iPromise Not to Tell is the 12th episode of the 1st season of iCarly.
When Carly gets a B on her history report that she worked so hard on, Sam breaks into the school's computer and changes the grade to an A. But Carly feels guilty of the switch, especially when she ankle-swears with Sam to not tell anyone and she receives awards in her honor, so she and Freddie try to fix the false grade.
Tropes:
- An Aesop:
- It is sometimes more important to be honest than keep a promise.
- It's best to leave your grades the way they are.
- If you want to make and keep a promise or secret, just make sure that not all of them are necessarily meant to be good-intentioned.
- Artistic License – Education: Mr. Devlin giving Carly a B instead of an A because of his preference in paper, would be considered an abuse of power and grounds for termination.
- Asian and Nerdy: The student Carly (unjustly) takes a place on the honor roll from is Japanese Karen Yamakawa.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: After Freddie hacks the network and gets past the school firewall back at the apartment, he and Carly happen to find the lunch menu and playfully decide to change the spinach to tater tots.
- The B Grade: Carly's report gets a B despite being the best in the class, because she submitted it on three-hole paper, which Mr. Devlin personally hates. If she hadn't gotten that B, she would've had straight A's on her report card for the whole semester for the first time ever; instead, she gets a B+ in the class.
- Brick Joke: While hacking the school website, Carly and Freddie see tomorrow's lunch menu would include spinach. Not wanting that, they change that part to tater tots. The next day, Sam excitedly tells them that she actually had tater tots for lunch.
- The Cameo: The actress who plays Principal Franklin's secretary is Debi Derryberry.
- Didn't Think This Through: After Sam changes Carly's grade from B to A so she can have her straight A's, Carly refuses to accept it this way and recruits Freddie to secretly hack into the school network so they can get past the firewall at home and change the grade back. Unfortunately, this causes a breach in the network, and the internet security end up tracking it all the way back to the apartment.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mr. Devlin is so inflexible, he penalizes students for the pettiest reasons. Despite calling Carly's essay the best in the class, he only gave her a B grade because she printed her essay on three holes paper, which he hates. Also, according to Spencer, he was a lunch attendant years ago and gave him detention simply for playing with his fruit.
- Evil Brit: Played straight with Mr. Devlin, the strictest and firmest, if hardest and rudest, teacher who speaks in a stereotypically "dash-it-all" British accent.
- Freudian Slip: Carly while on the webshow.Sam: I'm Sam!
Carly: And I'm guilty!
Sam: Carly.
Carly: And I'm Carly! - Food Slap: Sam mentions to Principal Franklin that she got kicked out of the school cafeteria because she slapped Gibby with a piece of pizza.Principal Franklin: Why did you slap Gibby with a piece of pizza?
Sam: I found it on the floor. I wasn't gonna eat it! - Gilligan Cut: Carly tells Sam that she'll make Freddie swear not to tell about their illegal grade bumps. Cut to Freddie on the floor trying to escape from a tugging Carly, with him wanting to tell and Carly begging him not to.
- Here We Go Again!: Sam once again hacks into the school computer to shorten her detention time. However, she is dragged out by Carly before finalizing it.
- Honesty Aesop: After Sam changes Carly's grade in the school computer, she forces Carly to swear secrecy (even ankle-shake on it) and not tell anyone. However, Carly doesn't accept this false grade and has Freddie hack into the school wi-fi to change it back, only to be caught by the CSA. She was forced to lie and give her microwave oven away to Principal Franklin as a birthday present, and when the grades mail in, Carly is praised nonstop; eventually, the guilt gets to her and she confesses to Spencer, but claims she herself was responsible for the grades being changed when confessing to Principal Franklin, and even Freddie did the same. Soon after though, Sam enters and confesses she was responsible because she's realized what she's putting her friends through.
- Karma Houdini: It is kind of sort of hard to tell whether or not if Mr. Devlin got any comeuppance for penalizing one of his students, especially when it comes to grading Carly's history report printed in three-holed paper, which as he mentioned, he seems to have a deep loathing for.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In the end, Carly and Freddie are off the hook, but Sam has six weeks of detention, twice a week, for changing the grades. She tries to lower it to only once a week for two weeks, but Carly drags her out.
- Motor Mouth: Mr. Devlin speaks really fast when giving his lessons, which makes it hard for students to take notes.Mr.Devlin: No, I will not slow down!
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Spencer congratulates his sister for getting straight A's with much enthusiasm. Again, she got that because of Sam changing it. Also, Spencer remade the big A sculpture to celebrate the report card, told the news to their father, and he bought Carly a new TV for her room. This leaves Carly a Nervous Wreck for the night, not having slept and chewing her fingernails. It culminates when she cannot do the webcast and the guilt finally hits its limit because she can't take it anymore and must tell the truth.
- Sadist Teacher: Mr. Devlin speaks too fast for his students to take notes in class, and he gives Carly a B simply because he hates that her report was printed on three-hole paper.
- School Grade Hacking: Carly gets a B on her history report that she worked so hard on, so Sam breaks into the school's computer and changes the grade to an A+. But Carly doesn't accept false grades, so she gets Freddie to hack into the school's internet to get past the firewall and switch the grade back, only to get caught by security because they noticed a breech in the school network and tracked it all the way back to the apartment.
- Skewed Priorities: Among all the other things that stress Carly out for good reason, she is also slowly driven crazy over the fact that hobos can't afford cable.
- Stepford Smiler: Karen Yamakawa, when beaten by Carly for the honor roll. She stops briefly to congratulate Carly, but she's obviously close to tears while doing so.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Carly and Freddie figure out it's Principal Franklin's birthday the day they try to hack into the system, they jump on the chance to use that as an excuse to say they wanted to send him a message. They quickly come up with a present for him as well: a microwave oven that they quickly stick a wrapping bow on. Even after coming clean, they let him keep the oven.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Wanting to change their grades back, Carly and Freddie decide to hack into the school's computer system from their laptop. However, the authorities keep careful track of this sort of activity and take it very seriously. Thus, a couple of officers come to the Shay residence to question them.
- Take Our Word for It: When Mr. Devlin gives Carly back her paper, all shots completely avoid showing the front of it where the B is, though it is seen for a very brief moment as he is handing it to her.
- Taking the Heat: Carly and Freddie tried to take the blame for Sam changing Carly's grades in the computer, but she eventually tells the truth.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Carly and Freddie want to hack into the school system and change their grades back. So the former pretends to faint in front of the computer teacher while the latter sneaks behind him and puts an uplink in a storage area.
