“Just rewatched this last night.
Let’s talk about the biggest holes in this movie, which aren’t very big.
1. Why is Lindsay Lohan introduced to the class if it’s the first day of school? Which I assume it is because Tim Meadows asks Tina Fey about her summer. If a new student shows up halfway through the semester, sure, but on day one at a high school this size?
2. The plot hole shared by many a teen movie: the character who is supposed to be fairly plain is definitely not. Nobody is fooled by a ponytail and overly large polo shirt.
3. Why does Tina Fey take her top off? If you’re at some regular-ass job, sure, but while you’re standing in front of a class of high school students? There is a range of liquids I could spill on myself, and they are on a spectrum with two poles. Pole 1: Oh, well. I’ll just live with it. Pole 2: I need to leave the room and change clothes completely. There is no space on that spectrum where I’d peel off my wetter top, under which I’m wearing a white shirt that is now mostly transparent, and call that the best possible solution.
4. Another plot hole shared by many a teen movie: truly spectacular Halloween party. Everyone is in GREAT homemade costumes, the house is absolutely packed with people. This seems like a thing required in every teen movie that almost never happens in real life. I’ll even say “never happens in real life”! Prove me wrong. Tell your tales of such a party.
Anyway, all that said, this is a good movie, and I did have one of my favorite professional interactions based around it.
I had a copy of this on DVD, and I was bringing it in as a donation to the library, which is where I worked.
A teen girl came up to the desk and REALLY wanted to get this movie. We didn’t have it on the shelf, and she was definitely disappointed that we’d have to get one from another library, which would take a couple days.
Then I was like, “Wait a second, this is weird, but I have this right now, and you can take it and keep it.”
She took it, sort of reluctantly, probably because it was a very odd coincidence, or because she was a teen girl and I was an adult man handing over a copy of Mean Girls, which probably should start off mild alarm bells in anyone raised with good boundaries.
Maybe I should have made a bigger deal about how the library doesn’t work that way normally, so don’t get your hopes up.
Someone made a joke later that I was a pusher, and I did not get it because I hadn’t watched this movie 100 times. “