The Disturbing Nickelodeon Iceberg 

For a lot of the comments telling me of things I missed. Instead of replying to them all I will mention a lot of them are ones that I deemed "too well known" for this list. However there were some very interesting ones that I havent heard of that you guys have mentioned. Thanks so much for the help and the support. I will most likely be making more of these in the future! :)

They're too scared to give Dan Schneider a restraining order because of how excited he'd get at the mention of "500 feet"

It is sad how SpongeBob went from being just an ordinary Nicktoon, to Nickelodeon’s life-support. If they end SpongeBob, Nickelodeon will most likely shut down.

The sad part is Nickelodeon offered Jennette McCurdy $300,000 to stay quiet about her interactions with Dan Schneider. She refused and talks about it in her book “I’m glad my mom died”. She refers to him as the creator. I just finished the book this morning and I feel so bad for her as she suffered things she shouldn’t have from both her mom forcing her into acting and Dan giving her coffee mixed with alcohol as a minor

That Rugrats storyboard was beyond disturbing. It really makes you wonder just how many creeps were working at Nickelodeon.

Dan Schneider got a bit too excited when Nick put their foot down

I wish I could say Schneider was fired for being a creep but it was really because his shows weren't as profitable anymore and he yelled at bunch of execufives in a meeting. Nick doesn't care if their employees are creeps.

The fact Disney hired Brian Peck to work with and around children right after he was released from jail speaks a lot on them as well

I've been in animation classes and have worked on comics. You would be surprised how often these story board jams get out of hand. Like there's always that one artist who thinks the more shocking it is, the funnier it is. In reality, it's just uncomfortable

Corey Feldman was right. Child predators are everywhere in children’s media.

Kurt Cobain walking into a studio to make a song for ren and stimpy is so 90’s

A few things 1- I hate how most of the show I grew up on had a lot of creeps or abuse behind them. 2- I hate that he’s using being bipolar as a cover for being a creep. I’m bipolar and never once even and will never do anything like that.

Respect to bro for breaking this 2 years before everyone else

The sad part is that Nickelodeon, in its years leading up to their golden age was all about producing innovative and experimental programming and gave kids a space to be messy and subversive. They were "cool, alternative" counterpart to Disney. The problem is that they became a victim of their own success, milking what they believed was working and became afraid to take chances. It's sad that these days they're most known for being the "SpongeBob" channel.

Fun fact: There was one guy who worked for Nickelodeon that was caught on Chris Hansen's "To Catch a Predator". They caught him and aired the episode for all to see.

i went to that Nickelodeon resort in like 2013 and it was *horrible*, there were people in huge dora and spongebob costumes and it was so scary, the pools were also super small with a bunch of people in them and the slime bucket was just colored water. i recently went again in the summer of 2021 and it no longer has Nickelodeon’s name attached to it but the same issues still stand lmao

Snick was more like Adult Swim than Nick at Night was. You hit the nail on the head that Snick was programming that was more for the older kids. Difference was that it still felt like Nickelodeon programming. Nick at Night felt like a completely different channel with MUCH older shows (I Love Lucy, Dragnet, Get Smart, Dick Van Dyke, etc) that you wouldnt have known it was a Nick programming block. I still LOVED Nick at Night shows as a kid and it was amusing watching the adults look confused when I made references to shows THEY watched. I grew up in the early 90s so I remember wen Snick debuted.

There’s another murder case that‘s connect to a Nickelodeon cartoon. Randy Stair (Andrew Blaze). Basically this guy had an extremely unhealthy obsession with Ember Mclain, one of the antagonists from Danny Phantom. He was so obsessed with her, to the point where he thought she was a real person, and he saw her as this “Goddess”, believing that she understands him or something. He created a bunch of OCs for a cartoon he made called Ember’s Ghost Squad (basically just recolors of Ember but in different clothes, different hair color, etc..), the stuff he made for the cartoon were pretty messed up and dark, just full on edgy. He believed that he was part of this squad, where once you die, you turn into a ghost girl. He later shot up the supermarket he worked at, killing 3 of his co workers before turning the gun on himself. The fact that Ember’s ability to control people with music makes this case even more disturbing, considering that Randy listened to her song for hours nonstop.

The older I've gotten the more I've realized that anyone involved in Children's programming is definitely suspect

You know what's sad? My parents taught me that you can redeem yourself if you own your faults and apologize. But true sorrow doesn't always do that, does it? If Dan remorsefully apologized to his actors, he would still be unforgivable. Sometimes your past and mistakes _do_ define you, don't they?

Somebody needs to check the hard drive of those people that worked on the storyboard jam immediately

BionicPIG iceberg series? This is something id love to binge watch!!!

I'm highly comfortable to watch Pig make longer videos about creepy topics and options like this

7:48 Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and Cow and Chicken were all from What a Cartoon, which was Cartoon Network's version of Oh Yeah Cartoons

One of my favorites is that Hey Arnold is actually about Helga (She's the main protagonist). Other than the title being a direct quote from her and the intro where she's stalking him as usual. She's the only character we go into depth on. We know more about her family than Grandpa and Gerald. She also is the only one with extended monologue. Man I miss those shows. Thanks for the nostalgia trip.

There’s also a Danny Phantom related killer. He was obsessed with the character Ember and made very dark animations about her and believed she was his girlfriend and encouraged him to do certain things. He opened fire at the supermarket where he worked and multiple people were injured or killed.

It's sad too because whenever I would watch Victorious or Sam and Cat when I was younger, I would see some feet scenes and feel really uncomfortable and thought to myself, "this is so weird to put in a kid's show". Little did I know Dan was doing that until this year.

So heartbreaking to find out “that kid” was drake bell

Whos here after Quiet on Set?

I related to Helga so much as a kid and as an adult I realize why I did... Yeah. Negligent, emotionally unavailable and irresponsible parents. Living in the shadow of a way older and "perfect" sister. But Helga made me feel a little less lonely and weird.

It was always obvious Dan Schneider was a creep. I used to watch some of those shows with my kids and was surprised about how much foot stuff and panty talk and peeing was in the shows. Very weird

I gotta be old cause going on about how "not many people remember SNICK" and I'm just "I remember eagerly waiting for Saturday night to watch it.

I thought I was prepared for tier 5, but my jaw was on the floor with that Rugrats storyboard. And there is zero reason for pornographic images (cartoon or not) to be in game files that are marketed for and sold to children. Absolutely vile. I can't stop thinking about how much of the childhood entertainment that shaped our formative years is so tainted by the creeps who made it and the things that they openly did / created with absolutely no one holding them accountable. It makes me want to stand outside these creeps houses and just screech like a banshee.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Sam from iCarly. Theirs videos about how awful it was for her to be in the show. The producers wouldn’t let her eat when she wanted so she would “keep her youthful figure” but then have scenes where they make her eat a bunch. I always found those scenes funny but now disturbing

As a person with Bipolar Disorder, I can safely say being a creeper is not part of it AT ALL... WTF? I can't stand people who blame mental health conditions for horrible actions. Awesome video by the by :)

There’s a Danny Phantom murderer too, guy shot up a supermarket who thought he’d be reincarnated on/into someone from the cartoon

with invader zim murder i think its one of those cases where someone has issues and take "inspiration" from some form of media if he did it because of invader zim, if the episode didn't exist he would have found "inspiration" somewhere else and done something equally horrible. Obviously a child doesn't go from being fine to doing something like that solely because of a show their were probably signs that he wasn't okay that his parents ignored

As a former child actor, I never had anything type of grooming or forced to do anything. Everyone I worked with was great and very helpful. I’m glad my parents pulled me when they did. It’s such a shame to see that young child stars had to endure such horrible practices.

I had a friend who was a massive icarly fan. She was apart of the livejournal communities and would write fanfic like every other prepubescent and pubescent girl there. And a lot of it was pretty explicit for some godless reason. Apparently, according to her, Dan Schneider, who has a well-documented livejournal account, feel free to look it up, would show up and chat with these fans and tell them that they liked their fan fiction. I don’t think he was ever stupid enough to comment on the inappropriate stuff, but he certainly interacted with his fans in a pretty sus way.

the fact that this video was made 2 years ago...

to find out the 14 year old boy was drake bell breaks my heart

John K not liking Kurts arrogance, oh my god. He as worried his own ego wouldnt fit in the same room is all

Maybe our boomer parents WEREN'T entirely wrong when they said something felt off about these works and the people workin' on em.. The difference being we found the receipts.

great video, though id like to say Dan being into feet doesnt BY ITSELF inherently make him a creep. it's how he expressed his kink that makes him a creep.

FUN FACT : the B-52s actually performed the theme song for Rocko’s Modern Life

Rocko’s Modern Life was WILD. I’ll never forget the episode where Rocko briefly works as a sex hotline operator. Though I’m sure it sticks out so much to me because of my mother’s and grandmother’s reactions to the scene as it didn’t mean much of anything to my kid brain.

Even in the 90’s and early 2000’s a lot of the body horror in Ren & Stimpy was considered extreme. I couldn’t watch that show because of that one scene where Ren either looses or deliberately pulls out all of his teeth. I don’t like body horror. I remember thinking “what kinda person makes a show for kids where the two main characters are constantly hurting each other/getting injuries like this?” Later I saw how realistically Ren’s abuse of Stimpy was depicted in “Adult Party Cartoon” (an adult version of the show where the characters are implied to be lovers) and I *understood*. Ren *IS* John K and he’s an abusive piece of shit. (The scene where Ren gets mad and starts beating Stimpy as he cries and begs for him to stop while the camera slowly panes away from their house is something I can never unhear. And Ren insisting to the therapist that he still loves Stimpy even if he beats him, when, in a previous scene, he basically said that ever since he was a child the only thing that has ever brought him joy was *torturing* everyone and everything that he felt was too weak to fight back. There. Are. No. Words. )

"Let's put the Nick resort right next to Disney World" Probably one of the biggest f*ck ups of all time. And yes, as a kid I wanted to go there.

I really appreciate the work that went into this. That said, you hurt my heart a little bit when you said you didn't remember SNICK. 💔

The older we get the more terrifying our childhood memories actually are

i remember the dan schneider foot things scaring me as a kid one time carly's toe got stuck on a drain or something and that shit traumatized me i was terrified of that happening to me LMAOOO and the victorious fish episode also traumatized me for a bit

So many RU-vidrs -- but you are really good at this. Great voice, great content, just enough energy without being obnoxious... Keep up the good work..

Its wild how yall are just now seeing this. If you think this is shocking, you hate to see what disney does. This isnt new.

Tier 5 made my jaw drop. Only good thing is this. Brian Peck plays Scuz in Return of the Living Dead, and a zombie does graphically naw his brain out. That scene is now extremely cathartic. I genuinely hope Nickelodeon is doing more extensive background checks, this is horrifying.

I’m appalled that Nickelodeon continues to hire these people with criminal backgrounds specifically crimes against children. The storyboarding thing though woah. *also the whole thing with Elizabeth Gilles and her husband from Victorious should be talked about more

Honestly with how Invader Zim shares a creator with Johnny The Homicidal Manic, I’m surprised the kid didn’t latch onto that

Helga's mom is a whole pill popping animal, I'm pretty sure moms was sippin lean the entire time she always sounded like it was so hard to get her words out 😂😂😂

I’m so glad that you mentioned As Told By Ginger when going over classic Nicktoons. It’s such an underrated show that doesn’t get mentioned much.

I went to the Nickelodeon hotel, my room was fairy oddparents themed and all I can remember from that place was: 1. Room smelled 2. There was food in the pool, mainly chicken for some reason 3. The water slide was fun, but that’s the only redeeming factor

Anyone else here after Quiet on Set?

I mean, the fairly oddparents antidepressant theory is great if that was how antidepressants actually worked

I'm 36 and EVERYONE around my age adored Snick at Night. All That, Clarissa Explains It All, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Kenan & Kel, and my all time favorite Nick show The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

I'm genuinely sad that Helga Pataki didn't get to heal or move on. I wish the Patakis series had been made to possibly give her some healing.

Nick at Nite was simply a vehicle for Nickelodeon to be able to fill their overnight airtime with things from their syndication catalog. This allowed them to be able to sell more advertising time on their channel by targeting the adult demographic with very little overhead. Once their catalog of original IPs was large enough, they spun Nick at Nite into its own cable channel, much like Cartoon Network did with Boomerang.

I remember watching that rockos modern life episode a few times as a kid. It never came off as weird.. Just an episode about a bad marriage and her trying to make her husband jealous. What would make it weird is if rocko wasn't bothered by the situation.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy at 16 when you brought up Dan Schneider. There's an interesting theory with evidence that says that the father of her child is Schneider. Very good list overall, though

I’m really glad you didn’t focus on Dan Schneider too much. There’s a million videos already about him and the time could be spent talking about more obscure stuff

I think the reason why Nick may be quiet on Dan is because he probably has info to expose other ppl like him which is why Nick also gave him a paid leave.

9:44 “when I told them it was the real sandy” 💀💀💀💀 mad outta pocket Chris P

That rugrats story board was…..wow that’s literally the definition of “should’ve stayed in the drafts!” What in the hell! Also there is as an Nick employee that was caught on how to catch a predator years ago. His name is Justin Smith.

I’m really glad you addressed how sick that rugrats panel was-a lot of other channels parrot the “just blowing off steam” excuse but it’s always horrified me that these creators would draw something like that *as a joke*. The idea of a father grooming and abusing his daughter that way makes my skin crawl, even if it’s just drawn panels. Who the fuck would create something like that “as a joke to blow off steam”??? It’s repulsive and I think it says a lot about the people who made the panel.

This is the second of your videos I am watching, I'm here after the Disney one which I found very intresting and informative. I think you strike a really nice balance between keeping things light and being respectful and serious when its time to be

Does anyone remember a show on Nickelodeon in the 90s it was basically Star Trek with teenagers? I remember one character had rainbow hair, I think she was from Saturn.

Wow, the Rugrats “fanfic” is not funny whatsoever. It’s actually disgusting and depraved. I’m really grossed out that this is what those people really wanted to create. What a fuckin cesspool Nickelodeon was.

I'm surprised the Danny Phantom Fanboy Killer wasn't mentioned here, wild case with so many people affected.

When Nickelodeon attempts to make a Crash Nebula series, but Disney Lawsuits claims it similar to the Buzz Lightyear series.

29:32 damnnnn 2 years before the Nickelodeon shit dropped and we just now know that “kid” was drake bell

I remember Nickelodeon telling me to go outside and play in Denver while it was snowing, changed to Cartoon Network real quick.

As a kid, I actually figured Helga's mom was drinkin. Also thought the Rugrats parents were on drugs. I thought Stu was a tweaker, & the ppl coming in & out were buying from him. Made sense to me why the kids weren't watched. The episode where the kids think Stu is a robot, I actually seen this 1st hand when a person living with me was using & finally crashed after a couple of days. I guess when you grow up around that stuff, it changes your world view 😅

33:02 i can confirm as a person with bipolar disorder that it does NOT make you a pedo, just a lil sad sometimes tho 😢

7:56 Cartoon Network had their own shorts program called "What a Cartoon!"

Im bipolar myself and I am NOT a pedophile it makes me absolutely sick even thinking about it. Having a mental illness can't be used as an excuse for abusing children or anyone for that matter. It makes me Furious whenever I hear about people blaming their bipolar disorder to do things like that disgraceful acts against humanity has nothing to do with being bipolar or any other mental illness it has to do with being morally poisoned ☠

I can't believe the story board jam is real. That's actaully horrofic. I can't believe those people work on kids shows.

I stayed in the Nick hotel twice as a kid and vividly remember hiding under the table from the terrifying Dora mascot at the character breakfast.

Something I remember vividly when I was a child was an ad I heard on a local radio station. Basically, "agents" for Nickelodeon, Disney, different television studios, modeling, etc... were coming to a local conference center to look for children who wanted to be "stars" in movies, TV, modeling, and what have you. Well, I got excited and had my mom take me because what kid didn't want to be famous on Disney or Nickeloden. So we show up, and this place is filled with kids trying to get a deal. You didn't need any talent or background to get some sort of deal. They had these kids line up and one at a time you would walk up to this table where there was 1 or 2 guys (yes, full grown men) who would ask you your name, age, if you wanted to do TV or modeling and why you think you should be picked. And with that information and what you looked like, they would decide if you got picked or not. I didn't end up getting picked, I'm sure it was because I was just a plain Jane boring looking kid who probably wasn't even that enthusiastic. But I do remember the more "model" looking (GIRLS btw) being picked. So, essentially, you lined up for grown men, and they decided if you got to be "famous" or get a "deal" based on how cute you were. Again, didn't matter if you had any talent or background. I distinctly remember them pushing that these people were there on behalf of Disney and Nickelodeon. I don't know if this was a nationwide thing, but this was early 2000s. Probably before 2010, I remember being in middle school. No one thought anything of it at the time, but as I got older and recalled it, I realized how screwed up the whole thing actually was. If you haven't looked into that whole situation (this is the first time I'm seeing one of your videos) then it might be something to look into if you can find any information on it at all.

the fact that you can coerce and groom and hurt a child like that and only get 6 months in prison? the world is f*cked

Dan obviously has something on ALL his victims. He was clearly smart enough to get what he needed before he, "took what he wanted."

you shoUld make clip a short from the meet the patakis part for youtube to maybe get in the algorithm because id love to see that too. nice vid also.

As a humongous fan of Invader Zim I knew about the bloody GIR one but had absolutely no idea about the inspired murder. I always thought Dark Harvest was undoubtedly the series' least kid-friendly episode and was creeped out by it myself, but to think it could have inspired a child to do something so despicable... yeah, no. If they ever air the show again, they should put a higher rating on it. Way too bleak for young children to enjoy. They put 15 and up on Ren & Stimpy so hopefully the same is done to IZ.

I don't know how well known this is, but SpongeBob did a Squidward's Suicide reference in an episode. Squidward was opening doors to different universes and one door just showed his room, then static and a flashing image of a basically perfect recreation of the Squidward's suicide photo. Nick then got rid of that scene and changed it with a strange image of a baby colored blue with a baby Squidward face, then it poops its diaper and it sounds like a gunshot.

I believe outta the Big 3 (Nickelodeon,Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network) Cartoon Network have been the most wholesome and better network

SNICK was my go to for sure. All of these shows you’re mentioning are bringing back nostalgia. I feel like all the kid channels now need a day of play

Sometimes I watch these disturbing iceberg videos and I just want to get in a rocket and leave the planet This was a great video though! I just discovered your channel today and I've been really enjoying watching your stuff

Nickelodeon had Oh Yeah cartoons. CartoonNetwork had What A Cartoon. Pretty much the same thing on both channels, a place to test show pilots to try to get them picked up into a full series.

I always hated Helga but seeing the pre-school Helga that was really cute and nice made me feel hella bad for her after that. Interesting to think back and hear that so many people watched the same shows and enjoyed the same stuff as I did.

yea you may be a bit young for that one cause SNICK was a pretty big deal and was where shows like “are you afraid of the dark” “all that” and “roundhouse” came from. it was actually closer to the blueprint of the original adult swim, which originally only aired one night a week

i love your editing style, very slick. I am excited to see some of your other content :D

The issue with the whole Fairly Odd Parents theory is that people who genuinely need antidepressants don't just grow out of them at a certain point when they "get better".... That's actually one of the dangers of medications: they can make people think they're better so they stop taking them, then it forms a vicious cycle.

I'm on antipsychotics instead of antidepressants, but mental meds really aren't something you go off of when you "get better". You're usually stuck with them for life because chemical imbalances you're born with don't really go away.

Looks like you got a big update