Fan Bashing Taken To An Extreme

So I watched the new iCarly tonight and I have a lot of mixed feelings about it.  I totally get the message Dan was trying to send.  Fans do take their opinions to an extreme sometimes.   Taking iCarly for instance, I have seen so many boards where fans personally attack each other due to a difference of opinion (i.e. Creddie shippers calling Seddie shippers stupid, crazy, etc  and vice  versa).   While I think that people attacking one another is wrong, it needs to be taken into account that the reason these people have such strong feelings in the first place is because of their love for the show.  So although Dan was merely trying to express to the viewers that iCarly is a comedy and that there is no need to fight over it…some of his comments did cross a line.  He went from trying to send a message to literally bashing super fans.  He even went as far as to say that these “nerds” have no life.

Now considering iCarly is a TV show that is written for the purpose of entertainment, maybe people use it as something that helps them break away from their stressful lives.  Maybe they invest themselves because it gives them an outlet to express themselves.  By putting these people down and saying they have no lives is extremely inappropriate.  While I am a Seddie shipper and I was not really that insulted by anything I saw tonight, I have been on a lot of iCarly forums since watching the episode and have seen how upset some fans are about the episode.  I really do feel for them.  They care so much about iCarly and right now they feel like their attachment to it is being thrown right back in their faces.  I read about a few girls who dressed up in all purple (the official Seddie color) and had been counting down the days till tonight’s episode.  While this might seem extreme to some, they only did this because they love the show.  And for Dan to portray people like them as “crazy” and “lifeless” was just wrong.

I also feel that it was wrong for Dan to have Carly giving a speech that basically made it sound like iCarly has nothing to do with relationships.  Dan himself is constantly reassuring shippers of both Creddie and Seddie, that relationships are possible in the future.  He also clearly has created episodes that deal specifically with ships (i.e. iKiss, iSaved Your Life, etc.).  So if Dan really wants fans to stop focusing on so much on shipping, then HE needs to stop focusing so much on shipping.  

Now while this episode was obviously poorly received, I do not completely blame Dan.  While him insulting his fans definitely has a lot to do with the negative response to the episode,  a lot of complaints also came from the fact that people thought they would be getting Creddie and Seddie moments tonight which clearly did not happen.  The Nick promo department knew this episode was going to be about Seddie and Creddie so they promised answers they were not going to give.  While iCarly is known for having an adult audience Nick needs to realize it obviously has a kids audience too.  To outwardly lie to these kids might help Nick boost ratings and make money, but it destroys these kids in the process.   And while mature viewers took the promos with a grain of salt and didn’t expect a “relationship” to come out of tonight’s episode- fans at least were expecting a little romance to be in it.  And instead this episode literally had no relationship development between the main characters what so ever.  While the way Nick presented the episode is not Dan’s fault, it is still unfair to fans to be jerked around that way.

Now shipping issues aside, this episode did have its good points.  Jack Black was hysterical as was Freddie and Spencer’s fist bump (regarding the WOW knockoff).  I also really enjoyed Carly’s interactions with her new boy toy.  I thought they were cute together and found it kind of odd how she didn’t seem to care that he was being beaten to a pulp by crazed fans at the end…

Anyhoo- when it comes down to it, I am going to have to rate this episode as a LOSS.  Although the writing itself was often funny, the extreme bashing of such diehard fans was just too much for me.  Especially when I know that many of these diehard fans are kids who just want to watch their favorite television show.  I’m hoping that iCarly fans don’t stay mad for too long, but I can understand if they do.  Hopefully Dan can turn fan feelings around with the next episode.