Top 10 Biggest "Uh-oh" Moments in Nickelodeon Shows
An "Uh-oh" moment is not like a "What the heck?" (or a stronger word) moment, as this mainly goes to moments that just seem pretty... wrong. Just the mere sense of a studio not knowing that stuff can be taken in a different direction or whatnot (although that's not always the case, as sometimes, it's just stuff that you wouldn't believe would fly past Nickelodeon then, and would most certainly not fly now).
If you know Nickelodeon behind the scenes, chances are you knew Dan Schneider is a creep, but did you know it's been hinted at for quite a while? Several of his shows have moments where the underaged cast members show off their feet for no plot-relevant reason, but as a mere gag.
This sounds incredibly creepy indeed...
You may say, "But Maddox, the Gone With The Wind controversy is only recent", and I would say, if they merely referenced the book and movie in a non-offensive manner (e.g. referencing the "Frankly my dear" line), then it wouldn't qualify for the list, but what does qualify is a moment in one of the earlier episodes where after Sheen eats a candy that tastes "fishy" and starts enacting lines from Moby Dick, Cindy eats a candy that tastes like "fried chicken" (a stereotypical Southern African-American cuisine) and recites lines as Prissy from Gone with the Wind. Yeah...
All Grown Up!... where to start? It's an underrated classic series, and one of the highlights of the series is an episode where Phil and Lil have separate birthday parties, the title? "Separate But Equal". The title is a reference to racial segregation laws in the early 20th century.
While I personally don't find the scene offensive, some do, and it's honestly one of the biggest "uh-oh" moments on Nickelodeon. I was surprised it was even allowed back in 2003!
An earlier episode of Rugrats, "Grandpa's Date", is most well known for a scene with Lou Pickles saying he'll watch "Lonely Space Vixens" (a reference to adult movies) after he puts Tommy and Chuckie to bed (which applies to a What the Heck moment, but not really an Uh-Oh moment), but did you know in the same episode, Tommy says he and Chuckie are "gypped" in a scene... Nowadays, that term is infamous for being a pretty big slur.
This episode has definitely not stood the test of time, as it implies the only true love is heterosexual, which is ironic because the fairy ruler is literally supposed to be ambiguously gay. So yeah, this kind of sends the wrong message.
Actually, the biggest crazy moment to me was the scene Rocko was snooped and recorded on while he was nude getting some milk.
The infamous banned episode of the show is banned for a reason - the writers literally SHIPPED Rocko and Ms. Bighead... that's really crazy.
By far the most controversial non-foot example from this show is the episode with "The Hobo Party", what made it worse was that it aired around the Great Recession!
Several episodes of SpongeBob have suicide played as a gag, and no, not just the post-movie ones, but several pre-movie ones too (Including Gary Takes a Bath and The Algae's Always Greener), this has stopped around 2014, either due to the original staff returning or Robin Williams' suicide that year.
Before I continue, I'd just like to say that I'm not cancelling any of these shows out nor am I saying that these "ruin" the show, but anyways, the episode "Rock Bottom" has a gag where the bathroom signs were question marks, in 2000, it was just a detail that added to the weird atmosphere of Rock Bottom, but now, it parallels recent controversies over what bathrooms trans people should use.
