Top TV Memes: The Best Formats From The Original 'iCarly'

iCarly was a Nickelodeon kids and family TV show that originally aired between 2007 and 2012. It follows Miranda Cosgrove’s Carly Shay and best friend Sam Pucket (Jennette McCurdy) as they start a web show with Carly’s neighbor Freddie Benson (Nathan Kress), her brother Spencer (Jerry Trainor) and a shirtless preteen named Gibby (Noah Munck). Their web show, iCarly, becomes popular worldwide and leads them on misadventures in Japan, the Cheesecake "Warehouse" and beyond.

Most Gen-Z or millennial kids grew up watching iCarly. It’s an instant favorite of many due to the light-hearted comedy that we once loved before the existential darkness of our teenage years ruined us. We’re all nostalgic for the years when iCarly was one of the best shows on TV, long before our generation had to pay taxes.

With memes from and about iCarly everywhere nowadays, including What’s Gibby Thinking About, Spencer being hit by a stop sign and various memes reflecting on the show in preparation for the iCarly reboot coming to Paramount+. Here are some of the episodes that gave us the best memes from the original show.

Most Popular Memes: Season 2, Episode 13: "iMeet Fred"

In this episode, the creator Lucas Cruikshank (better known to us as Fred) invites the three to his house after Freddie calls his content unfunny. In the Nickelodeon universe, Freddie’s comment is somehow the worst thing the internet has ever heard and creates an absurd amount of backlash as if the creators of the show didn’t look at the comments readily available on Fred’s channel already. They ultimately wind up collaborating with Fred to create a video that’s been memed (or insulted, rather) thousands of times.

Aside from this, "iMeet Fred" also gave rise to two other memes. The first is Spencer’s Magic Meatball, which is essentially a copyright-safe Magic 8 Ball that he asks for advice in every decision he makes. The second is a memorable two-panel meme known as Whatcha got there?, which is a question posed by Carly when Spencer arrives home in an elevator with a smoothie and a live ostrich (which his meatball told him to buy). Spencer replies with, "A Smoothie," which has led to many different memes joking about subjects of censorship, poor life choices and more.

Most Meme Potential: Season 3, Episode 28: "iSpeed Date"

In this episode, the group struggles to get dates to the upcoming girl’s choice dance at their school. Freddie in particular finds his options are slim and is ultimately asked by a scary professional magician named Magic Malika. At this moment, Malika performs a magic trick where she disappears, and in her place, Gibby appears — shirtless and holding a banana. He explains that he doesn’t know how he got there, then asks, "Whose banana is this?"

Gibby is one of the most widely used characters in memes and appears in many episodes where he embarrasses himself and others, mostly while shirtless, but he also is featured on his own YouTube channel now that he’s an adult. His content can best be described as, weird, cryptic and somewhat disturbing. Gibby’s moment in which he holds the banana in this episode has developed into a meme format but hasn’t become very popular in comparison with other moments on the show, even though it would work great as a reaction image.

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