'iCarly' Pokes Fun At Homeless, Throws 'Hobo Party'

The characters of the popular Nickelodeon program "iCarly" endear themselves to tweens the world over with their joking banter. But a common punchline may feel a little funny to the rest of us: Hobos.

The show, about a 16-year-old who creates her own web show, is making a running joke about homeless people, and even featured a photo gallery of a "hobo party" on its real-life website iCarly.com.

The show's characters are dressed in tattered, mismatched garb, with captions such as "Carly got her hobo costume from that new store in the mall called C.J. Penniless."

Freddie, one of Carly's friends on the show, also posted a blog on the website joking about a character named Hollywood the Hobo:

"Hollywood says, 'Any moron can have a job. It takes a special person NOT to have one!'"

Kids are catching on to the show's homeless-bashing, evidenced by a recent installment of "Kids React to Viral Videos." The video, created by independent production team The Fine Bros., features responses from kids about what they think it means to be homeless.

"You kind of have to steal your food."

"They used to be in this, like, mental hospital and then it closed down. Then they just threw them on the streets."

"Like, people make fun of them all the time, like on iCarly, and stuff. Like, 'Oooh, hobo.'"

WATCH:

Some outraged TV viewers have launched a Facebook group called "Dear iCarly, STOP MAKING HOBO JOKES THEY'RE NOT THAT FUNNY!!!" asking iCarly to stop making hobo jokes.

Are you offended? Weigh in on our poll below:

Quick Poll

What do you think of the hobo jokes on "iCarly"?

Harmless fun

Totally offensive

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[loki]

07:37 AM on 03/27/2011

ok, my kids are no longer watching icarly.

[QKingston Constantine]

01:24 AM on 03/11/2011

Tacky....

[PasqualTigre]

04:35 PM on 03/08/2011

Television programming isn't the problem, crappy parents who don't teach their own kids right from wrong is the problem. Spend more time instilling moral values onto your kids instead of letting TV do it for you. Lazy hobos.

[Skyhawk]

12:52 AM on 02/22/2011

Most of us were young and stupid, but not this insensitive. Maybe she should spend time working at a homeless shelter to get the big picture.

[Max Shaw]

05:06 PM on 02/14/2011

Great! Now we'll have a bunch of tweens walking around laughing at homeless people. What a horribly tasteless group of people. What a stupid show for kids..

[anastasiabeaverhousen]

04:36 PM on 02/13/2011

Until I read this, I had NO idea what 'icarly' was. Now, I'm saddened - that I know and that there is such a thing.

What incredibly heartless and soulless gruel

[DanoX]

10:15 AM on 02/13/2011

This is a misuse of the term "hobo". Homeless doesn't always mean hobo or vice versa. Most hobos are proud of their lifestyle, and chose to lead life their own way.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/rails/

That said, what they're doing has progressed from the misuse of a word, to making money off of bashing those less fortunate.

[Pat Savage]

11:10 AM on 02/14/2011

this is exactly the thing I was trying to get accross to others, great post DanoX

[Super Sarcastic]

10:07 AM on 02/13/2011

Corporate controlled media simply planting seeds......Branding .

[NancyPeske]

08:26 AM on 02/13/2011

iCarly isn't the only show or movie that seems to have resurrected this offensive term (I'm old enough to remember "hobo day" and summer camp in the Seventies, but didn't we all figure out in the 80s that you don't kid about homeless people?). However, I do think it started on iCarly and that's where it needs to end. As a mom of a tween who loves the show, I was shocked and had to explain to my son why the term is offensive--he didn't recognize it because we certainly don't use it in our house!

http://www.sensorysmartparent.com

[Leege]

11:54 PM on 02/12/2011

The irony is that most of the stars on this show have a high probability of becoming hobos themselves when they become adults.

[unity13]

10:46 PM on 02/12/2011

Guess they felt a need to "balance " the It Gets Better campaign. WTH

[Darlene1029]

09:50 PM on 02/12/2011

Another worthless, heartless young woman. " What Goes Around, Comes Around"

[MexiChick67]

04:01 AM on 02/12/2011

I can't believe this show. Homeless people are dying at the hands of young people who feel it's OK to harm them because they are 'hobos' or 'winos'. Dehumanization. That is not cool.

[onwisconsin]

11:32 PM on 02/11/2011

Hmmm...Kind of strange, that word hobo. We used it in the 70s as a reference to the real hobos of the depression era. We went to halloween parties dressed in hobo costume because it was the cheapest costume to make and wear. I am certainly sure that we weren't referencing the contemporary problem of homelessness, which was not on our radar at the time.

Now it is a very different time and I have not seen this show's references. Certainly kids today who are of an age to watch this (and I have nephews and nieces that age) know what homelessness is. None of my family members uses the word hobo to describe homeless folks but they also don't watch iCarly (they think it's lame). So, is the word offensive? I think if you are discussing the real deal, the hobo from the early 1900's, then it isn't. But if you are making fun of people who are homeless and down on their luck, I'd say it's at best in poor taste and at worst teaching kids how to bully others.

[NancyPeske]

08:33 AM on 02/13/2011

I remember that too--it was before the huge wave of homelessness hit in the 80s after Ronald Reagan pushed to empty the homes for the mentally ill.

I would say "hobo" today is offensive regardless of whether you're referring to current homeless people or people in the Depression who had to go begging door to door. I interviewed a gentleman who says his first memory is of crying when his mother had to give a plate of food to a very ashamed man who showed up at their back door, hungry because he was homeless due to the Depression. As a boy, he felt terrible for this man who was clearly very down on his luck and wracked by shame. Back in the 70s, we just didn't think about what the homeless experience might mean. I even remember singing "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" on hobo day at summer camp, and "One Meatball," and being confused by what was charming about not having the money to pay for bread with that one meatball...

http://www.sensorysmartparent.com

[onwisconsin]

11:12 AM on 02/13/2011

You are probably right. We were so removed from the experience and I know my grandparents didn't talk about the depression much at all. Homelessness then and now is not a condition to be laughed about or to be used as a child's costume.

[MED1025]

05:48 PM on 02/11/2011

Compassionate conservatives in the making? Has any of them looked at the track record of child/teen actors as they hit adulthood? They may be joining the hobos sooner than they think.