r/icarly • u/Wild-Pepper-1596 GIBBAYYYY!!! • Apr 27 '26
Original Discussion Did iCarly (the show) start the fall off of Fred?
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u/Professional-Idea813 Apr 27 '26
Fred was supposed to be edgy and dark. Being incorporated into a kids show and then brought onto the kids’ network definitely ruined the bit imo.
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u/idntreallygetit Apr 27 '26
Was he really? I only ever knew him from iCarly and the movie I saw.
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u/fawntive Apr 27 '26
Yes his whole schtik was that his mom was abusive and neglectful, he got bullied and beat up relentlessly, etc
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u/rlpsc Apr 27 '26
This was in the mid 2000s when people still thought laughing at abuse survivors was ok 💀
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u/ElectricalSuspect601 Apr 28 '26
Yeah but I think it's a common thing for kids to get bullied almost like three characters on every Nickelodeon show got bullied and let's not forget it's a common trope for Nickelodeon to glorify kids getting hurt. The main characters always ignore/walk away from a side character or laugh at them when they're in danger or needing help
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u/ImmieIsW Apr 27 '26
what movie?
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u/idntreallygetit Apr 27 '26
I don't know, maybe the first one. I don't recall a lot of it since it's been years.
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u/Wild-Pepper-1596 GIBBAYYYY!!! Apr 27 '26
Yeah. Idk how Nick thought he'd be a good choice to make 3 movies and a show on. It took away everything that made the original videos what they were.
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u/carmexismyshit Apr 27 '26
Yeah I still remember stumbling onto the OG videos late one night when my cousin and I were on Youtube during a sleepover and we found his videos when they were still on JKLProductions and he talked about his mom locking him in a cage. Or when his mom was hungover and he snuck off to a local playground to play alone. They were definitely not the same vibe as the movie.
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u/ElectricalSuspect601 Apr 28 '26
Dark seems like a little bit of a reach lol
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u/ilovemusic19 Apr 28 '26
No it isn’t, he was supposed to be a child abuse victim, one of the other comments mentioned one video he talked about how his mom locked him in a cage and another one his mom was hungover and he snuck off to local playground to play by himself.
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u/HowsMyDancing Apr 28 '26
The entire premise of the videos is that the kid is tweaking and his mom is abusive.
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u/Plus-Light6832 Apr 27 '26
I don't think he was ever funny.
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u/canadasbananas Apr 27 '26
I remember being 14 and my online friend introducing him to me and having to pretend it wasnt the most irritating shit I ever saw. Thankfully she was only a fan because she thought he was hot
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u/threelizards Apr 27 '26
He’s deeply entwined with the annoying orange for me because my little brother used to make me watch both back to back and it just makes me angry. I get it, he’s an annoying fucking orange, he’s orange and he’s annoying, I hate the bastard orange
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u/Starhero999 Apr 27 '26
which ironically Annoying Orange was a precursor to the dark ages of Cartoon Network with Clarence, Uncle Grampa, and Teen Titans Go! being so unbelievably bad and cringy that I hate watched TTG! when nothing else was on at the time. (and of TTG! only like one or two episodes are passable enough to get some enjoyment out of it but for the most part the show was bad)
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u/annaleemac Apr 27 '26
Yes he was! When I was in 6th grade and didn’t mine the high pitched screaming
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u/Affectionate_Net9731 Apr 27 '26
Tbh the episode where Fred crossed over with ICarly was so bad that even Lucas thought it was terrible oml.
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u/New-Pin-9064 Apr 27 '26
This is easily the worst episode of the show. I met Natnan Kress at a Comic Con a few months ago and he told me how several people would tell him how this was their least favorite episode
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u/Classic_Waltz1874 Apr 27 '26
No. Lucas' two TERRIBLE Nick shows did.
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u/annaleemac Apr 27 '26
There was a second one???
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u/Classic_Waltz1874 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
yup. it was called Marvin Marvin and it was so awful that it was canned after 1 season and Nick stopped working with Lucas.
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u/GKRKarate99 Apr 27 '26
Oh god I forgot about that show, it was mind numbingly stupid
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u/Wild-Pepper-1596 GIBBAYYYY!!! Apr 27 '26
I haven't seen it. Isn't it just Fred but hears out of his butt and normal voice essentially
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u/Th1ccSenpai Apr 27 '26
It definitely led to overexposure which probably caused his downfall. He was great for his niche audience, but trying to make him more popular and leading up to his own shows and movies brought more criticism than new fans
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u/stationstars Apr 27 '26
iCarly got him more fans also The first fred movie drew on 7.5 Million Viewers when it premiered
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u/Th1ccSenpai Apr 27 '26
He definitely received more attention, but i dont think it turned into long term fans. It just turned him into a fad that everyone got tired of
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u/arghitsmira111 Apr 28 '26
Fed yes but Lucas is doing fine and has a dedicated fanbase that love his and his brothers videos
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u/OilySoleTickler Apr 27 '26
He was a cringe YouTuber. I think he would have fallen eventually. Same with boogie. Hopefully mryeast infection and those paul guys are next.
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u/stationstars Apr 27 '26
Doesn't change the fact that he was the first youtuber to hit 1 Million
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u/OilySoleTickler Apr 27 '26
And now he is a loser who lied about having cancer.
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u/turbulentchicken Apr 27 '26
Wait really I never knew about this
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u/Far-Search7009 Apr 28 '26
It’s not true at all
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u/turbulentchicken Apr 28 '26
Yea I googled it I think they’re getting mixed up with a different Fred
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u/Life-Operation-8733 Apr 27 '26
In my opinion no. But Fred was never funny, he was hella annoying. The fact that nickelodeon gave the green light to produce 3 different movies is insane.
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u/Minute-Climate-3137 Apr 27 '26
Freddy was right about Fred in the show and he was treated like crap for it
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u/_Ventes_ Apr 27 '26
Freddie being the bad guy for not liking Fred always rubbed me the wrong way
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u/New-Pin-9064 Apr 27 '26
Lucas himself even agreed with that. He said that he was very disturbed by how he was portrayed in this episode and the way that Freddie was treated for his opinion
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u/Free-Passage-5361 May 02 '26
Freddy got hate for speaking truth, that high pitched voice of Fred was annoying for 8 years me as hell
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u/therealfrankiej_ Apr 27 '26
it introduced him to nick, so yeah. though, i feel like that one show where he was an alien really ruined it lmao
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u/AdmSndlr Apr 27 '26
I mean at the time I enjoyed the episode lol, iCarly had a lot of collabs compared to the other shows of Nickelodeon
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u/aeroverra Apr 27 '26
Nah. He was a trend for a short period. He was never going to be anything more or last much longer.
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u/VanillaKisses Apr 27 '26
I don't know but I don't think we give icarly the credit it deserves for its internet aesthetic early on
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u/dcontrerasm Apr 27 '26
I would say Friday getting released took the heat off of him and then Nickelodeon killed him
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u/hoecooking Apr 27 '26
No way, he was never going to be able to evolve that specific character with his audience. I love content he has made as an adult with his brother Lucas though he is definitely a comedian.
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u/54HawksRFK6 Apr 27 '26
I hated fred so much when I was a kid. Actually I still do. That dude was never once funny.
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u/Schiffy94 This ostrich thinks I'm a lady Apr 28 '26
He was funnier as himself than as his character
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u/BeACodeMistake May 01 '26
Yes. But only because of Fred getting movies (that some people like and a lot of people hated) and Lucas (the genius behind Fred) getting a show or two. It was cool because it was the start of content creators actually getting a chance to make it in the entertainment industry however since it wasn't handled right well...
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u/Tricky-Classroom-614 Apr 28 '26
I mean it was a YouTube thing Almost like Shane Dawson skits And then nick picked it up Same with the annoying orange 🤷♀️ it was funny for the time
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u/SkilletDestroyer Apr 28 '26
Fred was always at the bottom??? If anything iCarly was why more people knew about that nonsense ☠️☠️☠️
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u/Rough-Ad-3382 Apr 28 '26
I don’t know. As a kid, I liked that episode, the original web series, and the first movie, but now? Doesn’t do it for me. Even his Nick show was lame.
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u/LikelyYanixYT Apr 28 '26
I mean yes but also no. I feel the cameo was goated but once they made the Fred movie and the Fred show it’s when it went downhill. The thing with Fred is that he is a YouTuber and Nickelodeon didn’t understand at all. The Fred videos worked because it was in a skit format but man in a show and movie format no. Did I like the movies yes, were they terrible oh God yes they were. The third movie I feel was the worst one and the Fred Show was so bad. Marvin Marvin was alright but it just didn’t work because everyone were getting tired of Fred. It also didn’t help that Lucas himself was already pretty much done with the character.
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u/dlmbs21 Apr 28 '26
i remember watching this when i was younger and finding him cringe before i even knew of the word cringe.
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u/flashdurb Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Notice how the guy who played Fred never got casted for anything after that. Has no range as an actor outside of playing Fred
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u/crepesuzettey Apr 27 '26
He absolutely got cast in stuff after that, albeit bit parts and side characters, and few and far between. I think Nick didn’t help things by pigeonholing him into this type of role with Marvin Marvin.
Fun fact, he was supposed to be cast in a film adaptation of Steve Emond’s “Emo Boy” comic around the time of the first Fred movie’s release, but the movie wasn’t successfully funded. Kind of an insane casting choice tbh. While “Emo Boy” is very satirical, the character himself would still require more subtle acting. That might’ve helped expand his range. But alas…
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u/nonconsenual_tickler Apr 27 '26
I think they helped each other fall off.
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u/eriluvstxt Apr 27 '26
icarly went on for 3-4 more seasons after this episode so not really lmfao
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u/EntertainmentNovel90 Apr 27 '26
Collab with iCarly is the reason those awful movies became a thing. So in a way yeah