User blog comment:SamBenson/iCarly is a comedy show./@comment-3553219-20110627005417

I totally agree. Its comedy and its best not to get too caught up in it. Especially with things like iHire an Idiot.

That being said, the basis of the comedy is the character interaction. They are all pretty well developed and established characters at this point. Some of the reason that certain things Sam does is funny is because it is Sam. You can make a whole scene out of Sam giving someone a "I will kill you if you don't shut up" look. They get a lot of comedy miles just out of the audience knowing the characters.

But the flip side of that is you can't have a character act wildly out of character for a joke. It just doesn't work. So Freddie picking up the knife could be funny objectively. But it doesn't work because that's not who Freddie is. Not because people overthink it but actually the opposite. It doesn't get that gut instinct laugh because your first reaction is "huh?" not 'ha!".