What An Idiot / iCarly

The iCarly crew are three teenagers and a ditzy manchild, so they are quite lazy and sloppy when it comes to problem-solving.

General

• Carly and Sam are best friends. Sam is semi-civil to her and awful to Carly's neighbor and classmate Freddie Benson. In fact, Sam is so awful that in an alternative timeline where Spencer became a lawyer instead of an artist, she ended up in juvie without Carly's relatively calming influence.
  You'd Expect: Carly to have told Sam to cool it, seriously; it's not like Freddie does anything to instigate her many thoughtless pranks and physical attacks.
  Instead: Carly halfheartedly tries to tell Sam to cool it once in a while, but pretty much accepts that this is the status quo. After Sam dates Freddie briefly, she takes out her aggression on Gibby instead, who makes it clear that he is not a pushover and will fight dirty to avoid getting assaulted.
  The Result: Sam gets away with a lot of terrible misdemeanors, including sabotaging Freddie's entry to a science summer camp because he annoyed her once and sabotaging the one time he had a relationship with Carly. Freddie also when they date argues a lot with her because Sam is an abrasive, terrible person if a loyal friend, and breaks up with her when they realize they are mutually incompatible.
• Freddie in the meantime has his crush on Carly, to which he's very open. Carly has made it clear she's not interested, and only dated him once when he got injured saving her life and in the series finale when the trio separates their ways. She will use his crush as leverage to get what she wants and won't defend him from Sam.
  You'd Expect: Freddie to have moved on at some point, permanently. Later on in the series, he gains more popularity at school and iCarly fans will mob him. Also, once again, Carly is not interested and is upfront about using him.
  Instead: Every time Freddie goes on a date with another girl, or attempts to move on, the girl is terrible or incompatible and he goes back to crushing on Carly. He also ends up miserable every time Carly dates someone else or considers a serious relationship with another guy. Ms. Benson despite her My Beloved Smother tendencies accurately points out at one point that Carly is a terrible crush if a good friend and accurately judges Sam the same way.
• Starting in his debut episode, Chuck Chambers has been getting himself in trouble constantly for attacking Spencer because he blames him for getting grounded.
  You'd Expect: Chuck to eventually realize that everything was his own fault. If he simply behaved himself and followed the rules, Spencer wouldn't have said anything at all to his father.
  Instead: He always insists that Spencer's the one to blame for his troubles, therefore he's the one who should be punished.
  Even Worse: Not only does his little brother Chip start messing with Spencer and Carly at one point, but it seems that up to the events of the revival, he hasn't changed a bit.

Season One

• In iWanna Stay with Spencer, Spencer and Grandpa wage a custody battle over who gets to look after Carly due to the hammer wheel incident. Carly, siding with Spencer, decides to get a rebellious teen look by completely changing her appearance.
  You'd Expect: For Carly to give notice to Spencer of this and tell him to fake disapproval of it.
  Instead: Carly just assumes Spencer won't like it regardless, and Spencer turns out to love it, praising it as an improvement in front of Grandpa, making the custody battle worse.
  Then: Spencer's stir-fried chicken catches on fire.
  You'd Expect: For Spencer to hurry in pouring in a bucket of water OR the pull-up sprayer in his kitchen sink and douse it out.
  Instead: He grabs a broom and starts beating the fire with it thinking it'll take out the fire. He only makes the fire get worse and burns a perfectly good broom.
• In iScream on Halloween, Spencer after angering a bunch of kids by giving them random things that aren't candy gets forced to hide. He chooses the giant pumpkin that he's been carving. Lewbert shortly lets the kids into his room since he hates loud children and they promise they'll be quiet once Lewbert lets them beat Spencer up. While the kids are looking and have no clue where he is, Spencer's phone rings because his friend Socko is calling him.
  You'd Expect: For Spencer to drop the call and turn off his phone.
  Instead: Spencer answers his phone and tells Socko he can't talk right now. The kids eventually pick him up in the giant pumpkin and then roll him down onto the street where he collides with a moving car.
  Bonus Idiot Points: Even if Spencer forgot to buy candy, he could have avoided getting a beating from those mean kids if he didn't keep opening the door and giving them useless items like an empty carton of eggs, a pouch of tuna fish, a package of macaroni and jumper cables because that's just insulting/aggravating them.
• In iSpy a Mean Teacher, Freddie is so excited over a surveillance camera that is shaped like a pie but the problem is.... the giant camera lens is huge and makes it obvious to see on the side.
  You'd Expect: That Freddie who is usually very smart when it comes to tech to notice the giant lens.
  Instead: He wastes good money on it, and the main cast for the rest of the episode laugh at him for being the only person gullible enough to believe the spy pie would work.
• "iDon't Want to Fight":
  • Carly makes a special iCarly T-shirt for Sam to wear, and claims she spent 2 weeks making it.
    You'd Expect: Carly to realize that Sam won't hesitate to sell out anything for personal gain, or have backup copies of the shirt made just in case.
    Instead: She just believes Sam will "use" the shirt wisely - but on the first day Sam gets the shirt she trades it away for concert tickets to Ripoff Rodney. After this, Sam can see that Carly is upset. Sam tries to explain later that she got the concert tickets for both of them. Carly's still upset over the loss of the shirt and so they have a big fight over it.
  • Later in the episode, as Sam and Carly are at odds with one another, Freddie devises a scheme on their web show to try and fix the issue — have them tell why they're upset at one another, each getting a turn, and asking the audience who they side with. His rules are quite straightforward — have Sam tell her side of the story, then have Carly tell hers, and yank their ponytails if they interrupt one another. Carly tells her side and he follows these rules just fine. Then Sam tells her side.
    You'd Expect: That Freddie would continue to follow these rules. He already made them go through the trouble of putting their hair into ponytails, made his rules quite clear at the beginning, and has been following them up to this point. Plus, Sam is very aggressive and he risks escalating the situation if he does anything wrong.
    Instead: When Carly interrupts Sam during her story, Freddie decides not to yank Carly's ponytail, under the flimsy justification that he likes her. That may be true, but he should know better than to kick a hornet's nest like that.
    The Result: Sam understandably is enraged over this, especially considering she just had to put up with getting her ponytail yanked several times, and shoves Freddie to the side to take matters into her own hands. The two end up at each other's throats yanking each other's ponytails, destroying the entire intention that Freddie had.
    Furthermore: You'd expect Freddie to have kept the ropes out of the girls' reach in case they tried to take matters into their own hands. But no, the ropes are right in front of the girls without anything stopping Carly and Sam from grabbing them.
• In iPromise Not To Tell, Sam visits Principal Franklin for her regular Tuesday appointment. A teacher walks in because she was having trouble logging in to the school system for report cards, so Principal Franklin allows her to use his username.
  You'd Expect: Principal Franklin to write down his username and password on a piece of paper to the teacher, knowing he has Sam in his office so she would stay out of trouble.
  Instead: Principal Franklin says both his username and password to the teacher, in which Sam has heard the whole thing.
  Then: Principal Franklin notices he has a little bit of syrup on his tie. The teacher has done a class on stain removal at Community College.
  You'd Then Expect: Principal Franklin to give the teacher his tie for a little while so she can fix his tie so he can still discuss with Sam.
  Instead: Principal Franklin leaves his office and goes with the teacher, leaving Sam alone in the office.
  The Result: Sam logs in to the system under his username, fixing her own grades then changing Carly's B on her history report to an A and improving Freddie's test grades.
• In iWant a World Record, Spencer is going to construct a "Supertastic Sculpture of Stuff", which consists of loads of parts that are going to move around and animate. Given that he uses about 137 parts on the sculpture, this could result in loads of electricity to power it.
  You'd Expect: For Spencer to test the sculpture in the lobby and present it remotely from there, given that the iCarlys had less than five minutes from breaking the record and loads of electricity could cause the power to go out in the studio and get them disqualified.
  Instead: He brings the sculpture into the studio without testing it first and activates it there.
  The Result: Because of so much electricity the sculpture consumes, it causes the power in the studio to go out and their feed goes down for about four seconds, resulting in their webcast being interrupted, thus losing their shot at the record.
• In iRue The Day, iCarly is being hit with consistent hacking that is ruining their show constantly, with no way of actually knowing Nevel was responsible.
  You'd Expect: Nevel does not reveal himself as the culprit of this highly illegal hacking and making iCarly miss out on one of their biggest guest stars at that period, leaving himself completely safe for the time being.
  Instead: Nevel exposed himself completely to the iCarly crew and their audience due to his arrogance and making it crystal clear that he is breaking the law.
  The Result: Carly calls a close friend with a military background, raids his house during his hacking, confiscates his equipment due to clear violation of the law, and even threatens Nevel with imprisonment, but only got off with a warning and public humiliation. Given how this is a big no-no in the world of tech, Nevel really should have known better, as it was either going to be Carly or one of her audience members calling in the authorities over such blatant criminal activities.
• In the Season 1 finale, "iHave a Lovesick Teacher", Spencer starts dating Lauren Ackerman, the iCarly three's U.S. History teacher who is suffering a heartbreak when her boyfriend dumped her and the only thing that cheers up Ackerman and makes her positive enough to not mistreat her students or punish them with homework and pop quizzes. However, Spencer finds Ackerman very clingy and demanding of where he is all the time since she had to wait 25 minutes for him to text back.
  You'd Expect: That Spencer breaks down the news to Ackerman gently, that he feels she's being too clingy onto his personal time and that if they are to keep dating, she needs to calm down a bit.
  Instead: He outright dumps Ackerman without so much as an explanation because he's too scared to tell her the truth, and so Ackerman returns to her hostile ways - forcing the iCarly three to continue with her abrasive Sadist Teacher side until they use their web show to ask their viewers to decide should Spencer and Lauren break-up or not.

Season Two

• In the first iCarly TV movie, "iGo to Japan", The gang, chaperoned by Spencer and Mrs. Benson go to Japan to compete in the comedy round of the iWeb Awards. But on the day of the show, the gang's main competitors for the comedy round, two older teenagers named Kyoko and Yuki come to their Hotel and offer to take them shopping for new clothes before the competition and claim to have arranged seaweed wrappings for Spencer and Mrs. Benson
  You'd Expect: The gang to be cautious about this gesture. After all, they barely know these two, and they just happen to be their main competitors in the iWeb Awards. Plus, they seemed awfully reluctant when Mrs. Benson asked to go with them.
  Instead: They accept the offer from the two to go shopping with them, while Spencer and Mrs. Benson accept the seaweed wrapping offer, ignoring their suspicious behavior earlier.
  The Result: Kyoko and Yuki drive the trio in the countryside miles from the web awards, pretend they've run out of gas, and then drive off leaving them stranded there so that they will not have to worry about the extra competition. They also have Spencer and Mrs. Benson wrapped in extra-tight seaweed to restrain them so that they cannot help the gang.
• "iPie": The gang finds out that a beloved piemaker, Mr. Gallini, is in the hospital. It ends up being so serious that the pie shop is in danger of closing down, due to only Gallini knowing his recipe for coconut cream pie.
  You'd Expect: Gallini to have told his second-in-command at least.
  Or At Least: Specifically say he put them inside the hardware of his computer.
  Instead: Gallini only tells Trudy, his closest relative, that the recipes are in his computer. It turns out it's Not Hyperbole; they were literally stored in the medium of written paper within his computer tower.
  The Result: When Gallini dies, the pie shop nearly closes down due to Trudy failing to find the recipes. It's only by the gang's sheer selfishness of attending Gallini's wake to search the computer that the recipes are found, and the shop is saved. Trudy complains it was foolish of Mr. Gallini to forgo mentioning whether the recipe was stored digitally or on paper.
• iKiss: Both Freddie and Sam suffer from this.
  • Sam put a dead fish in Freddie's locker, For the Lulz. Freddie gets fed up and pulls a prank on her.
    You'd Expect: Freddie the genius would go with Best Served Cold. Or that the prank wouldn't be traced back to him such as tricking her with phishing texts just like back in iStage an Intervention.
    Instead: He handcuffs Sam to Gibby.
    The Result: Sam chases him down in a murderous rage for the key, while Gibby is traumatized.
  • Following this, Sam proceeds to humiliate Freddie and make him a pariah by revealing to the world he's never been kissed. It's so bad that he doesn't even leave his apartment to film the show and skips school. In the case of O.O.C. Is Serious Business, Carly is mad at Sam for this blatant abuse.
    You'd Expect: Carly would enact some sort of penalty on Sam, or put an ultimatum on their friendship. Ban her from the apartment, make her do embarrassing skits on the web show so she knows what it's like, something. After all, if Sam was willing to ruin a friend's life over a prank, then she's likely to do it again, perhaps even with Carly.
    Instead: She spends the whole day tolerating Sam for what she did.
    The Result: Sam goes Never My Fault when Freddie doesn't show up for the recording. With a few minutes to go before they go live, Carly finally spells out to Sam that while punching Freddie is one thing, humiliating him online is another. And a simple apology won't fix that because it won't undo the damage. She also tells Sam to shut up, do the show, and act naturally because it's their job. Sam, in a grumpy Heel Realization, apologizes on live stream and also reveals she was never kissed before. And it's shown that if Carly had taken Freddie's side before, this whole mess wouldn't have happened.
• In the episode, iGive Away A Car, the trio is contacted by a boy who tells them their father, who owns a car dealership, wants to give away a car on their show and sets the competition to be the first person who solves a certain riddle.
  You'd expect: Carly, Sam, and Freddie to go see the father, call him, and find evidence that proves that this father exists, that he has a car, is willing to give it away and to come up with better competition than a riddle.
  Instead: They don't bother verifying the prize, and proceed to give away the car on the show. Nevel, their Sitcom Arch-Nemesis has set the whole thing up and due to a certain law, they risk losing their web show. They eventually check with the owner of the car dealership, who doesn't even have a son.
• In iLook Alike:
  • Carly asks Spencer to let her go do an interview with Jackson Colt before an MMA fight, but Spencer refuses given the violent nature of the fights. Carly sneaks out anyways and Spencer finds out once Carly left behind very poorly-disguised stunt doubles in her place to distract Spencer for a while with audio clips.
    You'd Expect: Spencer to call the police and report Carly as a runaway teenager. Given that Carly explicitly told Spencer she wanted to sneak into the MMA backstage, Spencer can tell the police to search there first and bring Carly back home if they find her there.
    Instead: He enters the MMA backstage all by himself and starts trying to physically intimidate Jackson on his own, leading to Jackson throwing him onto a table and injuring his back.
  • Early on, Carly and the gang's plan to sneak out involves the lookalikes taking their places in the studio with the door locked, and the elevator fixed so it won't open on the studio floor.
    You'd Expect: After locking the door, for Carly to check for any extra keys in case someone is locked out.
    Instead: She leaves the hallway without double checking. Thus, Spencer finds a spare key on the top of the door to unlock the door, exposing the charade.
  • While the lookalikes were taking their place, they use audio clips to respond to Spencer and deny his requests to avoid being recognized. They were successful at refusing his cubed fruit, then he asks them to watch some kung fu movies.
    You'd Expect: The lookalikes to use a simple audio clip such as Carly's "No thanks, we're good," or Freddie's "Sorry, this isn't a good time, but thanks for asking."
    Instead: They use phrases such as "You're so funny!", "I'll call Granddad back later," and "Just leave the package out there!", leading Spencer to assume they're messing with him, leading to them getting busted.
• iWant My Website Back: Spencer was going to order some pillows for his stiff neck, but his credit card was denied; so he decided to cancel the credit card and get a new one.
  You'd Expect: Spencer to check any affiliates or renewals the old credit card's billing system was tied to and transfer them to the new one.
  Instead: He neglects to do this.
  Result: Spencer's old credit card was tied to the monthly renewal fee for iCarly.com, and because it was cancelled, the deadline was missed and the iCarly URL was closed.
  Fortunately: The URL was found by iCarly fan Mandy Valdez who revived it under her ownership.
• iGo Nuclear:
  • Freddie, and later Sam, present their projects in front of Mr. Henning. Freddie imported his worms from Portugal which help in decomposing waste and allows the worms to excrement much more biodegradable feces. Sam, meanwhile, chose to not do her project and simply talks about how an orange is recyclable.
    You'd Expect: Mr. Henning to give Freddie an A grade for his large amount of effort, and Sam an F or 0 for her serious lack of effort.
    Instead: He gives Freddie a D- and Sam an A, complaining that Freddie's project is boring and that Freddie's methods required using jet fuel to fly in high-quality worms from Portugal despite the fact there is no relevance as to where the worms are from. What kind of teacher is he??
  • Carly meets a new building partner, Cal, who helps her with her project by constructing an environment-friendly power generator. While most of the setup goes well, the main fuel supply used to power the machine is a power rod containing some sort of unknown power; Carly asks Cal what's it made of, and he meekly adds "it comes from nature."
    You'd Expect: Carly to investigate the power source further and get online information, as it might contain something dangerous.
    Instead: She just lets it slide.
    The Result: At the Groovy Smoothie, Cal is revealed to be wanted by the FBI and the substance used to power the generator is illegal black market uranium; because Carly built an illegal generator, her A+ is reverted to D- and is forced to attend the root and berry retreat for extra credit.
• In iReunite with Missy, Missy keeps deliberately messing with Sam to keep her out of the picture so that she can have Carly all to herself. Her deliberate work to keep Sam separated from Carly is blatantly obvious and very poorly disguised as "innocent mistakes".
  You'd Expect: Carly to catch on and find out that Missy is hurting Sam on purpose.
  Instead: She keeps believing that Missy really is just clumsy and only hurting Sam by mistake.
  Bonus Idiot Points: After Missy gave Sam "fancy" Persian chocolate that expired back in 1992 that gives Sam food poisoning, she still tries to eat it anyways cause it still tastes wonderful.
• In iTwins, Sam is annoyed when her feminine-lookalike sister Melanie visits for a while. Freddie however, assumes Melanie is another prank and just Sam in disguise and spends the whole episode believing such, having been pranked twice by Carly and Sam over his gullibility.
  You'd expect: Sam to come to show herself and Melanie together in person in front of Freddie.
  Instead: She never does so, because she tries to avoid her sister as much as possible because she's too girly for her; and it isn't until the final scene that Freddie leaves and we actually see the two sisters onscreen together. Every time Melanie comes on-screen, Sam walks off just to get away from her and only confuses Freddie, aggravating him and frustrating the girls even further.
  You'd Also Expect: Carly to show some sign of proof that Melanie is real, such as a picture or video of the two together, or have Melanie call them over the phone when Sam was present or vice versa.
  Instead: She never bothers to do so. The only one able to get proof was Spencer, who used Socko's laptop to record Chuck tormenting him.
  • The episode's subplot involves Carly tutoring Spencer's longtime enemy Chuck at the apartment, and Chuck naturally making Spencer's home life Hell. Spencer can prove Chuck's true character to Carly by hiding a video camera to record Chuck beating him up and Carly helps him get revenge by tricking Chuck in their tutoring session that the "International Math Laws" have created a new number between five and six called "derf".
    You'd Expect: Chuck to realize that this is a clear ruse and ignore Carly's claims. Or at the very least, ask someone like his teacher to verify them given Carly's only a teenager, not a certified tutor.
    Instead: He takes Carly's word with no second thought and uses the number on his math test.
    The Result: Chuck bombs the test and when he tries to tell his father that he learned the number from Carly, his father believes that Chuck is lying to avoid responsibility for his failure. At Spencer's suggestion, Mr. Chambers sends Chuck to math camp for the summer.
• In the Tv Movie, iFight Shelby Marx, Carly reluctantly agrees to an exhibition fight against a world-famous female boxer named Shelby Marx for charity and publicity for both girls (also, Shelby will just pretend to hurt her with realistic-looking moves). During a press conference for the fight, Sam advises Carly to "trash talk", which is usually done in press conferences to get people rallied up.
  You'd Expect: Carly to give Shelby a heads up about this before the conference so that she does not take it the wrong way in case she does not realize their intent.
  Instead: She never does, and Shelby quickly gets offended by Carly's remarks. And then when Sam gets involved, Shelby snaps and starts a big ruckus resulting in Carly being pushed into Shelby's sickly grandmother who is attending in a way that looks very much like she is tackling her, resulting in Shelby vowing not to hold back on Carly at the conference. As a result, the gang agrees that it's best to call the fight off.
  You'd Expect: Carly to take the time to prepare and solemn and appropriate way of announcing to the public that the fight is off. After all, this fight had been getting a tremendous amount of publicity and the proceeds were supposed to go to funding an animal charity, so Carly should be very serious and remorseful to the public that she cannot participate in this huge event.
  You'd Also Expect: Carly to also use her announcement to reveal the misunderstanding regarding her trash talk and how the incident with Shelby's grandmother was misconstrued by the media, thus clearing her name to both Shelby and the iCarly viewers. It would also be wise for Carly to mention that the fight was Shelby's idea, not hers.
  Instead: Carly casually and briefly mentions at the end of their latest iCarly webcast that the fight's off since "she doesn't want Shelby rearranging her face" as if the fight were of no significance whatsoever and with no attempt to clear any misunderstandings about what happened at the press conference.
  The Result: The public responds about as well as you'd expect to Carly's incredibly inappropriate means of calling the fight off, with Carly being labeled as a Dirty Coward. This forces her to participate in the fight anyway to salvage her public image, and even though she initially clears up the misunderstanding with Shelby, Carly's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Nevel steps in to make sure that Shelby tries to beat up Carly for real anyway by doctoring footage of the conference to make it seem like Carly purposefully tackled Shelby's grandma.

Season Three

• In iThink They Kissed, Spencer gets a job at a prison teaching prisoners about sculpting and a few of them try to take advantage of this to break out of prison. In the end, they carve a giant pair of pants, which they hide in as Spencer brings the giant pants back to the apartment. When Carly, Sam & Freddie discover them, Freddie says they will have to call the police and one of the prisoners asks for some duct tape.
  You'd Expect: That the kids would refuse to tell them about the duct tape and go through with their threat of calling the police. But first, run out of the apartment room to avoid getting captured by them.
  Instead: Carly actually tells them where the duct tape is and the prisoners tape the group together on the couch and make their escape! Even Freddie and Sam are left dumbfounded by why Carly would choose to do that. When Freddie calls Carly for being so stupid, Carly rationalizes her mistake that she was just trying to be helpful and instead blames Freddie for telling the prisoners now they have to call the police. Admittedly, that was a stupid thing to do, but still.
  Bonus idiot points: Spencer doesn't even bother to notice the iCarly trio needs his help getting out of being duct taped to the chairs as he's too occupied with getting his banjo to play for a pretty girl he spotted at a bakery.
  MORE idiot points: The iCarly trio just stay quiet and don't even mention the escaped prisoners to Spencer!
• "iSpeedDate"
  • It's a Girl's Choice dance, and Carly is mortified because she spat into a boy's eye by accident while trying to ask him out. Sam is also having trouble finding a date. It turns out Carly's backup plan was asking Gibby as a pity date since apparently, no one had asked him.
    You'd Expect: Carly would bring this up when Sam suggests they use the web show to score a date for the dance.
    Instead: Carly says this is a matter of pride and she doesn't want to look desperate.
    The Result: Sam during a live show straps Carly into a chair and duct-tapes her mouth, before asking all the guys watching to be Carly's date for the dance. Carly asks Sam to take Gibby as her pity date, which leads to Laser-Guided Karma when Sam finds out that Gibby has other plans.
  • Freddie has several girls asking him but says he's waiting on Carly. She tells him to forget about it.
    You'd Expect: Freddie would accept this rejection and choose one from several girls.
    Instead: He still insists on Carly.
    The Result: The nicer girls already have dates, so he's stuck with a magician classmate that does great tricks but has No Social Skills.
  • During said filming, Freddie is holding the camera.
    You'd Expect: He would cut the feed once Sam brings out the duct tape.
    Instead: He keeps filming.
    The Result: 752 guys show up to be Carly's potential date, and so the crew has to do speed-dating.
  • Sam is hounded by Carly to ask Gibby on a date to the dance. Sam reluctantly does, but Gibby says No. Sam asks who is Gibby's date then.
    You'd Expect: Gibby to tell Sam it's Tasha (as we see later) and clarify that while he does have a date, they're not going to the dance.
    Instead: He outright tells Sam no other girl asked him out to the dance. Sam gets worked up and slams him next to the locker threatening to beat him to a pulp for rejecting her DESPITE "not" having a date.
    You'd Then Expect: Gibby to now seriously with his life in danger tell Sam about Tasha, and clarify what he meant was he and his date aren't going to the dance.
    Instead: He only begs, "PLEASE DON'T BREAK MY THUMBS AGAIN!" and only avoids a beatdown from Sam when Freddie interrupts, allowing him to make a run for it.
• In iCook, the iCarly trio enters a cook-off against Ricky Flame to see who can make the better spaghetti tacos. Sam turns out to have gotten her finger cut/burnt/bruised in some way and has to put a bandage on it.
  You'd Expect: Sam to take off her bandage while preparing the tacos which she needs to touch. Or better yet, refrain from even cooking the tacos since the used bandages aren't clean.
  Instead: She carelessly forgets about it and it ends up on Carly's spaghetti tacos plate right when the plate has already been given to the judges. Carly finds it and picks it up.
  You'd Expect: Carly to immediately throw it away without question.
  Instead: She just asks, "What is this?" in front of everybody, including the judges. Sam admits it's her band-aid, leaving the judges disgusted. Somehow, they win anyway.
  Bonus idiot points: In an earlier episode, "iSaw Him First", Carly and Freddie claim that Sam never sanitizes her hands, not even when she cooks. So why did they even let her help make the tacos?
• In the two-part special, "iPsycho", the trio has been held hostage in a small sound booth with nothing to do, except eat Chinese food at the time. While Nora goes upstairs to get some props to show them, Sam has been gnawing on a duck bone, and she manages to use the sharpened end to unlock the door. So they run out, and...
  You'd expect: That Carly, Sam, and Freddie would hide in the small room that their bags are in. Or grab their phones, or do SOMETHING.
  Instead: Upon seeing Nora with her evil mask and real axe, they scream in horror and run back into the sound booth, only to have her immediately lock it again. Despite that, she claims to be unable to stay mad at them.
• iBeat the Heat: The power goes out during a heat wave in Seattle, and the iCarly room is the only one to have power as well as air conditioning because Spencer had a backup portable battery.
  You'd Expect: For the iCarly gang plus Spencer to not open the doors for anyone no matter who it is, (except for Lewbert, who has the legal authority to penalize and evict them for using a portable battery AC that violates the apartment's rules).
  Instead: Carly and Spencer keep opening the doors for everyone just to tell them to go away! As a result, dozens of people barge in to freeload off the air conditioning ignoring Carly's pleas to leave.
  Bonus idiot points: Carly, thinking that people will do anything she says because of her fame and stardom, opens the door and tells them to leave only to let 6 more people in when commanding 10 of them to leave. Really Carly? Do you think everyone, including people you've never met, will obey your every word just because you're an Internet star?
• "iFix A Pop Star":
  • Ginger Fox has recently suffered a breakdown on-camera that went viral. She's supposed to make a comeback but fired her old director for a performance at an awards show. Her manager, understandably annoyed, hires the iCarly team at her behest to handle her upcoming concert.
    You'd Expect: Carly to realize this is Too Good to Be True and demand a fair amount of compensation for the amount of effort that this job will take. Sam and Freddie were laughing over the viral video, where Ginger was washing her hair with mayonnaise.
    Instead: She's too excited to consider that there may be a catch and accepts without discussing any deals for money or web show promotion.
    The Result: The team gets tired of Ginger's antics, refusal to practice, and foisting her son on them. Carly at one point even says that the concert is going to be a disaster and that whatever deal they did negotiate wasn't worth it.
  • Meanwhile her manager is hoping that the iCarly team will take the blame if the concert goes wrong so he gets a break.
    You'd Expect: He'd keep quiet and give a motivational speech to the kids when they grouse before showtime.
    Instead: He tells them bluntly that they're The Scapegoat.
    The Result: The kids don't tell him that Ginger left her son with them and Pass the Popcorn when a frantic Ginger shows up on camera asking if anyone's seen him.
    Bonus Idiot Points: Ginger doesn't even describe what her baby son looks like, she only says that the baby's name is Bryan (but her manager corrects her that it's Billy) as if names help out with identification.

Season Four

• iSell Penny Tees: Carly and Freddie take in some 4th graders to make Penny-Tees (T-shirts that have comedic sayings on them) to raise money.
  You'd Expect: Even if Carly and Freddie were to treat their child employees to some mochi ice cream and blue tea, that they wait until the kids finish their jobs to pay them.
  Instead: Carly and Freddie pre-pay them for the whole month on the same day they hire them, and the kids happily quit without doing any work having spent the whole day just playing.
  Results: It gets worse from there, the kids then start their own business of selling funny one-liner T-shirts to people without even crediting Carly for the idea. The iCarly trio first consider suing the kids, but.....
  To Make Matters Worse: The 4th graders have in less than 2 days already put iCarly out of business by monopolizing the entire funny one-liner T-shirt market of Seattle (and possibly stretching out more into the United States as well) with their own brand. The iCarly gang begrudgingly leaves Groovy Smoothie in defeat to go home empty-handed.
• In "iGet Pranky", the gang plans to revenge-prank Spencer by planting a 20 dollar bill in the basement and having Gibby drop it on him when he goes to get it, but Spencer sees through it and gloats that they can't beat him. As they leave, they realize, they forgot to tell Gibby the prank was over.
  You'd Expect: Since the cue was "Gibby!" they would say something like "The prank failed safely climb down."
  Instead: They use the cue.
  You'd Then Expect: Since Spencer had made it loud and clear he didn't fall for the prank and realize they weren't using the cue.
  Instead: He drops from the ceiling landing expecting to fall on Spencer and breaks his ribs instead.
• At the end of iStart a Fan War, the iCarly trio can calm their warring fans down and end their civil war by telling them Freddie is dating neither Carly nor Sam and that their web show has nothing to do with romantic relationships. Carly then notices she is starting to warm up to Adam again, who lost interest in her when he suspected because of the Creddie shippers that he and Freddie are in love.
  You'd Expect: For Carly not to mention anything about love or romance in her speech and just end the web panel from there to carefully end the fan war.
  Instead: She unnecessarily tells the whole audience on the microphone that she rather wants to date Adam than Freddie, therefore re-igniting the fan war with the Creddie shippers brutally pulverizing Adam as payback for "stealing" Carly away from Freddie. Carly can only watch in guilt.
• iCan't Take It: Due to several events, Sam and Freddie start dating. Sam stops abusing Freddie but transfers the abuse to Gibby, who angrily tells Freddie's mother. Mrs. Benson is naturally angry and concerned because Sam is a terrible person and she's worried that Sam will ruin Freddie's life. From the viewer's perspective, she has a point, especially when an equally angry Carly confesses to Gibby and Mrs. Benson that Sam sabotaged Freddie's application to a high-profile science camp for a petty reason.
  You'd Expect: She would sit down with Freddie and give him The Talk as well as ask him, And Then What? Because is he really going to move on from the number of times that Sam has punched, bullied, and humiliated him to treat her seriously? Even if Freddie is forgiving, Sam has done terrible things to him. A relationship requires love and respect; neither Sam nor Freddie respect each other because of their history. Has Sam proven that she can be a mature partner in a relationship? So far the answer is no; Sam and Freddie spend most of their time fighting when they're together and tried to force Carly to be their relationship counselor until she gives them both a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. In addition, Freddie is letting his relationship with Sam affect his iCarly work. By the end of the arc, they break up anyway because of all their problems. Mrs. Benson could have made more headway with Freddie if she had pointed out all these problems.
  Instead: She tries to bribe Freddie into breaking up with Sam. And she gets angry and starts shouting at Freddie about Sam being a bad influence.
  The Result: Her Tough Love backfires; Freddie tells his mother that he's not going to break up with Sam to make Mrs. Benson happy or for a bribe. And keeps seeing Sam behind Mrs. Benson's back, which is the exact opposite of what she wanted.
• iToe Fat Cakes: Carly, who has her toe stuck in the faucet, has managed to make a rope to pull a chair that holds her phone, and some more clothes, on it. She pulls the chair over to her and grabs the phone.
  You'd expect: That Carly would hold her phone above the clothes while texting, or over the side of the tub, to keep it from falling into the water and breaking.
  Instead: She holds it above the water, and with her fingers slippery from the soap, she drops it into the water, leaving her unable to use it.
  Meanwhile, when Sam is unable to get on the plane due to trying to sneak some fat cakes for herself, the guys have her stuffed in a rolling suitcase so they can sneak her on undetected. Gibby then has to attain to a fan of his.
  You'd expect: One of the guys to stay with Sam in the suitcase or bring Sam with them to keep her safe.
  Instead: All of them leave the suitcase unattended, and Sam unknowingly gets swapped out with another tourist's identical suitcase, and she ends up on a plane to Malaysia.

Season Five

• iPear Store: When Spencer gets forced to do payless work for the fire department as a penalty for forcing them to come to clean up his fires 18 times, on Day 1 he is tasked with making them chili, but when he tries to take the pot with a cloth, he sets it on fire by carelessly letting the cloth slip into the stove fire.
  You'd Expect: That Spencer would use the sink right next to him and put out the fire on the cloth with water.
  Instead: He keeps flailing it and puts it next to some kitchen accessories, causing the alarm to go off. Thanks to him having sabotaged the door locks supposedly after he sprayed a stick liquid that made the doorknobs immovable, he and the firefighters end up locked in. The place ends up on fire, and the fire department indefinitely suspends services to Carly and Spencer.
  • The whole mess mentioned above started when the fire department gave up on the Shays due to Spencer's bad luck.
    You'd Expect: Both Carly and Spencer to report them to whoever's in charge of the fire department since it's illegal to ignore a call for help, no matter how often it happens.
    Instead: She's the one who forces Spencer to go down to the station in the first place to make amends.
    
• iBattle Chip: When Gibby goes to the bathroom, he hands Carly his Phaser for safekeeping; he warns her not to play with it, hand it to anyone, or even set it down. Then a bully enters the Groovy Smoothie and Sam faces him down.
  You'd Expect: Carly to keep a tight grip on the Phaser.
  Instead: She unknowingly puts the Phaser down when she says "I've never seen him before," leaving it open and unguarded, and it ends up getting destroyed when Sam throws the bully into the table. Lampshaded by Sam when she quips Gibby warned her not to set it down.
• iLost My Head in Vegas: The gang needs $2,500 to bail out Sam's mom in a Vegas casino. They hardly have anything, but they're able to find a pawn shop that can take stuff for big riches. They're able to sell a bottle of Wahoo punch signed by Michelle Obama, who made an appearance earlier on in iMeet The First Lady, for $2,500 - exactly the sufficient amount needed.
  You'd Expect: Carly to handle the money, as she refuses to trust Spencer with it because he "loses everything". Or to give Sam the money, because she's the one in need of it, after all.
  Instead: They give it to Gibby who puts it in the pocket of the bag for his fancy replica head.
  And with that, the Pawn Stars want some pics with the crew before they leave, but Gibby was without his pants after selling them to Chumlee for $200 and doesn't want to get in the picture without pants. After the others are out, Gibby is left behind.
  You'd Expect: For Gibby to notice the others were gone and to hurry back to the RV. Or to call one of them to tell them they forgot him.
  Instead: Neither of those happens, and when the rest of the crew arrive at the prison, Freddie cues for Gibby to pay the recipient, only for them to find out he's not there.
  So now Gibby, who is still at the pawnshop and has been trying on other pairs of pants, is offered a rock that is disguised as a "moon rock" that is claimed to be from the actual moon but is instead just from the parking lot.
  You'd expect: For Gibby to decline the offer to buy it, or at the very least put the wad of money in his pocket and not leave it sitting on the counter out in plain view.
  Instead: He is fixated on the rock, and the man offering it to him steals the money while he's distracted. He tries unsuccessfully to sell the rock himself, and when Carly and the rest of the crew return, they're rightfully upset with him after he confesses to being scammed. Therefore, when Gibby refuses to sell his replica head to an Asian man and his daughter, Sam is forced to knock him out with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch and give them the head for $10,000.
  

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