Almost 20 years ago (April 30th, 2004), the world was gifted a comedy classic in every sense of the word. Tina Fey adapted Rosalind Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes for the big screen, not knowing Mean Girls would become the hit that it did. A musical grew from this, and a musical film based on the original movie is in the works. So, with this in mind, we’d like to look back on the brilliant jokes and lines heightened by the great ensemble on this Mean Girls Day. We’re hoping you find it fetch!
“I’m not like a regular mom; I’m a cool mom!”
June George (Amy Poehler) delivered this line in her pink Juicy tracksuit, launching a thousand memes taking down moms that try too hard in the process.
“That is so fetch.”
This line, uttered by Gretchen Weiners (Lacey Chabert) came while Tina Fey was actively trying to crack the script. She told Katie Couric in 2020, “I did some research and I sat down with some neighborhood teens, and I was asking them about slang and I just started thinking, ‘Oh, whatever I put in the movie now, by the time the movie gets made, it will be over, so just make up something fake.’ Fetch just short for the word fetching was appealing so I just made it up.”
"Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by Regina George."
She didn’t know it at the time, but Tina Fey delivering this line as Ms. Sharon Norbury was creating a way for office workers, media staff, and pr assistants the world over to have a way to discuss toxic bosses and coworkers on Slack, Discord, and iMessage.
“Made out with a hot dog? Oh my god, that was one time!”
The line that saved the movie from an R rating, director Mark Waters used CGI trickery to downgrade the original gag about masturbation to this, which appeased the MPAA and allowed the film to release as PG-13 and become the classic it is.
“She doesn’t even go here!”
When Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese) shouts this at a girl airing her grievances at an all-girls assembly in his iconic blue hoodie and sunglasses, he gave fans everywhere a line they could use as shorthand code to find others like them.
“You can’t join mathletes. It’s social suicide.”
The set up of this line when Ms. Norbury asks Cady to join the Mathletes with Damian then swooping in to call it social suicide makes this one of the most deadpan moments of the whole film. The fact Damian had no context of offering any offense to Norbury saying that in front of her makes this such a hysterical moment.
"Glenn Coco? FOUR for you, Glenn Coco! You go, Glenn Coco…and none for Gretchen Wieners, bye."
What makes this line so memorable is that Gretchen has always been so excited to get a candy cane every year and to see Regina start to screw her over.
Also, can we acknowledge how much of an unsung hero Damian has been nearly carrying some of the most iconic parts of this movie on his back??
"There's a 30% chance that it's already raining!"
It’s nice to see by nearly the end of this movie we see Karen become more confident & embrace her psychic beliefs by forecasting the weather with her breasts.
"I will keep you here all night. *we can’t keep them past four* I will keep you here ‘til four."
Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall is a great example of seeing recent SNL alums (at the time) shining bright on the silver screen. His disdain for the women’s class from discovering the burn book made this set up so funny with how confident he felt about keeping the ladies at school all night to find out who truly wrote the burn book.
"On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was. It's October 3rd."
And lastly, after nearly twenty years of one of the 2000s most iconic comedy films of all time, this line has been deemed to influence pop culture in ways beyond just being a fake holiday. It was a good thing Aaron Samuels had no idea about a good sense of time when asking Cady Heron what day it was.
