The real reason Nickelodeon ‘parted ways’ with Dan Schneider

I don’t talk about Nickelodeon a lot, which doesn’t make sense considering how much of it I watched as a kid.

Dan Schneider, former TV producer for Nickelodeon, turns out to be a pretty weird fella. He’s the guy who is responsible for all the shows we knew and loved as a kid, such as “Drake and Josh,” “Zoey 101,” “iCarly” and “Victorious.”

Nickelodeon parted ways with him a little less than a year ago, and I figured it was because he had been there awhile and they just wanted to bring in a fresh mind. However, the reasons they let him go are not what I expected.

Supposedly, Schneider exploited his position to get “closer” to young female stars like Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice. When I say closer, I don’t mean like sexual harassment close, but you can say this guy’s a creep. He was starting to become really suspicious, and that’s ultimately why Nickelodeon parted ways with him after so long.

The weirdest thing about Schneider is his unknown foot fetish. There are clear signs not only on Twitter and other sources, but from the shows themselves.

If you guys ever watched “iCarly,” you might recall them doing multiple shows starting with their feet. One of the episodes literally starts with Sam (Jennette McCurdy) having smiley faces on her toes along with dyed cotton balls for hair.

“Victorious” has one episode entirely about feet smoothening. In the episode, Tori’s (Victoria Justice) sister Trina (Daniella Monet) gets some illegal “pooka fish.” These fish supposedly enjoy eating the dead skin from peoples’ feet, making them very smooth. After Trina gets smooth feet, the entire school surrounds her and starts feeling her feet in amazement.

Like come on, Schneider. The entire episode is about members of the “Victorious” cast dunking their feet into a tank full of pooka fish in hopes of getting smooth feet. They all do it too. They end up getting sick in the end because the saliva of the fish is loaded with toxins. Everyone is in the hospital, and the doctors become amazed at how soft their feet are too. Just weird.

I wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do next, but please, Dan, save your foot fetishes for your own time. 

Now to the tweets. These suspicious tweets happened while they were still making new episodes for “iCarly” and “Victorious.” A tweet by Schneider that dates back to May 19, 2010 is a good example. He tweeted, “Toes: similar to fingers, but not NEARLY as good. Who agrees?”

The fact that all the letters in “nearly” are capitalized suggests Schneider likes his feet. A few days before that tweet, there was another one with a video link. “Video! Would you like to see @VictoriaJustice pour ketchup all over her feet? Well, here ya go,” and then the link appears after.

How did you know, Dan? That’s exactly what everyone wants to see. There are so many more tweets I could point out, but that would make for a 2,000-word count. I’m pretty sure you get the idea anyway.

This is just so strange and cringey to me because these are the shows we watched as kids. When we watch episodes that involve feet that much, we think nothing of it. We just think of it as another episode without connecting all the dots. When you look back at it later in life, however, you get different thoughts about it and actually think it’s very creepy. Obviously, not all the episodes were part of Schneider’s plot to involve feet, but there’s definitely some weird stuff going on there.

The question I now ask is, why didn’t they get rid of him sooner? These tweets are almost 9 years old, as well as the episodes that portray feet. Couldn’t they have maybe figured out this guy is a little off the mark? I know they eventually did, but it took them until 2018 to do so.

The fact that Schneider incorporated feet that much into the shows for his own sort of “arousal” is just messed up. I’m not saying Schneider isn’t a good producer; he made so many of my favorite shows. I’m just saying it’s sad to see his tenure at Nickelodeon end in such a suspicious and creepy way. I wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do next, but please, Dan, save your foot fetishes for your own time.