Mean Girls Opens

Setting the scene

Teen comedies in the early 2000s ranged from American Pie raunch to Disney Channel sweetness, while tabloids obsessed over high-school popularity and queen bees. Tina Fey, head writer at Saturday Night Live, adapted Rosalind Wiseman's nonfiction Queen Bees and Wannabes into a screenplay set at fictional North Shore High. Paramount paired Fey with SNL director Mark Waters and producer Lorne Michaels.

What happened

Mean Girls opened on April 30, 2004, starring Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron, Rachel McAdams as Regina George, and Fey herself as math teacher Ms. Norbury. The Plastics' Burn Book, pink Wednesdays, and cafeteria map of social cliques turned adolescent cruelty into quotable satire. Amy Poehler played Regina's mother who insisted she is not a regular mom.

Why it still matters

The film grossed over $130 million, fueled endless internet quote memes, and became a Broadway musical in 2018. Its language entered teen slang for a generation. Memorable detail: the word fetch was invented as a joke that never catches on in-universe, yet fans still say it ironically.

Background

Tina Fey's script fueled endless online quotes and a musical.