"Are you insane?! Get out of Ms. Briggs' apartment! " |
iSpy a Mean Teacher is the eighth episode of the first season of iCarly.
Plot
After watching Ms. Briggs shouting at several students that are passing by in the hallway (ending in her throwing down and stomping on an orange offered to her by one well-meaning classmate), Carly becomes inspired to do an iCarly feature on "What Mean Teachers Do When They Aren't In School."
Freddie buys a pie-shaped spy camera with an obvious lens on the side and a giant fork, much to Carly and Sam's amusement. Freddie tries it out on Spencer and his new girlfriend, but it doesn't fool either of them.
Carly and Freddie sneak off to Ms. Briggs' house with the pie-cam to shoot a video of what she is doing in her free time, at first is nothing but vacuuming. When a bee appears, and apparently is interested in the fake pie, Freddie panics because he is allergic to bee stings, and runs inside Ms. Briggs' house. Carly follows him, and they have to hide in a closet that turns out to be a shrine dedicated to Randy Jackson. They call Sam for help to distract Ms. Briggs, but are caught when Freddie steps on her bagpipes. Ms. Briggs threatens to suspend them and call the police unless she may appear on iCarly and play her bagpipes, so Carly, Sam, and Freddie reluctantly agree.
When Ms. Briggs appears on iCarly, the show starts losing viewers. Even worse is that it was their biggest audience yet by far (over 500,000 viewers), but Freddie manages to save it by playing backgrounds on the green screen behind her back. The next day at school, students applaud Ms. Briggs and she thinks she's getting credit for her "true musical artistry." She notices Freddie has a nice cologne on him, which turns out to be some Randy Jackson cologne he 'stole' from the room Carly and he were stuck in.
Guest Stars
- Mindy Sterling as Ms. Francine Briggs
- Samantha Aisling as Connie
- Libe Barer as Tareen
- Doug Brochu as Duke Habberman
- J.R. Nutt as Jim
Trivia
- As noted in this episode, American Idol exists in the iCarly universe even though in iRocked The Vote, American Idol is parodied as America Sings.
- A few products in Ms. Briggs's shrine to Randy Jackson include a talking cut-out, Randy Jackson cologne, Randychewitz matzohs and Randy-Yo's cereal.
- Freddie steals Ms. Briggs' Randy Jackson cologne in this episode.
- Freddie states that we will be Carly's second husband in 20 years. Ironically in the revival series, it is revealed that he married and divorced twice, before entering a relationship with her. The two then almost get married in the season 3 finale, iHave A Proposal.
Allusions
- Randy Jackson from American Idol is mentioned.
- The title is a reference to the game I Spy with my little eye.
Character Revelations
- Freddie is said to be extremely allergic to bees in this episode.
Goofs
- When Ms. Briggs stomps on the orange that the student kindly offered, we don't see any stain on Mrs. Briggs or the boy caused by it or the juice that popped out, despite the proximity.
- Ms. Briggs says she composed the bagpipes song herself but it is actually Scotland the Brave.
- In this episode, iCarly gets more than 500,000 viewers prior to Briggs' performance. This means this episode has to take place after iPromote Techfoots, in which iCarly scores more than 300,000 viewers, which is said to be a record. Although it is possible that the viewers in this episode never reached 500,000 again when they were getting their audience back.
- Sam calls Ms. Briggs on her cell phone from outside the apartment, but there is no way Sam could know her phone number without first looking it up in the phone directory or online - she would not have a teacher's number in her contact list or memorized.
- Carly and Freddie could've just waited until Ms. Briggs went to sleep to escape from her house. They could not take the torture of the bagpipes any longer.
- A bee could easily tell a real pie from a fake pie by its scent, presuming the pie is made out of plastic.
Running Gags
- Freddie trying to trick people into believing the pie is real.
Series Continuity
- The green screen (a special effects mechanism) is introduced in this episode.
- This episode marks the final appearance of Ms. Briggs until iHave My Principals, although she is still mentioned until then.
- Some of the Randy Jackson memorabilia is seen behind the Principal's desk in iHave My Principals.
- In this episode, iCarly gets more than 500,000 viewers prior to Briggs' performance. This means this episode has to take place after iPromote Techfoots, which has iCarly score more than 300,000 viewers, which is said to be a record. Although it is possible that the viewers in this episode never reached 500,000 again when they were getting their audience back.
- In this episode, Freddie tells Carly he will be her second husband and she asks him what happened to her first husband. Ironically. in the revival series, Freddie is the one who was married twice before divorcing both women before the events of the show. Freddie wouldn't actually enter an official relationship with Carly until 16 years later in 2023, and she does actually almost become his wife in the season finale, iHave A Proposal.
Quotes
Freddie: Must you always attack me with words? |
Sam: That Ms. Briggs is a joy, isn't she? |
Freddie: Okay, inside this box is a new piece of technological equipment that's gona blow you guys away. |
Freddie: There is nothing boring about being able to videotape Ms. Briggs with no chance of her finding out. |
[Spencer persuades his date Connie to juggle, who starts to do so just as Freddie catches his attention with the fake pie] |
[Carly and Freddie are spying on Ms. Briggs with the fake pie in tow at her house and decide that she is boring, so they decide to leave, but just as they turn to walk away, a bee flies around them] |
Randy Jackson cut-out: That was hot, yo! |
Sam [to Spencer]: I thought you were sculpting me for the past 3 hours! |
Sam: [sees spy pie] Freddie, you're so stupid. |
Sam: Uh, dont go near your patio door! There's a dairy monster on the loose and you don't wanna see what ... |
Ms. Briggs: I might even call the police! |
Ms. Briggs: Ah, your web show. iCarly. I've seen it. Nothing more than mucus in the nose of the digital age! |
Gallery
See photos of iSpy a Mean Teacher here.
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