Mean Girls 2 is a 2011 teen comedy directed by Melanie Mayron. It is the sequel to the 2004 film Mean Girls.
The film has almost no connection to its predecessor save for Tim Meadows returning as Principal Duvall. This time, the plucky New Transfer Student is Jo Mitchell (Meaghan Martin), a tomboy with a keen interest in cars inherited from her mechanic father. The Plastics, the titular mean girls, are Alpha Bitch Mandi Weatherly (Maiara Walsh), nymphomaniac Chastity Meyer (Claire Holt), and hypochondriac Hope Plotkin (Nicole Gale Anderson). Jo befriends Mandi's rival, the rich and unpopular Abby Hanover (Jennifer Stone), and starts an "Anti-Plastics" friend group with her, while developing an attraction to Mandi's stepbrother Tyler (Diego Boneta).
The film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alpha Bitch: Mandi.
- Always Someone Better: Part of the reason why Mandi constantly bullies Abby, from Abby's family being wealthier than Mandi's, Abby having bigger breasts, Abby parking her car in the best parking spot (the handicapped parking) due to getting injured by Mandi's bullying, Abby having happily married parents while Mandi’s mother is married to a man who isn’t her father, to Abby getting a Prada bag that Mandi's been waiting for so long to get.
- Ask a Stupid Question...:Mandi: Yes, Chastity, Dirty Dancing. No, down and dirty!
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating:
- The sole reason this film was not aired on Disney Channel as an original movie is because of the amount of tacked-on profanity.
- They aired it on ABC Family instead.
- Later it was aired on E! under their "Movies We Love" banner. . .
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Unlike in the original film where the Plastics are the ones for this trope, in this movie it’s Jo and her two unpopular friends. Jo is the Blonde, Quinn is the Brunette and Abby is the Redhead.
- Daddy's Girl: Jo is very close to her dad at first (her mom's dead, and he raised her alone), with the same interests (e.g. auto repair) which show her as a tomboy early on.
- Enemy Mine: In the climax, Jo's former friends decide they hate Mandi more than they hate her and agree to help her.
- Expy: Jo Mitchell is an Expy of Cady Heron, them both being the New Transfer Student.
- Abby Hanover is based on Janis Ian. They are both good at Art and unpopular.
- However, it should be noted that Abby has a lot in common with Cady and Jo has a lot in common with Janis. Though Abby has been at Northshore High for 4 years, she is naiver than Jo and has no friends before Jo (of course Janis had Damien and a couple of other friends in her clique). Abby also has red hair like Cady and is very sweet and intelligent. Meanwhile, Jo may be new at Northshore, but she knows the Social Chain due to having attended multiple schools before (while Abby despite having been at High School for 4 years does not seem to understand the Social System). Jo also rides a Vespa to school while Janis was a Goth and neither get particularly good grades (while Cady was very academic and Abby is relatively clever).
- Mandi Weatherly is based off Regina George, both being Leader of the Plastics and the Alpha Bitch of the school.
- Hope Plotkin is based on Gretchen Wierners. Both are the Beta Bitches of the Alpha Bitch. Gretchen is also insecure about her appearance, while Hope is more subtle about it, she also appears to be insecure because the whole reason she is a Hypochondriac is because she believes that “germs lead to ugliness and ugliness leads to death.”
- Chastity Meyers is based on Karen Smith. Both are dumb, ditzy girls with reputations for being a “slut” for their promiscuous nature. Karen having hooked up with multiple guys and Chastity making out with any boy “willing to play.” Both are also considered the most attractive member of the Plastics.
- Tyler Adams is based on Aaron Samuels. Both were handsome guys who the main protagonist would date and, despite being popular, were very kind. However, it should be noted that unlike Aaron, Tyler has had no romance with Mandi like Aaron has with Regina because he is Mandi’s stepbrother.
- Elliot Gold is based on Kevin Gnapoor. Both were nerds who end up dating the schools’s most unpopular girl who is obsessed with Art.
- Abby Hanover is based on Janis Ian. They are both good at Art and unpopular.
- Face–Heel Turn: Jo becomes not that different from Mandi over the course of the film. However, she does make a Heel–Face Turn in the end.
- Frame-Up: Mandi steals the money for the prom and plants the safe box in Jo's house to frame her in revenge for the latter becoming more popular than her and thus ruining her reputation. While Jo gets expelled, her former friends team up to expose Mandi via footage from the neighbor's camera. As a result, Mandi gets arrested and punished with community service.
- Fun T-Shirt: The promiscuous Chastity wears t-shirts with phrases like "Tackle Me" (which she wears while attending a football game) and "This is not a photo opportunity."
- He Who Fights Monsters: Tyler points out in one scene that Jo is acting a lot like Mandi, the girl she's trying to take down.
- Interclass Friendship: Middle-class Jo is friends with the rich school outcast, Abby. Despite the fact their friendship is based on the fact that Abby's father pays Jo to be friends with his daughter, Jo ends up taking a genuine liking to Abby.
- Ironic Name: A girl named Chastity will sleep with anyone... until she learns what her name means that is.
- Missing Mom: Jo says her mom died when she was little, and she's been raised by her dad ever since. This perhaps explains why she's a tomboy.
- Sibling Rivalry: Stepsiblings Mandi and Tyler, though oddly the dislike comes entirely from his side and Mandi, despite being a bitch to everyone else seems to have some sisterly feeling for him, even declaring him off-limits to Chastity and calling his father (her stepfather) "our Dad". He's also the only character she's never directly mean to.
- Spoiled Sweet: Abby. She comes from a rich background (richer than Mandi’s family) and her parents can afford to buy her pretty much anything she wants, and she is the sweetest of all the characters.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jo is the tomboy (a budding Wrench Wench) versus the girly Plastics, who dress much more feminine and are into fashion. As she befriends them, Jo adopts their style, becoming more girly temporarily before reverting to her previous tomboyish ways as she stops being friends with them.
- Tomboyish Name: Jo, the protagonist, is a firm tomboy at the start. It's never said if her name is short for anything more traditional like Joanne or Josephine.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Abby finds out that Jo accepted money to be her friend, she takes offense and breaks up their friendship. However, the two later become friends again after exposing Mandi's theft of the prom money to frame Jo.
