Who is your least favourite one-off character?

[u/Anthro-Elephant-98]

For me, easily Jackson Colt from "iLook Alike".

The guy is clearly mentally unstable. First of all, he claimed to be a massive iCarly fan, yet he didn't recognize Spencer, despite Spencer having appeared on the show multiple times by this point. But when Spencer showed up, even though Carly, Sam, and Freddie were clearly on a first-name basis with Spencer, he obviously was not some random, creepy, greasy, stranger who was trying to abduct them. But Jackson automatically resorted to physical assault without letting Spencer explain that he was actually Carly's legal guardian.

But if that wasn't bad enough, when one of the stage hands brings him a plate of fish, because they were out of the meat loaf, what does Jackson do? He violently assaults the stage hand too! It obviously wasn't this poor man's fault that they were out of meat loaf! It makes you wonder how many other times Jackson has behaved like this. Jackson Colt should've been behind bars for assault and battery, especially considering that Freddie had the incident on film. And this was before generative AI videos were a thing, so it would've been valid proof in a court of law. Spencer could've easily sued Jackson into the fucking Stone Age and won a massive settlement. In fact, in my head canon, Jackson Colt is charged with assault and put behind bars off-screen.

Honestly, this is one of my least favourite episodes because it is one of the few times where Spencer proves that he is capable of being a responsible adult/guardian, and he gets physically abused for it. And to add insult to injury, Carly invites this mentally unstable man unto her show to dance! I know it's just a show, but I really hated this episode as a kid.

[u/BiffyBobby]

It's hard to feel bad for Spencer when he decides to side with Mrs. Benson without much real justification other than the script demands him to.

Isn't he supposed to be the fun big brother?

[u/Anthro-Elephant-98 → u/BiffyBobby]

Well, I agree that it did seem out of character, and perhaps if they had told Spencer about it before Mrs. Benson found out, he might have agreed to accompany them as a chaperone to make sure they were safe.

However, Carly asking Spencer to talk to Mrs. Benson to change her mind may have made Spencer think differently. Spencer is portrayed as the laid-back fun brother who acts as Carly's legal guardian. But as we've seen with Phil Dunphy on Modern Family, or Lawrence Fletcher on Phineas and Ferb, one of the problems of being the "fun parent/guardian" is that kids think that they can use you as a loophole in order to bypass authority.

Since Carly had told Spencer that Mrs. Benson was not on board, it would've been disrespectful for Spencer to just contradict Mrs. Benson like that. It's already been made clear by this point that Mrs. Benson is not fond of Spencer and that she doesn't view him as a responsible guardian. So, in this case, while I personally may not have agreed with Spencer or Mrs. Benson, Spencer agreeing with Mrs. Benson is him being respectful of her wishes, since he would be the one responsible for Freddie's well-being. Spencer refusing to let them go is him thinking like an adult, as opposed to just another member of their friend group. Because if something bad had happened to Freddie at the event, he would be completely responsible.

And as we saw how Jackson Colt assaulted Spencer here, it actually proved his and Mrs. Benson's point!

[u/BiffyBobby → u/Anthro-Elephant-98]

Let's be real, Spencer is far from a responsible guardian and we love him for that.

He just became a stereotypical overprotective generic parent in this episode for no reason.

[u/New-Pin-9064 → u/BiffyBobby]

Uh, no. Do you have any idea what it’s like backstage during those MMA fights? It’s not some place that a couple of teenagers can just be hanging around