IMeet Fred (iCarly)

"iMeet Fred" is the 13th episode of the 2nd season of mh:besttvshows:iCarly and the 38th episode overall. Its guest stars Lucas Cruikshank as both himself and Fred Figglehorn. It was heavily panned by critics and fans alike and was regarded as the worst episode of the series.

iPlot
While on the air, Freddie reveals that he is not a fan of Fred. Meanwhile, Spencer lets a magic meatball make his decisions for him.

iWhy It's a 5432Bad Episode

 * 1) Although Fred is already hated for his extreme immaturity and annoyingly high-pitched voice, this episode took the hate on him too far.
 * 2) * But the problem is when Fred's popularity began to rise around 2008-2009 (this episode aired in early 2009) when both he and his character became Social Media stars (which is explained why most characters in the episode were loyally defending him) until his character became irrelevant a few years later.
 * 3) Freddie is right about Fred being unfunny, but he gets abused throughout the whole episode for saying that Fred isn't funny, causing Lucas Cruikshank to quit making videos (this proves that he can't handle criticism). Freddie also gets kicked out of every club in school and even tortured relentlessly online just for giving his honest and straightforward opinion on Fred. Plus, Sam physically assaults Freddie with a tennis racket to force him to tell Lucas that he likes his videos. Not only that, afterwards, she throws him out of the treehouse and jumps on top of him which could have killed him.
 * 4) This episode gives a bad impression of Fred fans as people who can't handle criticism to the point of throwing an arrow on fire on Freddie's locker and making a website just to discourage people from watching iCarly.com.
 * 5) A laugh track plays at every moment of Freddie being physically and emotionally harmed, which shows that this episode relies on cruelty for comedy.
 * 6) Spencer is very stupid in this episode as he believes in his Magic Meatball (parody of Magic 8-Ball) and buys an ostrich because it told him to do it.
 * 7) * Spencer's side plot with the magic meatball is a blatant rip-off of the Rocko's Modern Life episode, "Magic Meatball", which does the same thing, except only it was executed better.
 * 8) ** Speaking of which, the magic meatball also had a stereotypical Mexican accent.
 * 9) It revolves around the already annoying Fred. What were you expecting?
 * 10) It encourages opinion disrespecting and forcing people to lose their hatred on a certain thing, like a TV show. No joke!
 * 11) Carly is very out of character in this episode as she does not stand up for Freddie or defend him in contrast to previous episodes. Sam on the other hand is even more abusive and annoying than usual.
 * 12) *Carly and Sam do not care about how mistreated Freddie gets. Worse, they even want him to stop hating Fred and start liking him in the end. They are disrespecting his opinion, which makes them horrible friends.
 * 13) It was revealed that Lucas started the fake feud to boost the ratings of both his channel and iCarly when it resulted in lower ratings and harassment, especially towards Freddie.
 * 14) Lucas apologizes to Carly near the end of the episode. While Carly did indeed deserve an apology, it should have been Freddie that Lucas should have apologized as well, since his reaction was the one that caused harassment towards Freddie in the first place. (Although, in fairness, Lucas had no way of knowing that Freddie would be tortured relentlessly for what he said.)
 * 15) The ending where almost the entire iCarly cast all talk and scream in high-pitched voices like those of Fred together with Fred himself is incredibly annoying and ear-piercing. Fred's high-pitched voice is already annoying enough, but to have Freddie, Sam and Carly also screaming their lines like him makes it even worse.
 * 16) Terrible moral: You must have the same opinion as everyone, or else no one will like you.

iRedeeming Qualities

 * 1) Lucas Cruikshank's parts are okay or good when he's not in character as Fred.
 * 2) As mentioned about the end, it turns out that Lucas stopped making Fred videos so that both his web series and iCarly would get higher ratings, which is kinda nice. (Although, in fairness, it all turned out to be one big, dirty lie, as Lucas never really did stop making Fred videos, as he only cared about the views. Yeah, Freddie being harassed and beat up by Sam is just all about the views. What a great character Lucas is portrayed as! (Even though Lucas never told his fans to violently harass and beat up Freddie).

iReception
As said above, "iMeet Fred" was heavily panned by fans and critics. It is often considered the worst episode of the series. It currently sits at a 4.7/10 on IMDb, making it the lowest-rated episode.

iTrivia

 * This episode spawned the "Whatcha got there?... a smoothie" meme.
 * Despite the gang traveling to Idaho to meet with Lucas Cruikshank, he was living in Nebraska at the time.
 * The scene where Spencer and his ostrich open their mouths very wide has been a mainstay in the iCarly theme song since Season 2.

iVideos
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