Mean Girls

About

Mean Girls is an American teen comedy about a girl who enters public school for the first time and learns how to deal with high school cliques and bullies. Since its theatrical release in April 2004, the film has developed a cult following and inspired several quotable catchphrases that are often referenced in online conversations.

Online History

The screenplay for the film was written by American comedian-actress and longtime Saturday Night Live (SNL) cast member Tina Fey after reading Rosalind Wiseman's "Queen Bees and Wannabes," a non-fiction book exploring the inner politics of high school social cliques. After discussing a potential original film adaptation based on the book with SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, Fey's screenplay, which partially incorporates her own high school experiences, was picked up by Paramount Pictures and went into production. Starring Lindsay Lohan as the main protagonist with a supporting cast of Tina Fey, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyfried, the film was directed by Mark Waters and produced by Lorne Michaels and released on April 30th, 2004.

Reception

Both a critical and commercial success, Mean Girls received a rating of 83% from Rotten Tomatoes^[1] and a score of 66 from Metacritic.^[2] Over the course of its theatrical release, it grossed over 129 million dollars worldwide.^[3] On January 23rd, 2011, a direct to DVD sequel was released, though it did not have the original cast or follow up with the original plot.^[7] On January 28th, 2013, Mean Girls writer Tina Fey announced there will be a Mean Girls musical.^[5]

Accolades

The film won three Teen Choice Awards in 2004 for Choice Movie Blush, Choice Movie Actress (Comedy), and Choice Breakout Movie Star (Female), all for Lindsay Lohan. It also won three MTV Movie Awards in 2005 for Best Female Performance (Lindsay Lohan), Breakthrough Female (Rachel McAdams), and Best On-Screen Team.

Online Presence

Mean Girls is available to watch on YouTube through Paramount's official YouTube channel^[17] for $2.99. As of March 2014, Mean Girls' official Facebook page^[5] has over 4.6 million likes.

Fandom

In addition to the film's branded social media presence, there are numerous fan sites for Mean Girls such as the Mean Girls channel on FanPop^[11]. There are several Tumblr blogs dedicated to the film such as fuckyeahmeangirls^[12], meangirlsgifs^[13], and classicalmeangirls.^[14] As of March 2014, the Fanfiction.net^[15] page for the film has more than 130 submissions, and DeviantArt^[16] has over 210,000 submissions tagged Mean Girls.

National Mean Girls Day

National Mean Girl's Day, also referred to as Mean Girls Appreciation Day, is celebrated by fans of the film on October 3rd. This date corresponds with the date Lohan's character Cady tells her crush, Aaron Sammuels, early in the film when he asks her what day it is. The day was first celebrated in 2011, when October 3rd was dubbed National Mean Girls Day in a blog post on Hunger Games site tengaged, but it first experienced widespread media attention in 2012 when it was covered by sites like E! Online^[23] and The Wire.^[24]

Parodies

On March 3rd, 2010, YouTuber pinkwhig^[9] uploaded a video titled "Mean Disney Girls" which featured the audio from the original Mean Girls trailer over clips from animated Disney movies (top left). As of March 2014, the video has over 11.7 million views. On November 24th, 2010, sketch comedy YouTube channel Just Dessert^[8] uploaded a video titled "Disney Princesses: Really Mean Girls" which imagined the cast of Mean Girls as Disney princesses (top right). As of March 2014, the video has over 1.2 million views. On May 30th, 2013 Todrick Hall posted a Mean Girls parody to his YouTube Channel^[6] titled "Mean Gurlz" which imagines the film took place in a predominantly black school (bottom left). As of March 2014, the video has over 5 million views. On January 21st, 2014, The Pet Collection's YouTube Channel^[10] uploaded a video titled "Mean Cats" that featured scenes from the film recreated using cats (bottom right). As of March 2014, the video has over 210,000 views.

Notable GIFs

Related Memes

"You Can't Just Ask Someone Why They're White"

"Oh My God, Karen, You Can’t Just Ask Someone Why They’re White" is a memorable quote from the film that is often incorporated into a series of multi-pane image macros depicting a socially awkward or personally invasive conversation among three or more fictional characters from popular TV shows and films.

"Get in Loser, We're Going Shopping"

"Get in Loser, We're Going Shopping" is a memorable quote from the 2004 teen comedy film Mean Girls often used as a caption in photographs of animals in vehicles, in a similar vein to the image macro series "There's No Time to Explain".

Glenn Coco

Glen Coco is a minor character who makes a brief appearance in the film as a mysterious classmate who receives four candy canes from anonymous admirers, as encapsulated in the famous line "Glenn Coco, four for you! You go, Glen Coco!" (shown below)

Les Mean Girls

Les Mean Girls is a meme that involves taking quotes (or slightly altered quotes) from the 2004 comedy Mean Girls and putting them on film stills from Les Miserables. The LesMeanGirls Tumblr^[16] uploaded its first imaged on January 2nd, 2013.

Mean Mad Men

On March 14th, 2013, the Tumblr blog Mean Mad Men,^[18] which takes quotes from Mean Girls and puts them over stills from the television drama Mad Men posted its first picture. The blog was covered by Buzzfeed,^[19] The Daily Beast,^[20] Salon.^[21]

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

On Wednesdays We Wear Pink is a meme format using a line of dialogue and frequently an image from the 2004 film Mean Girls. The meme is often used to remind people that it is Wednesday, joke about wearing pink, and also to joke about arbitrary decisions similar to the choice of the characters in the film to wear pink on Wednesdays.

Search Interest

External References