Ramble: Jenny’s uncompromising condemnation of the movie musical Mean Girls (2024)

is that ninjago deep in the background

The mean but not homophobic take on Regina reminds me of how in Cruel Intentions, Sarah Michelle Gellar's character is a rich, classist, conniving monster but she draws the line at being racist and is shocked and confused that another rich white lady is racist. When, like, that's part of the whole deal of being a rich white mean girl. It doesn't make her more likable or redeemable, it just feels untrue, like they were too cowardly to admit that this is part of the picture. Young racists are young racists, it wasn't an outdated, unthinkable thing then or now, especially in extremely wealthy, insulated settings. Homophobia has also not gone anywhere, it just looks different. I can't fathom this change.

I love signing up for patreons of creators I enjoy and seeing videos about this movie. I did bg throughout production, and it's wild to hear people talk about it, or see clips I'm in etc. Anyhow, it was absolutely initially going straight to streaming! We got an email it would be in theaters one day lmao

in the original Janice is Lebanese, so the joke is that Regina misunderstood her because she’s self-centered and ignorant… is great even though Janice being gay could’ve been better than dating the mathlete weirdo but becaus wits a good movie it sacrifices an unnecessary plot line for a good joke that shows yet another way in which Regina sucks

I'm not even trying to be funny... there are people who like this musical? Like I know there MUST be some people who like it of course, but I thought it was common knowledge that it is horrible LOL. I didn't know it had a group of unironically passionate fans who think this is genuinely well-made. Anyway, I love your rambles Jenny, even when they're negative.

Why couldn't have Regina just ripped out the pages of the burn book and pasted/threw them around? Just resting it on the floor is anticlimactic

I think the idea with the new Obsessy Les plot is that in a Gen Z highschool that wouldn't be as bad. Not cause Regina would be less of an asshole for outing her friend, just that this revelation would not result in the friend group siding with Regina and going against Janet. At least in my secondary (high) school which was fairly liberal, people would not really have cared and would have agreed that Regina had made a social faux pas in outing somebody for being gay. BUT I think they could have kept it, because it still would put a rift between Janet and Regina.

One example of a bad one is Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, which is really unfortunate because the songs are amazing. And so is Patti Lupone, unfortunately wasted on that production but luckily presented not too many years later with the amazing role of space Hitler on Steven Universe

Sad to hear you didn’t enjoy the frozen musical, I thought it was a great adaption - great vid anyway

I’m actually a really big fan of the musical. I listen to it a lot… the movie was shockingly bad though

yes please to more book/fic videos! I also love theme park content so i'm easy. :D

I think they cast the Cady actress because of her starring role in the movie Honor Society. She does an amazing job playing a mean girl who turns nice. I guess they saw that and thought she could do Cady then? She still can’t sing so idk, but she’s great in that other role

No, I truly thought that Renée Rapp made a better Cady and the actress that actually played Cady could’ve been a better Regina if she could actually sing She comes across way meaner than Regina did the entire movie

~41 mins: Totally agreed! Especially as there feels like there are ways for Janis to be mad at Regina while a) having her be openly gay and b) updating why Regina did it to be less homophobic. Maybe Janis wasn't ready to be open except to friends at the time when Regina outed her? Similar to what Jenny said, maybe Janis hadn't fully grasped her own sexuality yet when Regina started saying it? Perhaps there were other friends Janis lost due to Regina calling her gay because they came from a family that is against it - y'know, a thing that sadly does still happen? So many ways you could de-homophobe Regina slightly while still capturing the spirit of the original.

41 mins: yes exactly ! This is the problem that keeps happening with remakes of 90’s and early 2000’s films. Obviously some of the plot elements are going to be problematic in this day and age, but then if you choose to get rid of those plot elements subsequently the plot makes no sense

god im so happy to see ur face again (outside of the yt vids ive watched 2+ times each) thank u jenny for putting so much care into ur videos <3

I love your movie reviews!! Please can you do some theatre show reviews too?

PLEASEEE keep posting theme park content i love when u talk about theme parks !!

your book videos are amazing, one of the first videos of yours I saw was about that “Reylo Fanfic” and your witty sarcasm and incredulity while reading it was extremely entertaining.

Shrek the musical is actually really good.

I would love a Harlequin-themed theme park video if you ever choose to make one! And I enjoyed this video despite also enjoying the movie more than you did. XD Agree that Janice and Damien stand out as good; I really wish that I’d Rather Be Me was a better song, because the voice of Moana deserves it. Also, I saw someone make a comparison between the Reginas and point out that 2024 Regina feels more openly aggressive versus the original, and your point about her characterization here reminded me of that. Her mean girl is less the perfect passive aggressive girly girl and more the very cool (though still passive aggressive sometimes) impossibly hot girl. I don’t know how much of this was due to modern times and how much was due to the choice of actress; it’s been a long time since I watched, but one of the things that made Renee Rapp famous was her role as a rich girl in The Sex Lives of College Girls, where iirc she was kind of an abrasive character and closeted lesbian. So maybe Rapp is bringing a little of that character to her performance—though it’s been years and I could be misremembering. And that could explain the cool girl glamour (and the vague queer coding you see.) I personally, as someone who was fourteen when the 2004 film came out, glommed onto this one way more because the portrayal of Regina got to me, and I definitely felt like her allure, as filmed, gave her these…bad boy/bad girl vibes sometimes? Like I could kind of see Cady as being drawn to her even though that’s not the story. Anyway, I enjoyed what I read into it, but I agree it’s not the Barbie girl cool we might expect from a traditional mean girl. I also really like your idea that the Rapp is doing a walk based on lions; she does have that lioness vibe! (I think she tried out for Glinda too? (And Amanda Seyfried.) Ariana Grande did great but I want a peek into the alternate realm of that Glinda with Erivo’s Elphaba. As a sapphic I might have died.)

make only theme park videos

I love how everyone just forgot Aaron

I've watched this ramble two or three times now and today I decided to actually watch the movie because I thought it would be hilariously bad but I shockingly found myself enjoying it. I'm surprised that people are saying it's worse than the stage musical because, at least as far as the musical arrangements go, I thought the production on the songs from the movie was stellar and the songs from the stage musical sounded awful by comparison. In that sense, I feel like they did a seriously impressive job with what they were forced to work with, changing the generic instrumentation on each track to not only better suit the character singing, but also to fit in well with the kinds of music you might hear on a modern teen's spotify playlist. Renee Rapp has an incredible voice, the Janice and Damien characters were fabulous and I really didnt have a problem with Cady's voice in the songs that were just her. I thought the soft airy tones fit her Act 1 character really well. I laughed out loud a few times, especially at the bit where they faked out Tina Fey starting to sing. The lyrics at some points were still embarrassingly bad, and I don't think there's anything that can be done to make "I'd rather be me" a worthwhile listen, but I was pleasantly surprised by the movie as a whole. Maybe my expectations were just so low that there was no chance of being disappointed, but I would be lying if I said I never want to watch it again.

I love that, because of the nature of this modernization, Regina (our villain) can't be homophobic, so we need a Fantastic Beasts 2 level backstory scene. But we still have Regina introducing herself by singing "and yes, THESE are real" as if speculating on teenage girls getting breast implants was something that was still socially acceptable in 2017 much less 2024. Like... if there was ever a way to scrub the movie of anything remotely problematic, bringing back Tina Fey in the writer's room was not the way to do it. (I love and respect her but so much of her humor and feminism is based on spite towards any woman who in any way resembles the "popular" or "girly" archetype)

This musical bugged me so much. It was so interested in sanitizing/censoring the original movie for Gen Z that it sort of completely forgets what the movie was about. The storyline about being a millennial teenager - pre-social media in the social climate of 2004 - doesn't translate when you try and scrub it of anything that "hasn't aged well" and plug it into a setting that revolves around social media and the mid 2010s push for political correctness. Especially when it's still structured around a "not like other girls" mindset. Just a lot of ideas that don't coalesce.

Something that's so often missed in the original, at the end when Janice is dancing with a boy, it's revealed that she is Lebanese. The whole reason Janice is mad at Regina is because Regina was an ignorant child who mistook Lebanese for lesbian. It would've been great to see that connection made more clearly in the musical or movie, because it's a much funnier dynamic to me.

Yes to book video. I enjoyed your older book videos

I haven't seen and probably never will, but it kinda sounds like disney middle school aimed version of mean girls

I miss the days elf was $1-2 :( now it's like $8-12

The one thing the Frozen musical has going for it is the song "Monster". It is genuinely better than "Let It Go" and I wish it was in the movie, but given the subject matter (Elsa contemplating suicide) I understand why it wasn't. It's a banger, though.

The Barbie Fairytopia Bibble plush in the corner really unlocked a long buried memory for me <3

I'd guess they changed the backstory because the writers assumed spreading rumors about someone being gay just wouldn't be an effective bullying tactic anymore: they probably thought kids weren't homophobic anymore, and would be more likely to react against the homophobe. I think that's an overly optimistic view of the kids, but some degree of cultural shift on that since 2004 is undeniable.

I couldn't get through the Aladdin musical. It feels very validating to finally hear someone else say it: everything they added to the story, they bungled

I'm so not tired of theme park content!! It's not a topic I normally follow, but I love everything you've done!! The star wars hotel video is a go-to comfort video for me. I'd be so down for a video on that book

Gazelle ➡️ I'm in hell

Theme park content is not something I seek out or follow. I haven't been to many in my life and I can't get through an episode of Defunctland: But I like Jenny's theme park content. She's at her best when she's excited about her subject matter and she gets excited about them parks.

When Jenny said ‘she’s gay AND obsessed with her’ I immediately flashed back to ‘I’m gay AND your brother’

Who comes to the Theme Park Lady's youtube channel/patreon and complains that they are tired of theme park content? Also, yes, I would love a book reading video very much! They're some of the most underrated of your videos in my opinion. Please tell us about the weird Epcot romance book, girl.

I would LOVE a video about a book. The first video I watched was the Trigger Warning reading! AND it's about theme parks! Not only do I love theme parks, I just enjoy hearing people talk about things they're passionate about even if it's something I dont necessarily care about.

The whole Regina George not being allowed to be actually homophobic thing is why Do Revenge is the real successor to the original Mean Girls.

THE MASSES DEMAND MORE THEME PARK CONTENT

a lot of my…admiration i guess? for this movie just came from the fact that they FINALLY made janis canonically a lesbian. like after 20 years we can finally use the word lesbian in a non derogatory context as an honest expression of a character’s identity. still the way they did it was so strange that it kind of undermined it. but yeah i was BIG into this musical in middle school when it first came out (because i was literally 12) and looking back on it DEAR GOD was it some bullshit.

Agree so hard with this. I did enjoy the musical thought agree that most of the songs are actively bad haha, and then I watched the movie and was shocked by how much worse it was! Absolutely relate to the concerns of hitting what your audience wanna see (I’m a romance author, I get it, you can’t escape the comments lol) but I think a hell of a lot of your audience would absolutely watch anything you put out because your passion, humour and insight is what we’re here for. Incidentally I am absolutely down for classic romance reviews.

that book sounds so fun omg

Romance Book review isn’t theme park contenttttttt that sounds great cmon (spoken as someone who likes theme park content though so who’s to say)

My girlfriend had me watch the 2024 movie recently and I feel like the it's just so toothless (especially since we did a rewatch of the original 2004 film right beforehand). Never seen the musical so can't comment on that, but it was just frustrating because a Regina George modernized for today would be making callout tiktoks and ratio-ing herself on a sock puppet twitter account to build sympathy! A Regina George in middle school in like 2019 would have destroyed Janis by accusing her of being an abuser, not do some convoluted nonsense with her latter day beanie baby wearing a pride pin! Also: I very much want to hear about the Epcot romance book. The best Jenny content is content you enjoy making!

I personally wouldn't count commenting on a book based in a theme park as theme park content, but that's just me. Also we all miss the book recaps.

I love vintage romances and would love to have your take on one! To me that does not seem at all the same as your theme park content, although it would take advantage of your knowledge of them in a way that I'm sure would delight.

That Halloween song bugs me because I've not only already heard that joke, I've heard that joke as a song, followed by another song apologizing for the misogynistic language ofnthe previous song. You owe Cody Johnston money, Mean Girls musical!

I really enjoy your theme park content and would be happy if you made more! I would be interested in the harlequin romance epcot book!

i tried to watch this movie on a plane this year and had to turn it off 20 minutes in because i just couldn't stand to watch anymore

This is late but I would be so down for the 80’s disney world harlequin romance

I always thought in the original Janice told like Karen she was Lebanese and she is so dumb she thought she meant lesbian and that's how the rumor got started.

Fully support this 1980s romance novel deep dive

100% here for a deep dive into an 80s romance novel set at Epcot.

As far as I know the clothes *were* actually sourced from TikTok shops so "whatever from shein" is a very accurate statement. Which makes no sense, by the way - the Plastics were supposed to be aspirational! We didn't all have LV bags or Burberry skirts in 2004 either, and we didn't drive a Lexus, and we didn't go to school in pointed toe pumps, but that's what made them so glamorous. Having them dress so cheaply lessens their allure as a group.

I liked the Mean Girls musical film substantially more than the Evan Hansen movie, but your takes on both were thoroughly entertaining and well thought-out.

That romance novel sounds SO fun, id love to watch a video about that! Whatever you choose to do always ends up great 😊

Who in the heck feels so entitled to your time and thoughts that they get to say they don’t want any more theme park content? It’s your channel, your thoughts, your interests. This feels like an extension of what we’re seeing in fandom spaces, where the audience feels emboldened to criticize and demand content they’re blessed to be given. The lack of gratitude is disheartening and the entitlement is sickening. It’s your channel, Jenny. Please make whatever content makes you happy - were grateful and happy to consume the content you create that makes you happy.

i love you so much but don't speak on carrie like that i love carrie the musical

My friend was a featured extra in this and I was really trying to manifest a mention of her (though she was totally unremarkable)

I would love to see a video on the theme park harlequin romance book.

One of the worst things about the new movie is that Cady and Regina's climactic fight was completely dumped and was replaced by "I'd rather be me", which is a great song, but all of a sudden Regina gets hit by a bus with no explanation or reason that it's Cady's fault.

I was getting tested on grouping and (doing very very badly at it) when I saw you in the parks, so hi jenny that was me failing :)

Social media frenzy montages are always fake and unfunny, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good one

I love the theme park content idk what people are talking about!! It’s half the reason I’m here 😊

Dunno if this is a hot take around these parts, but I genuinely thought Wicked (Part 1) was quite bad and would love to hear a Jenny takedown of that in the future. Honestly I thought it shared a lot in common with Mean Girls and Dear Evan Hansen in the way it didn't seem to understand (or care to try to understand) the depth and complexity of the social issues it was purporting to explore. Very disappointing, considering it was adapted from the novel by the creator of My So-Called Life.

for one hot, wild moment I though Jenny was saying that SABRINA CARPENTER can't sing and isn't famous enough to bring in audiences, and i thought i'd slipped into a better timeline.

Haven't seen the new movie, but it would have been interesting if they had Regina hyping herself up as "the BEST ally, #loveislove"...and yet when she sees a boy she likes is into Janis, her crime is to out her: "oh, she's gay, not even into boys, what a brave queen, date me instead" Then when Janis confronts her, she plays dumb -- "Oh I'm soooo sorry, you're just so brave, I didn't think it was a secret! #isupportyouqueen!" etc. I feel like that would be a more clever way to update her into a more modern, supposedly "cool" bully while also warning teens about how bullying and discrimination can go under the radar. Regina is still disrespectful, homophobic, and obsessed with getting whatever she wants, but on the DL to keep people on her side. It's still very Mean Girl behavior, but a different type I also enjoyed your discussion about writers being afraid of making their villains problematic. Another form of this is when stories make a problematic character into a one dimensional hate sink designed to be discarded by the story's end, but I usually find this uncomfortable to watch. Some people who do or say awful things DO later change and try to make amends, so tthe purity culture-esque mindset that you can, like, never ever touch a person who was ever bigoted or disrespectful in the past (like you'll catch the Cheese Touch or something!)...it doesn't sit right with me. Not only is it childish, it probably makes it less likely for that person to learn from their mistakes. Like Regina George, I imagine such naysayers would probably be put to shame by the things THEY did 20 years ago, if they were even alive back then lol

I loved this review!

Also I thought the glen coco joke worked. It’s funny in the movie because it’s not a character we know so calling it out like that is surprising and funny. When they have the background singers draw additional attention to it by singing I think it heightens the initial joke in a fun way.

I agree that their watering down of Regina made her more sympathetic than Katie. But I did like Renee’s portrayal. I don’t think a girl like Regina would be popular in high school today and Renee updated it to be a more modern cool girl type I think.

I think it is still homophonic for Regina to say "I don't care that you're gay but why are you obsessed with me?" - that's very thinly veiled homophobia

Yeah, the theme park content is great. You need to find a new Evermore 😂

I absolutely love theme park videos and would gladly watch any that come out! The Avatar video is what got me interested in your channel!

pls pls pls do a book review that would be amazing i always loved the old ones! and as someone who’s first video i watched by jenny was the escape from tomorrow one i will never tire of the theme park content, its just too good

I watched this having just seen the stage musical about a week ago. The songs are so unmemorable I was having a hard time figuring out which songs you were talking about part of the time, and I definitely could not remember who sang them. Great video! Too bad about the musical

i'm never tired of theme park content

One thing about me is im never going to be tired on Jennys takes of theme park related topics

When I see she posted a video about a topic I am familiar with: "Oh cool, I wonder what Jenny's thoughts are on this". When I see she posted a video about a topic I am not familiar with: "Oh cool, I wonder what Jenny's thoughts are on this". I'm down for any topic: theme parks, books summaries/reviews, etc. Although I'm very curious about the secret furry video you have mentioning in the past, if you're looking for a little nudge.

Jenny if you do not mind can you please add pictures about some of the things you are describing?

runaway heart video yes please!!

I want you to work on the videos you're excited about, regardless of topic. Legitime excitement of the topic makes me excited about the topic. Doesn't matter if it's the 100th theme park video in a row

They really sanitized Regina George which is a shame. She's an icon because she's so nasty! People love a nasty gal!

Also I’m convinced Angourie Rice only got cast because they had already cast Jenna Fisher and Angourie Rice looks exactly like her

Ok so I understand people not liking the Mean Girls stage musical its objectively not good but I got hooked on the soundtrack during a rough time in college so I’ve spent a lot of time with it. I get why you’d say the Disney Princess voice doesn’t work for Cady but it actually leads to one of my favorite character choices in the musical- she starts Disney Princess and as she gets sucked into the plastics her voice gets more and more Britney like Regina’s.

Completely agree about the lyrics in this musical, although I still haven't heard anyone properly celebrate the eye-watering line from 'Revenge Party', "Imagine a party with dresses and cake, and singing and dancing and cake."

Hey Jenny “Lez” is actually a derogatory term so it’s generally frowned upon to say it. No hate at all I just thought you’d wanna know

yesss please do a video on the book it sounds so fun

Jenny you are glowing!!! Loving your hair color and makeup.

Just visited NYC with my fam and we definitely did the thing where we felt the need to go to a Broadway show but thankfully I was able to convince them we should go to hadestown even though it wasn’t based on anything they knew. (We all loved it obv)

that theme park book vid sounds great id love to watch!!

I would 100% watch and love a video about that book!!

"We slap our arms together like seals." 😂

WHO IS SICK OF THEME PARK CONTENT I JUST WANNA TALK

I know this comment will never see the light of day, but I definitely read an interview with someone involved in the show who said that they couldn't make Regina spread the lesbian rumor because homophobia is uncool in this generation, which wouldn't work with her conniving character and her role in the school. It would be unrealistic that her peers would still look up to her after behavior like that instead of calling her out, same as being openly racist, and she would know that. (I'm too old to know how true to teenage life that is and I have not seen it.) I remember them saying something like, it was a tough needle to thread - guess they failed.

As far as any commentary on what you do next, I absolutely adore your videos, and I fully trust in your creative genius.

I always learn so much from your criticism. Even in a less scripted ramble video I keep rewatching it to improve my critical and creative practise.

The lead, Cadey, was in the MCU Spider-Man movies, and the fact that you didn't know that, as a Sam Raimi Spider-Man fan, shows where your allegiances lie

I was a very weird child who read Queen Bees & Wannabes (the non-fiction self-help book for parents of teen girls that Mean Girls the movie was based on) of my own volition in middle school, like, for fun, before I had ever even heard of Mean Girls, and so as a result I always found the whole culture surrounding the original movie to be kind of bizarre - like, it feels like the movie’s fandom really dumbs down the message of the film and ignores the entire critical element in favour of just treating Regina George and the rest of the Plastics as being cool and iconic. And then it seems like the musical really doubled down on that (turning Regina George into an ~unproblematic fave) and then somehow the movie musical doubled down even *further* and now the criticism of social norms present in the original movie (the success of which was already dubious tbqh) has just like vanished. Idk it's such a strange phenomenon to me LMAO

I watched the movie so I could understand what the video is about. But oof... that was a very long watch. Coming from someone who loves loves loves musical movies, this was not it. I get what they were trying to do, but ouch.

The harlequin romance sounds so fun! Go for it!

The best part of the Mean Girls movie musical is the press tour, especially Renee Rapp publicly eviscerating that one bus tour owner 🙂‍↕️

Theme. Park. Content. 👏

This might be a weird thing to harp on, but I hate how the musical tried to modernize Mean Girls while keeping the conceit of "Cady is ignorant of US cultural mores because she was raised in Africa". In context of the early '00s when social media was fairly new you could *sorta* believe it, but how can I accept that a wealthy teenager in Africa is so utterly isolated from basic American teen customs that she needs animal metaphors to understand everything? Really should have made musical!Cady a Mennonite from northern Manitoba instead, but I guess then you'd lose the animal puns... Also who on Earth is saying they don't want theme park content, that's the most powerful content on the channel

You could make a video about literally anything and we'll all be here watching it.

Oh snap, a patreon twofer. And here I've been spending time with family and loved ones like a fool.

jenny i hope you know how soothing and calming your voice and storytelling is. you are truly a grounding force in my life and im extremely grateful for your passion and love for creating content despite how pointless or frivolous it may seem. that sounds like a read but i am genuinely so grateful for your presence in this world and my life 🤟🏻♥️

Bring on the romance novel! My cool Disney World loving wife just got into romance novels & I'd love to share a video about it with her.

I do not usually give a fig about theme parks. But I HAVE watched all four Evermore videos to completion around 5X each- If only to take a break from the Star Wars video.

Jenny I have no idea why I even watch theme park stuff, but I know it's because of you. I have no interest at all in theme parks 90% of the time but I will listen to you talk about them for hours happily. I've never been to Disney Land but I listened to you talk about scheduling a day there and I was entertained and happy. I've never read any of the books you talk about but I listen to them all. I've never seen a lot of the movies you talk about but I enjoy hearing you talk about them. It's just.... You. I like hearing you talk. Bring on books and theme parks and anything else that makes you smile. I'll be here.

do theme park content! do harlequin romances! do what you want, Jenny!

I'm always down for theme park content, and having it also be a book discussion-type video (which I love your old videos for Trigger Warning and that published Reylo fanfic) makes it a unique spin on theme part content. Do what interests you!

Personally I love your theme park content and eat it up everytime!! I come back for unrelated video because I find you talking about most things (even if I’m not interested in the topic) to be entertaining, but my sweet spot is definitely theme park content. Honestly, whatever you find most interesting and want to talk about, I am on board for!!!

I personally love your theme park content, but even on the rare occasion where the topic is something I have no interest in, I have always enjoyed your videos and found myself having fun because it is really fun to listen to someone talk about something they’re interested in.

I'm a little theme-park sicko, so I am always gonna be in favor of more theme-park videos!

This video is facts. The most egregious error that I think exemplifies the amount of effort in the musical: The changing of the famous "grool" line. In the OG, Cady says, "I meant to say cool but then started to say great" which of course gets you grool. In the musical, she says, "I meant to say great but started to say cool." That's CRATE (phonetically). Or possibly COOT. Why would they do this?? It makes no sense!!! Nothing in this blah-ass musical pisses me off more than this change. If you're going to keep the original line in, do it right at least?? I mean, they had the blueprints. Why CHANGE it? I DON'T UNDERSTAND.

THEME PARK CONTENT 4EVA PROVE THE HATERS WRONG

Love this musical and the OG cast. And for this movie it was fun to see Auli'i in another musical role. She been great at picking projects.

the girl who plays cady did a q&a at my uni here in australia (she is also australian) and she mentioned that she...did not audition for the part, she was just like given it which adds more layers of confusion bc it's not even like she was the best of a questionable bunch in the audition room, the director ASKED for her

Sorry if this has been addressed, but has Jenny ever talked about the Hunchback of Notre Dame stage musical that did well in La Jolla and wasn’t picked up for Broadway? Seems like it’s in her wheelhouse.

the point about spreading rumors of a gay child being gay before theyre even aware/out is such a good one cus that is exactly what happened to me in middle school. like, in retrospect i can laugh about how silly it is, but that really does a lot to ostracize you as a child, or push you further in the closet. what a sad, toothless movie haha

i knew anjourie rice (cady's actress) from minor roles in mcu's spider-man and the nice guys, i think she shines in specific genre roles but i remember her saying she didn't think she could do this role but was convinced by tina fey/producers involved. 🥹 she seems sweet and i just hope she gets better fitting roles in the future. love your review videos no matter what! and as everyone else is saying, more theme park vids always! 🗣️

I quite like I'd Rather Be Me as a workout bop, but hearing you read the lyrics to filth has made me realize that I probably just like hearing Barrett Weed (Janis, and also Veronica in Heathers) belt her heart out.

Never too much theme park content!!

Finally someone says everything I feel about the Mean Girls Musical

Did this video get 7 minutes shorter at some point? I sent a screenshot to my friend when it first came out and it says the video is 56 minutes long, but now it's 49?

I think Jenny is preeminently qualified to judge Mean Girls because wow, Jenny, you are so mean, girl.

I was going to say that one good thing that came out of the musical was an excellent fan animatic of Starscream set to Candy Shop, but then I remembered that's from Heathers.

Wasn’t the joke with Janice that she told Regina she’s Lebanese and she thought it meant lesbian anyways?

Look, I actually genuinely like Mean Girls The Musical. But even the most hardcore MGTM fan will admit that the best thing that show has going for it is that it's "bad but fun". Some of the more cringe things work fine for stage because you can go a bit extra on stage and it still kinda works. But when the camera lens is close up for a movie, you can't get away with it. I feel like a lot of the problems come down to script and direction. While I didn't love all of the casting, I thought most performers were giving it the best they could under the circumstances. I actually quite like Angourie Rice, she's a charming enough young performer, but she was a total miscast. Renee Rapp was good, but something about her characterisation seemed a bit off. Auli'i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey were definitely the best. Bottom line, there really was no reason for Mean Girls: The Movie: The Musical: The Movie to even exist.

this has probably already been mentioned but funnily enough pink velour tracksuits have been in the trend cycle for the past 3ish years -- however they are ONLY worn by tik tok teenagers and not middle aged mums so that just makes the decision all the more anachronistic. also please don't stop with the theme park stuff! your niche is now my niche and i would love to keep learning about it

I’ve read they wanted Sabrina Carpenter to play Cady but it conflicted with her tour so she couldn’t- and then there was another actress so this girl was their third choice. I really wish that Sabrina could have done it, it would have been cool since she was supposed to play the character on Broadway but only did 2 or 3 shows before the covid shutdown. Idk if that would have saved this movie tho I couldn’t even make it all the way through when I watched it

Can't believe people are tired of theme park content! I have no preexisting interest in parks at all, but I love hearing you talk about them because you're so passionate.

I agree that this Regina didn't work! Both the characterization and the acting. I would love a video on the book you mentioned!

I for one really miss the book reviews and would love it if you did a video on the Epcot Harlequin romance novel!!

Personally, I will NEVER EVER be tired of theme park content. I could hear you literally talk about anything but your theme park content is so fascinating. Happy holidays and thank you!

I haven't finished the video yet so you mightve already said it, but apparently the main actress who plays Cady, her mother is a writer and her dad is a director so maybe that's why

I have no idea who is around your spaces saying that they want less theme park content. I have seen literally nobody say this.

IGNORE ANYONE SAYING THEY WANT LESS THEME PARK CONTENT IM SO SERIOUS

I ADORE your theme park videos because of how passionate you are about it.

It’s so affirming to hear that someone else also hates the original musical. The music sucks!

Personally I don’t think there’s anything wrong with 2 theme park related videos in a row. I can only speak for myself, but a lot of the enjoyment I get out of your videos is that you’re clearly very passionate about what you’re talking about, and the subject is a bit more secondary to that. Happy holidays! ☺️

Imo there’s no such thing as too much theme park content. And I love your book summaries

Very excited for the Runaway Heart video! Create and release content as you like. You do you 💛

Janis being a lesbian just takes away from the whole joke of the original movie. In the movie Janis tells Regina she’s Lebanese and Regina thinks she means she’s a lesbian 😭

I’m very interested in the hat your porg was wearing!

Ok so finally finished this one. I never saw the Mean Girls musical bc I blamed it for killing the Heathers broadway transfer we all desperately wanted instead (my heart sill believes I'm right about this but I have no proof). I was actually thinking of watching the movie musical when it came out but then literally no one liked it so I didn't bother. Maybe morbid curiosity just kind of makes me want to watch it more now that I've seen it torn apart but I probably won't. Re: upcoming content, I first subscribed from loving the Troll book, and absolutely wish book readings would come back. I am only interested in theme parks and action movie franchises as much as I love hearing people talk about what they are passionate about, but consequently that means I pretty much enjoy whatever videos you make. I definitely love books and consuming so-bad-its-good media in their own right so love when that kind of content makes the rotation.

"we're tired of themepark content" i enjoy the themepark content the most because i dont know a single thing about themeparks and have never been it rocks they're insane.

Theme park content absolutely sounds fun and doubly so because it’s a book and your book videos are really fun too

Get tired of theme park content?! Never! I’d watch it in a heartbeat. Do what’s interesting to you and we are here for it. :)

I love your theme park videos! the passion you have for them is palpable

I need to know more about that Charjabug!

The Beetlejuice musical gives me such mixed feelings because I feel like the music is really good, but some of the lyrics, particularly comedic ones from Beetlejuice himself, feel a bit cringey. It reminds me of that observation you had in the Dear Evan Hansen video about the gay jokes, which is that comedy in musical theatre feels several years out of date. Beetlejuice kind of feels like someone who is South-Park-edgy, which isn't really the vibe he gives me in the original movie.

This is just relevant to the intro, but I'm not over how there's a Hunchback of Notre Dame musical that uses the good Disney songs but adds in a bunch of great ones that don't clash with the originals from the movie (which I feel is really rare for movie-musical adaptations), but it's only ever been off-Broadway. It's genuinely one of my favourite musical albums to listen to. Also, it's not a proper Disney musical as much as it "uses songs from the movie". I don't think it was made by Disney, which is probably why it's gotten a lot less attention/advertising.

Theme park content must never die. It's like eating doughnuts. You can't have enough.

Just wanted to add my vote for a video about the harlequin romance theme park book. I DESPERATELY want a video about the harlequin romance theme park book. Aside: I have never been big on theme parks because my crippling motion sickness makes it impossible for me to ride anything besides, like, the carousel ... but your various theme park videos have made me fascinated by the topics of theme parks. Keep 'em coming!

theme park content is most of why i follow you, so ill never be tired of that. im sure im not the only person, and i feel like you'll never make everyone happy, so you might as well work on what you want. But maybe im underestimating how many themepark heads there are in your viewerbase *outside* of patreon lol. Either way, a book review sounds fun, you haven't done one of those in awhile. Also unrelated to any of that: the fact that apex predator rhymes "lioness" and "with less" has always driven me insane why did they do that.

I’d watch the video about a the book. A romance at old Epcot sounds perfect for a Jenny video.

This app never gives notifications for replies unless they’re replies to the first comment in the thread. You have to scroll through the comments to find your comment to see if it’s been replied to. Even more interestingly when you get blocked by the first commenter it makes the whole thread disappear but only for you. You can’t read your own comments or know if they’ve been replied to. You will get a notification of likes on the comments so you’ll know they’re still there just not for you.

Regina absolutely wouldn’t be caught DEAD wearing e.l.f. She’d be rocking your Charlotte Tilbury and Gucci. She’s doing Sephora Shopping Hauls on the regular. Also ignore those people who tell you to stop doing theme park stuff!! I hate going to theme parks but I’ve watched yours countless times! Plus you always have a way of tying it all together that makes me want to listen.

The thing that's emblematic of how sloppy this is compared to the 2004 movie is that the limit in the 2004 movie actually doesn't exist. In this it does. Someone cared enough to check 20 years ago and no one did here.

The only thing I disagree about is renee rapp not being good because she was in the OBC and I do appreciate that they prioritized a good performer/singer for at least that part.

A harlequin romance set in a theme park sounds incredible and I would watch the shit out of that! My vote is 100% in favor of more theme park content, and like, just to be clear: I have never been to a theme park in my life, at most I have been to a few amusement parks as a child, let alone having been to any Disney theme park, and I have just absolutely zero context for 90% of what you talk about in theme park video. And I still watch them happily and also constantly rewatch them, including and especially the Patreon rambles on Disney world and specific rides and get super invested in everything you talk about there, because they are just genuinely that good and enjoyable and because you have so much love for and passion towards theme parks that it shows through in your work. Follow your heart and do what you love! I can absolutely say for myself that's what I'm here for, and I know the same goes for many others here.

For what it’s worth, I like the new Christmas special bonus video, and I blocked Louis.

Do you for real have a large bloc telling you to ease up on theme park content? Not to throw fans like me who were already here under the bus, but didn't like 99.8% of your new fans come from Star Wars Hotel and the other .2% from Evermore? And like even as an "older" fan, much as I love the movie/tv/book reviews, the theme park stuff has always been my favorite.

I'm on the side of more theme park content. You're my trusted sourse in all things theme park.

It's not just that Glenn Coco is not a joke in itself: It's the _middle_ part in the the set up for a joke (and none for Gretchen Weiners, bye).

I think the lead is sort of an actress on the rise. She was in the Spider-Man movies, and people really loved her. Now she’s been in a few movies, but none of them have done particularly well to my knowledge. I do think that she’s considered sort of the teen movie star now, in the same way the guy who played Aaron is, or Noah Centeneo was a few years ago. I don’t think any of the movies this person has been in have been as well-loved as any that Noah Centineo was in or as The Summer I Turned Pretty.

The musical was already "Mean Girls but worse", so the fact that even fans of the musical didn't like the movie truly is ominous.

I'm with all these Epcot romance freaks. Unless there's been any Realm Town developments!

Im also a theme park nerd so I love any video about any of them!!! <33

I would absolutely love a video about that book! But also I think the best thing is for you to just follow what gives you dopamine. You are so good at what you do, the specific topic doesn't really matter!

Keep the theme park content coming! I don’t care about theme parks, havent been to one in over a decade, but your explorations of them are fascinating!!

I miss your book videos, I think that idea sounds so fun!

Please do a book video! I love old romances :))

Have a great Christmas Jenny...thanks for all the content this year 😊👍

I can only speak for myself, but I'm not tired of the theme park stuff at all!

Fully agree with all points! I thought it was comically miscast, with only Janice and Damien being reasonable choices. I understand that people love Renee Rapp, but her insistence on playing herself as much as possible in this role was terrible.

yes to theme park book video!

i will never get tired of your theme park content

I love the book readings so I'll echo all the support for Harlequin Romance

Has any movie depicted teenagers' social media use in a way that wasn't completely cringe? On Regina-- I am definitely biased because I am gay for Renee Rapp but they might have thought that nowadays, the most popular girl in school is no longer the hyperfeminine girly-girl. In my high school (graduated 2021) the most popular girls didn't dress in pink with high heels—that probably would be mocked. But usually they were still fairly girly, pretty and sociable, and good at sports and school. I think Renee's cool girl vibe swung too far past that and underestimated the social power that femininity still has— maybe a feminine clean girl or old money aesthetic might be more accurate to what teenagers aspire to now? Although I am four years out and don't have TikTok so what do I know. I think because they made Regina's actions more toothless, Renee had to act tougher in order to seem intimidating at all. In the original she looks pretty but unassuming and you/Cady are surprised to learn how mean she can be. Here they introduce her with a song about how scary she is but don't follow through. Also, with Janis, I bet they thought that teens are now accepting of gay peers. Which is definitely more true than in 2004, but teens can still suck and it's realistic to make a storyline about homophobic bullying.

Go with your heart! Work on what you’re excited about.

I like your theme park content or really any content you are passionate about

thompsons from iowa mentioned

As for the Janis/Regina homophobic backstory change: Gen Zs (and online people in general) are very facetious about their bigotry. I can see a reality where people bullied Janis for being “obsessive” with some justification of wanting to stand up for privacy rights. When in actuality, she was attacked harsher because of homophobia

1. Loved this, you gave so much context to a movie I was baffled by, having intimate knowledge of the source material but never touched the musical. 2. Runaway Heart sounds like an absolute BANGER video concept!

Do the harlequin novel, but please explain harlequin I hear it’s like a theme and they all have the same characters but that’s all I know about it.

I love your book videos so I would be excited! Also, I enjoy your theme park content despite having little personal interest in theme parks, so even if your channel became exclusively theme park content I think I'd still have a good time

My take on the Janice backstory is that as a person being outed doesn’t necessarily equate to becoming an instant pariah, the writers needed Janice to do something crazy so the school would turn against her, hence the fire. They should have just changed it totally rather than trying to ‘update’ the homophobia to gen z standards which is just such a weird concept

always love theme park content and book content!!!

Always happy to see more theme park content, tbh <:)

There's even a 2nd degree "joke nudge/reference" in the movie that potentially bothers me even more than "I'm a mouse, duh", and it's in the same song! The whole opening with "maybe world peace should be first" works in the stage show because Karen fully leaves the stage and redoes her entrance. They kept it in the movie and she just restarts her TikTok which...isn't funny? Like...why not just cut it???

Give me theme park content! lol

PLEASE DO A RUNAWAY HEART VIDEO

I LOVE the broadway adaptation, but the new movie was just horrible. So glad someone agrees the movie was 0/10.

A big issue with Mean Girls: the Musical is that, if I recall correctly, there were rumblings about it for years, then Heathers: the Musical was a surprise hit Off-Broadway so Mean Girls was slapped together as fast as possible to capitalize on it.

dont listen to the cop in your head jenny, the people not only want but demand as much theme park content as you want to make

What a great present

I actually wasn’t aware that there was a movie based on a play based on a movie other than The Producers.

This is going to hurt (I’m a fan of the Broadway musical, as dumb as it is).

My take on the Renee Rapp physicality was that she couldn’t let herself drop the “Renee Rapp” brand she’s been building and she had to remain chill and cool girl lesbian to maintain that brand. But your read about the lioness posture makes a lot of sense & I love how it goes with the whole apex predator thing! Also I think them trying to make Regina’s character more appealing is due to the “Regina was actually the victim” tiktok mindset of a few years ago

i vote 100% yes for the book! (but also i love your theme park content)

I haven’t read all the comments so not sure if I’m duplicating somebody else saying this, but the thing in the original movie about the rumor about Janice being a lesbian is in the end she tells her dance partner that she’s Lebanese, and we’re lead to infer that Regina misheard Lebanese as lesbian and that’s how the rumor got started. The joke was homophobia and racism and we lost both

Clap like a seal got me lol

jenny, I could listen to you talk about literally anything for hours. and it would be cool to hear you do a book ramble!! that video sounds great 🙏

Omg yes to Epcot love stories! Yes to more theme park content!! Theeemmmmmeee Paaaaarrrrks 😍😍

As a lover of the OG film and a hater of the stage play, this video healed me.

LOVE THIS

mother has posted 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

Jenny should totally do a video on Kingdom Keepers. It crosses so many boxes, being a YA series in the Disney Parks whose later entries even incorporated fanfiction into the story

Wait who's tired of theme park content? That's what I subscribed for!

The Epcot romance book sounds amazing!!!! I would be interested in a video on that- also, I love your theme park videos so I’m definitely not sick of them! As a side question: how do you keep your plush collection from getting dusty? I have a few plushies and dolls on shelves, but I worry about them gathering dust and I’m not really sure how dusting a plush would work. Any tips? Also, thank you for your uncompromising take down of the mean girls musical movie and giving your straightforward thoughts on the source musical- in a way it’s refreshing to hear someone just point out things that they dislike about something without feeling the need to soften the blow and try to tone down their opinion because other people like the thing. It truly was uncompromising.

I watch both mean girls movies back to back and there was one joke where Karen puts a K on backwards cause she's using a mirror. Then checks by looking down and walks away happy since both look right and it was funnier than anything in the musical. I did like Gretchen's one Halloween song though, I thought it was filmed in a fun and realistic? way.

When it comes to the content, theme park or no etc etc, I’m really just happy to hear whatever. If it was retreading the EXACT same ground every time maybe I’d weary but I feel happy with the variety. Also, a book reading is something you haven’t done in a while, it feels like, and I have really loved those so- I’m in. Lol.

i kind of think in general we need more snooty. noot noot.

Great video as always- my feedback re: theme park content is that I really enjoy it, but am not interested in Disney anymore. Would love to hear more about all the weird/niche parks of the world!

I'm a little tired of the theme park content, but a book video sounds exciting! I think the energy is different enough

I still haven’t watched the movie even though I am a big fan of Renee Rapp (I have a feeling this isn’t her best work lol) I think one of the other main flaws was that the marketing didn’t *really* indicate that this iteration of mean girls was gonna be the musical version. I found the trailers (at least the ones that I saw) quite vague. The only indicators of “musical-ness” was a few disjointed sound bites of World Burn which I don’t think was super clear. Myself and other theatre kids knew what it was gonna be but quite a few non theatre people in my life were very confused about a re-make of mean girls in general, and then upon finding out it was a musical, being kinda mad about it? lol All that being said, I don’t think the movie would have been great anyway, but whoever was doing distribution and marketing really shot themselves in the foot by not making it very clear it was a musical and I think heaps of people went into it in bad faith as well.

I thought it was fine. I’ve already forgotten it. But love the movie reviews, keep em comin!

I think you should make videos about whatever interests and excites you! Having enjoyed all of your videos, I trust your instincts.

i am actually begging you to do a video about the epcot harlequin novel

Nice now I don't have to watch Mean Girls (2024) :D Ohhhh book reading vids are always fun no matter the topic! Also getting serious Anna from Frozen vibes from Jenny's outfit!

Sorry I don't mean to spam: I think the fault of both the musical adaptation and the movie musical adaptation was that it was Tina Fey who wrote both and she wrote herself into a corner of both have to have the exact same beats instead of adapting the story to make it work for the stage. I still love the Broadway show tho and the movie is a major guilty pleasure.

I agree with you that changing the singers of Apex Predator changes the context of it. In the original show it’s Janice and Cady who sing it showing their different perspectives of Regina and the Plastics. In the movie it’s just another extended sequence of them telling Cady what the school is like instead of her impulsive and curious animalistic observations. Also the act 2 opener was cut from the movie cause time, I guess. As was the act one closer which like really upset me. There is a big distinct change in act one and act 2 Cady that’s not gradual.

I would have assume they would have changed the rumor about Janis being gay because it's a lot easier to be gay in high school then it was 20 years ago. But it's still not easy enough.

Fun thing about Carrie is that the reasons it was bad had very little to do with it being a film adaptation. The things that went wrong behind the scenes there were much more interesting than it just being a cheap cash grab.

i feel like complaining about you making theme park videos is like complaining about superman’s red trunks being apart of his costume; it’s your whole gig?? i personally will probably never go to any disney parks, and i’ve never consumed any star wars content, but i love your videos on them because of your love for the game. you’re passionate and you’re detailed the content is fun, but also, i associate you with theme parks and disney. your brand is theme parks, so i think complaints about a fucking theme park video on the jenny nicholson channel is nonsensical no offense. i kinda got heated there lol but it’s a stupid thing to bitch about. like go watch quite literally any other video essay and chances are 99.9% of the time you won’t run into theme park content. don’t come to the ice cream shop and get mad that ppl sell ice cream.

Jenny, I'm sorry you had to sit through something you didn't want to. I made it about ten minutes into the movie and couldn't go on, so I appreciate your sacrifice! I think that the reason why I loved the original movie is because it rang true to my experience of female friendship in high school. I was a teenager in the 90s and so much of what Regina says and does was recognisable to me. E.g., she randomly compliments girls who are then beside themselves that she paid attention to them, then turns around and says how ugly that thing was to her friends. These little changes in behaviour are what made high school female friendships SO excruciating and difficult to navigate. I also think because Tina Fey wrote the script based on a non-fic book (Queen Bees and Wannabes), that's why it felt based in reality, even though it was hyperreal in other ways. One of the other things that rang true in the original movie was Regina saying how Janis was obsessed with her cos she was a lesbian, and this was exactly how the cool girls at school reacted to finding out other girls were gay. I agree with Jenny's assessment that they probably changed the story to make Regina less problematic. I think it weakens the story, because again it was so true to me: in the 90s, where I lived (Melbourne, Australia) there were definitely kids coming out and being treated ok to their faces, but then gossiped about behind their backs. The Regina/Janis friendship breakdown mirrored a lot of friendships I saw at school. I saw someone else comment that maybe it should've been set in 2004, and I think that would've worked. I do feel part of the failure of it is trying to make a late nineties/early 2000s story fit into today's world of social media etc. And I want to add that please make whatever videos YOU want to make, Jenny...if you're excited by something, then I think most of us will be excited too (I know I will). Merry Christmas!

I would also like to arguably say the Carrie revival does a really good job with it. Love its book and I think it’s a satisfying enough way to tell the story, even tho you can’t have much fun with the staging like you can with a cameras perspective.

I am always in favor of more theme park, or theme park-adjacent videos!

So as a fan of the musical itself, I was really looking forward to this movie. And Cady Heron aside I think this movie is amazing (I’ve watched it twice in theaters and 4 times with my Blu-ray). Suffice to say I will have the hardest time trying not to argue with Jenny while I watch this video 😂😂😂

I'm so grateful for these absolutely correct takes. The death knolls of this musical were rung when the VERY FIRST SONG RELEASED wasn't sung by the ACTUAL LEAD. Baffling. Say you don't believe in your own project without literally saying you don't believe in your project.

Man the Thompsons really be traveling don't they?

There is no such thing as too much theme park content! I think the book would be really fun and scratch more of the book urge then the theme park urge.

When someone is wearing a Christmas outfit as outstanding as Jenny’s it should be called sleigh slay

the Regina being high at the end thing to me really framed it as her being like lobotomised and therefore the evil is defeated

Epcot Book!!

re: next video projects, I was kinda looking forward to one of your movie-related videos

Also - joining the chorus in favor of the Epcot book! We love to see anything you want to explore in your areas of expertise. Those (few) who are tired of theme park content can skip it if they choose. I'm hype for it

i’ve never been to disney but because it’s jenny now i’m very hype for this epcot romance read through!

you could never make too much theme park content tbh

Runaway Heart video sounds super fun! I'm personally down for as much theme park content as possible.

I think the choice to not have new-Regina start the lesbian rumor about Janis was just a kind of unthinking "people might get mad at our movie" instinct. In the original, it's ambiguous whether Janis actually is gay or not (implied that Regina may have taken "lebanese" to be "lesbian"), but in either case her spreading the rumor in a "ew, she shouldn't be at my pool party" way is a clear & realistic homophobic act of bullying and social dominance enforcement. I think when remaking it, they either thought it was unrealistic that Janis being or being perceived as gay would really get her bullied nowadays, or they just thought that depicting homophobia in a character who later gets redeemed would make audiences just kind of blindly mad at the movie, even though it would be showing that as a bad thing. Either way it just kind of seems like weak writing to be too afraid to have Regina's actions have some teeth.

Sorry you didn’t like it, Jenny! I’ve never seen it myself, but I’m a drag performer & I know several songs from the musical are very popular. I must have seen girls do Karen’s sexy mouse song a dozen times.

Oops, confused desert for savannah. Animal kid privileges revoked!

How did you know that a new Jenny review video is what I asked Santa for???

Hyper-accurate Epcot romance supports my writer friend's theory that you can put anything in a romance novel, however strange, as long as it fits the broad definition of romance.

Hi Jenny, thanks for the review. The whole play felt like it was just trying to appeal to a certain fan base. Like at a meeting, some intern raised their hand and said "How about a play about Mean Girls?" and everyone was so tired so they said "Ok, why not, let's go home." Also, would love to see a review about Runaway Heart. The best videos are the ones you're excited to make. BTW, I never got the name of the giant Porg. We know the giant spider's name, Aragog, but what's the Porg's name?

do the book video!!!!!!

agreeing w/the comments here that we like hearing your thoughts on what you're passionate about! do what you will, and the audience will shift accordingly. you gotta make yourself happy first :)

Happy Holidays everyone!! 🥰❤️

I love the theme park content and would love to see your review of the epcot romance

I absolutely love book readings! A+ content to fall asleep to

Merry Christmas Jenny! (And all) Theme park content is my favourite Jenny content!!! I watch the evermore videos/the pandora video whenever I need a happy little boost in the background. Your passion is the best part of your stuff - anything you're excited/passionate about would certainly be a great video

I've only seen one clip from this movie and I haven't watched the ramble yet, but I really have no respect for this film because the clip I saw was them doing the song that introduces the mean girl trio in the broadway musical, and then them doing the scene that introduces them in the movie. They want to have their cake and eat it too, but doing double the intros is Awful for pacing, and the characterisations between the broadway musical ad the og movie are pretty distinct, so you just end up wasting my time with repetitive scenes that aren't cohesive at all

Happy Holidays, Jenny! I'm not sure about anyone else, but I would be happy to see something about Runaway Heart. If you think it is interesting enough to care about, I'm sure it will be interesting.

Why is the YouTube mirror flagged as only for kids? 😭

I never get tired of your theme park content, and I would absolutely be interested in a video about Runaway Heart!

Jenny I think your recent projects being so huge and time consuming have made you forget that we just... Like your commentary and point of view. I had as much fun watching this as any other ramble.

happy holidays jenny

I think (seemingly) picking whatever topic grabs your fancy is one of the strengths of your channel, so I'll always support you following your heart! Personally, I don't find book review videos very interesting, I can't really put my finger on why, they just usually don't grab my attention. I'd still check it out, but that's my general opinion.

I feel very validated by this review!

I feel like if people don't want you to do themepark content they probably could just not watch the themepark content. Sounds like a cool video (and probably there isn't a big rabbit hole to accidentally fall into about it haha)

Appreciated the Waitress recognition 🥧 Groundhog Day is another great adapatation

So glad I didn't have to watch this movie. Thank you for your service, Jenny! I would love to see a review of the Harlequin book.

I knew Jenny would hate the Carrie musical! Respect. 🙂‍↕️

"Well, I guess that's it for this year!" "I guess that's the last video I'm gonna record tonight, I guess that's the end of that, nothing more to see here, that's the last of what I recorded"...OMG Jenny what are you cooking

Love this video, can we get an edit with clips one day? I refuse to watch the musical but I want to understand how bad it is lol

I feel very reassured in my decision to hate this movie without watching it because you've basically confirmed everything I worried they would do lol. anyway I love theme park content and I really hope you do the theme park romance book it sounds amazing

yes to the epcot romance book

The writers' handling the whole Regina and Janice Backstory (if the link doesn't work properly look up something along the lines of "U wouldn't know ur gay - Cyberbully" on YouTube): https://youtu.be/0uzTWGRtOgg?si=C9JqjSAX6ZK-HQm3

I knew you'd always have the best musical takes. This is one of my all time fav patreon videos

Mean Girls: The Musical 5/5 Stars. Certified Fresh. Hilarious Jokes! -Babies

who the hell would be tired of theme park content! let them suffer!!

I agree with all of your thoughts haha like 100% and literally would watch anything you make haha you’re my body double chore buddy :) you have lovely interesting thoughts :) happy new year!

Who's tired of theme park content? I just want to talk for a second...

My jaw literally dropped when you said some people are tired of theme park content - I will never tire of theme park content lol

I will never be tired of the theme park content, go make that video on the trashy Epcot romance novel I will be watching minute 1

I’m here for Jenny’s Uncompromising Creation of Theme Park Content (2025)

I think a huge chunk of the problems with the Mean Girls musical comes from modernizing it. Like making it a period piece of 2004 could have been an interesting way to introduce some new jokes, for one. Adding social media fundamentally changes the story so much that it can’t really be the same story. Same with more modern attitudes on queerness (you can’t really keep Janis and Regina as characters and their relationship the same and then just remove the homophobia when that’s…the whole thing), and on wealth/consumerism (I feel like rich mean popular girls in high school absolutely DO wear Shein and elf nowadays but that kind of makes Regina George not Regina George anymore, right??) Like make a spiritual successor about what a Mean Girls type story would look like in the 2020s but then it won’t be an adaptation and get all that nostalgia money… OR make a Mean Girls musical and go nuts with the 2000s fashion and cultural references and stuff. It’s so obvious to me??? The Back to the Future musical (which I know nothing about but people seem to like) is set in 1985 still!!

I love everything you make (including this ramble), and there's definitely no such thing as too much theme Park content from you :)

Where's Buzzy was the first video of yours I ever watched - safe to say your theme park audience would be hyped to have a video on anything theme park related!

The movie musical sucked. One aspect that I thought was weird in the movie that wasn't mentioned here was the burn book timeline. They make a point that it hadn't been touched in years (so like, were the girls 13ish when they last wrote in it which makes the whole thing a lot less cutting) and also Regina was very against bringing it out again. At every moment they softened her up it was such a bad choice.

I think you should make whatever content excites you the most :)

Happy Chrismukah! Work on whatever the f you want. Every strange thing you put out that I thought wouldn't make views has made a billion views. You being your normal self is perfect whatever you're talking about.

I would LOVE a rundown of an Epcot romance... please never stop sharing your hyperfixations with us! Whether it's theme park content, weird media, whatever... it's so engaging because you're so into it!

The theme park content is the best, and the goofy romance novel top gloss only makes it better.

so here to end the year with hater energy. love the analysis as always!!

I’ve never watched either version of the mean girls musical but I Love a bad film and being a hater, personally, so maybe I’ll check them out. Your crit was really interesting. I think vaguely queer but willing to utilize homophobic stereotypes to bully and or social climb Regina George could have been a change that makes sense, depending obv on how it’s written. but it sounds like it wasn’t really thought through. Like it could have been a good way to update the character even, and wouldn’t make her less of a bad person or less problematic, just less 2004. Being vaguely queer (but not an outright lesbian) as a femme girl is simultaneously cool and demonized and I think Regina threading that needle would be a way to illustrate her skill, and also like say something about her as a person. All of the mean girls I’ve ever known or interacted with or been group-adjacent to had a lot of homoeroticism going on. I do have to say, people, including/mostly young TikTok influencers do still wear velour juicy track suits, in a “y2k fashion” sort of way, though it’s still communicating a different thing than it was in the movie, esp if it was an unbranded SHEIN tier iteration of the fit. IMO, it still would scan as trying to seem youthful and cool, but in a lowest common denominator trend cycling via fast fashion hauls kind of way, which isn’t at all like the status symbol clothes wearing rich!mom character from the original film. Flaunting her plastic surgery, too, iirc. It would be like if she walked in wearing a visibly cheap bubble skirt or those tights with holes tied with bows or any other flash in the pan microtrend. I think could work if they did this, actually, and very much give Desperate, but at the cost of the Visible Wealth aspect of the character.

I think the Epcot book idea sounds fun! Also people saying “we’re tired of theme park content” re your videos is like walking into McDonalds and being mad they’re selling hamburgers. As long as it’s something you feel strongly about (positively or negatively) I’m interested to watch it.

great analysis, i always love your breakdown of media - you have such a talent for noticing both meta and finer details, and then extrapolating on the greater themes. it is very satisfying to watch on the janice note, i think their reasoning was different. in modern times (gen z/alpha), at the non-conservative school they go to, being gay isn’t something that people would bully you for. so it wouldn’t make sense that janice got made fun of for that reason, they had to change it but i agree that if their reasoning was to avoid being problematic, then that is a huge mistep in the characterization of regina

my partner and I watch your theme park stuff on repeat and recently tried to complete your list of lame things to do at Disney world. Please keep theme parking!

Coming at this from someone who really liked the Mean Girls stage musical but hated the movie, I feel like a lot of my complaints in my review were outlined here. Lots of recycled jokes, lots of really shameless nods to the original that don’t mean anything. But my big problem was the way that the songs were reworked to sound like top 40 hits rather than Broadway songs and I absolutely hated that choice and it ruined the whole movie. That and the girl they casted for Cady.

Personally, I would watch any of your videos (even more theme park content) as long as you are excited and passionate about it.

In terms of upcoming main content I think whatever you personally find the most interesting will get the best result theme park or no :)

Well, I loved this video...and I have never seen the musical. I love watching you rant about anything :)

As someone who's highschool did freaky friday, hard disagree on it being fine with its moments. They have 3 motifs and are terrified to stray from them to the point I hear them in my nightmares, it tries so hard to be relatable to teens but it fundamentally doesn't understand teens, and there's an entire song where the mom (in her daughters body) sings about how the pheromones her crush is giving off are making her flustered and feel things for a teenager. Awful awful awful!!!

I wonder if they changed the ‘Janice is a lesbian’ subplot because teens today seem less homophobic/more accepting of queerness than they were 20 years ago. Obviously there’s still a lot of stigma and homophobia around in our culture generally, but I think it wouldn’t make sense to teens today (especially the teens going to see this movie) that a character would of course be bullied/ostracized by the entire school because someone said she was gay. Like, I think that would come across as this being a particularly homophobic high school, as opposed to a prototypical/average high school. I also suspect the movie/musical writers didn’t want their work to feel stigmatizing to queer kids, so they make a point to emphasize that it’s okay to be gay, while also working in some queer rep. Like, as a teenage lesbian watching the movie in the early 2000s, it *did* feel a little stigmatizing; like, the Janice being bullied was bad because she wasn’t *really* a lesbian and thus the bullying was unjustified (with the implication being that if she really is a lesbian, then it would have been fine). But I definitely feel like they didn’t think through the implications of what they were doing re: it’s okay that Janice was bullied for being gay because she *is* gay. So I guess it’s gonna be a sticky issue no matter what.

Personally, I think you should just work on whatever video you're excited to work and talk on, audience input on this be damned. Part of the fun of watching specifically your youTube videos is hearing you excitedly and in depth talk about a topic that interests you because you talk about it in an entertaining way. Patreons put their finger on the scale for Patreon videos anyways (like making you watch a movie musical you had no real interest in making). Any video that you're excited to make because you feel engaged with the topic will ultimately be a better video (and a faster one) than one you're forcing yourself to make.

I was already searching to get my hands on a copy of Runaway Heart as soon as you said “harlequin romance set in Epcot”, so I for one would love that video (it’savailable on Internet Archive for free if anyone else is interested!). I’m sad to hear people have said they are sick of theme park content - I’ll watch whatever topic you want to ramble about but the primary draw for me has always been the theme park content.

I love your themepark content, could never get tired of it !!!

Jenny thinking Sexy is the act 2 opener is so funny. No, that's just in act one... and they also made the questionable decision to make the final song in act one the revenge party song that does all of the Regina revenge stuff in one song so everything in Act 2 happens after Regina's fall. The actual act 2 opener was cut from the movie I think.

Also, I adore your theme park stuff, you’re one of the best there is!

My best friend/writing partner and I often talk about the seemingly endless string of movies adapted for Broadway and we’re both big fans of The Producers (itself an example of a good movie to Broadway adaptation). So every now and then, we joke about what movie we would adapt for Broadway if we were trying to pull off a Bialystock and Bloom. This has led us to imagining things like Saw: The Musical, The Human Centipede: The Musical Sequence and Commando: The Musical, among other things.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SAYING THE REGINA THING 😭 i also think the actress doesn’t work at all, but i saw a lot of people saying she was the sole thing that saved the movie, so i thought i was the only one who didn’t like her as regina 😭

I think adapting movies into musicals has an inherent problem, which is structure. Songs in musicals typically explain a character or push the story forward, but when adapting a movie, the movie already does those things without the need for songs. It’s not an insurmountable problem, but too many of them have songs that feel superfluous as they’re not really telling you anything new. Mean Girls definitely has this issue.

This book video idea sounds fun!

Ur hair is so cute !

Best Christmas gift ever 😭

Just sitting over here hoping the Kennywood video is in our 2025… 😂

to the "we're tired of theme park content" point... I am literally a 'theme park content please' girlie, so that is JUST FINE with me. you've got your audience!!

I became a fan after watching your videos on Trigger Warning and the Rei is a robot script. Let's get a video on Runaway Heart!

I personally will be seated for any video, but especially for as many theme park videos you are willing to make

Interested in a video on the book, sounds fun.

never tired of theme park content and i found the link to the disney harlequin novel so i'm going to read it and would love a video on it

Apex predator was sung by Janice and Damien in the original btw! I only remember cause it was the only song I thought was half decent after a cursory listen of the soundtrack. it still doesn't really make sense since that's Katie's lens through which she views the world, but I feel like you could make that work with some preamble. "You only understand the world by comparing everything to African wildlife? Then here's the metaphor for you! 🎼🎵🎶"

This is silly, because it's so beside the point, but: I adore "Catch Me If You Can," it's my favorite musical, and so I appreciated you saying that the songs didn't click for you and the musical was not personally to your taste -- rather than saying that it was a dreadful musical. Not that people can't say they found a piece of art bad; that's part of critiquing, of course. But, I dunno ... it's just nice to hear someone saying "this thing you love just wasn't for me" instead of "this thing you love is horrible" on the internet for a change. ;D (I appreciate the irony of saying this on a ramble that is about how awful the "Mean Girls" musical is, but it sounds like "Mean Girls" is actually just a poorly-done musical, so.)

No such thing as too much theme park content (or Broadway related content for that matter)

For what it's worth I love seeing your theme park content - because it's something you're passionate about! I don't care at all about The Vampire Diaries but it's fun to watch a person be passionate about something, so I've seen your video several times. Thank you for another great ramble, see you in the new year! Merry Christmas!

Omg it truly is a Christmas miracle 🤌🤌🙏🙏♥️♥️

I think the biggest problem in the Mean Girls musical (stage and film) is that they did not find a real reason for Cady to sing. Regina has a sound, Gretchen has a sound, Karen has a sound, even Damien and Janis have sounds, but not Cady. Cady exists with no real musical identity as the leading character in a musical. At that point, just make her a spoken role reacting to the insanity around her.

I think the biggest problem with the musical version is that point that the mean girls aren't mean because they wanted to make it more PC and not to be like...anti-woke or anything like that but the whole point of the 2004 movie is that they are mean. Like you are not supposed to think anything Regina (or Cady, later on) does or says is a good thing...and when you take all of that out it just becomes pointless. It's also really weird to me considering that Tina Fey was still a main writer/producer and as much as I have a soft spot for her she has not taken criticism of her bad takes (some stuff in unbreakable kimmy schmidt, etc) well so it's bizarre to me that she would so change the script to make Regina so unproblematic. Idk if any of what I said made sense just now

Love your theme park stuff girl.

Jenny said nobody wears velour tracksuits anymore. Nobody? I’m not nobody, Jenny. I’m somebody.

I’m pretty sure Angourie Rice (the girl who plays Cady) is related to the director so…🫣

I discovered your channel through your book readings - I'd love to see you covering this one

I think it’s in your “Worst Musicals” video that you mention that Mean Girls would only be fun “if you lived in New York” I don’t live in New York but it stopped in my city on tour this year and I let my morbid curiosity and fandom of the original film get the best of me Suffice to say, Jenny, your original take was spot on—it was fun because of the little effort it took me to see it, but I literally haven’t thought of it ONCE since until this ramble Happy Holidays!

if they wanted regina to be vaguely queer coded, they could've made the falling out between her and janice be something like regina kissed janice at a party "as a joke" (wink wink) or for a boys attention and janice was hurt by that. its one of the most basic lesbian tropes in media; they even did it in the most recent season of heartstopper 💀

You thoughts on how the audience is expected to respond when they see something familiar is exactly how I felt watching those maddening “live-action” remakes. Arf-arf! 🦭

I love the Runaway Heart video idea! I feel like your sense of humor really shines when you do book readings, they're always really fun. I'd love to see you do another one.

This movie is just so pointless to me, and thanks for spelling out WHY so clearly. Why remake a movie 20 years later, with no meaningful changes to the script (beyond caging jokes and characters in PC language), and adding in extremely low-effort musical interludes and references to the source material? Why not just....watch the original movie? I love many remakes, but this will never be one of them

I believe that Renee Rapp (the actress who plays Regina George) is openly queer in real life so there was a decision made to not make Regina homophobic but I agree it definitely could of been written a different way. Also I absolutely adore your theme park content.

Omg I can’t wait to show my mom this video we hated this movie

Also on behalf of the Sixers, I think the EPOCOT book video sounds delightful.

i was absolutely obsessed with every video breaking down how bad this adaption was right after it came out, having your take on it really feels like the best christmas gift and a positive light at the end of a shitty year. thank u jenny

LETS GOOOOOO

I prayed for this day!!!! 🙏😌

1. Please do that book review. It sounds amazing. 2. This musical shows that some stories are best left when written because of the nature of a lot of the jokes haven't necessarily aged well.

The terrible tv show from 2012 Smash is getting a musical this spring and when I go visit my friends in the spring I am determined to see it and I just want it to fall in the good category somehow but

Good lord. I feel parts of my soul ripping away just hearing about this musical. I can’t imagine actually watching it. Thank you once again Jenny for taking one for the team. Merry Christmas!

I would kill for a video on the Epcot harlequin romance, because knowing how convoluted and bonkers these plots get I can’t even imagine how the theme park plays into it. Plus, I even if technically your last couple of videos concern theme parks, I feel like the content itself is varied enough that I didn’t even clock that until you mentioned it

Giant Porg somehow looks especially contemplative whilst absorbing the analysis.

Who are the "I'm tired of theme park content" people? Not me. I actually don't like themeparks, because they are almost always in hot places and I am extremely sensitive to heat, but I'll listen to you talk about them until the death of the sun.

The ‘Janis is gay’ plot point in the original is a HUGE joke that I learned from someone on TT. Janis is Lebanese in the original and Regina misunderstands. It is a line at the end of the film where original Janis mentions this to her prom date. Did the remake people not know this?

As someone who didn't even like the original Mean Girls movie, all the hype around the musical was impossible to deal with. This was great though! And personally, I like all of your content, including all of your theme park content! Make whatever you want!

also, as a gay guy, i was never out as a kid (and didn't know it at the time), but everyone assumed i was gay and i literally got beat up and outcast by the rest of my school because of it. so i really hope that the writers didn't actually think being gay would change the experience of bullying, because a significant number of people even having that opinion is a really sad thought to me :(

Sorry, Jenny. I meant to switch my vote, but forgot. There is nothing worse than a crap musical, when you love musicals.

Very glad to see this as the last ramble of the year! Such a bizarrely reductive movie, which is naturally what you're going to get when you have Tina Fey adapt an adaptation that she made of an adaptation that she also made. Such a poor reflection of the original movie, and a bad movie musical to boot. And whatever content brings you the most joy to make is what I want! Would love to see another book review/read-through from you, and if it's what you're excited about, then I'm all in. Thank you for all of the videos this year—have a great holiday, and see you in 2025!

Mean Girls the Musical has all the energy/vibes of Hunch the Musical

Yeah… the whole idea with changing what she did to Janice seems extremely suspect. I can tell you as a Non-Binary person that a big obstacle in accepting myself was dealing with “okay… if I’m Queer, than that means the kids that bullied me knew something about me I didn’t… even if they got the specifics wrong.” And that was extremely painful. As far as the Epic Romance…. It has been a long time since you’ve done a book… Could be fun 😊

i appreciate the beetlejuice shoutout, as someone who's seen both the beetlejuice musical and the mean girls musical (the stage version). i didn't really enjoy the mean girls musical because i just felt very little during it. it wasn't the worst thing ever, but i was never that invested. meanwhile, the beetlejuice song "home" totally moved me to the point that i've listened to it hundreds of times in the 2 years since i saw the show

Thank you for a wonderful year of videos! So happy I became a Patron

As soon as they couldn’t get Sabrina Carpenter in the lead they should have cancelled the whole thing

I just saw the Wicked film yesterday and couldn't figure out how I felt about it and this video helped

Any Jenny video is a good Jenny video. I’m looking forward to Barbie and all the other videos you’ve mentioned. An Epcot Harlequin Romance would be interesting at well.

I love the fact you couldn't find a porg-sized hat but gave the porg one anyway.

I think in the original movie, the joke was that Janice was Lebenese, and when she told that to Regina, Regina thought she meant lesbian and stopped being friends with her. I think Janice mentions her ethnicity in one of the final scenes of the movie

Will never be tired of theme park content, don't listen to the haters!!! Also that book sounds absolutely wild, the way I immediately ran to try and hunt down a copy myself — the cover alone! Happy Christmas, thanks for a year of great videos (:

Work on whatever you like! Like, I enjoy 0 things about Star Wars etc. But I'm still watching your vids bc I find you very engaging

PLEASE do the book review, I may buy it no matter what

She's definitely not an A-lister (yet?), but I loved Angourie Rice (Kady) in The Nice Guys, where she plays Ryan Gosling's precocious teenage daughter, and I'm pretty sure her performance was very well received (Nice Guys is a criminally underseen movie, btw). When I watched it again on a plane earlier this year, I was wondering what Rice was doing these days, then I saw that she was in the Mean Girls remake/musical... and my goodness, the few clips I watched on YT were atrocious (not just by Rice, but pretty much everyone and every song). Anyway, I blame the writing/directing for Mean Girls, because Rice definitely has some good acting chops. But also, maybe don't cast someone who can't sing in a musical?

Im so dumb, I was thinking about the heathers musical for the first 20min of this and was so confused. I had no idea they made a mean girls musical

ITS TIMEEEE

Happy holidays Jenny!!

Thanks for this year Jenny!

I don't really care for Mean Girls as a musical either. I feel like it was really trying to capture and ride off the audience of the Heathers musical, which while not a HUGE success was a modest cult hit.

I mean you would be truly horrified if you knew what the actual act 2 opening song sounds like

Loveee a deep dive movie review they’re so fun! Reminds me a little of the Dear Evan Hansen video which was so so funny <3

yes, dance for us puppet. *Jack Nicholson creepy nod*

I guess I’m one of those people who like musicals but never actually gone to see a musical theater play. I do like criticism Jenny but negative Jenny is a different beast. Hope you do more theme park content.

I hate the musical the movie is based on and cannot actually fathom how every English speaking person in the world doesn't think it's garbage. I am SEATED.

Thank you Jenny! Is there any way you can allow downloads so I can watch your videos on a flight?

it’s so weird and clearly cashgrabby to me that they’ve made a movie of a musical of a movie of a book. like come onnnn, nothing about mean girls warranted a musical retelling of that story. there’s 1 scene where people sing and it’s at a TALENT SHOW😭they should’ve left it at the first movie and let it just be the icon it is

I just started the video (so excited for it) , i just want to say this green color looks Amazing on you

As someone who lives in Chicago and saw the first run of the Devil Wears Prada musical, I cannot express to you how ridiculously mid it was. Imagine the film Devil Wears Prada except all the fashion is terrible, Miranda Priestly is a perfectly reasonable boss, and Elton John wrote the soundtrack but gave it about 25% of the effort he gave to Gnomeo & Juliet

Thank you for keeping me sane and entertained during two consecutive days of 14 hours of driving. I might have wrapped my car around a tree if it wasn't for your videos.

New Jenny video, right before Christmas, and it’s on a topic I’m familiar with and have lots of opinions about? This Patreon is truly the gift that keeps giving.

Happy holidays and happy new year y'all. Wish you the best

Ohhh, I just yesterday saw that it's availabe to watch. Looks like I know what I'm doing tonight.

I have never been more ready for a video. My girlfriend and I had a roommate who was a classic Mean Girls-obsessed millennial gay musical theatre major and he dragged me an hour through a blizzard to the premiere of this movie. I could have died, all for the Mean Girls musical movie. I need revenge.

jenny you look SO PRETTY in this shade of green!!!!! thanks for another year of great videos!

Wooooo!!! New ramble!!! Happy Holidays Jenny and other fellow followers

I just watched this today haha. Yeah, it's pretty awful

Yay! I’m flying home for christmas tomorrow and so excited to have new Jenny content for the flight!!

YAAAAY

ty for the surprise christmas present, happy holidays everyone 🥳

Yes! I was just wondering if we get this a little earlier this month. Thank you Jenny! Love your unique point of view

Merry Christmas Jenny!

Best Christmas gift I could’ve hoped for ❤️