How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Mean Girls.
Quote #10
CADY: Well, half the people in this room are mad at me, and the other half only like me because they think I pushed somebody in front of a bus. So that's not good.
DUVALL: You know, it's not really required of you to make a speech.
CADY: I'm almost done; I swear. To all the people whose feelings that got hurt by the Burn Book, I'm really sorry. You know, I've never been to one of these things before, and when I think about how many people wanted this—
Cady takes off her Spring Fling Queen tiara.
CADY: And how many people cried over it and stuff… I mean, I think everybody looks like royalty tonight. Look at Jessica Lopez. That dress is amazing. And Emma Gerber: I mean, that hairdo must have taken hours, and you look really pretty. So why is everybody stressing over this thing? I mean, it's just plastic. Could really just—
Cady breaks the tiara into pieces.
CADY: Share it. A piece for Gretchen Wieners, a partial Spring Fling Queen. A piece for Janis Ian.
DUVALL: Seriously. Most people just take the crown and go.
CADY: And a piece for Regina George. She fractured her spine, and she still looks like a rock star. And some for everybody else.
First of all, we should point out that Mr. Duvall's interjections are a subversion of the "big speech at the dance" movie trope. They're acknowledging that it's weird that Cady's giving this big speech about what the movie's about while she's accepting her Spring Fling Queen title.
About that speech, though…Cady's sharing with the rest of the Spring Flingers what she's learned over the course of the school year: cliques are bogus. Ditto for trying hard to be popular. Cady's realized that, instead of trying to be something that she's not in order to shoehorn herself into North Shore society, she's better off just being herself.