Intertextuality within Mean Girls

Mean Girls (2004) - Genre: Film

Horizontal Intertextual Connections: 

Heathers (1988) - Genre: Film 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097493/

Mean Girls was clearly a loosely based interpretation of the 80's film, Heathers. Heathers spearheaded the genre and lifestyle that is "popular high school girls". In the article below, there are clear similarities between the cliques. The attire, personality, group size, hair color, etc. Plus Lindsay Lohan's character briefly mentions the movie.

http://jezebel.com/5338232/jezebel-faceoff-the-heathers-vs-the-plastics

The Goonies (1985) - Genre: Film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089218/

The scene in Mean Girls where the character, Gretchen, explains to new girl, Cady, the rules of "girl world", it cuts to a clip of two supporting characters with bologna on their face and they reference the Baby Ruth scene from The Goonies. It's a small reference but very distinct.

Clueless (1995) - Genre: Film

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112697/

Clueless is another movie that was greatly influenced by Heathers. It portrays the life of a rich, popular, high school girl and her clique. New girl comes to town desperate for popularity, makes friends with the popular girls, gets a makeover, becomes just as evil as them blah blah blah. The movie trailer attached below is someones mash-up at comparing the two movies. It's pretty funny.

Other small connections made in Mean Girls
Xena yell and falls into crowd

Towards the end of the movie the character of Janis reveals her evil plot to the school and Regina and ends with the Xena yell and falls into the crowd.

The girls also reference: Taco Bell, James Bond Goldfinger, Varsity Blues, "The South Side" from Lean on Me, Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" song, etc.

Vertical Intertextual Connections: 

Julius Caesar (1599) - Genre: Literature/Theatre

In one of the classroom scenes, Gretchen reads a class response to Julius Caesar. Throughout Mean Girls, it is clear that the character of Caesar is portrayed by "Regina George" and all of her other friends are Brutus, Pompey, etc...

Africa/Jungle - Genre: Geography

 

Lindsay Lohan's character, Cady, is from Africa and throughout the film she relates her high school experience to her life back in Africa.

 

Clique-y/Teen girl/High School - Genre: Lifestyle

I'm not sure if this is counts as a vertical intertextual connection but I believe that it should be. I hate to mention Heathers again but Heathers, Mean Girls, The Clique, Clueless, etc. ALL have that cliche mean, rich, popular white (mostly) girl. Mean Girls does this with the character of Regina George.

The Clique Series - Genre: Literature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clique_%28series%29

All of the social norms attached to high school girls were elevated by novels such as The Clique, which was adapted into a film in 2008. Some of the girl "rules" mentioned in Mean Girls have references that came from The Clique series. It also has a connection in a way where the new girl works to become part of the popular clique and succeeds and regrets her decision by the end.

Public Tertiary Texts:
Roger Ebert - Film Critic, Chicago Sun Times

 http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040430/REVIEWS/404300306/1023
"In a wasteland of dumb movies about teenagers, "Mean Girls" is a smart and funny one. It even contains some wisdom, although I hesitate to mention that lest I scare off its target audience. " 

Peter Travers - Film Critic, Rolling Stone

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/mean-girls-20040429 
"...Fey brings her sass as a writer and actress to Mean Girls, a satire of high school bitchery that plays like Clueless meets Heathers."

Private Tertiary Text:
It is virtually impossible for me to pick just ONE private tertiary text. Go on twitter and search 'Mean Girls'. You will find hundred and hundreds of anonymous twitter accounts and tweets all related to Mean Girls. Since it is election season, I thought this one was fitting.

 Here's a few more (I couldn't help myself):

This was fun and interesting seeing how many references a movie makes. I had to go back and watch this movie twice (once for research, the second for fun) to take note of anything I picked up on.