Mean Girls: The life lessons we learnt from 20 years of watching the high school classic

Surround yourself with plastics and adorn yourself in pink because the Mean Girls musical is strutting its way onto the big screen. Tina Fey's deliciously acidic high school comedy now gets the all-singing, all-dancing treatment with Angourie Rice in the role of Cady and Reneé Rapp in the role of Regina George.

Amazingly, the original Mean Girls movie is 20 years old and the new version is set to bring back all the feelings. Before you go and see it, here are the life lessons we've learned over the last two decades.

 

High school is so fetch

What does 'fetch' even mean? Even after 20-odd years, we're just as confused as Regina George. Nevertheless, we can't stop saying it in random contexts. And there's no denying 'fetch' has inveigled its way into high schools worldwide.

 


Wednesdays are for wearing pink

Post-Mean Girls, Wednesday was no longer hump day, but pink day. Ever since it's been wildly inappropriate to be seen in public in anything other than pink. If it's a Wednesday and you spot this sartorial decision, you know they're a Mean Girls acolyte.

 


Regina George is one of the greatest high-school villains

Rachel McAdams' shark-like and enjoyably vicious turn as Regina George propelled her onto the A-list. She embodies the Queen Bee perfectly and stands as the film's most memorable character although, as ever, there's more to her than meets the eye.

 


Plastic refers to more than just a substance

It refers to the enjoyably back-stabby clique into which Cady (Lindsay Lohan) is initiated. Regina and her pals appear to be plastic by name and plastic by nature: less than malleable and lacking in nuance, but they soon reveal their vulnerable sides.

 


It made the name Glen Coco cool

Did you know that the one-scene bit-player Glen Coco was named after one of Tina Fey's Hollywood friends? Actor Thomas Keane originally failed his audition but landed the non-speaking part of Glen by repeatedly hanging around the set.

 


Grool sounds like porridge but isn't

Gruel refers to the appalling slop-like food handed out in Charles Dickens adaptations. 'Grool' is a compound word consisting of great and cool, and in typical Mean Girls fashion, is brought together by accident.

 


October 3rd is Mean Girls Day

You know a movie is a classic when even the throwaway moments have asserted themselves on pop culture. When Cady informs her boyfriend Aaron (Jonathan Bennett) as to what day it is, October 3rd forever becomes cemented as the day to wear pink, go Plastic and embrace an all-carb diet. Just remember to question the butter.

 

Are you feeling mean? Then book your Cineworld tickets for Mean Girls on the link below. The movie is released on January 17th.

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