The 2004 teen comedy movie directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey, Mean Girls is one of the quintessential teen movies that absolutely everyone needs to see. The film was well received by the critics, who praised Fey for the funny and smart script and the cast for outstanding performances.
Mean Girls defined an entire generation and it's still relevant, relatable, and popular. It has created countless, timeless pop culture references, and, with a heavy heart, we picked out the top ten. Let's jump right into the list.
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU’VE EVER FELT PERSONALLY VICTIMIZED BY REGINA GEORGE
This line comes from the woman responsible for Mean Girls’ hilarious, smart, and memorable script, Tina Fey. After having gathered the mischievous ladies in the gymnasium, Principal Duvall realizes that Ms. Norbury – whom he describes as a successful, intelligent, caring, and graceful woman – would be more suited to help the girls sort out their problems.
When Regina interrupts Ms. Norbury’s exercises claiming she has no need to be there because she’s just a victim, Ms. Norbury responds with, “raise your hand if you’ve ever felt personally victimized by Regina George”, to which literally everyone – including faculty members, and probably some of us watching – raises their hand. This line stuck around because you can replace Regina George with basically anything and have yourself a pretty funny meme, which has been done countless times.
THE BURN BOOK
The item that caused chaos and mayhem at North Shore High, the so-called Burn Book was written by Regina George and the Plastics and contained rumors about all the girls (and some guys) from North Shore High. Out of vengeance, Regina framed Cady, Gretchen, and Karen for the Burn Book and released its toxic contents to the students, causing a jungle-like riot to break out.
The Burn Book is one of the first things that come to mind when talking about Mean Girls because it’s a widely recognized symbol of the movie. Naturally, due to its popularity, the Burn Book has appeared in tons of memes.
THE LIMIT DOES NOT EXIST
After the dust had settled from the whole Burn Book Incident, Cady started making amends to the people who have been hurt by the vicious book. She patched things up with Ms. Norbury and ended up participating in the mathlete championship. Cady was selected for the sudden-death round, answered correctly, and North Shore High won.
The answer to the winning question, “the limit does not exist” became one of the film’s most popular quotes due to its overwhelming applicability. For example, how many times can we quote Mean Girls? The limit does not exist.
YOU CAN’T JUST ASK PEOPLE WHY THEY’RE WHITE
When Cady first introduced herself to the Plastics, the trio was fascinated that she has spent most of her life in Africa and has never attended public school. While the others moved on from the Africa reveal, Karen was perplexed that Cady had white skin and bluntly asked, “if you’re from Africa, why are you white?”
Sparing poor Cady of having to explain the obvious to the oblivious Karen, Gretchen said: “oh my God, Karen, you can’t just ask people why they’re white”. Their brief exchange is one of Mean Girls’ most memorable scenes and has been used to create tons of funny memes.
YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US
The Plastics have a dress code that all members of their group must obey. The rules are as follows: 1) Wednesdays are for pink; 2) you can’t wear a tank top two days in a row; 3) you can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week; and 4) you can only wear sweatpants or jeans on Fridays.
When Regina started putting on weight from the Kälteen Bars Cady supplied her with, she came to school on a Monday wearing sweatpants because nothing else fit her. Since Cady had been working on turning the girls against the Queen Bee, Karen and Gretchen confronted Regina about the sweatpants, prompting the latter to let out a shrieking “you can’t sit with us” – a line that became one of the most iconic Mean Girls references.
GET IN LOSER, WE’RE GOING SHOPPING
Mean Girls is a film packed to the brim with quotable lines and “get in loser, we’re going shopping” is one of them. When Cady first joined the Plastics, Regina pulled up in a convertible sports car, yelling out the now-iconic line. Fans of the film loved it and the line became one of the most well-known references to the movie, eventually becoming a meme.
From Doctor Who standing by the TARDIS captioned “get in loser, we’re going time traveling” to Penguin pulling up to Nygma captioned “get in friend, we’re going murdering”, this Regina George line has given us lots of hilarious memes.
ON WEDNESDAYS, WE WEAR PINK
When Regina heroically rescues Cady from unwanted sexual advances made by a skeezy student, she invites the new girl to sit with the Plastics. Regina finds Cady interesting so the Plastics decide to invite her to have lunch with them every day for the rest of the week. Karen then shares one of the Plastics’ most important rules, “on Wednesdays, we wear pink”.
The line stuck with the fans and became one of the most popular Mean Girls quotes. When the film celebrated its tenth anniversary on April 30, 2014, which happened to be a Wednesday, fans around the world wore pink to show their undying love for this iconic film.
SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE
Damian delivered quite a few zingers – from the pink shirt to Glen Coco, and Danny DeVito. And, of course, the one we’re talking about here: “she doesn’t even go here”.
After the school turned into a battlefield, Principal Duvall summoned all the female junior students to the gymnasium. Ms. Norbury had the girls write apologies to the people they’ve hurt and one girl took the opportunity to pour out the many feelings she had. She teared up talking about elementary school, cakes, and rainbows until Damian pointed out that “she doesn’t even go here”. This iconic line, made even funnier by Damian’s incognito appearance, has been immortalized on T-shirts, memes, gifs, and stands as one of the most well-known references to the film.
YOU GO, GLEN COCO!
Why exactly this line became a thing, it’s impossible to tell. For whatever reason – be it Daniel Franzese’s hilarious delivery or Tina Fey’s uncanny ability for crafting one-liners – this seemingly throwaway line surprisingly turned into one of the movie’s most memorable quotes.
Glen Coco is a minor character who we know nothing about – except that he's either very popular or just really likes himself – yet this hilarious one-liner delivered by Damian made Glen Coco a fan-favorite. Fifteen years since the movie’s release, and “Four for you, Glen Coco! You go, Glen Coco!” is just as quotable and hilarious as it was back in the day.
FETCH
While this awesome movie has given us tons of memorable phrases and quotes, the most memorable term has to be “fetch”. Derived probably from the word “fetching”, meaning attractive, “fetch” is a new expression for “cool” Gretchen Wieners kept trying to make the new it-word. However, the Queen Bee was having none of it, firmly declaring that it’s not going to happen.
Well, the joke’s on her, because it’s been fifteen years since Mean Girls came out and “fetch” is still a well-known pop culture reference thanks to generations of fans who, indeed, made it happen.