The Reign of Fred Figglehorn | Fallen Titans

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Today, in a special episode of Fallen Titans, we revisit a topic I once considered to boring for a full exploration: Fred Figglehorn, also known as just “Fred.” This YouTube star, in reality a character created by Lucas Cruikshank, was one of the biggest hits in the early days of YouTube, causing Lucas to become a recognized star in children’s television. So what happened? Why did Fred’s reign end so suddenly, and was there a bigger story to his content?

Join us today, as we take our final deep dive before the iCarly mini-series begins.

0:00 - Intro
7:12 - The Beginning
26:47 - 2009 Fred
45:45 - Fred Merchandise
50:49 - Fred: The Movie
1:13:51 - Lucas’s Concerns & Claudio
1:19:56 - Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred
1:33:25 - MAD Footnote & Nick-Era Fred Channel
1:40:41 - Fred 3: Camp Fred
1:43:12 - Fred: The Show
2:51:38 - Marvin Marvin
3:00:56 - Post-Nick Fred, the Final Fred Arc
3:16:18 - Fred Channel Post-Fred
3:18:51 - Fred Post-Fred-Channel
3:26:14 - Closing Statements
3:33:18 - Next Time on Quinton Reviews

Guest Editors:

Neon Hammer

PKMX

[skirdus]

I never thought I'd hear the words "lore", "timeline" and "canon" used to describe the Fred series

[mctheplaywright]

I know that John Cena‘s relationship to Fred is already covered in this video, but as John Cena is currently on an absolutely crazy upward turn as an actor thanks to his shocking well received performance as Peacemaker in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad universe, I think it bears repeating. John Cena started acting because the WWE asked him to do it as a way of marketing their brands. And he didn’t enjoy Acting until finding the fun while doing Fred. He has gone on record in modern interview saying that Fred was the moment where he realize he actually enjoyed acting. It took him over a decade to actually find a Director who could use him properly like he was used in Fred, but we wouldn’t have the peacemaker character without Fred the movie.

[FissionCube]

i hope lucas watches this tbh, i feel like hed really appreciate someone actually putting so much time into this character he made on a whim as a kid, even if he himself has since moved past the character

[alizardperson]

The voice is annoying we all know, but the absolute intelligence of a 13 year old creating this character with its subtle implications that don’t outright tell us what we need to know, along with being a pioneer of YouTube becoming what it is today, is absolutely impressive. Lucas is an absolute creative genius!

[carolinea]

My takeaways:
- Fred was the precursor to Filthy Frank
- Kevin was secretly in love with Fred the whole time
- The brand integration in Early Fred was actually really well done

[clonemarine]

I love the concept that Fred isn't aware of the American State of Georgia, but he IS intimately aware of Georgia, the formerly Soviet, East-European country.

[The_Kenster]

"I don't actually remember filming any videos. Once the camera started rolling I would blackout as the spirit of Fred possessed my mortal body once again."

[Dradeeus]

I gotta admit that scene where Fred was "piecing it together" with flashbacks of brazenly obvious clues and being outright told was pretty funny.

[andymcnamar]

it is actually kind of nice to hear that the team behind the fred movies actually wanted lucas to succeed and weren't just trying to get as much money out of his IP as possible.

[Wendigoon]

Fred is way more hilarious than I remember

[thegenericguy]

No one here's appreciating how good a joke 'She said she was from Georgia, leading Fred to assume she was a Soviet spy' is

[peterliter]

dude kevins actor is really the goat in every single fred property, that man is having the time of his life with the role of kevin and i am so here for it

[utopiaoverture]

I love how out of Fred, ICarly and Victorious you’ve seemed to enjoy watching Fred the most

[handstouchinghands]

"She has everything I'm looking for in a women: she's breathing, and she didn't run away when I smiled at her" how dare the delivery of this line be so funny

[fable]

I think the reason why Fred the TV Show holds up so well is because it's actually... _nice._ It is a fundamentally _kind_ show. This is especially clear after watching the iCarly video. Fred the show has none of the casual comedic cruelty that defined iCarly and so much other Nickelodeon content during that period. Sure, it made fun of its characters, but ultimately it always came back around to being sympathetic towards them. And unlike iCarly, instead of paying lipservice to celebrating weirdness while the narrative punished anyone who was actually weird, it _truly_ celebrated weirdness, something that was kind of unavoidable given how deeply weird the Nick version of Fred actually was. And in this world of cynicism, cringe culture, and anonymous cruelty, a show that lets its characters be truly, deeply weird and then loves them all anyway... that's a refreshing change of pace.

[allyu]

I did not realize how dark the original Fred videos are nor how coherent the narrative is. It is much more creative and talented than I appreciated.

[toetotipthatsabart]

Fred is so irresistible to the girls in his school for one reason — he’s the gay kid who doesn’t know he’s gay yet.

[cthulhudnuts]

I think one point of The Fred Show that I quite like is that like… his house looks and *feels* like a real house, even more grounded Disney/Nick shows feel incredibly fake but his house genuinely looks almost like they just walked into some family’s house and started filming. The school even looks a lot more real than other shows.

[AnimeFan]

Nickelodeon execs really looked at the story of a traumatized kid who's abusive drug addicted mother "works the corners" and thought "Let's make this a kids show".

[fable]

Every Marvin Marvin clip makes me feel so bad for Lucas. It's like Nick had this really talented performer, effortlessly funny in a way that you can't teach, and all they could think of to do with him was just make Fred Again, but from space this time I guess.