan, her Creator's Pet-ish counterpart from Drake and Josh, who was almost unanimously hated by the fanbase. Reactions on the character range all the way from "never watching the show again", to "best character ever".
    • 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.
  • Beta Couple: Outside the main character and their Ship Mates in fanfic, Jalerie (Jonah/Valerie) is such a couple.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Spencer rubbing butter on his face in "iPity The Nevel".
  • Creator Worship: Oh so averted.
  • Crack Pairing: Nevel/Grandpa Shay, Principal Franklin/Wendy.
  • Cargo Ship: Spencer/Bottle Bot, Gibby/Shirt.
  • Crossover Ship: Drake/Spencer. Megan/Nevel. Sam/Alex Russo. Freddie/Cat.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Carly and Miranda Cosgrove suffer from this, mostly by virtue of Carly usually playing the straight woman to Sam and Spencer, with Sam and Freddie being part of the Seddie ship, and Gibby the Breakout Character, it appears in most of the major fan forums that she is the least popular character. Carly gets accused by fan haters of being boring, a 'waste of space', and 'the worst thing about the show'. Miranda gets accused of being a less talented actress, a less talented singer and called 'ugly', compared to Jenette Mc Curdy who plays Sam.
    • A few fan forums avert this, the Creddie forum for one, and surprisingly, the IMDB forum whose posters are merciless against Sam's character, and the Seddie ship, and regularly call out the writers and story for focusing and rewarding the way Sam acts to almost everyone as well as the use of Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male).
  • Dear Negative Reader: Danwarp pulled this on a couple of over the top negative Seddie fans who trashed his annoucement of the extended version of iSaved Your Life, writing back long reponses about their negative posts, and then finally telling people who weren't excited to go do something that would excite them, or watch the new episode of Wizards of Waverly Place instead.
    • The Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things entry about Dan moving to his own personal blog is essentially a Dear Negative Fandom Community, as he lost patience with the prevalent LiveJournal community he was involved with after they bashed him for ruining the vibe of the community.
    • Before the iSaved Your Life incident, he once said that certain fans could 'throw a parade' because Carly told Freddie to move over a step. He's also made a few extremely sarcastic remarks to the effect of 'I never get tired of people telling me how I should write my show :)' in response to fans who prefer Seddie saying they don't like Creddie.
    • The When Fans Assume blog is basically venting his annoyance at the storm of negative comments that got in his blog after "leaking" a script for an alleged future episode.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Sam: Seen by some Creddie fans as a villain who "beats" Freddie, stabbed Carly in the back in iSaved Your Life by helping Freddie realize that Carly's sudden love for him was hero worship, and watch the show as if it were Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
    • 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.
  • Doppelganger Crossover: Carly/Megan, both played by Miranda Cosgrove. One is a nice girl, the other... isn't.
  • Double Standard: When a video with Carly and Freddie, or Nathan and Miranda (for example, their recent 'cover of an Elton John song) is uploaded, Seddie fans will then crowd on the new video, flaming the video, making derogatory posts about Carly/Miranda, and perform their usual tactic of voting down non-seddie or pro-creddie comments. Whilst you think the same must obviously apply to the Creddie fans going onto Seddie videos, it doesn't, because all their comments get voted down anyway.
  • 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 villian 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 Jenette get their fair share.
  • Enemy Mine: Both Seddie and Creddie fans are much more friendly towards Cam and its shippers than they are with each other, unless they are raging homophobes.
  • Fanon: 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".
  • 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.
      • 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 favourite girl is Victoria Dawn 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 humour.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Now with canon Seddie, the segregation rule makes the het couple Creddie it's main Fan-Preferred Couple, and Carly/Sam the Les Yay Fan-Preferred Couple.
  • 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.
  • Fan Yay. Has large a large LGBT fanbase due to the Carly/Sam pairing.
  • 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. Although it's somewhat implied in the canon of the show.
    • Carly being afraid of thunderstorms. Most prevalent in the Carly/Freddie Fanfic community.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In iPilot, Carly and Sam make fun of Ms. Briggs's "crazy pointy boobs", yet Mindy Sterling herself is a breast cancer survivor who underwent major treatment in 1998.
    • In "iPsycho", Gibby said he had no other summer plans other then watching "Different Strokes" reruns and the ep aired around Different Strokes' star Gary Coleman's death. It happened too close to filming to reshoot, but they did dub in a sympathetic 'aww' sound.
  • Girl Show Ghetto: Averted, a lot of boys watch the show and the lead character is girly as can be.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: 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.
    • The "relationships" between the three throughout the series. iSaw Him First had Sam say that she would never kiss Freddie even for $9 billion, yet they ended up having their First Kiss. Carly had always shunned Freddie in various episodes with her "not-happening" stint, but she became head-over-heels toward Freddie in iSaved Your Life.
    • Sam's insult to Gibby in iWin a Date about being himself backfires on her HARD in iSpeed Date, where Gibby gets himself a hot girlfriend by being himself. She also does likewise with Freddie in that episode about not being Carly's date, and later she sees them dancing alone in the Groovy Smoothie.
      • The shippers had a field day with that last scene. Freddie/Carly shippers because the pair romantically danced. The shippers who pair Sam with either of them from her reaction. (Gaping mouth, drop object in hand, back out slowly)
    • iDate A Bad Boy has Carly break up with Griffin because he collects Pee Wee Babies, which Carly qualifies as extremely girly. Cue bronies.
  • 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.


I-Q

  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Fatcakes YEAH! (Principal Franklin/Sam).
  • Internet Backdraft: Apart from the obvious Seddie vs Creddie and Slash issues, you can also start up some delightful flame wars by using the following:
    • Anyone older than 20 who thinks Sam, Carly or Freddie is hot is a pedophile. Can get hilarious when the dicussion becomes about how characters and actors on the show started off around 13 or 14 years old, and decide which exact episode it becomes "okay" for adults to think they are hot.
    • Is Shipping Sam and Spencer together sick, perverted, or a natural result of their chemistry, and Spencer's influence on her growing up. Also, how old does Sam have to be for it to be "okay".
    • How involved should Word of God be in the fandom.
    • Is Sam a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, or just a Jerkass?
    • Does the "Seddie" ship own the color purple, and can Creddie steal it off them?
  • Incest Subtext
    • The show already has it's own page for the Ho Yay and Les Yay, but is yet to get it's own page the occasional incestuous subtext between Spencer and Carly.
    • Listen to the siblings' exercise scene in iKiss without watching it.
    • Spencer picking up Carly and carrying her bridal style up the stairs in iStage An Intervention. Especially if you take the last line of the episode out of context as they head upstairs: 'It's so much fun...'
  • Jerkass Sue: Full details are included at the iCarly Analysis page, but her character fulfills dozens of both Mary Sue, Jerkass Sue and Common Mary Sue Traits and is widely considered by many to be a Jerkass Sue, but ultimately it is up to each troper to decide.
  • 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 occurence), she had no friends except her chicken, and her insanity was likely because of it. In-universe, Carly actually feels sorry for her.
    • 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 iCary 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 in iSpeed Date. A case for a Jerkass becoming a Woobie for that episode, rather than a Jerkass who happens to also be a Woobie.
    • Nevel in iPity the Nevel.
  • Jumping the Shark: The abysmal ratings for the so called season 4.5 (starting with iLost My Mind, often called Season 5 here and on other sites) qualifies in several parts:
    • Ratings tanked. The show has lost an average of one and a half million viewers from the consistent 5.5 million+ ratings of Season 2, 3 and 4. It includes two of the bottom three rated episodes.
    • Character Development: Or more accurately, a lack of it. Sam is given a huge focus in the season but her character changes little except to become even more of a Creator's Pet and/or Jerkass Sue. Seddie had their arc and it wasn't well written, suffered Shipping Bed Death and then broke up unceremoniously. They then go on like nothing happened. Carly is sidelined in her own show for the majority of the episodes. Freddie continues to be an extreme doormat, doesn't stand up for himself when Sam hurts/abuses him during the relationship. Spencer remains a complete idiot who appears to be incapable of forming appropriate relationships.
    • Gimmicks: The First Lady episode. Another blooper episode. Another iPsycho episode. While not a deliberate 'gimmick', two episodes are going to contain zero or very little of the title character because of real life scheduling conflicts with a Miranda Cosgrove music tour. The Seddie arc could be seen as a gimmick intended to tap into the supposedly massive Seddie fanbase. iBalls and it's 3D gimmick.
    • Plot Development: Recycled plot with the iPsycho sequel, which wasn't that popular to begin with.
  • 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 and Josh, and the more recent one with Cat from Victorious.
  • Like Brother and Sister: Sam and Freddie if you ship Creddie, Freddie and Carly if you ship Seddie.
  • Loony Fan: Certain shippers on both sides. Creddie and Seddie both have a small vocal group that will make both groups as a whole look bad. The Seddie Warriors are a large sub-group of the overall Seddie fandom whilst Creddie being smaller has no 'named' faction like the Seddie Warriors but does contain some people who are just as strongly for their ship as the Warriors are. On the whole, the biggest supporters on either side don't look too good. There is also the Mc Curdians who are another subset of Seddie fandom that has popped up around Season 4 and 5.
    • An interview with guest star Max Ehrich, has him discuss how some Seddie fans have seen him on youtube, where he made a few videos with Jennette. He mentions that one Seddie fan said "stay away from her or I will kill you" to him.
  • Love It or Hate It: Similar to April Fools Blank, "iApril Fools" has been incredibly divisive-it's either an absolutely insane and hilarious episode or a piece of crap, with very little middle ground.
  • 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.
  • 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 a while back where people would say that Sam was, or was going to get, pregnant with Freddie's baby in a future episode.
  • Memetic Sex God:
    • Everyone is gay for Wendy.
    • Everyone is pedo ephebo for Miranda.
    • Spencer, artist by day, porn star by night.
  • One True Threesome: Carly/Freddie/Sam. Known mostly as Crediam.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: Creddie (Carly/Freddie), Seddie (Sam/Freddie), Spam (Spencer/Sam, very humorously considering Sam's love of meat), and Cam (Carly/Sam). There's also Crediam/Seddily (Carly/Freddie/Sam) OT3... right.
  • Purity Sue: Subverted. Like Zoey 101 before and Tori Vega after, Carly exhibits symptoms of being a Purity Sue early in the shows run. Carly grows out of them throughout multiple episodes in Season 2. Full details are included at the iCarly Analysis page.

R-Z

  • Recycled Premise: Very much a staple in Schneider's shows, given this show also has a lot of common trope entries as Drake and Josh.
    • iSaved Your Life has one of the main characters falling in love with a major character. Anti-Hero character then guilts one of the involved parties that the love may be superficial, forcing them to break-up to satisfy Status Quo Is God. Anti-hero and her friendly enemy character also share a common link in terms of friendship. Let's see... Mindy Loves Josh?
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • Ruined FOREVER: iStart A Fan War hadn't even aired yet, but both Seddie and Creddie shippers were already threatening to stop watching if they didn't get their way.
    • iOMG and it's aftermath.
  • 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.
  • Scapegoat Creator: Dan Schneider. But as this page can attest, it's not without it's justification.
  • The Scrappy: Sam reaches this level for many people, with her casual violence, complete inability to learn a lesson. Considering she never gets a comeuppance and may be quite likely to never get one, Sam could be said to be a clear Creator's Pet, following Megan's lead from Drake and Josh. Every so often, she seems to do something that brings her right back squarely to this trope, such as beating Freddie in iMeet Fred and the child labour sweatshop in iSell Penny Tees. But never receives any kind of punishment for her actions. The only real difference between Sam and Megan is that Megan doesn't have half the fandom shipping her with one of the other characters.
  • Ship Mates: Despite having a quite small circle of characters to ship, it still has a good amount of Ship Mates.
    • Carly/Freddie pairs with Sam/Spencer. Notable for Spam being a popular fanfic choice when the story progresses past high school. This evolved as a mutal Shout-Out, as both communities are less active than the Seddie ship.
    • 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.
    • Cam is rarely paired up with Fencer and vice-versa. iCarly hasn't picked much of a Maleslash fandom but it does have a large teen and young adult female based Femslash following. Freddie is often paired with Wendy, Melanie or Shelby.
    • 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 Brother Chucked, both sides enjoyed the idea of a new potential recurring character that could become Ship Mates for their chosen pairing.
  • Shipping
  • 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 colours 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 colour being all over the restaurant set for Sam and Freddie's first on-screen date.
  • Shipping Wars: 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 has 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 Big Name Fan, are roughly analogous to the Harmonians in the Harry Potter fandom, and are vocal and militant about their hatred of **eddie.
      • A Word of God Creddie Ship Tease of a Carly/Freddie kiss required efforts to appease Seddie fans by hinting it wasn't what it appeared, destroying the whole point of getting the Creddie shippers excited about it.
      • Calmed down for a while, until Word of God set off another fight by deciding to Ship Tease the fans with a very interpretable script fragment that implied Freddie no longer loved Carly. Many interpreted it as the initial stages of a Ship Sinking, and to put it lightly, they were not amused. That caused Ship-to-Ship Combat, followed by turning into a meta-fight about just where the Dan Schneider should draw the line in teasing, and his effect on the fandom. The entire incident caused Dan to quit LiveJournal, delete all his entries there, and open up a seperate blog where his first post bitched about the fans who didn't like what he did.
      • The next war erupted on LJ, and moved to Twitter and Youtube. The cause? Seddie fans taking seriously an LJ post by Creddie fans where they stole the Seddie ship's official colour, that being purple.
      • There is an anti-slash faction in the iCarly shipping community, and they target Carly/Sam (Cam) Les Yay shippers by calling them delusional, implying they are pedophiles, accusing them of destroying the authors work, on some assumption that it isn't 'realistic' if either girl is lesbian or bisexual.
      • The iSpeed Date episode included a scene at the end with Freddie dancing with Carly. It's looking more and more like the powers that be are setting the stage for a Ship-to-Ship Combat war that makes the Chip vs. Dale/Gadget battles look like a gum-throwing match in comparison.
      • Word of God has decided to sit on the fence due to crazy fans, and refuses to outright state his real intentions for almost all shippy scenes, and instead gives vague hints designed so people who ship Carly/Freddie or Sam/Freddie can both interpret scenes as supporting their ship. The worst example by far is the end of the iSpeed Date episode.
      • More Word of God postings in the days before iSaved Your Life episode aired appeared to throw doubt on the idea that Carly and Freddie kissed. This seems monumentally stupid, as the actual episode featured much kissing 7 times, including the first one being a 30 minute long make-out session. It also included Creddie development, didn't sink the ship, and implied they would come back to each other in the future. To pacify the Seddie shippers, the Word of God's blog for that episode barely mentioned the more significant moments of the episode and rather based on interpretations that Dan's "friends" believe Sam was jealous and might have an ulterior motive in breaking-up the two.
      • If you couldn't tell from the name, the episode iStart A Fan War and it's first trailer caused flare ups all over the internet.
      • iOMG and it's aftermath have brought back the wars to an intensity not seen since iSpeed Date.
      • Tumblr's tagging feature is the cause of the latest war, as it gives Jerkass shippers the ability to instantly piss off every single opposing shipper simply by tagging a hate, anti-Shipping or pro-the other ship post and have it come up in the tag tracker.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: iChristmas showed that Spencer/Mrs. Benson would have worked if Spencer was more normal.
  • 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 wilfully 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.
  • Seasonal Rot: Season 4 started poorly, became reliant on Guest Stars where the show hadn't really used them at all in the past, the jokes weren't as funny, the addition of Gibby to the main cast wasn't done well and the start of shipping arc was handled extremely poorly, with one of the cast suddenly being 'in love' and having a computer program reveal it without any clear foreshadowing.
      • Season 5 has taken the show to new lows of ratings and quality. 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 is even worse. iApril Fools only had 3.408 million, the very hyped iGo One Direction only had 3.9 million, and for the icing on the cake, iOpen a Restaurant had a shocking 2.828 million, the series' worst documented audience yet.
  • 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.
  • Triang Relations: As of iOMG it's type 4 or type 5, depending on Carly's feelings for Freddie.:
    • Type 4 Sam likes Freddie, who likes Carly, Carly has feelings for Freddie.
    • Type 5 Sam likes Freddie, who likes Carly, Carly no longer has feelings for Freddie.
      • The aftermath of iOMG could go through phases of Type 6 (Carly and Sam's friendship overrides feelings for Freddie), Type 9 (Any pairing is put on hold because of the feelings of the other girl), or Type 10 (Freddie and Sam get together but Freddie still has feelings for Carly).
  • Vocal Minority: The ratings of the major ship-centric episodes have Creddie rating millions and millions more viewers than the Seddie episodes. Despite this, Seddie fans are a lot more aggressive about their OTP than Creddie or Cam or Spam fans, even though those combined ships are probably larger than Seddie, and thus are a Vocal Minority. Just check the comments on Schneider's blog for how vocal they can be.
  • What an Idiot!: Definitely not absent, people here can be dumb, as typical of the Schneiderverse. The examples have their own page.
  • What The Hell, Sam?: She 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.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: It has its own Ho Yay page.
  • Win Back the Crowd: iOMG, which turned out to be the something Dan promised the shippers after the iSaFW tragedy.

Fanfic tropes

  • Fanfic Tropes: This show has a large amount of Fan Fiction, with approximately 10,000 stories written on Fanfiction.net alone, and strong LJ communities for the show.
  • Accusation Fic: Sam breaking up Carly and Freddie in iSaved Your Life by getting it into his head that Carly's feelings were not real. When Sam kissed Freddie in the season 4 finale some accusation fics were written about the idea that Sam's actions prior were because she was hiding her feelings but didn't want Freddie with Carly. Naturally when Carly puts two and two together in these fics they get dark.
  • Coming of Age Story: Sam dealing with her mother's poor parenting or her harsh, aggressive nature. Carly and her naieve worldview come in for a hammering, especially in the Les Yay Cam pairing fics where Sam's mom, Carly's parent/grandparents or just society in general don't accept their relationship. Carly/Freddie pairings are often this for both sides, with Freddie growning up and realisng he can't force his feelings on Carly, and Carly realising that even though they are young, Freddie might just be the one she could spend the rest of her life with. Graduation (either from High School, or later from College) itself forces aspects of this.
  • Darker and Edgier: Domestic abuse pepertrated by Sam's mom or her boyfriends. Alcohol and/or drugs being used and abused by the trio. Carly/Spencer's dad coming back and being a massive Jerkass. Sam starting to become actively criminal. Sex. All have been used in this manner, but not always going so far as making them Dark Fic.
  • Dark Fic: As above, but taken further, with some shocking and dark twists. Eating disorders for Carly. Carly becoming addicted to showing herself in a sexual way online. Freddie becoming suicidal. Sam becoming a hardcore criminal. Being gay and it not going well. Many of the fanfic recs here are Dark Fic.
    • There are quite a number of fics written based around them being raped, or the aftermath of a rape. Yes, this includes Freddie. Both Sam and Carly have had extra-dark fic written where they kill the rapist who let his guard down after he finishes.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Gibby and Wendy have quite a few stories written about them.
  • Death Fic: Suicide, accidents, you name it. One of the most well known exponents is Lovely Amelie who has written several of these.
  • Dead Fic: It seems like being put on the rec page is the kiss of death for ongoing stories. Pretty much every one of the following stories was being updated when recommended:
    • iGo To Hospital the longest Gen Fic had 107 chapters updated in the space of roughly a year, then the next took ages, the one after even longer, it's been dead since July 2010.
    • iDiscover I Have Superpowers, one of the most unique stories ever written for the fandom, updated 13 chapters in about 6 months, then stopped right at a heartbreaking moment of angst between two of the main characters. Has not been updated since the start of 2011.
      • It has now been updated as of 29 August 2011, with a note by the author that they have outlined the next 5 chapters and know where the story is heading.
    • iNever Knew This Would Be So Hard, a Creddie story which was a continuation of one of the first ever recommended, took a year to publish it's 4 existing chapters, and has now passed 1 year since being updated in July 2010.
    • The Pact a Creddie story, updated 35 chapters in 10 months. The last update was on New Year's Eve 2010.
    • The End Of A Dream, a heartbreaking, incredibly evocative and gorgeously written angsty Carly/Freddie story, started in late 2008, updated 6 chapters through to the last update in October 2010.
    • A Darkened Mind, one of the best and longest angst future fic stories. 3 years of continual updates, the author completely abandoned their entire list of stories in late 2010, then posted an 'author's note' chapter saying they had moved on to other things and that the inspiration for writing the story was gone.
    • One story averted this: iGrow Up spent an entire year dead, until the author returned and wrapped up the story with one slightly rushed chapter with apologies for not being able to finish it the way they intended.
    • Not on the rec page though, but iWill Always Love You had a realistic portrayal of Carly suffering from schizophrenia inherited from her mother, it started in June 2010, 29 chapters, 115k words until it's last update only 5 months later in November 2010. Not updated since.
  • Deconstruction Fic: Tropes such as Girl of the Week are a common deconstruction target (especially in relation to Carly and Spencer's relationships), All Girls Want Bad Boys being torn down is a staple of Creddie fic. Parental Abandonment and Hilariously Abusive Childhood can be deconstructed for any of the main 4 characters.
    • One well known example would be A Darkened Mind. It deconstructs the Seddie relationship.
    • iCarly's Father deconstructs everything in the iCarly universe. Sam's Jerkass Sue behaviour and Comedic Sociopathy towards Freddie. Carly's possessive yet uncommitted dragging along of Freddie's feelings and her acceptance of Sam's behaviour towards him. Spencer dropping out of Law School but not telling his father, and what amounted to stealing $80,000 from Carly after iGot A Hot Room. Sam's Freudian Excuse being ripped part. The litany of assholes who abused and attacked the iCarly trio. Col. Shay comes into the story and immediately starts acting like the man his rank suggests and begins to sort it out. Yes, he is in some ways a Fixer Sue, but this is very much an example of Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • Dead Unicorn Trope: Steven Shay, the father of Spencer and Carly being portrayed in fic in a way matches the Canon of the show with Steven as a respected father figure is almost never used due to being kinda boring to write about. Playing with the character however is interesting and as such Steven who shows up in fic is usually some kind of antagonist, often abusive or mean, hating Carly for being cause of Death by Childbirth, being homophobic in stories involving Carly/Sam pairings.
  • Die for Our Ship: Almost the entire cast is subject to this in fics of the 'opposing' ships. Some of the ways it happens can include:
    • Carly. Becoming the Alpha Bitch. Turning into a jealous harpie who tries to steal Freddie back from Sam. Going off at Freddie when he tries to tell her his feelings, so Sam can defend him.
    • Freddie. Reverted to Season 1 'stalker' behaviour. Turned into a 'player' who tries to keep the door open if Carly decides she likes him, whilst simultaneously pursuing Sam.
    • Griffin/Jonah. Their bad boy behaviour exacerbated to show a terrible lack of respect towards Carly. Sexually pushing Carly to do things she doesn't want to.
    • Sam. "Sam abuses Freddie" plots where Sam's treatment of Freddie is escalated for drama to the point it's domestic abuse. Using an interpretation of Sam's character which had her deliberately sabotaging Carly/Freddie. Giving her increased levels of sociopathy towards Freddie or just in general.
    • Sam's mother Pam in all sorts of Sam involved relationship stories to allow Sam to move in with the Shay's/Benson's. Throwing Sam out for being a lesbian/bisexual. Death due to overdose or alcohol poisoning or drink driving. Throwing Sam out for getting pregnant. Just packing up and leaving Sam behind. Her true neglect being realised, and having Spencer/Carly or Freddie take her in.
      • Real Person Fic in the fandom has lead to this for the two most public partners for the Nathan/Miranda (Niranda) and Jennette/Nathan (Jathan) ships. The first was Nat Wolff who was the boyfriend of Miranda Cosgrove when the show started, and a more recent example is Nathan's current girlfriend, Madisen Hill. You don't even have to read a Jathan fanfic to get this idea, just read the comments on any YouTube video with her and Nathan. It eventually got so bad for Nathan, Madisen and Jennette that eventually the trio blocked a few dozen of the worst pro-Jathan anti-Madisen offenders on Twitter, having Nathan call them out for bullying and harassing them all. Aspects of the Jathan and Seddie fandoms are divided on how 'right' Nathan and Madisen were to do this.
  • Don't Like, Don't Read: Seddie is Seddie, Creddie is Creddie, and never the twain shall meet. You could tell everyone straight up from word 1, shouting up and down you're story will end as Creddie, the readers would happily read 50 chapters of Carly/OC, Freddie/Wendy or Carly/Griffin until they finally get together, but you put Freddie with Sam for a couple chapters, and you'll get complaints.
  • 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 Fic Magnet: Sasha Striker.
  • Fandom-Specific Plot: All Type One, plots that are unusually popular in the fandom but aren't specific to the fandom.
    • Seddie: Sam gets pregnant by Freddie. Started due to a Seddie pregnancy writing challenge that flooded ff.net a while back.
      • Sam and Freddie ending up in a play together. Usually Romeo and Juliet.
      • Variations on Ten Minutes in the Closet or Locked in a Room form a huge part of the Seddie fanfic these days. Arguably done in-universe when you consider how iOMG played out.
      • Aftermath of iSpeed Date. Usually Freddie realising he doesn't love Carly, Sam starts bawling her eyes out, Sam and Freddie declare their undying love for each other. There are dozens of fics of this variation on ff.net alone.
      • Sam being used as a Possession Sue by Seddie fans, usually younger ones who aren't quite past the 'pick on someone you like' development period. Fics like this lean hard on the Sam's abuse hides her secret feelings for Freddie angle.
      • I Just Want to Be Loved.
      • Carly playing matchmaker.
    • Creddie: Carly and Freddie at the "Root and Berry retreat". For a time in 2009/early 2010 it was practically required writing.
    • Cam: If It's You It's Okay, Sam as an out lesbian who is secretly in love with Carly who doesn't realise.
    • Vampire Fiction. This trancends the Creddie vs Seddie divide.
    • There is a lot of Sam/Freddie Hurt/Comfort Fic stories that involved Rape as Drama.
  • Fix Fic - Changing the end of several episodes:
    • iKiss: Carly and Freddie kiss and not Sam and Freddie.
    • iSpeed Date: Freddie notices Sam and runs after her, not the actual ending with Carly and Freddie dancing with them not noticing Sam.
    • iOMG: Adding a post-script which solves the cliff-hanger. Freddie gently letting down Sam then going after Carly or having Carly come after him, the same but with Carly going after Sam, or just having Freddie respond to Sam positively.
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Considering the huge amount of Sam gets pregnant stories, finding a story where Sam does have an abortion is damn near impossible if not actually impossible.
  • Hotter and Sexier: Some fics include much underage sex, alcohol fueled random hookups and You Need to Get Laid. Cam is full of Girl on Girl that elevates the existing Romantic Two-Girl Friendship. Sex as Rite-of-Passage territory is common.
  • Hypothetical Casting: The iCarly's Father series of related stories has the hypothetical casting of Joe Flanigan as the adult Steven Shay, and Ariana Grande with her natural brunette hair colour as Taylor Dorfman in flashbacks set during her and Steven Shay's romance during high school. The hypothetical resemblance between Taylor and Cat Valentine (Ariana's redhaired character on Victorious) is brought up when Steven meets Cat for the first time. This is not by any means the only story to use hypothetical casting either.
  • Intimate Psychotherapy: Issues involving character deaths, being dumped by the other part of the trio, being abandoned by their parents, any of these can be solved in the arms of their love interest.
  • I Knew It!: A Spencer/Sam fanfic written called The Way They Are. It predicts side character/EnsembleDarkhorse Gibby being promoted to the main cast, and that Sam has a crush on Spencer. Written a year before either of those events happened, with both being very unlikely until they happened.
  • I Suck At Summaries: Far too common.
  • The Jailbait Wait: Spencer/Sam.
  • Kid Fic: There are a handful of people who write nothing but this.
  • Kink Meme: Yes, cutie pie Carly, adorable nerd Freddie Benson, porn star Spencer and insatiable Sam feature in their very own kink meme. There is also a general "Tweendom" one, which has been open for much longer which covers Disney, Nick, other tweenish fandoms as well as RPF, and has quite a few iCarly fics written for it. Although the specific one died on arrival, the general one lasted quite some time.
  • Log Fic: Most often done with some kind of 'gossip blog' run by Wendy, with the characters posting messages on the site. Wendy will write an article claiming xyz have happened, and the characters come in so that Hilarity Ensues.
  • Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: An offhand count of the major writers in the fandom would show a huge majority are female. Carly/Sam and Sam/Freddie are hugely female dominated due to being Les Yay and Slap Slap Kiss pairings, with Seddie having a major focus on Sam, the Book Dumb 'strong female' character, whilst Carly/Freddie has a fair amount of male writers, as it's a far more gender-balanced pairing that many guys can relate to.
  • Obligatory Swearing: This can range from a realistic level of high-school kid swearing into Cluster F-Bomb territory, for everyone.
  • OC Stand-In: Rebecca Berkowitz, seen only once (in an extended rarely seen version of iSaw Him First) and usually mentioned off-handedly. In any fic with her as a character, she's basically going to be an OC with a canon name, if they even bother to develop her past Really Gets Around.
  • Revenge Fic: Carly being subject to Designated Protagonist Syndrome and Die for Our Ship often becomes the enemy of writers who use her as the 'enemy' in a Possession Sue fic. Sam is a stand in for the writer, Carly becomes the Alpha Bitch who got the guy the writer wanted. Funnily enough, Miranda Cosgrove portrayed the young Lana Lang in Smallville who also suffers from major amount of Revenge Fic being written about her.
  • Road Trip Romance: Is quite popular. It generally breaks down to two types:
    • The pairing on their own heading to visit the 3rd member of the trio and falling for each other. An example of this is the Carly/Freddie story iHit The Open Road.
    • The other type that is less common is the pairing going on a road trip holiday along with the third member and their boyfriend/girlfriend. This variation is mostly used with Freddie/Sam, with Carly/Griffin being a popular choice for the Ship Mates pairing for Carly.
  • Real Person Fic: Nathan Kress/Miranda Cosgrove (known as Niranda or Mathan) fic was for a time as popular as fic for their on-show couple ship Freddie/Carly on the major Creddie fanforum website. The fans have also developed a Memetic Mutation for Miranda's current boyfriend, Nat Wolf, who is repeatedly referred to as "The Goober". He also suffers a high amounts of Die for Our Ship, so widespread that writers will often joke about actually making him nice for once.
  • Ron the Death Eater: In quite a few Sam/Freddie fics, Carly becomes a monstrous Alpha Bitch who wants to destroy Sam and Freddie after he rejects her for Sam. Or sometimes so Freddie can reject her for Sam.
    • Sam and her abuse being Played for Drama can be this for Sam in Carly/Freddie fics.
  • Self-Insert Fic with a new transfer student is common.
  • WAFF: The Carly/Freddie pairing generally averts Darker and Edgier and is often very fluffy. The prevalent way to write sexual activity has Freddie as an Above the Influence, chivalric Celibate Hero pining romantically after Carly, whilst Carly dates and is dumped by bad boys who try to pressure her for sex before she realizes it's respect she needs, not just a smoking hot bf. A Their First Time ending is very much optional and sometimes doesn't happen till college or when they get married.
Back to ICarly
  1. ↑ nominated with Nathan Kress, Jerry Trainor, and Wizards' Jennifer Stone
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