Long before Mean Girls was turned into a musical and then adapted back into a movie, 30 Rock made a hilarious joke predicting such a trend. The NBC sitcom, 30 Rock, is a satirical take on sketch comedy variety shows, based on creator Tina Fey’s own experiences behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live (SNL) while she was a head writer from 1999-2006. While 30 Rock is a satire of sketch comedy shows like SNL, it often takes jabs at the entertainment industry as a whole, even unintentionally mocking Fey’s future projects.
Arriving 20 years after the original film, the January 12, 2024-releasing Mean Girls movie is an upcoming musical based on the 2004 teen comedy of the same name. Somewhat confusingly, Mean Girls (2024) technically isn’t a remake of the 2004 film. Rather, it serves as a movie adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, which was already a musical stage adaptation of the original 2004 comedy. Consequently, Mean Girls (2024) is a movie based on a musical based on a movie, a bizarre Hollywood concept that Tina Fey herself ironically poked fun at in a 30 Rock joke from 2007.
A 16-Year-Old 30 Rock Joke Mocked Adaptations Like Upcoming Mean Girls Movie
In 30 Rock season 2, episode 8, “Secrets & Lies,” Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) enters the rehearsal room with a trophy in hand and announces that she’s won an award for her role in the “movie version of the Mystic Pizza musical.” Jenna proceeds to show off her plaque, which reads, “Best Actress In A Movie Based On A Musical Based On A Movie.” It’s a funny enough joke mocking the existence of film adaptations of stage musicals that were already based on existing, non-musical movies. Ultimately, however, the specifics of Jenna’s award wouldn’t have been particularly remarkable or memorable in the long run, had it not been for the upcoming Mean Girls movie musical.
Of course, the new Mean Girls film is not the first “movie based on a musical based on a movie” to exist – the joke wouldn’t land or make sense otherwise, considering the episode aired 16 years ago. While Mystic Pizza: The Musical: The Movie does not actually exist, examples of this phenomenon include Hairspray (2007) and Waitress (2023), both movies based on Broadway musicals, which in turn were based on non-musical films. The irony of the Mean Girls adaptation (and what makes the 30 Rock joke so tickling) is that 30 Rock creator Tina Fey also created the original Mean Girls and all its subsequent versions.
Tiny Fey’s Involvement In 30 Rock And Mean Girls Makes This Gag Even Funnier
Fey wrote the original screenplay for the 2004 Mean Girls movie, which itself was based on the book Queen Bees & Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman, adding yet another layer to the joke. In 2017, the film was adapted into a stage musical based on a book Fey wrote, featuring original music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin. Fey then announced in 2020 that she would be adapting the Mean Girls musical into a film, making it one of the productions that her own show mocked 16 years ago. Fey herself will be reprising her role from the original Mean Girls movie cast as Ms. Norbury in the 2024 musical film, furthering the 30 Rock gag’s irony.
Key Release Dates
Mean Girls (2024)
Release Date:2024-01-12
