History YMMV / Meangirls

** The fact that "Karen" has since become a term used in TheNewTens to describe a particular type of [[ObnoxiousEntitledHousewife entitled, upper-middle-class, usually white suburban mom]] who acts like a SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp is quite hilarious, since Karen Smith in the movie is basically the complete opposite of this stereotypical "Karen". Oddly enough, some people have pointed to this film as the origin of the meme, specifically in the various ways that Regina insults Karen as well as Gretchen's line "Oh, my God, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white".

** The portrayal of the AmbiguouslyGay {{Cool Loser}}s Janis and Damian illustrates how attitudes towards LGBT people among teenagers were evolving in the early-mid '00s. Regina suspecting that Janis is a lesbian was enough to get her to kick Janis out of her social circle and spread rumors about her sexuality, leading to her present outcast status, while the Plastics list Janis in the Burn Book as a "dyke" and Damian as "too gay to function". This sort of casual homophobia on their part was shown as a sign of their AlphaBitch tendencies even in 2004, but characters with such tendencies in 2014 would be portrayed as downright bigoted rather than merely callous, given that nowadays, homophobia is seen by teenagers as roughly on a par with racism. It illustrates how, while tolerance of LGBT people was growing, full equality and acceptance was still a ways away (this was the year when Massachusetts became the first US state to legalize same-sex marriage, an occasion that sparked controversy and [[MediaScaremongering moral panic]]), and being gay, or even MistakenForGay, could make somebody an outcast. This is partially acknowledged in the musical adaption. Whereas in the film Regina makes it clear that Janis wasn't invited to her party during middle school because of her alleged homosexuality, in the musical she ''pretends'' it's just because she was only allowed to invite six people.

* CryForTheDevil: Regina after getting [[spoiler: hit by a bus]]. Despite her being a world class bitch, considering such an injury would leave her [[AndIMustScream in constant pain and unable to move for months]], you'd have to be pretty heartless not to feel at least a ''little'' bad for her.

* CharacterPerceptionEvolution: Time has not been kind to Janis, with many viewers finding her to be among the bitchiest characters in the movie. The entire plot is driven by her desire to get revenge on Regina -- including some schemes that involve manipulating Gretchen's very low self-esteem and tricking Regina into gaining weight. It's for this reason, in fact, that a popular fan theory speculates that Janis was Regina's BetaBitch back when the two of them were friends, and was just as mean as her, or that Janis was the AlphaBitch and Regina was a naive girl (like Cady) who gradually evolved into a mean girl, betraying her best friend and getting her unpopular.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** WebVideo/SarahZ pointed out that the musical's attempts to update the feminist subtext of the original for TheNewTens could have examined how many real life bullies sometimes try to get away with bad behavior by calling it feminism -- but any updates are mostly just {{Captain Obvious Aesop}}s or shallow pandering that doesn't break any new ground. Especially in comparison to the original's deconstruction of revenge, SlutShaming and the pressures young women face.
** Rather than taking the opportunity to fix the most problematic parts of Janis in the original -- the musical arguably makes her worse! She's given a GirlinessUpgrade that completely erases the Goth style of her character and, while she isn't paired up with Kevin after being MistakenForGay, her sexuality being left vague can feel like a copout to avoid criticism without having to actually represent an LGBT character. She only admits to doing bad things herself, but still never gets a moment of narrative comeuppance the way the other characters do. Her song about the importance of not caring what others think of you also rings hollow, considering her insecurities about being humiliated by Regina are what influence her to use Cady for revenge.

** [[invoked]] In the movie, Janis lost Regina's friendship when Regina publicly called her a lesbian, but by the end she's implied to be dating Kevin. [[ValuesDissonance In recent years,]] some people find this unfair because it implies [[MistakenForGay being called a lesbian]] [[UnfortunateImplications is the greatest insult of all.]] The musical, however, doesn't confirm Janis one way or the other, and adds a different layer to Janis's humiliation, so [[AmbiguousSituation it could still very well be about Janis being angry that Regina outed her.]]

* OutOfTheGhetto: It's still generally considered a "girls' movie", but it's gotten a generous amount of positive word-of-mouth from men who were pleasantly surprised by it and it's often seen as one of the best comedies to come out of the TurnOfTheMillennium. It doesn't hurt that all three (or four) Plastics are played by VERY attractive actresses who (despite playing high school students) wear skimpy clothing most girls in their 20s go clubbing in. Regina;s go-to fashion seems to be a micro mini-skirt.

** Creator/LizzyCaplan as Janis Ian. Anybody who's seen her in anything else she's done (especially ''Series/TrueBlood'' and ''Series/MastersOfSex'') knows that she is drop-dead gorgeous in real life. In fact, she almost didn't get the part, as the casting director [[AbilityOverAppearance thought she was too pretty at first]]. As such the costume designers deliberately gave her an alternative/goth type look, rather than trying to dress her down. Caplan's beauty is probably a contributing factor to the theory that Janis is a former Queen Bee.

* AcceptableTargets: The popular girls, hoo boy. Especially [[DumbBlonde blondes]].

* AwardSnub:
** The film was not nominated for any Academy Awards.
** TheMusical was nominated for ''twelve'' Tony Awards, but won ''none''. This tied the record for most nominations with no wins.

* CargoShip: One NoodleIncident being "the girl who made out with a hot dog". In the original script she ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms masturbated]]'' with it, but this was dubbed over for the theatrical release (you can still lip-read the original word).

* OutOfTheGhetto: It's still generally considered a "girls' movie," but it's gotten a generous amount of positive word-of-mouth from men who were pleasantly surprised by it and it's often seen as one of the best comedies to come out of the TurnOfTheMillennium. It doesn’t hurt that all three (or four) plastics are played by VERY attractive actresses who (despite playing high school students) wear skimpy clothing most girls in their 20s go clubbing in. Regina’s go to fashion seems to be a micro mini skirt.

** Hearing Mr. Duvall say “I got parents calling me on the phone asking ‘did someone get shot?’” ends up becoming unsettling to hear due to the increasing publicity given to school shootings.

--> "I love her. She's like a Martian!"

** A fairly popular belief with fans is that back when Janis and Regina were friends, Janis was the [[AlphaBitch queen bee]] and Regina was the innocent friend (like Cady) who was [[FromNobodyToNightmare slowly evolving]]. Notably when Cady lies and says that there's nothing about Janis in the Burn Book, Janis seems annoyed (perhaps narcissism that the girls aren't even talking about her full stop?) - and at times Janis seems just as bitchy as Regina and is more of a DirtyCoward to boot.
** Regina herself appears to care for the other Plastics in her own twisted way. When Jason is two-timing Gretchen, she gets revenge. She gives Cady a makeover and compliments her appearance. And she seems genuinely hurt when her friends turn against her - especially when she finds out everything Cady did to her. How much of these PetTheDog moments are genuine or for a cheap narcissistic laugh...or [[TakeAThirdOption both]]?

** Is Mrs George actually a better mother than she's given credit for? While she does offer Cady alcohol due to a misunderstanding, what she actually says "if you're gonna drink, I'd rather you do it in the house", meaning that if a teenager is going to drink she's going to make sure it's at least happening in a controlled environment where she could supervise her. And she offers Regina and Shane a condom when they're making out on her bed. Let's face it - Regina is going to do whatever she wants regardless of whether her parents forbid anything, so at least her mother is trying to get her to have safe sex.

* CommonKnowledge: Pop culture often imagines this as the film about girls' cattiness and back stabbing - ignoring the context that the film ''deconstructs'' said behavior and the Aesop is that Cady was wrong to backstab Regina in revenge.

---> Glen Coco? Four for you Glen Coco! You go Glen Coco!

** Betsy Heron is shown to be a down-to-earth, responsible mother who has no problem disciplining her daughter when she's gone too far. Sadly the opposite would be true with Lindsay Lohan's actual mother - who took her daughter to nightclubs while she was underage, and then used her public breakdown to launch a reality series of her own. She then tried to push her younger daughter into show business as well.

** Regina telling Gretchen that she's never going to make 'fetch' happen. Given the MemeticMutation the movie has undergone - including that line - it seems she ''has'' made it happen in (at least some form)!

** Gretchen's line "we should totally just ''stab'' Caesar!" - since Lacey Chabert's next notable role after ''Mean Girls'' was ''Film/BlackChristmas2006'' (in which she'd have to deal with someone doing a lot of stabbing).

** Cady at one point post FaceHeelTurn snaps at Janis, reminding her that it's her own fault things turned out this way - since the plan to take down Regina was entirely her idea.
--> "You're the one that made me like this so you could use me for your eighth grade revenge!"

* TestosteroneBrigade: While written by [[Creator/TinaFey a woman]] and marketed heavily to teen girls, it was released at the height of Creator/{{Lindsay Lohan}}'s [[HollywoodHypeMachine "it girl"]] popularity, and features Lohan and a number of other sexy young actress in provocative dress throughout. Lots of men went to see it for the hot high school chicks. Creator/BellaThorne, when promoting ''Film/TheDuff'' on Creator/TheBBC's Radio 1, even invoked this when trying to persuade the DJ's producer (a man) to see ''Mean Girls''[[note]]That's right, she was promoting a different movie - luckily Paramount and CBS Films, which made ''The DUFF'', are part of the same corporate family[[/note]], pointing out its brilliance and adding "Plus it's [[Creator/LindsayLohan got]] [[Creator/RachelMcAdams four]] [[Creator/LaceyChabert hot]] [[Creator/AmandaSeyfried girls]]!"

** It's meant to be a low moment for Cady when she doesn't own up to her crimes at the assembly. However some viewers find it quite reasonable that Cady wouldn't want to admit writing something in the Burn Book in front of the entire school - especially since that would lead to her getting blamed for it all, and probably blow the whistle on Gretchen and Karen too involuntarily.

*** Janis is also extremely manipulative in her ReasonYouSuckSpeech to Regina, where she exposes the plan to destroy her. She attributes most of the light-hearted stuff to herself, and the nasty stuff to Cady. Particularly she says that Cady "made out with her boyfriend and convinced him to break up with her" - conveniently leaving out that Regina was in fact cheating on Aaron, and Cady merely told him this. Their kiss was also accidental, rather than a tactical move by Cady. Thus this speech can look less like an empowering moment, and Janis once again getting petty revenge on a friend who wronged her, while also avoiding any comeuppance for her own actions.
* ValuesDissonance: The line where Regina's mother says Cady can have alcohol in the house is meant to be another example of how under Regina's thumb she is. In Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland, underage drinking is not quite as big a deal. Several parents allow their teenagers to have little amounts of alcohol at home - so as not to have them going mad when out with friends (which in turn also makes Mrs. George's line "if you're going to drink I'd much rather you do it in the house" come off as more responsible than her parenting is meant to be). What's more is that the drinking age there is either 18 or sometimes even 16 instead of 21, so giving alcohol to a 16-year-old isn't as big a deal.
* ValuesResonance: Damian, being a confident and out and proud young gay man definitely has aged well. Daniel Franzese even said years later that he had many LGBT teenagers coming up to him and thanking him for his portrayal - as Damian gave them a positive role model.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: This little gem from "Sexy." All of it.
-->'''Karen:''' I can be a sexy doctor, and cure some sexy cancer!
-->...
-->'''Karen:''' I can ''sexy'' cure some cancer!
-->...
-->'''Karen:''' I can cure ''sex cancer!''
-->'''Gretchen:''' Sex cancer doesn't exist.
-->'''Karen:''' ......''I DID IT!''

** WebVideo/SarahZ pointed out that the musical's attempts to update the feminist subtext of the original for TheNewTens could have examined how many real life bullies sometimes try to get away with bad behavior by calling it feminism - but any updates are mostly just {{Captain Obvious Aesop}}s or shallow pandering that doesn't break any new ground. Especially in comparison to the original's deconstruction of revenge, SlutShaming and the pressures young women face.
** Rather than taking the opportunity to fix the most problematic parts of Janis in the original - the musical arguably makes her worse! She's given a GirlinessUpgrade that completely erases the Goth style of her character and, while she isn't paired up with Kevin after being MistakenForGay, her sexuality being left vague can feel like a copout to avoid criticism without having to actually represent an LGBT character. She only admits to doing bad things herself, but still never gets a moment of narrative comeuppance the way the other characters do. Her song about the importance of not caring what others think of you also rings hollow, considering her insecurities about being humiliated by Regina are what influence her to use Cady for revenge.

* TheScrappy: Time has not been kind to Janis, with many viewers finding her to be among the bitchiest characters in the movie. The entire plot is driven by her desire to get revenge on Regina -- including some schemes that involve manipulating Gretchen's very low self-esteem and tricking Regina into gaining weight. It's for this reason, in fact, that a popular fan theory speculates that Janis was Regina's BetaBitch back when the two of them were friends, and was just as mean as her, or that Janis was the AlphaBitch and Regina was a naive girl (like Cady) who gradually evolved into a mean girl, betraying her best friend and getting her unpopular.

** A popular interpretation of Regina is that she's bisexual and is projecting against Janis due to internalized homophobia.
*** Is Regina an ArmouredClosetGay or {{Ambiguously Bi}} girl? Although Regina seems to have genuine feelings for Shane Oman, she is shown to be very comfortable and close with her friends and deep interests in women. She and Janis ended their friendship because Regina thought Janis was a lesbian, told everyone and uninvited her from her pool party due to her worrying that Janis would ruin it as everyone would be in their bathing suits, but there may have been more to it. Maybe Regina wanted to avoid temptation? There's also the fact that Regina is far more upset upon discovering that Cady betrayed her than she is about Aaron breaking up with her. She has a full-blown VillainousBreakdown when Shane reveals that Cady tricked her into gaining weight. When Regina gets back together with Aaron to snipe Cady, it could be argued that she’s dating Aaron again to stop Cady from dating someone else. Regina becomes close with Cady fairly quickly, and doesn’t seem keen on Cady dating at all. Maybe Regina hates the idea of Cady being with someone who isn’t her? As well as that, Karen (who Regina admits is prettier than herself) has no boyfriend (but is mentioned to be promiscuous) so maybe it’s not just Cady Regina wants to keep to herself. Of course, Gretchen has a boyfriend (an unfaithful one at that) but Regina also believes that Gretchen isn’t pretty, so Regina probably thought any boy wanting to date Gretchen was a miracle. It could also make sense as to why Regina isn’t as close with Gretchen as she is with the other Plastics.

** A popular interpretation of Regina is that she's lesbian or bisexual and is projecting against Janis due to internalized homophobia.
** Is Regina an ArmouredClosetGay? Although Regina seems to have genuine feelings for Shane Oman, she is shown to be very comfortable and close with her friends and deep interests in women. She and Janis ended their friendship because Regina thought Janis was a lesbian, told everyone and uninvited her from her pool party due to her worrying that Janis would ruin it as everyone would be in their bathing suits, but there may have been more to it. Maybe Regina wanted to avoid temptation? There's also the fact that Regina is far more upset upon discovering that Cady betrayed her than she is about Aaron breaking up with her. She has a full-blown VillainousBreakdown when Shane reveals that Cady tricked her into gaining weight.

* RetroactiveRecognition: The jock Shane Oman is played by Diego Klattenhoff, who currently has a main cast role as FBI Agent Donald Ressler in ''Series/TheBlacklist''.

** Regina's "I couldn't have a lesbian at my party..." took on a whole new (and funny) meaning seeing as Creator/LindsayLohan has an ex-girlfriend. There's also Amanda Seyfried dealing with a DepravedBisexual who's also a Regina-like character in ''Film/JennifersBody'', and her being one herself in ''{{Film/Chloe}}''.

* LoveToHate: Regina George is one of the biggest [[AlphaBitch Alpha Bitches]] of all time, but the sheer scale she takes this attitude to makes her both a hysterical and genuinely competent villain. Couple that with Creator/RachelMcAdams's performance, and you have the film's most popular character.

* TheScrappy: Time has not been kind to Janis, with many viewers finding her to be among the bitchiest characters in the movie. The entire plot is driven by her desire to get revenge on Regina -- including some schemes that involve manipulating Gretchen's very low self-esteem and tricking Regina into gaining weight. It's for this reason, in fact, that a popular fan theory speculates that Janis was Regina's BetaBitch back when the two of them were friends, and was just as mean as her, or that Janis was the {{Alpha Bitch}} and Regina was a naive girl (like Cady) who gradually evolved into a mean girl, betraying her best friend and getting her unpopular.

%%** Damian.

* GirlShowGhetto: Subverted. It's still generally considered a "girls' movie," but it's gotten a generous amount of positive word-of-mouth from men who were pleasantly surprised by it and it's often seen as one of the best comedies to come out of the TurnOfTheMillennium.
** It doesn’t hurt that all three (or four) plastics are played by VERY attractive actresses who (despite playing high school students) wear skimpy clothing most girls in their 20s go clubbing in. Regina’s go to fashion seems to be a micro mini skirt.

* TheScrappy: Time has not been kind to Janis, with many viewers finding her to be among the bitchiest characters in the movie. The entire plot is driven by her desire to get revenge on Regina -- including some schemes that involve manipulating Gretchen's very low self-esteem and tricking Regina into gaining weight. It's for this reason, in fact, that a popular fan theory speculates that Janis was Regina's BetaBitch back when the two of them were friends, and was just as mean as her.

** Regina's "I couldn't have a lesbian at my party..." took on a whole new (and funny) meaning now that Creator/LindsayLohan has picked up a girlfriend. There's also Amanda Seyfried dealing with a DepravedBisexual who's also a Regina-like character in ''Film/JennifersBody'', and her being one herself in ''{{Film/Chloe}}''.

** In the movie, Janis lost Regina's friendship when Regina publicly called her a lesbian, but by the end she's implied to be dating Kevin. [[ValuesDissonance In recent years,]] some people find this unfair because it implies [[MistakenForGay being called a lesbian]] [[UnfortunateImplications is the greatest insult of all.]] The musical, however, doesn't confirm Janis one way or the other, and adds a different layer to Janis's humiliation, so [[AmbiguousSituation it could still very well be about Janis being angry that Regina outed her.]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** While she is too prideful to talk it over, Janis does admit to Damian that she too did bad things, likely referring to Cady calling out on her for pressuring her to be a spy for the Plastics.
** In the movie, Janis lost Regina's friendship when Regina publicly called her a lesbian, but by the end she's implied to be dating Kevin. [[ValuesDissonance In recent years,]] some people find this unfair because it implies [[MistakenForGay being called a lesbian]] [[UnfortunateImplications is the greatest insult of all.]] The musical, however, doesn't confirm Janis one way or the other, and adds a different layer to Janis's humiliation, so [[AmbiguousSituation it could still very well be about Janis being angry that Regina outed her.]]
** The musical also removes any of the Asian stereotyping from the film, and Gretchen's original actress Ashley Park, is of Korean descent (thereby diversifying the cast). The film also catches some flak for saying that [[AfricaIsACountry Cady just grew up in Africa]], and the musical clarifies that it was Kenya.

* ValuesDissonance:
** The line where Regina's mother says Cady can have alcohol in the house is meant to be another example of how under Regina's thumb she is. In Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland, underage drinking is not quite as big a deal. Several parents allow their teenagers to have little amounts of alcohol at home - so as not to have them going mad when out with friends (which in turn also makes Mrs. George's line "if you're going to drink I'd much rather you do it in the house" come off as more responsible than her parenting is meant to be). What's more is that the drinking age there is either 18 or sometimes even 16 instead of 21, so giving alcohol to a 16-year-old isn't as big a deal.
** Regina casually using the word "retarded" as an insult in various ocassions. While it ''is'' being said by a villain, the fact that nobody bats an eye over what's now regarded as an offensive slur doesn't fly well with modern audiences.

* WhatAnIdiot: Cady pretending to be bad at math and flunking class to get closer to Aaron. Even Aaron himself mentions how stupid it was for her to do that. This is somewhat rooted in early 2000s attitudes that DumbIsGood, and it was considered somewhat cool to act like a ditz; Ms Norbury references this when she alludes to Cady acting dumb to get boys to like her.
** Regina is not too clever here too because after framing the other plastics for the nasty comments written in the burn book you'd expect she would stop there as getting the girls barred from school would ruin their popularity. Instead she [[DisproportionateRetribution photocopies the Burn Book,]] [[NoKillLikeOverkill distributes it in the corridors]], and stands back [[SmugSnake smugly]] as everyone breaks down into devolving chaos on seeing the nasty gossip written about them. It blatantly gives away that she was the instigator to anyone that is not occupied with attacking another girl.

* CargoShip: One NoodleIncident being "the girl who made out with a hot dog".

** The showcasing of [[AlphaBitch Regina George]] and her family's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEQV2OJVBx4 materialistic life]], while meant to show [[StepfordSmiler how empty and hollow her life truly was]] even in 2004, also marks the film as having been made before the Great Recession, when flaunting immense wealth was in style. While the scene of Regina's little sister shaking her booty to trashy pop-RAndB still resonates in the age of Music/MileyCyrus and twerking (and the fact that said sister is named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylie_Jenner Kylie]] is HilariousInHindsight), the fact that she's shaking it to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGL2rytTraA "Milkshake" by Kelis]] definitely doesn't (''Forever Young Adult'' even [[http://foreveryoungadult.com/2014/11/13/a-highly-scientific-analysis-of-mean-girls/ called the film]] a "2004 musical time capsule" in their retrospective). Regina's mom is also shown wearing 'youthful' clothes [[WereStillRelevantDammit in an attempt to be hip]]... which, in 2004, meant garish Juicy Couture sweatpants and tracksuits that, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools in hindsight]], make her look [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents even more pathetic]].

* SpiritualAdaptation: Many people considered this as the closest adaptation for a female version of ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'' -- minus the island and the pigs. It's also drawn [[https://culturacolectiva.com/movies/mean-girls-gretchen-weiners-shakespeare-julius-caesar direct comparisons]] to Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'', complete with Gretchen rewriting a piece of dialogue from that play for her English paper.
* SpiritualSuccessor: This movie has been called a [[LighterAndSofter PG-13 version]] of ''Film/{{Heathers}}'', and not without justification. Also, the writer of ''Heathers'' and the director of ''Mean Girls'' are brothers.