The loyal fanbase of Miranda Cosgrove's iCarly once enjoyed the sitcom on a surface level.
Now, Netflix has brought it back and older fans are noticing more
adult subtexts then they might have picked up the first time.
When it comes to the show's men, most notably Freddie and Spencer,
violation of consent is repeatedly played for laughs. Although characters like Carly and Sam
don't face this troubling trend throughout the series, they are still subjected to creepy and
borderline predatory comments. In fact, there are entire episodes that culminate in Carly
getting out of a coerced kiss with her nemesis Nevel. However, the same narrative framing
that show's Carly's escape in a triumphant light isn't extended to the male characters.
A great example can be seen in the Season 2 episode "iPie," as the gang's favorite pie
shop is in danger of closing after the owner dies without having shared his recipe. Spencer tries
to approach the owner's granddaughter Trudy to procure the recipe, but she requires a date in
exchange. Reluctantly going along with the idea, Spencer is physically dragged to the couch by a
touchy-feely Trudy. Hearing Spencer's distressed cries, Carly and friends enter the apartment just
in time. Later, they wonder what would have happened had they not come in when they did.
Though Freddie is routinely manhandled by Sam, the season two episode "iPsycho" features an
excessive example as Sam, Freddie, and Carly are locked inside a sound booth by an obsessive fan.
Attempting to appease their captor, Sam shoves Freddie's face into a
pane of glass so the crazed fan can kiss the glass on the other side.
"Me too, but I'm not just gonna put my lips on the-- Come on. Oh no, Sam, oh, come on. Pucker up.
Come and get it, Nora."
In both instances, violation of consent is an alarming joke.
In the Season 2 episode "iBelieve in Bigfoot," Carly, Sam, Freddie,
and Spencer take an RV into the wild to look for the legendary sasquatch.
After seeing a news report on a cell phone video of what appears to be Bigfoot,
the crew ships out with Freddie's AV equipment to get their own evidence for their web show.
As Freddie and Carly are looking out the window of their RV with binoculars, Freddie asks if Carly
sees anything. Carly notes that, among other things, she sees "two squirrels wrestling."
"Carly, they're not wrestling.”
Though the cameras thankfully don't show what Carly was able to see,
it doesn't take binoculars for an adult to figure it out.
In the show's penultimate episode, Spencer takes Gibby's younger brother
Guppy to an arcade to spend the day together. Intending to make the most of his day,
Spencer dedicates his time at the arcade to winning the most sought after prize
on the prize wall. Meanwhile, Guppy is less interested in the flashing lights and games,
choosing instead to sit at a table and read a novel titled "Nifty Shades of Beige," obviously
referencing the very popular, very adult book "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James.
Even with the grey shifted to beige, it likely hasn't made for a very toned-down
reading experience. Clearly, the book is way too mature for someone Guppy's age,
and he should be focused on the Skee-Ball machines
instead. The point is driven home by the surprised looks on Guppy's face.
One of the things adults watching iCarly might notice is how the show-within-a-show
mirrors popular internet culture from the time it was released. Back in the ancient world of 2007,
rage comics and "random" humor were at their peak. This can be evidenced by some of the most popular
faces of internet video comedy. The bombastic, chaotic humor reflected in the absurd iCarly
skits likely would have blended in with many of the original comedic skit YouTubers of the time.
In addition, many of the older YouTubers didn't have fancy setups to help them create content.
With Freddie's advanced setup that involves tripods, multiple cameras, and a full studio set
complete with variable lighting and a decent handle of special effects, it's absolutely
no question that iCarly would have stood out as being particularly polished for its time.
In the first season episode "iStakeout," a pair of police officers use Carly and Spencer's apartment
as a base of operations for a stakeout while they seek someone selling pirated DVDs. Things
start to get weird when one of the cops turns out to have bullied Spencer at sleepaway camp.
Still just as enthusiastic as ever to have fun with Spencer, Detective Stuart "Spanky"
Stimbler immediately picks up an umbrella and starts doing exactly what got him his nickname.
The episode is filled with Spanky using different objects found around the apartment to spank
Spencer. This all culminates in Spencer tricking Spanky into letting him be handcuffed to their
couch. Once he can't escape, Spencer proceeds to repeatedly paddle Spanky with a broom.
"Watch me spank your daddy."
Given the zeal that everyone seems to have for spanking,
the whole episode gives off a weird vibe.
While Carly and Sam have a fairly tight relationship, Freddie certainly receives the short
end of the stick when it comes to their team. Though Freddie's ongoing infatuation with Carly is
certainly too eager through an adult lens, what's ore poignant is how much Carly uses this crush to
her advantage, mostly when it comes to acquiring Freddie's tech talents for some iCarly bits.
While this isn't terribly noteworthy on its own, the lack of respect shown for Freddie
by Sam in particular is pretty uncomfortable in retrospect. Sam verbally assaults Freddie with
insults, hits him, pushes him, threatens him, and actively plots his downfall without any remorse.
When Freddie does stick up for himself, Carly almost always minimizes the bullying.
In some cases, Carly does attempt to use his crush on her to dissuade him from speaking
out any further — attempting to keep the peace, or making sure he doesn't walk out and leave the crew
without a producer. To be honest Freddie seems like less of a friend and more like a punching
bag for Sam, as well as a convenient cameraman for Carly. If it weren't for his skills behind
the lens, it's highly unlikely that these three would be hanging out together at all. More likely,
Sam and Carly would be best friends and Freddie would be crushing on Carly in the shadows.
"Come on, we're all friends here. Well, two friends and a coworker."
In many memorable moments throughout the show, characters burst out into song.
However, they never seemed to sing the songs that normal folks sing in real life. When it came time
to belt out a tune, the iCarly cast usually went out of their way to give an introduction
along the lines of "Here's a public domain rendition of..." before the music kicks in.
As a kid, it may be weird to hear people sing "For She's a Jolly Good Fellow," for instance,
when in real life you'd just sing the happy birthday song.
"Happy Birthday...stop, stop, stop. Not PD. For she's a jolly good fellow."
When you grow up and learn about copyright laws and the public domain,
such moments make a lot more sense.
It isn't uncommon for television shows to avoid paying for licenses to songs in favor of public
domain titles. However, what makes iCarly stand out is the blatant acknowledgement that they are,
in fact, trying to avoid a copyright infringement.
"Now a medley of your favorite songs from the public domain."
This bit of fourth wall breaking can easily be overlooked by younger audiences, but for
older viewers, it adds a tongue-in-cheek jab at television production conventions.
One aspect of the show-within-a-show that adults may find unfortunate is seeing how Sam and Carly
routinely treat their guests. Given how they act, it's genuinely surprising that they consistently
get kids from their school to volunteer to travel to the studio and appear on the show.
After the guests on their show have their 15 seconds of fame during any particular
segment, they're usually treated pretty rudely by Carly and Sam.
The pair aren't typically mean to guests as they perform or do their part for the show,
but instead of thanking them for showing up or offering their talents for the camera, Carly
and Sam have a tendency to abruptly tell people to get off their set, live for their audience to see.
At their iCarly award show episode, as they gave arbitrary awards to people who
had appeared on their show in videos or in-person,
they cut almost everyone off and wouldn't let them have any sort of acceptance speech.
"Well, uh, I guess I want to thank my dad. Oh,
I'm afraid that's all the time we have for your speech. Sorry about that."
Frankly, being a guest on iCarly sounds like more of a hassle than a privilege.
Numerous legal threats were leveled at Carly, Sam,
and Freddie's web show in different episodes and frankly, it's a wonder there weren't more.
In particular, the segment "Messing with Lewbert",
where the iCarly gang annoys and disrupts the life of Carly and Freddie's apartment doorman,
seemed particularly rife with legal hazard. In one notable episode, the show sent a fake
muffin basket to the front desk armed with a confetti cannon. When Lewbert picked up a muffin,
the basket exploded and sent him to the hospital. In the real world, that's called a lawsuit.
Putting aside lawsuits surrounding assault, theft, and almost being killed with improvised
explosive devices, the show also plays fast and loose with their guests' privacy.
Some of the disclosures that are made on the show are harmless enough.
They film in places around Seattle and make references to living there.
However, some decisions seem to reveal a bit more personal information that
anyone with a following likely would want advertised to tens of thousands of strangers.
Teachers from their school featured on the show, for instance, could be tracked down
through publicly available teacher rosters. However, Sam and Carly circumnavigate the
issue of people digging up where their teachers work by giving a shoutout to their school while
streaming live — and even filming from inside of it. They also show footage of their apartment
building's lobby and only doorman, giving anyone serious about finding out the shooting location
of iCarly a few bits of key info that they could find on their own with a minimal amount of work.
Adults are smart enough to know that such things can be a really bad idea.
Like so much else, these crazier aspects of iCarly were constructed with the laughter of
kids in mind — but repeated viewings give a whole new perspective of such moments.
One aspect of live-action shows on Nickelodeon at the time iCarly aired that has become
infamous since their original airing is the prevalence of feet and foot related imagery. This
has culminated in speculation from many people that the longtime showrunner at Nickelodeon,
Dan Schneider, had a fascination for feet and subtly included feet in the shows he was making.
"Hey, hey, I'm not here for your entertainment. I'm a foot. Leave me alone. Oh, foot,"
Dan Schneider has a tricky past with Nickelodeon, having created some of the channel's most
successful live action shows such as Drake and Josh, The Amanda Show, and, of course, iCarly.
Even actors who appeared on the show as kids admit there was something a bit off
about the foot thing. iCarly's Noah Munck, who played Gibby, admitted on a 2018 episode
of The Official Podcast that the fetish is apparent looking back on the show, saying:
"The foot fetish...I never really noticed that when I was 15 on the show
but, of course looking in retrospect, it's like, 'Okay.'"
"Are your feet in milk? Yup. I love that."
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