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3%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
4%%
5%%
6
7'''Warning! Character sheets are {{spoiler}}ific.'''
8
9Characters in ''Film/MeanGirls''.
10----
11[[foldercontrol]]
12
13!The Plastics
14
15[[folder:As a Whole]]
16[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mean_girls004.jpg]]
17
18* AntiVillain: All of them, in their own ways. See their separate character folders for details.
19* BeautyEqualsGoodness: '''[[TokenEvilTeammate Except]] [[BadBoss for]] [[BeautyIsBad Regina]]'''. The rest of the Plastics aren't all that bad (which includes Cady, despite her TookALevelInJerkass moments); they were all just negatively influenced by Regina herself.
20* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: After Cady enters, and especially after [[spoiler:Regina leaves]].
21* TheChewToy: There's a lot of slapstick comedy: Gretchen getting hit in the head by a ball, Cady tripping and falling into a garbage can, Regina getting hit by a bus, Karen alone trying to catch Gretchen when she was throwing herself into a crowd, etc.
22%%* FourTemperamentEnsemble:
23%%** Cady (phlegmatic)
24%%** Regina (choleric)
25%%** Gretchen (melancholic)
26%%** Karen (sanguine)
27* GirlPosse: They're the titular mean girls that rule the school.
28* HatedByAll:
29** To quote Janis during the party scene at Cady's home:
30---> '''Janis:''' You think that ''everybody'' is in love with you, when actually '''everybody''' '''''hates''''' '''you!'''
31** This, however, is most evident with Regina (especially considering her AlphaBitch persona). When Janis again tells to their fellow female schoolmates in the gymnasium about the Queen Bee's ruination with the help of Cady, those same schoolmates reacted with much joy towards Janis for such crafty plan of hers.
32* LargeAndInCharge: The two dominant members (Cady and Regina) are noticeably taller than the two followers (Gretchen and Karen).
33* NiceMeanAndInBetween:
34** In the original trio, [[BrainlessBeauty Karen]] is the nice one (if only because she's [[DumbIsGood too dumb to be truly malicious]]), AlphaBitch Regina is the mean one, and Gretchen is in-between (fairly nice, only acting mean under the influence of Regina). Lampshaded on some DVD covers, which have pictures of the original trio with the captions Mean (Karen), Meaner (Gretchen), and Meanest (Regina). When [[spoiler:Regina leaves, Cady briefly becomes the "mean" one as the new Queen Bee (albeit [[{{Downplayed|Trope}} a much looser example]], as well)]].
35** As a whole, Karen is the nicest, Regina's the meanest, and both Gretchen and Cady share the same role of being morally in-between.
36* NoDressCode: The Plastics often get away with wearing clothes like short skirts and crop tops.
37* PinkMeansFeminine: The Plastics have these rules surrounding the color pink, which they must wear every Wednesday.
38* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: They have no qualms about branding Janis a "dyke," and Regina casually uses the word "retarded" as an insult in her first on-screen conversation. (Granted, the movie came out in 2004 and the R-word in particular was not considered a slur until the 2010s.)
39* PsychoPink: The Plastics have a dress code where they wear pink on Wednesdays, with Gretchen opting for preppy pinks and Karen for baby pinks, but the domineering, manipulative Regina George takes the cherry on top, at least how the equally manipulative Janis sees her. By the time Cady dethrones Regina, she stops wearing pink as those clothes won't fit her and gets kicked out by the Plastics, while Cady accumulates pink skimpy clothes on her wardrobe as she becomes bitchier. And after Regina reforms, she gets pink accents on her neutral-colored clothes while also channeling her rage by joining the Lady Lacrosse team, and Cady dresses back to normal in a fashionable way.
40* PopularIsDumb:
41** Played very straight with Karen, who is the nicest of the Plastics but is also too shallow to be truly malicious.
42** Zig-zagged with Regina who, despite being able to manipulate most of the female half of the school into becoming her pawns, frequently shows herself to be rather BookDumb.
43** Discussed and justified over the course of the movie -- Cady, during her [[BecomingTheMask evolution into the]] AlphaBitch, begins [[ObfuscatingStupidity dumbing herself down]] so a boy will like her.
44** It's unknown about Gretchen, whose grades are never shown. While she is a bit ditzy, she is in the same English class as the academic Cady, so she may not be academic, but might be intelligent. However, she isn't great with emotional intelligence, judging by her speech in the Gym when the Sophomore girls are apologising. The Plastics also state joining academic clubs like the Math Club (or "Mathletes") is "social suicide".
45* SexySantaDress: In their "Jingle Bell Rock" routine that they do for the Winter Talent Show (which, according to [[GayBestFriend Damian]], they do every year).
46* ToxicFriendInfluence: Most notably, Cady becomes an AlphaBitch after hanging around them for too long. The clique isn't good for any of them, though, and a lot of their awful behavior is egged on by each other, or done to either spite or impress one another, depending on the situation. [[spoiler:After the Plastics break up, they're all much better off.]]
47* VanityIsFeminine: All of the Plastics are vain[[note]](Cady was only briefly obsessed with her looks as she became the new Queen Bee and later returned to her kind self)[[/note]] and are also very feminine.
48%%* WithFriendsLikeThese: Except for [[HeterosexualLifePartners Gretchen and Karen]], the Plastics are this towards one another.
49[[/folder]]
50
51[[folder:Cady Heron]]
52
53!!Cady Heron
54
55[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cady_heron.jpg]]
56 [[caption-width-right:350:"I know it looked like I was being a [[AlphaBitch bitch]], but that's only because I was ''[[BeneathTheMask acting]]'' [[BecomingTheMask like a bitch]]."]]
57
58->'''Played by:''' Creator/LindsayLohan (2004 film); Creator/ErikaHenningsen (2018 original Broadway cast); Creator/AngourieRice (2024 film)\
59''"Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George's life definitely didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front of you."''
60----
61* AbhorrentAdmirer: Regina tries to invoke this trope, wanting Aaron to think that Cady is [[StalkerWithACrush really obsessed with him in a really creepy, almost insane way]] so he would think she's nuts and lose his interest in her.
62* AdaptationalJerkass: Downplayed in the 2024 version, but her behavior after becoming the new Queen Bee of the Plastics is a bit more colder than in the original, directly revealing Regina's infidelity to Aaron in the hopes of getting together with him and explicitly denying Regina permission to sit with the Plastics after her weight gain.
63* AlphaBitch: After BecomingTheMask, she turns into a popular "mean girl" just like the other Plastics, even replacing Regina as the school's new Queen Bee. She later realizes this, and eventually gets better after that.
64* AntiVillain: Even after she becomes the new AlphaBitch, she's still a good person at heart, and is horrified to realize how mean she's become. She gets better.
65* TheAtoner: After she realizes the mess she makes, she starts doing good deeds to set things right.
66* BeautifulAllAlong: She's naturally beautiful despite not fashionable and even before the makeover when joining the Plastics.
67* BecomingTheMask: She pretends to be an AlphaBitch to get on Regina's good side. Then later, she ''really'' becomes one.
68* BeneathTheMask: She's just as capable of being a bitch as anyone.
69%%* BettyAndVeronica: While still innocent and nice, she serves as the "Betty" to Aaron's "Archie" and Regina's "Veronica." This still applies to them even after Cady herself replaced Regina as the new Queen Bee.
70* BitchInSheepsClothing: Both Janis and Regina claim that Cady was acting like this, due to the latter "acting like she's so innocent."
71* BookSmart: She is established as GoodWithNumbers when she first goes to school in order to contrast with her transformation into a [[ObfuscatingStupidity seemingly book-dumb]] [[AlphaBitch Plastic]] later in the film. [[spoiler:She still manages to clinch the win for the Mathletes, despite being months out of practice, at the end of the film.]]
72* CharacterDevelopment: Starts out as a NaiveNewcomer, becomes the AlphaBitch but by the end of the film she is shown to have dropped her naive and easy-to-influence side, as well [[TookALevelInKindness as her bitchiness]], and reached a healthy level of confidence now.
73* CorruptTheCutie: As Cady starts to hang out with the Plastics more often, especially under Regina's [[ToxicFriendInfluence bad influence]], those negative traits of the former start to kick in more and more.
74* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: The "word vomit" is a recurring problem for her.
75* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Cady refers to this as "word vomit" and can't help herself once it starts.
76* DistractedByTheSexy: Any time she sees Aaron Samuels, whom she finds utterly dreamy. Lampshaded by Ms. Norbury near the end, when she says nothing can trip Cady up during the Matholon competition because none of the boys on the opposing team are cute.
77* EasilyForgiven:
78** While Ms. Norbury is understandably upset at Cady for starting the mean rumor that gets her in trouble (granted, Cady didn't really write it but claims she did, mainly out of guilt), she tells Cady she's absolved just as long as she will help the school win the Mathletes contest.
79** Let's not forget the moment where she has a personal speech after she won the Spring Fling Queen title, in which everyone who's in that yearly event, besides Mrs. Norbury, ''eventually'' forgave her fully from her past actions (including both of her parents, Janis, and '''even''' Regina).
80* EatingLunchAlone: On her first day at school, she ends up eating lunch in a bathroom stall because she doesn't know anyone. After everything blows up in her face, she eats lunch in the bathroom again because ''everyone'' knows her, and they hate her.
81* EvilCostumeSwitch: Downplayed. After being fully integrated into the Plastics, she's given a makeover to look more like them: unkempt hair, shiny lipgloss, and so much makeup that her skin looks shiny like plastic.
82* FieryRedhead: Mostly after she TookALevelInJerkass. She has a nasty temper and is willing to turn it on people.
83* FisherKingdom: Staying too long amongst the Plastics causes her to start acting like them and becoming a snob.
84* FishOutOfWater: To the point where Regina describes her as both "like a Martian" and "socially [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain retarded]] and weird."
85* FromNobodyToNightmare: From an awkward NaiveNewcomer to the school's AlphaBitch.
86* GoodWithNumbers: Math is her favorite subject (even when she briefly lost that interest as she becomes one with the Plastics), to which she later joins the Maths Geeks as a Mathlete (although, she has also willingly done that out of guilt).
87* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Over the course of the film, the friendly and good-hearted Cady usurps Regina's position and becomes the mean-spirited AlphaBitch of the school. She goes through a subsequent HeelFaceTurn when she's confronted with her actions.
88* HelplessKicking: After falling head-first into a trash can during a walk and getting stuck, she screams and kicks her legs as if it's eating her.
89* HeWhoFightsMonsters: After a while, Cady is no longer pretending to be like the Plastics; she's ''genuinely'' acting like one.
90* HomeschooledKids: Until the beginning of the movie, Cady had never gone to a regular school and had been homeschooled since she was around four years old.
91* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite overtaking Regina's role as the new Queen Bee, Cady herself still knows what is morally right and wrong, to which she even gives thought about them with much sincerity.
92* JerkassHasAPoint: Although Cady is fully Plastic by this point, she is bang on when she says that Janis used her for her eight grade revenge against Regina. The fact that Janis deflects it only solidifies this fact!
93* LovableAlphaBitch: Even after she becomes the new Queen Bee of North Shore Junior High after overthrowing Regina, Cady herself still retains her own moral conscience.
94* LoveMakesYouDumb: Played with. Her crush on Aaron Samuels isn't strong enough to break her concentration with math (since she quickly recovers after being DistractedByTheSexy twice), but her desire to talk to him despite Regina's objections drives her to pretend to be bad at math so she'd have an excuse to talk to him. Aaron calls her out on it later, telling her that pretending to be stupid and failing on purpose is what's really dumb.
95* LoveMakesYouEvil: Her crush on Aaron also exacerbates her plan to sabotage Regina and replace her as Queen Bee, then again Regina clam-jamming hugely contributed.
96* ManipulativeBitch:
97** Convinces Regina to eat Kalteen Bars, knowing she'll be too thick to pick up on why she is bloating.
98** Dodges Janis' art show so she can pull Aaron at her party, only to then use Janis' art show as an excuse to dodge what she has to do with her parents.
99* MeaningfulName:
100** Whenever people mispronounce her first name, it closely sounds like "Catty," since she becomes a catty AlphaBitch later.
101** On the flip side, however, for that same abrupt nickname above, thanks to its root word "cat", this can also reflect her more '''"cat-like"''' personality, as well, mainly stemming from being ''sincerely gentle'' in front of others, as well as having the capacity to be ''socially independent'' from them, even when she becomes a fully-established AlphaBitch of a Plastic later on.
102* TheMole: Janis convinces her to infiltrate the Plastics so she can spy on Regina and take petty revenges on her.
103* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: When she realizes she's become just as cruel and horrible as the other Plastics.
104* NaiveNewcomer: She has no clue how to function or fit into the social climbs of high school. She's taken under Janis's wing, and then Regina's.
105* NerdsAreSexy: Zig-zagged. Kevin hits on her because of her looks ''and'' her math skills (though he later claims he prefers women of colour). Regina and Damian both tell her joining the Mathletes is social suicide and she dumbs herself down to impress Aaron (although Aaron likes her just fine, math skills and all).
106* NiceGirl: Before she becomes the new AlphaBitch she's pretty friendly. Even when she becomes the new Regina, her nice-girl self still shows through on occasion, such as from her interactions with Gretchen and Karen. In the end, she fully finds her good-natured self again.
107* NoSocialSkills: Being homeschooled on a different continent makes for a serious lack of understanding how high school politics work. Downplayed in that she picks up the rules pretty well.
108* ObfuscatingStupidity: She pretends to be terrible at math so that she can study with Aaron.
109* ObliviouslyBeautiful: At the beginning of the movie, she seems unaware of her good looks, especially when other characters point out how pretty she is.
110--> '''Cady:''' They wanted me to get socialized.\
111'''Damian:''' Oh, you'll get socialized, all right. A little slice like you.\
112'''Cady:''' What are you talking about?\
113'''Janis:''' You're a regulation hottie.\
114'''Cady:''' What?
115* ThePawn: For Janis to use to ruin Regina George's life.
116* PetTheDog: Does a couple nice things even whilst her transformation into Plastic is in full swing:
117** Tells Karen she's not stupid.
118** Tells Gretchen, "Good for you, Gretch," when Gretchen herself says that she's not taking the stuff from being mugged off anymore.
119* PositiveFriendInfluence: Even though she had fully established herself as a Plastic (as well as an AlphaBitch), she's actually the main reason to why the Plastics as a whole clique became less threatening as the movie progresses, where they would eventually disband later on.
120* SheWhoFightsMonsters: A quintessential teen comedy example. After joining the Plastics to defeat them from the inside, she slowly becomes exactly like them.
121* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Part of what draws her to Aaron is how kind he is. When Regina tries to "warn her" away by saying that all he cares about is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous his schoolwork, his friends, and his mom]], Cady doesn't see the problem.
122* SingleGirlSeeksMostPopularGuy: She develops a crush on Aaron, one of the [[BigManOnCampus most popular and handsome guys in the school]].
123* TheStarscream: To Regina, to the point of becoming the new AlphaBitch.
124* TenderTears: After realizing that she has become a "cold, shiny, hard Plastic" (as Janis described it), Cady silently cries, which easily showcases that her emotional side is still kept within her.
125* TookALevelInJerkass: The more she spends time with the Plastics, the more of a FieryRedhead she becomes. Could also count as CorruptTheCutie.
126%%* TragicHero: Actually manages to be a near-textbook example.
127%%* {{Tsundere}}: As she joins the Plastics, combined with her developed feelings for Aaron, she slowly becomes this, but ''only'' as a Type B, mainly because her conscience is still inside her even when she becomes the new Queen Bee.
128* UnkemptBeauty: Downplayed. While she clearly fits the bill as her original self, opinions about her makeover are split. More specifically, when Cady first appears, she keeps her hair in a [[TomboyishPonytail messy ponytail]], uses minimal makeup, and wears a baggy shirt and jeans, none of which are quite enough to conceal her natural beauty, but still give the impression that she either doesn't particularly care about her appearance or isn't aware of just how pretty she is.
129* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Reaches this conclusion at the end. Ruining Regina's life did not give her any real happiness, nor did it solve any of her problems.
130* WhatTheHellHero: As Cady becomes more and more Plastic, more and more of her actions veer into "what a bitch" territory.
131[[/folder]]
132
133[[folder:Regina George]]
134
135!!Regina George
136
137[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/regina_george.jpg]]
138 [[caption-width-right:350:"You know what people say about you? They say that you're a homeschooled jungle freak who's a less hot version of me!"]]
139
140->'''Played by:''' Creator/RachelMcAdams (2004 film); Taylor Louderman (2018 original Broadway cast); Creator/ReneeRapp (2024 film)\
141'''Janis:''' And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she's so much more than that.\
142'''Damian:''' She's the queen bee, the star; those other two are just her little workers.
143-->-- '''Janice and Damian''', on Regina
144----
145* AlphaBitch: The leader of the Plastics, and a fearsome one to boot!
146* AntiVillain: She's a bitch, and the worst of the Plastics, but she's still a teenager with issues. By the end of the movie, she is working through them, and is happier and a better person.
147* ArchEnemy: Is this to Janis Ian, having made her an outcast in the past.
148* AssholeVictim:
149** Since Cady is deliberately messing with Regina as a member of the Plastics due to being an AlphaBitch in general, the former made several attempts in doing so, but the one that stands out the most is making the latter gain weight through deceiving her into eating several foods constantly as a false form of diet, which includes Kälteen bars.
150** She got severely hit by a school bus, and even then, she's rather showing some form of smug attitude in front of the people who were giving her sympathy inside of her home as she's recovering from that accident.
151* AttentionWhore: She's subtler about it than Gretchen, but Regina wants all eyes on her, and dislikes it when Gretchen is trying to upstage her.
152* BackhandedCompliment: She admits to Cady that if the Spring Fling Queen is the prettiest girl in school, then it ''should'' be Karen... and then claims that no one will vote for Karen, "because she's such a slut."
153%%* BeautyIsBad: She's the only one of the Plastics who's qualifiable for this trope.
154%%* BettyAndVeronica: The Veronica to Cady's Betty for Aaron's Archie.
155* BigBad: Presented as one by Janis. Turns out she's just one of ''many'' mean girls around, including Janis; she just simply knew how to work the system to be at the top.
156* BigEater: After her weight gain due to eating Kalteen Bars, she's stuffing herself, noticeably in her CutASliceTakeTheRest scene. Her meal tray is overladen with junk food, while the other Plastics have an apple and a Diet Coke.
157* BitchInSheepsClothing: Although she doesn't bother with it for long, she can ''seem'' nice enough at first if she wants to.
158* BookDumb: She doesn't appear to do too well in school and comes off as vapid. But when it comes to social standing, manipulation, cliques, and popularity, Regina is a genius.
159* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Regina made her parents trade bedrooms with her so she could have their balcony and bigger closet, and she tells her mom to "stop talking" when Mrs. George tries acting hip.
160* BrilliantButLazy: Imagine all she could achieve if she put as much effort into her schoolwork and learning as she does in controlling the student body. Come the end of the movie and she's finally growing out of it, with her lacrosse sports and everything.
161* ButtMonkey: Regina George, the butt of all of Cady's tricks and pranks.
162* CharacterDevelopment: The ending implies she's mellowed and is becoming a nicer person. More pronounced in the {{deleted scene}}s, where she forgives Cady and the two part ways respectfully.
163* TheChessmaster: Comes up with her plan to get revenge on Cady and throw the entire school into chaos in the course of one screaming car ride home.
164* CoolBigSis: Her younger sister, Kylie, seems to be the person she cares for most in her family. Kylie is clearly heavily influences by Regina and their mother, and Regina is never shown ordering Kylie about or belittling her in any way like she does to their parents, instead greeting her kindly when Regina sees her. However, in the 2024 version, she's AdaptedOut.
165* CrocodileTears: Regina sheds these to Principal Duvall when she turns in the Burn Book and shows him what the other girls "wrote" about her and the female student body.
166* DeadpanSnarker: She gets a few passive-aggressive, snide comments in.
167** "So you can go shave your back now.", to Jason.
168** Still, ''half'' true.", is what she says about the fat virgin in the plastics burn book.
169** "Oh my god, it's her dream come true, diving into a big pile of girls", which she says about Janis.
170* DeathGlare:
171** In a deleted scene in which Cady rigs the weight scales, Regina gives one to Gretchen when Gretchen is about to say Cady's hair will look so fetch but corrected it to "knobby".
172** In the movie proper, she gives a scathing one to Cady after [[spoiler:leaking the Burn Book to Principal Duvall.]]
173* DevilInPlainSight: She has a pretty fashionable wardrobe, and is very stuck-up and vain in front of others, so those two traits of hers are really a match made in hell.
174* DidntThinkThisThrough: Her [[spoiler:leaking the Burn Book to every student and teacher in the hallway via photocopies. While it does succeed in ruining the Plastics' reputations, as a result Principal Duvall threatens to cancel the spring fling dance unless the girls shape up (although he says he can’t because they already booked the DJ). They also cause serious property damage and even parents think a school shooting happened. What's more, Janis takes the opportunity to reveal that Cady was sabotaging Regina the whole time, and the student body cheers on Janis. It reveals to Regina that no one actually likes her; they fear her]]. 
175* DumbBlonde: Subverted. She's vapid, shallow and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking doesn't even know if butter is a carb]] but she is ''not'' dumb on a social level.
176* EntitledBitch: She even displays this through the Plastics' "ex rule", where, according to Gretchen, any ex-lover of Regina's is "off-limits to friends" (though, hypocritically, Regina herself is also capable of ''cheating'' behind them, thus making her a maneater).
177* EvenEvilHasStandards:
178** Doesn't approve of sexual harassment, as demonstrated when she verbally stomps on Jason's balls for creeping on Cady.
179** Regina's not a fan of Jason two-timing Gretchen with Taylor Wedell and prank calls Taylor's mum to make Gretchen feel better.
180** It doesn't make up for her actions, but Regina reluctantly raises her hand along with everyone else when Ms. Norbury asks the students if they have ever betrayed a friend.
181** In the 2024 film, she's genuinely creeped out when her mom says that North Shore has the hottest boys, calling it disgusting.
182* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Some of the devotion showed by other girls borders on LesYay. She starts a rumor (albeit an untrue one) that Janis had a huge crush on her.[[invoked]]
183* EveryoneLovesBlondes: The AlphaBitch who everyone worships is a blonde, of course. Though she's not ''quite'' as loved as she thinks.
184* EvilCounterpart: She can be considered as this to the other Plastics in some ways.
185** She is heavily this to Cady, especially after the latter became an AlphaBitch herself. However, Cady is still a [[LovableAlphaBitch much softer]] example than Regina because the former's inner goodness is still present inside of her.
186** She can be seen as this to Gretchen, as both are significant [[AttentionWhore attention seekers]] who seem to be proud of themselves. However, while Gretchen herself is more open about attention-seeking, she's still [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold much nicer]], as opposed to Regina, who's subtler about being that and is a lot meaner in comparison.
187** To an extent, she's also this to Karen, as both are considerable [[BookSmart academic]] [[DumbBlonde dumb blondes]]. However, Karen herself, despite being the less intelligent one (not just academically speaking, of course), is actually [[KindheartedSimpleton much friendlier]] than Regina, who's still smarter [[StreetSmart on a social level]], where the latter uses it to nonchalantly or spitefully manipulate others, even for no reason at all.
188* EvilIsPetty:
189** Her arbitrary rule of her ex-boyfriends being off limits to other girls.
190** Cady not inviting her to her party is a big deal for her, even though she gave Cady a very good reason not to.
191* TheFakeCutie: Has '''no''' problems for faking a nice persona in front of others.
192* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Regina becomes this to the other Plastics before getting kicked out by Gretchen, with very passionate "You can't SIT WITH US!!!" scream.
193* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: For most of the movie she's a fashionable queen bee obsessed with her appearance and social status. However at the end she joins the lacrosse team and turns out to be very good at it. It was her therapist's idea for her to start playing sports and let all of her anger out on the field.
194* HairTriggerTemper: Regina George has a snappy temper which Gretchen seems to frequently trigger by accident. [[spoiler:By the end she's channeling all her rage into sports and has a calmer temperament as a result.]]
195* HatedByAll: As revealed during the movie's climax, out of all the Plastics, it's apparent that Regina herself has ''always'' been the least liked among her fellow North Shore female students (including both Janis and Cady) despite her academic social dominance there, which can be easily stemmed from her AlphaBitch attitude in front of others.
196* HeadTurningBeauty: She's extremely attractive and seems to attract [[DudeMagnet most of the guys in school]], and she's [[ProudBeauty damn proud of it too]].
197* HeelFaceTurn: At the end. The Plastics are disbanded, and Regina joins the lacrosse team -- and seems to be ''much'' happier for it. Helps that the other girls aren't afraid of her.
198* HiddenDepths:
199** Oddly enough, she seemed genuinely surprised and hurt when she realizes how much her schoolmates and even her teachers dislike her.
200** In the musical, she seems to genuinely believe she was helping Cady out, helping her survive by making her Plastic, and a large part of her fury over the whole "made her gain weight and lose Aaron" thing stems from that. As she puts it, "This is what I get for helping." And she sings this lyric while she's alone, which indicates that she really does feel this way.
201** In the musical, she reconciles with Cady and advises Cady to never care what other people say, implying that her AlphaBitch front did bring her a lot of security from mean comments.
202* {{Hypocrite}}:
203** Utterly shocked that Aaron would dump her and she was being with Shane Oman, at the same time.
204** Gets upset about finding out that Cady has manipulated her into living in a more disadvantageous lifestyle, yet earlier in the movie, Regina herself tricked Cady into thinking that the latter would hook the former up with Aaron.
205** Criticizes Cady for "acting so innocent". This is coming from the resident BitchInSheepsClothing who compliments a girl's skirt to her face but secretly says said girl's skirt was 'effin' ugly.
206* IdleRich: One of her many problems. She's obviously rich (living in a big house), yet has no hobbies or extra-curricular activities to fill her time besides mindless consumption (shopping at the mall) and is clearly bored with her own life, so she manipulates and spreads rumors behind other girls' backs to fill her time. [[spoiler:Averted at the end, when her physical therapist helps her to channel her rage into sports, being in girls' lacrosse team clearly helps her mellow out.]]
207* InUniverseCatharsis: After she is [[spoiler:hit by a bus]], her physical therapist helps her channel her rage into sports. Being able to work off all her rage in a healthy way clearly helps her mellow out, and by the end she has less energy to hurt or play games with her fellow students.
208* ItAmusedMe: At the start of the film, she seems to enjoy manipulating and controlling the entire student body (including tormenting and spreading nasty rumors) because she's rich and bored. [[spoiler:Post-CharacterDevelopment, she seems to grow out of it.]]
209* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Regina is the most arrogant bitch in the school but it's revealed of the course of the movie that she has anger issues triggered by crippling insecurities about her body weight and how well truly liked she is. The reveal that she's actually rather hated triggers her second VillainousBreakdown.
210* JerkassHasAPoint:
211** Whilst it was selfish of her to blow off Janis, she does have a point that Janis constantly badgering her for not calling her back and being jealous of Regina's first boyfriend Kyle is ''not'' healthy behaviour.
212** InUniverse -- Fetch never happened, it was a verb and not an adjective, after all.
213* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She's a rather nasty and selfish person to even her plastic friends, especially when putting down Gretchen and slagging off Janis. However, she gets better near the end. Even before that, she did seem to care about her fellow Plastics, albeit in her own twisted way.
214* KickTheDog:
215** Ostracising Janis Ian because she thought she was a lesbian.
216** Clamjamming Cady with Aaron was a colossal dick move which is the tipping point that motivates Cady to conspire against her under Janis Ian's guidance.
217** Cheating on Aaron with Shane Oman.
218** Calling Karen a {{slut|shaming}} behind her back. Notably, Karen was ''really'' hurt by this.
219** Framing the other Plastics to save her reputational ass and get revenge on them.
220* LaboriousLaziness:
221** If she put half as much effort into her studies or hobbies as she did into manipulating her fellow classmates for a cheap laugh, she'd actually be a premier student.
222** If she just ate healthily instead of coming up with convoluted diet plans to try to "cheat" her way into thinness like cranberry cocktail cleanses, using illegal weight-loss drugs, and eating junk food with "carb-burning" nutrition bars.
223* LargeHam: Creator/RachelMcAdams was clearly having fun playing the [[AttentionWhore attention-loving]], loud, evil Regina.
224** Done away with at the end, contrast her meek "Thank you", at the prom compared to the affected, overdramatic smugness she uses earlier in the movie.
225* LaserGuidedKarma: She later gets hit by a bus for her bad behavior throughout the movie.
226* TheLeader: Of the Plastics as a whole group, [[spoiler:at least before she was replaced by Cady]].
227* LovableAlphaBitch: Subverted. Cady ''thinks'' she's one at first and wonders if she's really as bad as Janis and Damian make her seem, but the moment we see what she's like behind closed doors, it becomes clear that [[VillainWithGoodPublicity they were right about her]]. [[spoiler:Played straight near the end when she's ''way'' more approachable post-HeelFaceTurn (made much more apparent in the original script), where she channels her rage into lacrosse.]]
228* MemeticBadass: An InUniverse example. Not content with being in charge of the Plastics, she's also an LustObject, as everyone seems to want a piece of her.
229* ManipulativeBitch: She's extremely skilled at twisting people's words and actions to get what she wants, or even just a cheap laugh.
230* MeaningfulName: "Regina" is Latin for "queen", reflecting her earlier status as North Shore's "Queen Bee" while being one of the Plastics, as well as the fact that she had ''dominated'' that same school before. King George III was also a famously insane king.
231* MirrorCharacter: A non-InUniverse example. She pretty much resembles Jessica Spencer from the more previously released movie ''Film/TheHotChick'', since they're both known for being some of the most mean-spirited, rebellious, and entitled high-school students, as well as the fact that they were both portrayed by Creator/RachelMcAdams. That being said, Jessica has also proven herself that she can actually be ''a lot'' more [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold openly]] [[LovableAlphaBitch nicer]] than Regina, whose sense of meanness is '''much''' [[EvilIsPetty more]] [[AlphaBitch prevalent]] in comparison.
232* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: While it was partially orchestrated by Cady and Janis, it's Regina's own continuous, horrible treatment of Gretchen and Karen that drive them to [[spoiler:kick her out of the Plastics later.]] Also, Cady herself turns against Regina and plots her downfall due to Regina's unnecessary KickTheDog moment.
233* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: From her "ex rule" to the sabotage she caused in the climax, it's no wonder why it's later revealed that she's ''not'' as very well-liked by others than she may have thought of at first.
234* {{Narcissist}}: Regina shows many traits of narcissism such as:
235** Seeing herself as superior to her classmates (when really, almost nobody liked her).
236** Treating others like crap to make it to the top (which includes [[WithFriendsLikeThese backstabbing the other Plastics]]).
237** Valuing her appearance a lot.
238** [[LackOfEmpathy Lacking empathy]] for others (except herself, of course).
239* NeverMyFault: Her attitude toward Janis ''screams'' this. After constantly blowing her off to be with her first boyfriend in middle school, Regina chose to believe that Janis was "weirdly jealous" of Kyle and "obsessed" with Regina rather than hurt and rightly angry at Regina being a bad friend, and after Regina started the untrue rumor that Janis was gay, she acts like Janis' reaction to being bullied and ostracized for it (dropping out of middle school, returning to high school in the fall, chopping off her hair, and embracing outsiderism) was Janis' own problem and not Regina's.
240* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Were it not for her dastardly scheme she wouldn't have had to confront the fact that everyone hates her, she wouldn't have got hit by the bus and wouldn't have gone through character development and learned to turn her rage into sports. Nice job fixing yourself, Regina.
241* PetTheDog: A couple times, she does things that are oddly nice, given her character... in her own, manipulative AlphaBitch way.
242** When she first meets Cady, she rescues her from a creepy guy that's making a rather lecherous joke (albeit by telling him 'he can go shave his back now').
243** When Gretchen sees her boyfriend interacting with another girl and is obviously really torn up about it, Regina gets the girl out of the way by calling the girl's mother and pretending to be a Planned Parenthood doctor for no other apparent reason than to make Gretchen feel better.
244** She's pretty nice to her little sister, at least nicer than a character like her would normally be.
245* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The reason for her falling out with Janis Ian -- she thought Janis was a lesbian and didn't want her around anymore after that. She also has no qualms about using the word "retarded" when she means "stupid." (Although that attitude wasn't the ''least'' bit uncommon in 2004, unfortunately.)
246* RichBitch: Huge house, endless wardrobe, cute convertible and is one of the meanest girls in the film.
247* RichInDollarsPoorInSense: Regina's a specific example. She could rattle off several mostly-illegal weight loss drugs (most of which either were expensive before being banned or would be expensive to ship from countries where they're still legal). Yet, she didn't know enough about health and nutrition to know whether or not butter is a carb. This is most likely a jab at the stereotype of American teenage girls wanting to get thin or in shape the fast and ''un''healthy way than through actual ''healthy'' living.
248* TheScream: When she finds out the bars Cady said would help her lose weight were actually helping her gain weight, [[SkywardScream she doesn't take it too well]].
249* ScullySyndrome: Played with. During her second VillainousBreakdown outside of the school (after finding out that nearly everyone in North Shore actually hated her), she bluntly says this to Cady (who was chasing after her during that breakdown of hers):
250--> '''Regina (to Cady):''' "Do you know what everyone says about you? They say that you're a home-schooled jungle freak who's ''a less hot version'' of me!"
251* ShroudedInMyth: An interview montage with other students and even some faculty highlights the silliest myths and rumors about how cool/mean Regina is.
252* SmugSnake: Regina is ''damn'' proud of every little manipulation that she pulls off and was so proud of herself she did not anticipate Janis or Cady having the audacity to plot against her. She can come up with smart, devious plans but is ultimately small potatoes compared to Principal Duvall who stops the riot in its tracks.
253* TheSocialExpert: She's pretty BookDumb, but a ''master'' at social manipulation.
254* TheSociopath: In the theatrical version, "I don't care who you are, [[Main/LackOfEmpathy I don't care how you feel]]!".
255* SpoiledBrat: She regularly tells her mother to shut up or leave her alone. She also has the master suite in her house because she forced her parents to switch rooms with her.
256* StrollingThroughTheChaos: During the now-iconic hallway brawl, Regina stands in the middle of the chaos, watching and looking ''very'' proud of herself.
257* StupidEvil: She's usually socially smart, but her KickTheDog moment with clam-jamming Cady with Aaron was unnecessarily cruel and bites her in the ass.
258* TranquilFury: When Cady is [[spoiler:summoned into the office over the burn book,]] Regina doesn't even say anything to her, she just shoots a DeathGlare as she walks past.
259* TechnicalVirgin: Apparently, she was "half a virgin" when she met Aaron. Make of that what you will.
260* TokenEvilTeammate: The only one of the Plastics who is a ''true'' "mean girl" by the book (no pun intended).
261** Gretchen and Karen aren't that bad, and Cady's bitchy behavior is mostly the result of Regina's ToxicFriendInfluence, but Cady herself is still a good person at heart and gets better after her HeelRealization.
262* TomboynessUpgrade: Her CharacterDevelopment at the end of the movie shows her going from a ValleyGirl to a PassionateSportsGirl.
263* ToxicFriendInfluence: Out of all the Plastics, she's the one who influenced the whole group the most in the first place, mainly due to her significantly hateful attitude.
264* {{Tsundere}}: Initially a Type A, especially given her earlier AlphaBitch status, she later mellows out becomes more of a Type B by the end of the movie, to which she transforms into a LovableAlphaBitch instead.
265* TwistingTheWords:
266--> '''Regina''': You're, like, really pretty.\
267'''Cady''': Thanks.\
268'''Regina''': So you agree?\
269'''Cady''': What?\
270'''Regina''': You think you're really pretty?
271* TwoFirstNames: "George" is more common as a first name, though using it as a surname isn't unheard of.
272* TheUglyGuysHotDaughter: Her father isn't very much of a looker but Regina, meanwhile, is a fashionable ProudBeauty and your typical AlphaBitch.
273* VillainousBreakdown: Two significant ones towards the end:
274** When she realizes that Cady deliberately made her gain weight. But then she recovers almost immediately and turns right back into TheChessmaster.
275** After Janis humiliates her in front of the school by revealing her ploy with Cady, Regina viciously snaps at Cady when the latter tries to apologize. This time, it is cut short [[spoiler: [[LookBothWays by a school bus]]]].
276* VillainousValor: You have to admit her scheme near the end was an awesome comeback to her initial humiliations from Cady and Janis.
277* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Janis, until she felt Janis was being too obsessive about Regina spending a lot of time with her first boyfriend Kyle. The final nail in the coffin was Regina spreading rumours about Janis being a lesbian.
278** Also this with Gretchen and Karen before getting barred from sitting with them at lunch due to not following the rules of not wearing sweatpants on Monday.[[note]]Thursday in the 2024 version[[/note]]
279* WeightWoe: She wants to lose a few pounds, despite the fact that she's a) gorgeous, and b) very skinny already. Cady exploits this insecurity.
280* WhileRomeBurns: Regina stands idly by while the school goes into chaos caused by The Burn Book.
281* WithFriendsLikeThese: The most likely among the Plastics to be a backstabber to almost anyone she knows, even nonchalantly speaking.
282[[/folder]]
283
284[[folder:Gretchen Wieners]]
285
286!!Gretchen Wieners
287
288[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gretchen_wieners_1.jpg]]
289 [[caption-width-right:350:"That is so fetch!"]]
290
291-->'''Janis''': ''Gretchen Wieners knows everybody's business, she knows everything about everyone.''\
292'''Damian''': ''That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets.''
293
294-->'''Played by:'''
295---> Creator/LaceyChabert (2004 film)
296---> Creator/AshleyPark (2018 original Broadway cast)
297---> Bebe Wood (2024 film)
298
299* AntiVillain: She's a Plastic, but she is more shallow, desperate for attention and affection, and insecure than mean.
300* AttentionWhore: She wants people to like her as much as they like Regina.
301* BeneathTheMask: Gretchen seems to [[ProfessionalButtKisser admire Regina at first]] and also appears happy about being her [[BetaBitch friend]]. Later it's revealed that she's a StepfordSmiler and miserable about their [[WithFriendsLikeThese so called friendship and being treated poorly by Regina.]]
302* BetaBitch: Gretchen is only friends with Regina for popularity, however at the same time Gretchen wants Regina's approval and is hurt when Regina is cold to her. The only sign of independence she demonstrates is after she cracks and kicks Regina out of the Plastics - after that, Cady becomes the new Alpha and Gretchen immediately pledges her loyalty to her. After the Plastics disband she joins the Cool Asians, and the Head of even clique, Trang Pak, becomes Gretchen's new Queen Bee to serve. Ultimately she seems to prefer being a follower to a leader.
303* BreakTheCutie: She eventually gets her final nail in the coffin once Regina told the former, for the second time, that the expression "fetch" is, in the latter's own words, "not going to happen" (i.e. become popular or trending).
304* ButtMonkey: In her EstablishingCharacterMoment, [[TheChewToy a football hits her head]]. Not to forget her [[NoodleIncident diarrhea incident]] at Barnes and Nobles. After her BackhandedApology, she falls down flat on the back. Pretty dangerous, but it's treated as funny, since Karen is the only one who makes an effort to catch her. Her bad luck and low self-esteem are the reasons why she's the Plastic Janis wants to be cracked.
305* CharacterCatchphrase: She desperately wants to start one: "That is so fetch!"
306* CuteButCacophonic: She screams "You can't sit with us!" in a shrill voice.
307* TheDogBitesBack: Spills Regina's secrets to Cady in retaliation for Regina constantly putting her down. In the 2024 film, she lays into Jason about overcoming her self esteem issues and triumphantly declaring herself as "fetch" after he mistakes her for another girl.
308* EvenBadWomenLoveTheirMamas: She is complicit in Regina's bitchery to the school but her recounting of how Regina forbade her from wearing hoop earrings and her tears at having to turn down a beautiful pair her parents once got her for Hanukkah seems to betray some guilt about possibly prioritizing her parents' feelings over Regina's wants.
309* EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas: Despite the fact that Gretchen's Jewish, she performs Jingle Bell Rock, which is a Christmas song, with the other Plastics every year for the Winter Talent Show. [[JustifiedTrope This makes sense, though]]. Gretchen kowtows to Regina -- if Regina wants her to dance to a Christmas song, Gretchen will dance to a Christmas song. And to be honest, "Jingle Bell Rock" is not a Christmas carol - there's no Christian imagery in that song. [[TruthInTelevision Also, a lot of real-life Jews celebrate Christmas (at least externally) with their gentile friends.]]
310* ExtremeDoormat: She is submissive and lives to do Regina's bidding. Even after the breakup of the Plastics, she’s unable to function without someone to tell her what to do, and finds another queen bee to serve.
311* ForcedMeme: Gretchen tries to make "fetch" a cool slang term.
312-->'''Regina:''' Gretchen, stop trying to make "fetch" happen! It's not going to happen!
313* GossipyHens: She's the gossip queen, see the quote above.
314* HeelFaceTurn: At the end. She joins another GirlPosse, but without Regina around, she's not mean.
315* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Karen. Karen and Gretchen have genuine affection for each other. Rather than trying to embarrass Karen for not knowing the cousin thing, Gretchen quietly explains it to her - and immediately lets her know when Regina calls her a slut. Karen's also the only one who catches Gretchen after her BackhandedApology.
316* HiddenDepths: She confesses to Cady that she's miserable as Regina's friend and has to pretend to like and not like certain things in order to gain Regina's approval.
317* IgnoredEpiphany: Her big song in the musical, "What's Wrong With Me?", gives her a heartbreaking one. Towards the end of the song, which is about her toxic friendship with Regina and her crippling insecurity, she briefly wonders if maybe ''Regina'' is the problem... but immediately backtracks and comments, "It's probably me."
318* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: She comes off as vain, but her problems stem from being incredibly insecure and needing approval.
319* InformedJudaism: At one point, she mentions receiving Hanukkah presents from her parents.
320* InnocentBetaBitch: She's only mean when doing Regina's bidding, or when she's getting back at Regina for hurting her feelings. She's a good and sweet friend to Karen, and is nice and accommodating to Cady for the most part. Gretchen just seems to be desperate for attention and for people to like her, and more neurotic and cripplingly insecure than anything.
321* InsecureLoveInterest: Seems to be this for Jason, willing to put up with his cheating just to stay with him, though she drops it in the 2024 version.
322* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Downplayed. She's only pretty vain and vapid, especially for attention. However, she can also be just as friendly as both Cady and Karen are.
323* JewishAmericanPrincess: Not just any JAP - her father invented toaster strudel.
324* LooseLips: She kept on accidentally spilling Regina’s secrets to Cady.
325* LoveMartyr: To Jason, who two-times her, yet she keeps fawning over him. She gets over it in the 2024 version, however.
326* MasochismTango: Gretchen's relationship with Jason is clearly not healthy for her but that doesn't stop her from going back to him.
327* {{Neologizer}}: Primarily in the form of "fetch". Which will never catch on.
328* NervousWreck: Insecure, neurotic and constantly on the edge of a breakdown.
329* ThePratfall: Performs one when the crowd in the "circle of trust" refuses to catch her, [[HeterosexualLifePartners except for Karen.]]
330* ProudBeauty: She acknowledges her beauty when she "apologizes" to the other girls for her behavior.
331* RoyaltiesHeir: "She's totally rich because her dad invented Toaster Strudel."
332* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Gretchen's ticket into the Plastics is that she's rich. When they get called to the principal's office for the burn book, she specifically tries to use her money and her father's notoriety to get out of trouble.
333* ShipperOnDeck: When she believes Cady has a crush on Kevin, she seems genuinely excited and tries to set them up. She's sorely mistaken (since neither is interested in the other) but it's the thought that counts.
334* SoBeautifulItsACurse: "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can't help it that I'm popular."
335* StatusCellPhone: Her being the only teenage character with a cell phone is a signifier of how rich her family is.
336* StepfordSmiler: Gretchen seems to be happy as Regina's second in command, but as Cady begins to chip away her facade we see a NervousWreck that is just one more slight away from a breakdown.
337* TenderTears: After her breakdown via a class speech, Gretchen later has a personal talk with Cady in a school bathroom about the former's ''actual misery'' from being under Regina's rule, to which Gretchen herself can be seen crying as she's giving that confession to Cady.
338* VillainousBreakdown: '''"WE SHOULD TOTALLY JUST''' '''''STAB CAESAR!!!"'''''
339* VillainousFriendship: She's best friends with Karen, and genuinely likes her, not just fear her like she does Regina. She also seems to like Cady as a friend, confiding in her at one point and for the most part being nice to her. Though maybe this isn't that surprising, given that Gretchen's a MinionWithAnFInEvil.
340* YesMan: At first to Regina, then Cady, and finally finds a new Queen Bee at the end of the movie, Trang Pak.
341[[/folder]]
342
343[[folder:Karen Smith]]
344
345!!Karen Smith
346
347[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/karen_smith_0.jpg]]
348 [[caption-width-right:350:"So if you're from Africa... why are you white?"]]
349
350-->'''Janis''': ''That one there, that's Karen Smith. She is one of the dumbest girls you will ever meet. Damian sat next to her in English last year.''\
351'''Damian''': ''She asked me how to spell orange.''
352
353-->'''Played by:'''
354---> Creator/AmandaSeyfried (2004 film)
355---> Kate Rockwell (2018 original Broadway cast)
356---> Avantika Vandanapu (2024 film)
357
358* AdaptationalNameChange: In the 2024 movie musical, Karen Smith becomes Karen Shetty due to her RaceLift.
359* AdvertisedExtra: Karen doesn't have that large of a part (especially compared to the other three Plastics) and has little impact on the plot, but is featured in all of the advertisements because she is a Plastic and thus one of the Mean Girls.
360* AntiVillain: She's ''barely'' a villain at all -- she's a member of the Plastics and does what Regina (and later Cady) tells her to do, but she's kind, sweet, and optimistic.
361* AsianAirhead: Due to being played by Avantika in the 2024 version, she invokes this trope in full force.
362* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Despite the fact that all of the Plastics, including Cady, are presumably of the same age (16 years, to be exact), Karen can somewhat be seen as this, largely due to the lack of genuine meanness in her, and the fact that her ditziness tends to occasionally make her behave rather childlike.
363* BrainlessBeauty: One of the iconic examples. Karen is one of the most beautiful girls in school (to the point where even Regina admits she should be the Spring Fling queen), but she's also one of the dumbest.
364* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: She's convinced she has psychic powers... you know, a fifth sense? ESPN? Well, at least her boobs do. They can predict when it's going to rain... well when it ''is'' raining.
365* CuteClumsyGirl: She has several moments of being this in the movie.
366** In her introduction, she was seen trying to catch a football, but it instead hit on '''her breasts''' (though she didn't feel the pain that much after that).
367*** She managed to get that same ball when another student threw it at her, and when she tries to throw it back at that other student, she instead accidentaly hit Gretchen with it (who was in a middle of a phone call) by the head, causing the latter to fall down to the ground from that injury.
368** During a Halloween party at Aaron's house (where she's dressed up as a mouse), after seeing Cady's "zombie bride" costume at first, Karen's horrified reaction from that caused her to bump onto another girl behind her and even spill her own drink.
369** While at the four-way call with her fellow Plastics, she was going to talk to Regina to confess her annoyance about Gretchen, but she abruptly let herself still be in the same line with the latter when she initially uttered that confession.
370** When she is the only Junior girl in North Shore High who is catching Gretchen after the latter's apology (which was rather [[BackhandedApology backhanded]]) during their trust falls at the school's gym, said latter just fell on the former completely, and both of them felt a significant amount of pain after that, only for Karen to have it more than Gretchen did.
371** After the Plastics broke up, she later became a weather reporter for North Shore with the use of her self-assumed "psychic breasts," but while doing so for the first time, she was standing in the rain ''without'' any rain protection item, like an umbrella or a raincoat.
372** In a deleted scene, she fell on a cafeteria prank that was set up by Cady instead of Regina, who was supposed to be the target of that prank.
373* TheCutie: Because of her rather sweet, albeit naive personality despite being a Plastic, she can be easily seen as this.
374* DarkAndTroubledPast: In the musical, her part in the song "Stop" reveals that [[spoiler: a boy manipulated her into sending him a picture of her naked, and then shared it with his friends, who spread it all over the internet--when she was ''thirteen''.]]
375* TheDitz: Stands in the rain, feeling her breasts (see InformedAbility below), and declares that "there's a 30% chance that it's already raining!" With complete straight-faced sincerity.
376* DumbBlonde: A classic example with shades of old Marilyn Monroe roles where she's just as sweet as she is dumb (in fact, [[https://youtu.be/1RHY9-35KwA?t=363 it was even confirmed by her own actress Amanda Seyfried]] that part of her own character ''was'' based off of Monroe herself, specifically in the movie ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'').
377* DumbIsGood: She's the nicest member of the Plastics, but also the dumbest.
378* EveryoneLovesBlondes: She's a member of the school's ruling clique, and has no problem finding male attention. Regina even acknowledges that Karen's prettier than her at one point (in her usual backhanded fashion, of course).
379* FunPersonified: Out of all the Plastics, she represents this trope the best, given that she has often displayed a very positive personality all throughout the movie.
380* GirlsLoveStuffedAnimals: Karen has a toy rabbit on her bedroom desk and a pink toy dog and other stuffed animals on her bed.
381* GoodBadGirl: She is one of the nicest characters but it's implied that she ReallyGetsAround. In the musical, she gets a whole song celebrating the SexyWhateverOutfit and how much fun it is to dress up in them.
382* HeelFaceTurn: During the epilogue, [[spoiler: she's shown as the only member of the original plastics to be spending time with Cady, Janis and their new circle of friends, carefully combing the hair of one of their new friends (the wheelchair-bound girl).]]
383* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: She has light blonde hair, and a sweet, sunny disposition.
384* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Gretchen. Karen and Gretchen seem to have genuine affection for each other. Rather than trying to embarrass Karen for not knowing the cousin thing, Gretchen instead quietly explains it to her - and immediately lets her know when Regina calls her a slut. Karen's also the only one who catches Gretchen after her BackhandedApology.
385* HiddenDepths:
386** Subverted and PlayedForLaughs in the original movie. Cady tries to bond with her while Regina and Gretchen are busy by asking if she has any talents, and all she can bring up is "I can stick my whole fist in my mouth" and "My breasts can tell the weather." Unsurprisingly, Cady does not want to see a demonstration of the former.
387** At one point in the musical, she indicates that, while she likes dressing up all sexy and having fun with boys, she does ''not'' like that this results in people treating her like a sex object. She then comments that maybe people should start teaching their sons not to treat girls like that in the first place.
388--->''I'm actually a human being, and not a prop!''
389** In the musical, Karen later comments on Regina's treatment of her stemming from insecurity and shows herself to be one of the most emotionally mature characters in the cast.
390* InformedAbility: Apparently, her breasts can tell when it's going to rain. Or at least, when it's ''already'' raining. And even then, she's not ''completely'' sure, even if she's actually OUTSIDE in the rain.
391* InnocentBetaBitch: There doesn't seem to be a mean bone in her body. When she does unkind things, she's usually just following the lead of one of the other girls.
392* InnocentBlueEyes: She has huge light blue eyes and is by far the nicest Plastic. Subverted since she isn't innocent when it comes to [[GoodBadGirl sexual things]], but she has a [[ThePollyanna sweet and optimistic personality.]]
393* KindHeartedSimpleton: While she's not the smartest, she's set up as the nicest Plastic even before her HeelFaceTurn.
394* KissingCousins: Gretchen is highly disturbed when Karen boasts about what a good kisser her own cousin is.
395-->'''Karen''': You know who's looking fine tonight? Seth Mosakowski.\
396'''Gretchen''': Okay, you did not just say that.\
397'''Karen''': What? He's a good kisser.\
398'''Gretchen''': He's your cousin.\
399'''Karen''': Yeah, but he's my first cousin.\
400'''Gretchen''': Right.\
401'''Karen''': So, you have your cousins, and then you have your first cousins, and then you have your second cousins...\
402'''Gretchen''': No, honey, uh-uh.\
403'''Karen''': That's not right, is it?\
404'''Gretchen''': That is ''so'' not right.
405* NiceGirl: Only mean when doing Regina's bidding and is pretty friendly otherwise.
406* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Karen is mostly seen [[PerpetualSmiler smiling]] and is along with Gretchen a loyal follower of the queen bee but she does get really upset and hurt at Regina calling her a slut.
407* PerpetualSmiler: Moments she isn't smiling are incredibly short-lived.
408* ThePollyanna: As well as being the least malicious Plastic she's easily the happiest too, lacking Regina's rage, Gretchen's crippling neuroses, or Cady's need to fit in. She's even aware of (and comfortable with) the knowledge she's not very bright.
409* ReallyGetsAround: Somewhat of an InformedFlaw, but she has a reputation and is perfectly willing to hook up with her cousin.
410* SatelliteCharacter: She's not as fleshed out a character as the other Plastics, she mostly just rounds out the trio and provides comic relief.
411* TokenGoodTeammate: She is the only one who isn't mean-spirited and did things out of naivete rather than malice.
412* VillainousFriendship: She and Gretchen are best friends and clearly care a lot for one another. [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Though they barely even count as villains, anyway.]]
413* WideEyedIdealist: She's the type of person who would at least try to make others happy (e.g. suggesting Regina about going to Taco Bell), to which, additionally speaking, this trope even applies to her ''literally''.
414[[/folder]]
415
416!Other Students
417
418[[folder:Janis Ian]]
419
420!!Janis Ian
421
422[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janis_ian.jpg]]
423 [[caption-width-right:350:"There are two kinds of evil people in this world. Those who do evil stuff and those who see evil stuff being done and don't try to stop it."]]
424
425-->'''Cady''': ''You know what? You're the one who made me like this so you could use me for your 8th grade revenge!''\
426'''Janis''': ''God! See, at least me and Regina George know we're mean! You try to act so innocent like, "Oh, I use to live in Africa with all the little birdies, and the little monkeys! [...] you are a mean girl! You're a bitch!''
427
428-->'''Played by:'''
429---> Creator/LizzyCaplan (2004 film)
430---> Barrett Wilbert Weed (2018 original Broadway cast)
431---> Creator/AuliiCravalho (2024 film)
432
433* AdaptationalNameChange: In the 2004 film, she's Janis Ian. In the musical, she's Janis Sarkisian. In the 2024 film, she's Janis I'mi'ike due to her RaceLift.
434* AmbiguouslyGay: Is Janis Ian a lesbian? Nope! She's "Lebanese". In the musical this is played more straight, where Janis never denies the lesbian rumor and actually sort of implies it's true. The only time Janis is shown having a genuine interest in men is when she starts dating Kevin at the end of the movie. Ultimately she could be straight, bi, or gay and simply not ready to be out yet. Averted in the 2024 film, where it's not ambiguous - she's out and proud.
435* ArchEnemy: Regina George, the AlphaBitch who made her an outcast.
436* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When she gives her "apology" to Regina in front of the girls she exposes that she developed a plan with Cady to ruin Regina's high school life, that Cady turned Gretchen and Karen against Regina, that Cady made out with Aaron Samuels then convinced him to break up with Regina, all before revealing... they gave Regina foot cream for face wash. [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne Surprisingly that last one brings out the most angry look from Regina.]]
437* AtLeastIAdmitIt: As the character quote above shows, Janis knows she's just as manipulative and mean as Regina and doesn't try to hide that. There is an element of SelfServingMemory here, however, since Janis never actually acknowledged it until Cady called her out about it in their fight. However she certainly never pretended to be nicer than she really was, like Regina, when Cady first met her.
438* TheBadGuyWins: Whether she can be considered bad or not is debatable, she does get back at Regina in the end and does it ''spectacularly''.
439* BecomingTheMask: A case could be made for this regarding her relationship with Cady; while Janis's motives for befriending her were not originally centred around getting revenge on Regina, she was very quick to take the opportunity when it came up. However over the course of the film she considers Cady more and more of a friend, which possibly explains why she takes Cady taking Regina's place as Queen Bee so badly.
440* BerserkButton: Bringing up the fact that Regina spread rumors of her being a lesbian. Cady making the same accusation unprompted is what really sets off Janis's tirade.
441* BrainyBrunette: She's smart, quick-witted, and cunning.
442* ButchLesbian: The 2024 version, Janis is out and her style seems to reflect this.
443* CardCarryingJerkass: She self-identifies as one of the titular mean girls.
444* TheChessmaster: Janis masterminded a plan to ruin Regina George's life using Cady as ThePawn to do so.
445* DeadpanSnarker: And how! ''Everything'' she says is snarky.
446* DirtyCoward: Uses Cady as a social human shield in her "eighth-grade revenge" against Regina because she couldn't take her head-on. Downplayed in that she does admit everything to Regina during the apology session. Justified in that she didn't have the social capita to pull off the level of manipulation she used on her own.
447* EmoTeen: She definitely has the looks and partially the attitude of one. Those who attended middle school in the early 2000's would recognize her as such.
448* EvilIsPetty: She uses Cady to take petty revenge on Regina, [[DirtyCoward as opposed]] to just confronting her upfront.
449* FallenPrincess: Janis used to be popular, but her reputation was destroyed by a rumor and she now willingly embraces outsiderdom. Some fans have actually speculated that Janis was once the Queen Bee, while Regina (her best friend at the time) was kind-hearted like Cady, but slowly became mean as her social life evolved, which resulted in Regina betraying her best friend by starting the Lesbian rumour and replacing Janis as the new Queen Bee.
450* FormerFriendOfAlphaBitch: She was good friends with Regina in middle school, until Regina started dating and they began fighting.
451* {{Foil}}: Aside from her JerkWithAHeartOfGold tendencies and her justified vendetta against Regina, [[YouAreWhatYouHate she's just as spiteful and manipulative as she is when it comes to Cady]]. Difference is whilst Regina is punching down, Janis is punching up when it comes to the school social hierarchy.
452* HugeGuyTinyGirl: The Tiny Girl to Damian's Huge Guy.
453* {{Hypocrite}}: With a side-dish of NeverMyFault in terms of influencing Cady. While claiming to target Regina due to her meanness and oppressive cruelty over the school, it's pretty clear that Janis can ultimately be just as cruel and mean as Regina.
454* HypocriteHasAPoint: Janis is a hypocrite, but she was right to call Cady out on BecomingTheMask and fucking off her real friends in favour of trying to pull Aaron.
455* HypocriticalHeartwarming: She teases Damian plenty, but will get pissed off if someone else does it. Lampshaded; she outright says calling Damian "too gay to function" is only okay when ''she'' says it.
456* ImportantHaircut: Offscreen. After Regina spread the rumor in middle school that Janis was a lesbian, Janis dropped out of school for the rest of the year; when she returned in the fall, "all her hair was cut off, and she was totally weird."
457* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: She can be just as spiteful, petty and cruel as Regina herself. However, she's also a genuinely loyal friend and will help you when you need it.
458* KarmaHoudini: Janis, despite influencing and encouraging Cady to join the Plastics specifically to damage Regina, gets zero comeuppance when she reveals it to the entire crowd of girls following the revelation of the Burn Book. However, in the musical she does actually admit that it was wrong and that she was just as guilty.
459* ManipulativeBitch: Janis convinces Cady to join the Plastics just so she can get information from them.
460* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Masculine Girl to Damian's Feminine Boy.
461* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Shares her name with the folk singer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janis_Ian Janis Ian]].
462* NeverMyFault: Cady does call Janis out for using her in her personal vendetta. Janis doesn't really own up to it.
463* NonAnswer: When Cady calls Janis out for [[BecomingTheMask making her like the Plastics]] to get her 8th grade revenge, Janis doesn't fully deny it, but she doesn't own up to it either, instead hedging by claiming that [[AtLeastIAdmitIt Regina and she at least]] ''know'' they're mean (even though [[SelfServingMemory she never admitted to it previously either]])...
464* NWordPrivileges: She calls Damian too gay to function and only she can say it, but [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope it's because they are friends, not that she is gay.]]]]
465* PayEvilUntoEvil: Her plan to take down Regina consists of this. She hatches a plan of revenge against Regina for some past slight, using Cady as the infiltrator.
466* PlatonicLifePartners: With Damian. They are best friends almost always seen together.
467* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Regina spread the rumor that Janis was obsessed with Regina. The rumor caused Janis to lose her former friends and become an outcast, which made her hate Regina...which caused her to become obsessed with Regina.
468* SelfServingMemory: Despite claiming in her AtLeastIAdmitIt retort to Cady that she is at least willing to acknowledge her meanness, there's an element of this going on; we've never actually ''seen'' her do so until Cady calls her out on it.
469* TheSnarkKnight: No one is safe from her razor sharp snark, not even her BFF Damian.
470* ToughLove: Her speech to Cady about the latter BecomingTheMask is arguably this. While it was pretty harsh for Janis to call Cady a bitch especially after manipulating her, Janis telling Cady about herself is what helped Cady see the error of her ways and revert back to her old self.
471* ToxicFriendInfluence: Not as much as the Plastics, but she has a hand in Cady's transformation, too; specifically encouraging Cady's hatred of Regina.
472* TrueCompanions: While she does take advantage of Cady's social pull despite genuinely caring about her, Janis' friendship with Damien is 100% healthy, and they have each other's backs the whole movie. When the Burn Book is made public, she doesn't care about her entry in the slightest but is genuinely offended by Damien's entry. While she does snark at him too, she only does it to a level she knows is in good humor.
473* {{Tsundere}}: She's a definitive Type A, especially because of her cynical personality all throughout the movie.
474* UngratefulBitch: Not particularly considerate of the risk [[NaiveNewcomer Cady]] went through to infiltrate the Plastics and fight Janis' war for her, as the villainous breakdown below demonstrates.
475* VillainousBreakdown: When she realizes that Cady has [[BecomingTheMask become the mask]] and has thus escaped her influence, she yells and curses at her from the top of Damian's car whilst deflecting the blame for her part in any of what happened.
476* WeUsedToBeFriends: With Regina, until Regina started seeing her first boyfriend Kyle and Janis was calling Regina out for neglecting their friendship.
477[[/folder]]
478
479[[folder:Damian Leigh]]
480
481!!Damian Leigh
482
483[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/damian_leigh.jpg]]
484[[caption-width-right:350:"And I want my pink shirt back. I WANT MY PINK SHIRT BACK!"]]
485
486-->'''Damian''': ''"Too gay to function?"''\
487'''Janis''': ''Hey! That's only OK when ''I'' say it.''
488
489-->'''Played by:'''
490---> Creator/DanielFranzese (2004 film)
491---> Grey Henson (2018 original Broadway cast)
492---> Jaquel Spivey (2024 film)
493
494* AdaptationalNameChange: In the musical and movie musical, he's Damian Hubbard.
495* AllThereInTheScript: His last name is never mentioned in the film.
496* ButNotTooGay: At no point in the film is he shown to be romantic with, or have a crush on, any specific boy. The musical partially fixes this with the song "Stop!" as does the 2024 film by showing him flirting with a boy sitting with the theatre kids.
497* CampGay: Damian is "too gay to function," though to be fair he's only ''mildly'' flamboyant.
498* DeadpanSnarker: He's a typical, snarky, gay best friend.
499* TheDragon: To Janis. He helps Janis with her schemes against Regina.
500* EtTuBrute: He and Janis already felt plenty betrayed by Cady spending less and less time with them as she [[BecomesTheMask truly becomes a Plastic]], and not invited to her party. Then he discovers that "too gay to function" has made its way into the Burn Book, for all the student body to see.
501* GayBestFriend: To Janis, he's her closest friend and she describes him as "too gay to function".
502* GentleGiant: He's 6'3 and heavily-built, yet is one of the nicest people in the film.
503* HaveIMentionedIAmGay: Too gay to function, to be specific. However, it's only funny when Janis says it.
504* HugeGuyTinyGirl: The Huge Guy to Janis' Tiny Girl. He noticeably towers over her.
505* LargeHam: "AND I WANT MY PINK SHIRT BACK!!" And there's his proud and determined performance of "Beautiful".
506* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Feminine Boy to Janis' Masculine Girl.
507* NiceGuy: He's one of the few genuinely nice people in this movie (though he can let out a sassy line).
508* OneOfTheGirls: He even talks to Janis and Cady in the girls bathroom.
509* PaperThinDisguise: A RunningGag. Every time he's pretending to be someone he's not (a robber stealing Cady's purse, the Secret Santa passing out candy canes, a member of the all-girl assembly) he just wears a hoody and sunglasses.
510* PlatonicLifePartners: With Janis. They are best friends almost always seen together.
511* SatelliteCharacter: He's really only ever seen with Janis, and most of his character tropes are centered on the fact that he's her friend.
512[[/folder]]
513
514[[folder:Aaron Samuels]]
515
516!!Aaron Samuels
517
518[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jonathan_bennett_gc.jpg]]
519[[caption-width-right:350:"Your face smells like peppermint!"]]
520
521-->'''Played by:'''
522---> Creator/JonathanBennett (2004 film)
523---> Kyle Selig (2018 original Broadway cast)
524---> Christopher Briney (2024 film)
525
526* BettyAndVeronica: He's the Archie while Cady and Regina are Betty and Veronica respectively.
527* BewareTheNiceOnes: He calls out Cady for acting like a clone of Regina straight before Cady throws up on him.
528* BigManOnCampus: He's reasonably popular himself and is a nice guy.
529* BookDumb: In contrast to Cady, Aaron is actually terrible at math, but he doesn't act like a BrainlessBeauty or DumbJock and actually seems to be a fairly level-headed person.
530* GentleGiant: He's 6'2", and a NiceGuy.
531* {{Hypocrite}}: With a dose of LoveForgivesAllButLust, Aaron willingly dates Regina, who is spoiled, shallow, selfish, rude, and sometimes downright cruel, even to the people she calls her friends. He doesn't seem to mind any of this, and when asked why he likes her, he defends her by saying "everyone has good and bad in them, she's just more upfront about it than most." But when it turns out she's cheating on him, that apparently is too far, and he immediately breaks up with her.
532* LovableJock: He's on the football, soccer and swim teams and is a nice person.
533* LoveInterest: Cady's of course as much of the film's conflict is about Regina and Cady pining after him!
534* MrFanservice: Cady and Regina certainly think so.
535* MundaneMacGuffinPerson: Aaron's only function is to be the source of conflict between Regina and Cady because he is so dreamy. He disappears from the story once he has achieved his purpose.
536* NiceGuy: One of the few genuinely nice and non-judgemental people in North Shore High. Though he is definitely not a doormat.
537* OnlySaneMan: Refuses to get caught up in most of the drama, and is turned off by Cady's transformation into a Regina clone.
538* PrettyBoy: Cady can't help but gush over how cute he is. If it wasn't his cuteness Cady explicitly pointed out a few times, he could also qualify as a {{Hunk}}, considering his athletic built.
539* SatelliteLoveInterest: All we know about him is that he's cute, sucks at math, used to date Regina, and "all he cares about is school and his mom and his friends". He gets fleshed out a little more in the original screenplay, which has a scene where he does his laundry with Cady and explains that he helps out with housework because it's just him and his mom.
540* WhatTheHellHero: Rightfully calls Cady out for her stupid plan to be bad at math to get his attention and for being like a clone of Regina.
541[[/folder]]
542
543[[folder:Kevin Gnapoor]]
544
545!!Kevin Gnapoor
546
547[[quoteright:350:http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/b5e7cd69-4117-47ac-b87b-9c99f248a328/0c2faf8b-9a8f-4e1a-a0f8-6c9b242816e1.jpg]]
548[[caption-width-right:350:"From my grades, to my lines, you can't touch Kevin G!"]]
549
550-->'''Played by:'''
551---> Rajiv Surendra (2004 film)
552---> Cheech Manohar (2018 original Broadway cast)
553---> Mahi Alam (2024 film)
554
555* AdaptationalNameChange: Subverted in the stage musical, who is established as having a different first name here than in the film; he chooses to call himself Kevin, instead of being born with the name. Played straight in the movie musical, however, in which his surname is Ganatra.
556* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Gnapoor sounds similar to actual South Asian surnames such as Kapoor, but Gnapoor doesn't seem to exist as a real-life name. The 2024 movie musical rectifies this by changing Kevin's surname to the Gujarati name Ganatra.
557* BollywoodNerd: South Asian and the leader of the Mathlete team. He's also prone to rapping and bragging about his sexual prowess though, so it's not all stereotypes.
558* CasanovaWannabe: Kevin's behaviour comes off as very similar to [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Howard Wolowitz's]], but surprisingly, he turns out not to be interested in Cady. [[spoiler:And he does succeed with Janis in the end of the 2004 film]], and at least [[spoiler:dances with Gretchen at the Spring Fling in the 2024 film]].
559* RaceFetish: Inverted. He turns down Cady because he only dates women of color. He doesn't seem to mind ''what'' race, as long as they're not white. [[spoiler:When he makes a movie on Janis, he says it's cause he thinks she's Puerto Rican, and rolls with it when she corrects to Lebanese.]]
560[[/folder]]
561
562[[folder:Other students]]
563* TheBeautifulElite: The Cool Asians and the Unfriendly Black Hotties both carry off these vibes, as they are cliques of beautiful members of minority groups and carry off a similar sense of superiority.
564* GirlPosse: The female-dominated Cool Asians count as well.
565* GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: The girl Jocks seem to have this vibe, outside their uniforms a few of them dress in a feminine manner (like the girl who threatens to kick Cady's ass if she mixes her up with a teacher) and are not above getting involved in the same petty things as the other girls in their school.
566* HandsomeLech: Jason seems to be fairly popular, and a member of the Varsity Jocks, dating one of the Plastics and taking another pretty girl out. Even if sometimes he is shown to care for Gretchen sometimes, whenever he opens his mouth, you really wonder how that happened.
567* NerdsAreVirgins: One of the reasons why Ms. Norbury wants Cady to join the mathletes is because she wants their members to meet a girl, as she jokingly says.
568* TeacherStudentRomance: Trang Pak and one of her friends both date Coach Carr. This is AdaptedOut of the musical.
569* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Shane accidentally sets the ending into motion, since he's the one that tells Regina what Kalteen Bars actually do.
570
571[[/folder]]
572
573!Teachers
574
575[[folder:Ms. Sharon Norbury]]
576
577!!Ms. Sharon Norbury
578
579[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sharonnorbury_26502_3329.jpg]]
580[[caption-width-right:250:"You girls have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores, because if you do, it makes it okay for ''guys'' to call you sluts and whores."]]
581-->'''Ms. Norbury''': ''I know having a boyfriend might seem like the only thing important to you right now, but you don't have to dumb yourself down in order for a guy to like you.''
582
583-->'''Played by:'''
584---> Creator/TinaFey (2004 film & 2024 film)
585---> Creator/KerryButler (2018 original Broadway cast)
586
587* BornUnlucky: She's convinced she's this. Considering all the bad things that happen to her before and during the film (divorced, broke from getting a divorce, crashing into Cady and having coffee spilled all over her sweater on the first day of school, breaking her glasses when the girls riot, being investigated for drugs thanks to the Burn Book...) she might not be far off.
588* BrainyBrunette: She's the school's math teacher.
589* BrokenBird: She's fresh off a divorce and you can see she's still fragile from it.
590* CoolTeacher: She's young and genuinely cares about her students. Once Cady stops being a Plastic, she starts realizing how cool Ms. Norbury actually is.
591-->'''Cady''': ''[stating why she can't go to the dance]'' I'm grounded.\
592'''Norbury''': You're already out.
593* ClearMyName: During the intervention, she confronts Cady and asks if there's anything specific she would like to confess. Cady refuses. Ms. Norbury ends up the subject of a police investigation as a consequence.
594* DisappointedInYou: Says this word-for-word when Cady initially refuses to admit she wrote the "drug pusher" page in the Burn Book.
595* DroppedGlasses: Happens after someone bumps her while she's trying to break up the fights where they inevitably get stepped on.
596* {{Forgiveness}}: She has more than enough reason to be mad at Cady for getting her in trouble, by writing that she was a "drug pusher". Yet when Cady finally owns up to writing the entry to save Ms. Norbury's job, all Ms. Norbury does is sarcastically ask if she wants to buy drugs before admitting she's proud that Cady came clean, and asking her why she took all the blame. It's a pretty reasonable response; all she asks is that Cady join Mathletes to get "extra credit" and pull up her grade.
597* HotTeacher: Young and attractive, she's obviously caught Principal Duvall's eye.
598* HumiliationConga: She's just gone through a divorce, she works a humiliating side-job as a bartender to pay for said divorce, and every earnest attempt to help her students seems to backfire horribly, culminating in her being handcuffed and strip-searched by the police.
599-->'''Mr. Duvall''': How was your summer?\
600'''Ms. Norbury''': ''[after inadvertently flashing her bra at her students while cleaning up hot coffee spilled down her front]'' I got a divorce.\
601'''Mr. Duvall''': Oh. My carpal tunnel came back.\
602'''Ms. Norbury''': [[MiseryPoker I win.]]
603* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: See "HumiliationConga" above. Cady even evokes the trope by name toward the end of the film.
604* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She's a fountain of good advice for the students (even though they rarely listen to her) and she genuinely cares about both their grades, and their worth as human beings.
605[[/folder]]
606
607[[folder:Principal Ron Duvall]]
608
609!!Principal Ron Duvall
610[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pricipalduvall_6280.jpg]]
611[[caption-width-right:250:"Aw, ''hell no'', I did ''not'' leave the Southside for ''this''!"]]
612
613-->'''Principal Duvall''': ''I just wanted to say that you're all winners. And that I couldn't be happier the school year is ending.''
614
615-->'''Played by:'''
616---> Creator/TimMeadows (2004 film & 2024 film)
617---> Rick Younger (2018 original Broadway cast)
618
619* BatterUp: When he discovers the students are fighting, [[LetsGetDangerous he grabs his baseball bat]] before going out and breaking up the commotion.
620* BewareTheNiceOnes: He looks like he can handle himself in a fight and it's suggested he grew up a rough neighborhood.
621-->"Aw ''hell'' no, I did not leave the Southside for ''this''!"
622* ButtMonkey: He's the head of a school that's the ground for a war between the Plastics and Janis. Naturally, he takes a lot of shit.
623* CoolTeacher: The students may not think so, but he's a very nice guy, and he breaks up the infamous hallway brawl single-handed, armed only with a baseball bat, which would've sent many other teachers running for the hills.
624* DeadpanSnarker: He's the principal of a school that contains the likes of [[AlphaBitch Regina]], [[BetaBitch Gretchen]], [[TheDitz Karen]], [[ByronicHero Cady]], and [[PayEvilUntoEvil Janis]]. Sarcasm is his only hope for survival. Especially during prom night.
625* LetsGetDangerous: He normally appears to be an easygoing guy, but when an all-out brawl breaks out in the hallway, he grabs a baseball bat and goes out into the thick of it to break it up himself, pulling a fire alarm and ordering all the girls into the gym. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Needless to say, no one argues.]]
626* NiceGuy: He's a reasonable, friendly guy that genuinely wants the best for his students. He still has his limits, though.
627* PapaWolf: Looks completely ready to beat the crap out of [[spoiler:Coach Carr when he hears that he's been sexually involved with students.]]
628* PuttingThePalInPrincipal: When you get right down to it, he's one of the nicest faculty members at the school. That being said, [[BewareTheNiceOnes he's not afraid to throw his weight around when he has to]], as [[spoiler:Coach Carr]] finds out the hard way.
629* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He cares about his students, he just can't do the squishy girly things. Case in point, when he talks with the Plastics about the Burn Book, while he is mad at the amount of gossip and allegations, he's also worried. Kids do stupid stuff and can be unintentionally cruel. Principal Duvall knows that if the word got out about the Burn Book, [[spoiler:it would cause a riot and he respects that the girls establish no one was supposed to ''read'' the pages. Rather than suspend all the junior girls for the hallway altercation, he instead tells them they need to shape up or he's cancelling prom [[note]] The only reason he doesn't cancel it right away is because they put too much money in as is [[/note]], and they are working out their aggression towards each other in a healthy fashion. When he gets squicked out on hearing about heavy menstruation, he defers to Ms. Norbury. Later, when Ms. Norbury is being investigated, he establishes that he doesn't want the police to check the allegations, but they have to because the allegations against Coach Carr were true and that means anyone accused of committing crimes may actually have done wrong]].
630* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Metaphorically, at least; he initially takes charge of the conference to allow the girls to air their grievances, intending to act as counsellor and mediator. When the very first complaint is a girl complaining about how she's targeted due to her menstrual cycle, however, he instantly realises he's completely out of his depth and hands the proceedings over to Miss Norbury.
631* ShipTease: Has a fairly obvious crush on Miss Norbury.
632* ThatCameOutWrong: After the entire female student body riots, he tries to help the girls "adjust their attitudes toward each other" by having a talk "lady to lady." What little does he know, a "lady problem" is usually a euphemism for [[AllPeriodsArePMS "that time of the month"]], and when a girl predictably starts talking about her period, he quickly realizes how far out of his depth he is, and hands the reins over to Mrs. Norbury.
633* TranquilFury: When he starts talking loud and authoritative, everyone listens up.
634* VerbalBackspace: He has a habit of threatening punishments he doesn't have the authority to actually deliver and backtracking after this is pointed out.
635-->'''Principal Duvall:''' I will keep you here all night if I have to\
636'''Teacher:''' We can't keep them past four.\
637'''Principal Duvall:''' I will keep you here till four.
638[[/folder]]
639
640[[folder:Coach Carr]]
641!!Coach Carr
642[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a042046b_595f_436b_a3dc_942529a0a705.jpeg]]
643[[caption-width-right:350: "Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die."]]
644-->'''Coach Carr''': ''At your age, you're going to have a lot of urges. You're going to want to take off your clothes, and touch each other.''
645
646-->'''Played by:'''
647---> Creator/DwayneHill (2004 film)
648---> Creator/JonHamm (2024 film)
649
650* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Downplayed. While he's no less dislikable, the musical and 2024 film removes some of his more heinous actions, though this is more because his role is less prominent.
651* CreepyGymCoach: [[spoiler:It's revealed he's sexually involved with Trang Pak and her friend.]] This is absent from the musical, however.
652* DemotedToExtra: His role in the musical and the 2024 film is significantly reduced compared with the first film.
653* DirtyCoward: [[spoiler:When Principal Duvall looks like he's going to beat the shit out of him for his sexually predator ways, he flees the school.]]
654* {{Hypocrite}}: He preaches abstinence to his students but [[spoiler:is revealed to be having an affair with at least two of them.]]
655* {{Jerkass}}: The man is a creepy, hypocritical teacher who abuses his power to [[spoiler:sleep with underage students.]]
656* RaceFetish: [[spoiler: Both of the students he is confirmed to have made out with are members of the Cool Asians clique.]]
657* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: [[spoiler:Sleeps with underage girls as the Burn Book outed. [[PapaWolf Principal Duvall]] is ''not'' happy when he finds out.]]
658
659[[/folder]]
660
661!Parents
662
663[[folder:Chip and Betsy Heron]]
664
665!!Chip and Betsy Heron
666[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heron_parents.png]]
667 [[caption-width-right:350:'''Betsy''': "Do you remember your phone number? I wrote it down for you just in case. Put it in your pocket, I don't want you to lose it. OK? You ready?"]]
668-->'''Betsy:''' Where's Cady?
669-->'''Chip''': She went out.
670
671-->'''Played by:'''
672---> Creator/NeilFlynn (Chip) & Creator/AnaGasteyer (Betsy) (2004 film)
673---> Creator/KerryButler (Betsy) (2018 original Broadway cast)
674---> Creator/JennaFischer (Betsy) (2024 film)
675
676* AbsentMindedProfessor: They are both academic sorts who have been traveling the world for their studies and homeschooling a daughter in the rural areas of Africa... and enroll her in a suburban school after barely getting acclimated into the country and its cultural nuances.
677* AdaptedOut: Chip doesn't appear in the 2024 version.
678* AllThereInTheScript: Although it's never mentioned anywhere in the film, the script shows that the names of Cady's parents are Chip (her dad) and Betsy Heron (her mom).
679* BumblingDad: Mr. Heron. He doesn't even know what being grounded exactly means.
680* GoodParents: Cady's parents are loving towards her, and always support her.
681* ParentsAsPeople: They are good parents and likely academics. On the other hand, they homeschooled a daughter who hasn't been exposed to the nuances of U.S. culture long enough to know what she is getting into when they enroll her into a public high school in the suburbs. They are also shocked when she ends up being corrupted by the shallow, materialistic influences around her and breaks rules.
682* YouAreGrounded: Subverted as they do not know what being grounded means, but they said this for word when they find out about her failing math.
683[[/folder]]
684
685[[folder:Mrs. June George]]
686
687!!June George
688[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mrs_george.jpg]]
689[[caption-width-right:350:"I just want you to know, if you ever need anything, don't be shy, OK? There are no rules in the house. I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a ''cool'' mom."]]
690-->'''Mrs. George''': What kind of mother do you think I am? Why, do you want a little bit? Because if you're going to drink I'd rather you do it in the house.
691
692-->'''Played by:'''
693---> Creator/AmyPoehler (2004 film)
694---> Creator/KerryButler (2018 original Broadway cast)
695---> Creator/BusyPhilipps (2024 film)
696
697* AdaptationalJerkass: In the original, she was vacuous and pathetically trying to be friends with her daughter and her friends, Gretchen and Karen, but mostly pleasant and harmless. In the 2024 film, she introduces the Burn Book, calling it the funniest thing the Plastics used to do.
698* BuxomBeautyStandard: She felt this enough to get breast implants and she shows off her new cleavage every chance she gets.
699* DumbBlonde: She's a good-natured but very ditzy blonde woman who gets taken advantage of by her daughter.
700* ExtremeDoormat: Somehow she and her husband caved to Regina's demands to get their Master bedroom with the balcony and restroom. Also barely says a word whenever Regina mouths off to her.
701* HiddenDepths: In the musical, at least, she's shown to miss the times when Regina looked up to her as a role-model as a child, and is visibly worried for Regina when she looses her social standing after being publicly humiliated.
702* MumLooksLikeASister: She looks more like the mother of her grade schooler daughter rather than both that and the teenage Regina.
703* ParentsAsPeople: Wants to be seen as cool and fun to her daughter and her friends but this led to having an angry daughter who has no productive outlet for her energy and uses it to mistreat people.
704* PinkMeansFeminine: She is first introduced in a soft pink tracksuit.
705* SleepingSingle: According to Gretchen, Mrs. George and her husband no longer sleep in the same bed.
706* UglyGuyHotWife: Mrs. George's plastic surgery keeps her from looking her age, but the same can't be said for her overweight husband.
707* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: In the 2024 film, she's the one who tells Regina what Kalteen Bars actually do, setting her daughter's breakdown in motion, as well as the Burn Book being left out in the open for all the students of North Shore High to see.
708[[/folder]]

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