Jessica Spencer (McAdams) is the "hot chick" who is selfish and mean-spirited. She has three friends: April (her best friend), Keecia and Lulu.
One day, when she is not allowed to get magical earrings, Jessica steals them. While driving home, she and her friends meet a criminal named Clive (Schneider), posing as a mechanic in hope that they won't know about his crimes. After they leave, he gets one of the earrings.
When the two put their earrings on, they switch bodies. Hilarity Ensues!
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Billy has Jessica pursuing him in Clive's body no less. Though he isn't aware it is really Jessica chasing after him in Clive's body; just a 40-year-old man obsessed with seeing him.
- The Egyptian princess Na-Wah's husband-to-be, who is a large overweight man seen chewing and spitting up his fruit sloppily in the movie's opening.
- Accidental Misnaming: Clive (in Jessica's body) kept calling Billy "Bobby."Billy: (aggravated) It's Billy!
- Acrofatic: Hindenburg, after she joined the cheerleader squad.
- All Abusers Are Male:
- Clive's probably the most prominent among them, with his biggest break being that he used Jessica's body (since he's inside of it) for his own personal gain.
- There's also Jake, a womanizing Jerk Jock who shows no evident signs of remorse for such traits of his.
- Alpha Bitch: Bianca is an evil bitch and a more sinister version of Jessica.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Ling Ling sees her mother as this due to her Pretty Fly for a Middle-Aged Korean Woman attitude and heavy accent. Her friends don't agree with this assessment.Venetia: I wish my momma bought me some bling-bling.
- Ambiguously Bi: April, arguably. She briefly fell in love with Jessica-in-Clive's body.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Jessica's younger ambiguously transgender brother Booger.
- Armor-Piercing Response: After telling her off, Keisha goes to apologize to her mother and asks her why does she keep embarrassing her in front of her friends. Her mother simply tells her she isn't really ashamed of her mother; she's really ashamed of herself and her heritage. This enough causes Keisha to start crying.Keisha: Mom, I'm sorry! But why do you have to keep embarrassing me in front of my friends?Keisha's Mom: Honey Pie, you're really not ashamed of me. You're really ashamed of yourself.Keisha: (beat, breath shutters, tears up)
- Artistic License – Religion: An early part of the plot relies on Bianca having a scorpion tattoo on her back, which (according to the film) would indicate her a practitioner of Santeria. In real life, while some who practice Santeria may have tattoos of any kind, a scorpion tattoo doesn't indicate one as a practitioner or believer in the religion.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: Inverted. The film was edited down to receive a PG-13 in the United States. Funnily enough, the unedited version was given a 12A in the UK, which is the British equivalent of a PG-13.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: To convince April that it's really her, Jessica tells her that she remembered they became best friends because kids would make fun of her because she talked funny and because she was from Arkansas.
- Betty and Veronica: Jessica (The Betty) and her rival Bianca (The Veronica) are this over Billy (The Archie) later in the film.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jake in general, primarily thanks to his own womanizing ways. He even tries to hide the fact that he's cheating behind his now-ex April with a scarf around his neck in one scene.
- Black Comedy Rape: At the end of the movie, Clive escapes police custody and, still in handcuffs, catches a ride from the bartender around whom Jessica-in-Clive’s body made Have a Gay Old Time comments who quickly gives Clive a salacious grin before locking the car doors and driving off.
- Blatant Lies: The guy who Clive (in Jessica's body) beats up in an alley lied in the news that he was trying to help her. And the guy who recorded the whole thing claims he just happened to be on the scene.
- Butt-Monkey: April's mother. And anyone who's inside Clive's body.
- The Cameo: Michelle Branch is a DJ at the Instant Tang club.
- Can't You Read the Sign?: "No strangling the dancers" and "Monday night is gay night".
- Chekhov's Gun: April and Jessica's Trust Password, though it doesn't take long to fire
- Chubby Chaser: Marlon's got a major thing for Hildenburg. Much to his friend Jake's disgust.
- Depraved Bisexual: One of the male costumers at the strip club.
- Delinquent Hair: Eden has pink and red streaks dyed in her hair.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Male Jessica, who used a pillow to whack her friends across a room.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Jessica-in-Clive's body complaints that she "woke up as a man" and was born in the wrong body are very similar to one suffering pre-op gender transitioning or those suffering from gender dysmorphia and body issues.
- The Dog Bites Back: In a deleted scene, Jake apologized to Alice for cheating on her, but she just dumps him.
- Dumb Blonde: April (kinda). Jessica, too.
- Easily Forgiven: For every other student that Jessica humiliated at their school (to which they were even literally listed down for such case), they started to forgive her once she openly shows her sense of vulnerability to them (which includes being inside Clive's body).
- Erotic Eating: Jessica sucks the whipped cream off her latte in front of the male employer in order to feet out of paying. It works every time except when its Jessica-In-Clive's body.
- Evil Counterpart: Bianca, to Jessica.
- One could argue that Jake is this to Billy despite the fact that they mingle.
- Fan Disservice: Anytime Rob Schneider is shown wearing women's clothing.
- Ashlee Simpson getting fruit punch splashed all over her dress in a brief cameo.
- Fanservice:
- The Honey Bee cheerleaders routine.
- Bianca dancing in the club, complete with a brief closeup of her backside in jeans.
- People impulsively ripping their dance partners shirts open after Jessica-In-Clive attempted to find Bianca's tattoo.
- The Fenmore Foxes cheerleading dance routine, with leader Bianca making seductive eyes at the camera.
- The poster of the Backstreet Boys.
- Fauxreigner: The white American Jessica, while trapped in the body of the Ambiguously Brown Clive, poses as a Mexican gardener named "Taquito" in order to keep her family from becoming suspicious.
- Females Are More Innocent: Jessica, especially while inside Clive's body, to which she needs her Girl Posse to return her old body back to her.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: The pillowfight quickly turns into this when Male Jessica actually starts swinging.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: A variation in that going by the visuals, Jessica and Clive don't actually swap bodies but instead transform into each other. It is treated like a body swap by the plot, though.
- Gender Bender: Jessica-In-Clive's body and vice versa.
- The Generic Guy/Flat Character: Lulu doesn't really distinguish herself amongst the female protagonists unlike the others. Eden's a goth, Keecia has her unique half-Asian/quarter-Jewish parentage, April is Jessica's best friend, Hildenburg is overweight and has her relationship with Marlon, and Jessica is the main character. Lulu just doesn't have that much in comparison. It doesn't help that she has the least lines out of the posse.
- She did originally have a subplot devolving a crush on a a kid on skates who keeps crashing but all of the scenes were deleted for pacing,
- Gone Horribly Right: According to the store owner who tells Jessica about the earrings, they belonged to an Egyptian princess Na'Wa who used the power of the earrings to escape a bad marriage and trade places with a slave girl. What the princess didn't know is that she had to bring the earrings back together and ended up living out her life as a slave girl.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Downplayed. After the main character, a ditzy Alpha Bitch teenager, suddenly switches bodies with a local crook, she immediately suspects the goth chick in school to be responsible. She's not, though she does admit that she tried to curse her with dandruff, make her hair fall out and give her smaller boobs (which means that she attempted magic, but failed—most likely because the only known supernatural thing in this movie's universe are the earrings that transform the bodies of two people into the other person's appearance. Which is kind of ironic, due to how the main plot is caused by in-universe magic).
- Groin Attack:
- During the club fight with another attendee, Jessica, while inside Clive's body, got severely kicked down there.
- Near the end of the movie, Clive (while in Jessica's body) is currently working at a strip club and when Jake asks for her to come over to him so that he can enjoy himself towards her, Jessica walks over to him and stomps on his groin while using it as a stepping stone so that she can get up upon the dancing table platform. Jake doesn't mind too much.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Both April and (to a lesser, but still considerable extent) Jessica.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Male Jessica has a lot of these moments, leading to her repeatedly being Mistaken for Gay by a bartender. When Clive gets his body back, it turns out the bartender was in fact a gay man himself, and interpreted this as Clive coming on to him.
- Hated by All: Jessica thinks that most of the other students in their school besides her posse liked her, where in reality, as hinted by her best friends, it's really the opposite (at first, at least).
- Heel–Face Turn: Jessica eventually starts to slowly change for the better once she realizes her own mistakes.
- Honking Arriving Car: Played With. After Jessica repeatedly drives over a gas station's dinger hose in efforts bring out a station attendant to no avail, she finally tries using her car horn. Meanwhile, inside the station, the attendant is actually tied up by Clive, who is robbing the place. When Clive exits the station and attempts to flee the scene, she makes him service her car.
- Humiliation Conga:
- Clive getting honked two times and getting a burn in his arm by Jessica.
- Jessica herself goes through this a lot during her time as Clive. Most people find her appearance alone offensive, especially Billy, and he's one of the nicer characters.
- Bad things always keep happening to Alice's mom as she's concern for her daughter's secretive behavior (that being helping Jessica in Clive's body). This leads to her getting major headaches. She's last seen with a neck brace while hugging her daughter at graduation. Now that everything's back to normal and her daughter gained more confidence, there's likely no reason for her to be a Chew Toy anymore.
- Hypocrite: Jessica chastises April for simply eating a donut, calling her a "binger" and reminding her that the junk food could go straight to her buttocks. Then, after stealing the donut, she eats it herself in front of April.
- Jerkass: Clive has no redeeming qualities at all, from petty thievery to only agreeing to give Jessica back her body if he can rent it to pay off gambling debts. Jake is a jerk too. Plus, Bianca makes Jess seem like a saint at the beginning of the film.
- Jerk Jock: Jake, mainly because he's a shameless womanizer.
- Plus Billy towards Clive's body. Slightly justified, however. For the most part he's the exact opposite of Jake.
- Karmic Transformation: Jessica transformed into Clive after she tormented the guy when she mistook him for a mechanic. While wandering around in Clive's body, she realizes how much she took her life for granted.
- Laser-Guided Karma: While Clive (in Jessica's body) gives Jake a lap-dance, he reverts back to his original body, freaking out and grossed out Jake.
- Left the Background Music On: When Jessica returns to admit that she stole the earrings and get it fixed, the woman who runs the store tells her the story of how a Pharaoh's wife traded places with a slave, but got stuck after the full moon. As she's telling the story, the drums in the background swell as the store owner's story comes to a climax, and then just before the end, she stops, grits her teeth, and tells the man offscreen (played by Adam Sandler) to stop banging on the drums. The man mumbles that he thought the music matched the tone of the story.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Jessica can be a considerable bitch, but she is friendly with others when she needs to. Thankfully, throughout the movie, she gradually gets better in terms of personality and manners.
- Lovable Jock:
- Billy, contrasted to Jake. Why the former still hangs out with the latter is anyone's guess. He does descend into Jerkass behavior around Clive/Jessica and even then its justified somewhat given the creepiness that is Clive. When the opposite happens near the climax, he only reacts hurt and runs back to Bianca. When everything is back to normal he is there for Jessica.
- Marlon may be another example since he didn't do anything too malevolent and is very open about how much he loves Hindenburg.
- Love Triangle: Jake/April/Jessica-In-Clive's body.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Keecia's mom is Korean (and a black wannabe) and her dad is black and Jewish. Apparently her dad wandered into a Korean liquor store. Go figure...
- Mistaken for Gay: When Jessica-In-Clive's body gets emotional talking to her dad and leans onto him like a crying child would to their parent, Jessica's father gets unnerved by this behavior from Clive and then his wife (Jessica's mom) sees this from the inside of the kitchen window and gets the wrong idea. Happens again later with Jessica's mom when she throws herself at Jessica/Clive and is told "This would be so wrong for me on about five different levels"...Jessica's Mom assumes Jessica/Clive meant they were gay, rather than the actual meaning.
- Ms. Fanservice: As Roger Ebert noted, it's terribly ironic how much the film subverts this trope for Jessica, considering how most members of the audience would probably have preferred MUCH more screen time of Clive checking out (in various ways) being in a sexy young woman's body—and MUCH less of the reverse....
- Nice Guy: Billy, mostly.
- Nice Girl: Most notably, every member of April and Jessica's Girl Posse, which includes the two themselves.
- Nice Mean And In Between:
- For the movie's primary narrative trio, April's the nicest, Clive's the meanest, and Jessica's the morally in-between one.
- For the high-school cheerleading variant, both April and Jessica are still applied to their respective positions, but Clive is instead replaced with Bianca (who's shown to be a lot more stuck-up than Jessica).
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The owner of the strip club has two rules: "No strangling the dancers" and "Monday night is gay night".
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In-universe example: "Taquito" forgets "his" Latino accent after Mrs. Spencer makes a pass at "him."
- Open-Minded Parent: April's dad, it seems. He doesn't want his crazy wife to meddle in their daughter's life.
- Operation: Jealousy: Jessica (in Clive's body) and April went to the prom as couple to make April's Jerk Jock boyfriend jealous, after he lied about not going and went with someone else. But for April, that's not the only reason...
- Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: Jessica (in Clive's body) wakes up with a boner.
- Painful Body Waxing: April has to help wax the facial hair off of Jessica-In-Clive's body.
- Perky Goth: Eden (after she joins the Girl Posse).
- Pet the Dog: Jessica gets one near the beginning of the film with her younger brother.
- Prank Call: April and Jessica-In-Clive's body do this to Jake to teach him a lesson.
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Keisha's Korean mother shows up dressed as a gangster trying to act cool and impress her daughter. Keisha is furious. The twins Keisha's friends with don't seem to mind her mom.
- Race Against the Clock: If Jessica didn’t find the missing earring before the full moon ended, then she would have been permanently stuck in Clive’s body.
- Red Herring: In the first scene she appears in Eden is seen mumbling what appears to be a curse at Jessica after being insulted. Later the girls (correctly) guess that she has attempted to put hexes on them but she is not responsible for the body switching.
- Running Gag: Adam Sandler's character keeps banging the bongo. (see Let the Background Music On)
- Shout-Out: One to Deuce Bigalow: "That's a HUGE bitch!"
- Showing Off the New Body: What Clive does in Jessica's body, especially when he gets a stripping job.
- Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: The advertisements focus more on Rob Schneider and less on Rachel McAdams. To be fair at the time of the film's releases she was not very well-known as she hadn't starred in Mean Girls yet.
- Something Only They Would Say: Booger recognized Jessica in Clive's body by her body language.
- Jessica-In-Clive's body telling April how she and April met when they were kids; detailing April being bullied and all. It works.
- Comically averted when Male Jessica tries to convince Billy one more time. When it seems that there's going to be a breakthrough, Billy is disgusted when Male Jessica tries to kiss him and runs off.
- Spicy Latina: Bianca. While she's never explicitly identified as being a Latina, she is briefly suspected to be a follower of santeria (Cuban witchcraft). Besides that, she’s played by a Puerto Rican actress.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jessica in Clive's body to Billy.
- Transformation Trinket: The earrings.
- Where da White Women At?: Not only does Marlon like Hindenburg because she's white, but also because she's big.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Jessica's little brother Booger.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Seriously, Booger? Even his parents call him as such and there's no indication that it's a nickname.
