Mean Girls

Question: Why did the coach act so paranoid about safe sex if he was actually sleeping with a student?

Answer: Precisely because he was sleeping with a student. Getting her pregnant would bring their affair out into the open and create a scandal for the whole nation to know what he was up to. Therefore safe sex was really important to him.

The_Iceman

True, but since he was spending time with her, he could make sure that birth control was being used (i.e. him using a condom). I think he was trying to appear "uptight" about sex, so he could be the least likely suspect.

Answer: He wanted to appear to be strict and "uptight" about sex, so people would be less likely to believe any rumors about him.

Question: After Cady sends a candy cane note to herself, pretending that it came from Regina, Gretchen says that Regina does not even like Cady very much. So why is Regina still allowing Cady to associate with The Plastics? As the "queen bee", she could probably decide to ban Cady from the group.

Answer: Regina enjoys manipulating people, and she views Cady as a relatively easy person to manipulate, finding her more useful/amusing to keep in their circle. It's a running theme of the film that the friendships between all of the Plastics is very tenuous, because of the catty, manipulative nature of the girls.

Purple_Girl

Also, if Regina tried to ban Cady, people might think she was threatened by Cady. Better to keep Cady around and attack her in subtle, manipulative ways.

Answer: I think Regina secretly felt threatened by Cady. Janice and Damien comment about Cady being "a regulation hottie." She is attractive and has the "exotic" appeal of being a new student, plus she is new to traditional school in general, having spent many years in Africa. Regina guessed that Cady would have this exotic appeal. Pretending to be her friend was better than competing with her. It's a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" tactic.

Chosen answer: The first time she goes in with Damian and Janice is their homeroom and when she is with Aaron it is the actual class.

Movieman123

Question: Why didn't Gretchen and Karen stay friends? (at the end of the movie it shows Gretchen sitting with a different group of friends) I thought Regina was the only one they didn't really like.

Answer: Gretchen had simply found a new group of friends with the Vietnamese girls; just because she and Karen no longer sat together in the cafeteria didn't mean they were no longer friends at all. As Cady said in her closing narration, the "Plastics" disbanded at the end of the school year because they had all found new things to belong to: Regina was now a star player on the school's lacrosse team, Cady stayed with the "Mathletes", Karen started giving the school weather report, and Gretchen, as mentioned before, hung out with the Vietnamese girls. The four remained on friendly terms, though.

zendaddy621

Question: Does it ever specify whether it is the first day of school for everybody or just for Cady?

Answer: Mr. Duvall comes to ask Ms. Norbury how her summer went which means it is the first day back. Cady is lost simply because she is new to the school in general, while everyone else is already familiar with it.

Question: Wasn't it a big risk for Cady to send the candy cane card to herself and pretend it was from Regina? She could have easily been caught if Gretchen had mentioned it to Regina.

Answer: It's the type of thing that Cady would do to discredit Regina. Yes it was risky, but Cady had everything to gain from it.

Ssiscool

Answer: Most likely, Gretchen would not dare to ask Regina about this. She wants to please Regina, and would be too afraid to say anything.

Chosen answer: A burnout is a pot-head who is so "burnt out" (because of smoking way too much weed) that they never get anything done....no school, work, etc.

shortdanzr

Question: When Janis is explaining the Cliques to Cady, she mentions the "Preps". Aren't the Plastics preps?

Answer: Not necessarily. "Preps" usually consist of a huge group of both boys and girls (at least in my high school expierence!). The plastics were just three really mean girls that thought they were above all other cliques.

jennibee

Answer: As the other comment says, preps are usually a bigger group of well-known boys and girls. At both of my high schools (my family moved) they were mostly from upper-middle-class and wealthy families. Most were cheerleaders, members of sports teams, and/or heavily involved in extracurricular activities. Basically the Hollywood of the school.

Azalea

Question: When all the junior girls go to the gym after the fire alarm is pulled, why doesn't Cady sit with Gretchen and Karen?

Answer: I think she feels alone. Janice and Damien are angry, so they don't want her to sit with them. But she doesn't want to be a Plastic any more, so she avoids sitting with Gretchen and Karen.

Question: This may be ignorant but what exactly does half-a-virgin mean?

Answer: Many girls will consider themselves half virgins if they have performed/recieved oral sex but not traditional sex. Or that they had penetration but not orgasm. Some girls also consider themselves half-virgins if it has been an extremely LONG time since they have had sex (meaning that they might as well be virgins again).

shortdanzr

Question: What is the name of the song they put on the radio in Regina's bedroom when they ask Cady who sings the song?

Answer: "Overdrive," by Katy Rose and Kim Bullard.

Hamster

Question: When the Plastics and Aaron are walking through the hall, I can't tell if Cady really does fall into the trashcan, or if it's in her imagination. Is this answered anywhere?

Answer: I don't think it actually happened. I've had to change bags in similar trash cans, at places where I worked, and many of them are not very heavy and sturdy. They would easily topple over if a person fell in. When Cady falls, she seems to stick her legs up in the air and wiggle them. Almost as if she does a hand-stand inside the can.

Answer: We can assume that it really did happen, because in the scenes of her imagination, it then jumps back to show what really happened, and in this case it doesn't.

Christina

Question: What was the name of the lotion that Cady gave to Regina? Also, which cosmetic brands were used in the movie?

Answer: The foot cream was Intensive Moisturizing Foot Cream with Alpha Hydroxy (peppermint scented) and the skin cleanser was Facial Cleansing Gel (peppermint scented).

Answer: Peppermint foot cream.

Question: When Cady walks into the gym (after the large multi-girl fight scene), she tells the viewer that she knows everyone was just talking about her. How can this be? They only just discovered the book pages in the hallways, and they were so busy fighting each other, they obviously they didn't stop to discuss the fact that Cady was not mentioned on any of the pages. So why would everyone have just been talking about her?

Answer: Girls notice these things easily. The plastics are the most hated girls in the school, so if there's a book saying mean things about everyone, people would assume the plastics are in it. Everyone was running around the room reading all the pages, possibly trying to find what it says about the plastics. Since nobody could find them, they would think the only logical explanation is they wrote the book, just like Mr Duvall, since they're so hated. In the gym, they would've been asking each other if they could find pages about them, and since nobody could, they would be discussing reasons why. And besides, when Cady walked into the gym, everyone was looking at her. That's enough to realise everyone was talking about her, with or without a good reason.

MikeH

Question: Is there a deleted scene that explains why the girl who doesn't go to the school (the one who Damien points out), has been going there?

Answer: I don't think there is a deleted scene, it's just supposed to be funny because she didn't even go to that school, and she just went there just to talk about her feelings.

Question: Why does Janis insist on pronouncing Cady's name incorrectly (so that "Cad" rhymes with "glad")? Until she and Cady argue on the night of Cady's party, when she does say it correctly.

Answer: She simply called Cady Caddy to be funny, kind of like a term of endearment or a nickname that a friend would use. Once Janis found out that Cady lied to her, she stopped calling her Caddy because they were no longer friends.

Answer: I've met people who do this. For whatever reason, they think your name looks like it should be pronounced a certain way, or they assign you a nickname. It's how they think of you. In particular, this could be an awkward trait for Janis, who has been bullied for years. Maybe she feels a need to "define" people in her mind. When she argues with Cady and finally uses Cady's correct name, it shows how Cady is not the person who Janis thought she knew.

Answer: Ms. Norbery definitely remembered the conversation (check the scene where she finds the page about herself and also the scene where she questions Cady in the gym) But she knew Cady was a good person at heart with good grades and decided to forgive her, knowing she learned her lesson. One of Cady's punishments was joining the Mathletes, although it's stated that Principle Duvall gave her other punishments as well.

Answer: Ms. Norbury thought Cady was a good student who made good grades and didn't think she was capable of doing something like that. Also, she may not have even remembered the conversation where she tells Cady she is a "pusher", as she encounters many students a day. One of Cady's punishments was that she had to join the mathletes.

Question: Do you know how they filmed Jason getting hit in the face with the radio after Gretchen accidentally kicks it?

Answer: It was a real boom box - a guy that sat two seats away from "Jason" explained that it was on a wire rig and took 4 takes until the boom box broke.

Answer: The radio probably was very light and soft and made of rubber. Either that or Gretchen deliberately didn't kick it far enough for it to hit him, but from the angle it was filmed it looked like it did.

MikeH

Answer: ROTC is the Reserve Officers Training Corps. It's a program for people who would like to join the military when they get out of school. They wear uniforms and do military training exercises after school. While not always the case, most people in the ROTC program tend to hang out mostly with other people in the program.

Myridon

Continuity mistake: Cady breaks up her Spring Fling tiara that she receives. On stage, she breaks it up into many pieces and throws them out into the crowds; it is clear that the amount we see being thrown into the crowds is a major amount of pieces - almost too much from just one tiara. However then when she leaves the stage, we see her holding approximately half of the tiara still. This would not be possible from the aforementioned amount that Cady has already snapped off and thrown into the crowd. (01:25:15)

Hamster

More mistakes in Mean Girls

Gretchen: That is so fetch!
Regina: Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen! It's not going to happen!

More quotes from Mean Girls

Trivia: Tina Fey, the woman who plays Ms. Norbury, was also the screenplay writer for the movie.

More trivia for Mean Girls

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