Saturday Night Live fans are freaking out over that surprise Mean Girls cameo

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One of the O.G. Mean Girls stars popped up to support musical guest Reneé Rapp last night

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- “Jacob Elordi, Reneé Rapp” Episode 1853
(Image credit: NBCUniversal)

A surprise Mean Girls appearance during the first SNL episode of 2024? That is so fetch. 

Yes, Saturday Night Live season 49 officially returned from its annual holiday break on Saturday, January 20, bringing with it the first host of the new year: Saltburn and Priscilla actor Jacob Elordi, alongside musical guest Reneé Rapp who, along with promoting her debut album Snow Angel, is also the star of Mean Girls the musical. Rapp plays Regina George in the movie remake of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical, which is, of course, an adaptation of the iconic 2004 teen comedy (which is now free to watch on TikTok, BTW.)

It's only fitting, then, that one of the O.G. Mean Girls stars should pop up during the sketch comedy show to support the new head of The Plastics: the original Regina George herself, Rachel McAdams. And the cheerful cameo had viewers screaming way more "You go, Glenn Coco!" than "She doesn't even go here!" 

McAdams—who was most recently seen in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret as the title character's mom, Barbara Simon—stepped out to introduce Rapp's second performance of the night, for her track "Not My Fault" off the Mean Girls soundtrack.

 It continues a recent SNL tradition of a celebrity making a surprise appearance to introduce the episode's musical guest, including Taylor Swift (who announced Ice Spice during the October 14 episode), Lady Gaga (who introed Bad Bunny on October 21) and Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who cuddled up to "Weird Barbie" Kate McKinnon to present December 16 musical guest Billie Eilish's performance of "What Was I Made For" from that film's soundtrack.

And McAdams' cameo wasn't the only starry surprise of the evening: Rapp's song is a collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion, so the rap superstar jumped out from behind a giant cake to help Reneé tackle the track. 

Rachel also stuck around for one sketch, in which she played a wannabe actress who just happened to look like Oscar-nominated movie star Rachel McAdams. She also popped back up onstage during Elordi's goodbye speech and gave the new Regina George a round of applause before the credits rolled. 

If you missed last night's show, you could catch up on this season's SNL episodes with a Peacock subscription. Viewers can tune in live to Saturday Night Live every Saturday at 11:35 pm Eastern on NBC.  If you're a cable-cutter, a number of live TV streaming services also carry NBC, including Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV.

Mean Girls fans freak out over Rachel McAdams SNL cameo:

Clearly, many folks on social media did not miss last night's show, as Mean Girls fans quickly took to Twitter to excitedly discuss the surprise cameo from Rachel McAdams. As one poster summed it up: "the Regina George torch has officially been passed." 

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Christina Izzo
Christina Izzo

Christina Izzo is the Deputy Editor of My Imperfect Life. More generally, she is a writer-editor covering food and drink, travel, lifestyle and culture in New York City. She was previously the Features Editor at Rachael Ray In Season and Reveal, as well as the Food & Drink Editor and chief restaurant critic at Time Out New York. 

When she’s not doing all that, she can probably be found eating cheese somewhere.