These kids today, with their made-up slang that the MPAA won't allow in a PG-13 movie. The Sunday Times interviews Tina Fey about her upcoming film, Mean Girls, which Fey adapted from Rosalind Wiseman's pop-ethnography Queen Bees and Wannabes. The first draft of the movie was a lot more raw, Fey reveals.
FEY The things they made us take out of the movie are definitely said on TV.SENIOR Like what?
FEY The one that was the most benign — and that I was the most surprised about — was: Cady's a new student, and a boy comes up to her and says: "We're taking a lunchtime survey. Is your cherry popped?" Which is already a euphemism. And the rule we go by in TV is if a little kid wouldn't understand it, it's probably O.K. But they said "absolutely not."
SENIOR So "Is your muffin buttered" became the more acceptable substitution?
FEY Because it's totally made-up. But it's evocative in a dirtier way.
Yes, because we all know that in Hollywood today there's nothing dirtier than invoking carbohydrates. And can I just say: a lunchtime survey and not a lunchtime poll? Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw.
