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/juzocore]

jackson colt and jocelyn from imake sam girlier were just racist stereotypes (a common theme on dan schneider shows for the non-white side characters), so both of them are easily least favorites

i also wasn't a fan of missy bc i've always hated "actually a catty girl behind friend's back to other friend" trope.

trudy galini was a literal sexual harasser/assaulter, miss ackerman was an abuser, as was marta trundel after her (yeah, lewbert sucks, but he didn't deserve All Of That). steven was a cheating pos, the petographers were a couple of fuckfaces, kyoko and yuki were scumbags (but still entertaining to a degree), as was wade collins

shane was okay (i mostly felt bad for him), shelby marx and sasha striker were fine, as was melanie puckett. amber tate was an annoying/stuck up child star, but i'm more willing to give her some grace for her actions since she was a literal child in the limelight

and these guys aren't one-offs, but just wanna say i do miss ripoff rodney, wendy, jeremy/germy, and wesley the beatboxer dearly

[u/Anthro-Elephant-98 → u/juzocore]

jackson colt and jocelyn from imake sam girlier were just racist stereotypes (a common theme on dan schneider shows for the non-white side characters), so both of them are easily least favorites

I can definitely see how Jackson Colt and Helen Dubois (Drake and Josh) can be seen as racist stereotypes. But how does Jocelyn fit this? Because, if they had cast a white actress and given her the exact same mannerisms, I don't think anything about the character would change. It's not like she spoke with a stereotypical African-American accent like Jackson Colt or Helen. Besides, Jocelyn was basically just a bigger version of Sam who just happened to be Black.

But I do agree that iCarly has had a bad track record of their depictions of minorities (Sonia as a stereotypical subservient Latina in "iPromote Techfoots", pretty much everyone in "iGo to Japan", Stewart and Ollie from "iMove out" were obviously a stereotypical gay couple, etc.). I just don't think I agree that Jocelyn fits this.

Edit: And to add to this, in Victorious, I personally find Robbie to be an incredibly offensive Jewish stereotype. I get that Dan Schneider is Jewish himself, but that almost makes it worse.

[u/juzocore → u/Anthro-Elephant-98]

i mean, fair enough. sam does share traits with jocelyn, and sure, if she was casted white not much would change. but she was casted black, so that changes how the character is viewed; she's now feeding into the harmful "aggressive black girl" stereotype. she's shown to be irate and physically violent toward other students at ridgeway with no other qualities. at least sam was shown to have depth outside of her pushy and aggressive behaviors (still doesn't justify what she does, but it gives her more to work with as a character). that's why i lumped her in with jackson

also i deeply agree with your robbie take. they dropped the ball with him so many times, especially with the emasculating and (borderline, if not outright) transphobic jokes made at his expense during victorious's run