Princess, Brain, Jock, Basket Case or Criminal?

February 6, 2003 12:09 AM

Which Breakfast Club character are you? No, it's not another online quiz. It's an article on a project done by a social researcher, asking 900 high school sophomores to choose which Breakfast Club character they were most like. Following up 16 years later, their associations played out to a high degree as they grew older. So which were you, Jock, Princess, Brain, Basket Case or Criminal? Did your self-image in high school have lasting effects on your life?
posted by JParker (45 comments total)

Can't I be an athletic, gay, criminal 'brain-case'?
posted by troutfishing at 3:54 AM on February 6, 2003

I belonged to that unnameable group called "other".
*sigh*
posted by btwillig at 5:41 AM on February 6, 2003

i saw the breakfast club years ago and hated every second of it. why anyone would want to relate to those characters, i can't fathom.

but that's just my opinion. i could be wrong.
posted by Stynxno at 5:49 AM on February 6, 2003

Well, you can hate the breakfast club, but I, for one, really enjoyed it! I was the brain--but Emilio Estavez was my favorite character. :)

Funny, this movie has a quirky "where are they now" feel to it... ...creepy...
posted by psychotic_venom at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2003

I was a hybrid. I dressed like Judd Nelson (thankfully, I didn't have his ever-flaring nostrils), some people told me that I was as smart as Anthony Michael Hall, even though I was as dysfunctional as Ally Sheedy* but sadly Molly Ringwald has yet to come do my makeup, so all my problems can be solved.

*Did anyone else find Ally Sheedy really hot before Molly fixed her up? Or am I all alone here? Plus Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez both got the gal at the end of the flick. But poor Anthony Michael Hall goes home alone. Being smart in high school never gets you laid sad to say.
posted by jonmc at 5:58 AM on February 6, 2003

If you went to school in the NW suburbs of Chicago during the right period, you relate pretty damn well to the movie.
posted by pjdoland at 6:02 AM on February 6, 2003

jonmc: not only does he go home alone, but he gets stuck writing the essay.
posted by ODiV at 6:45 AM on February 6, 2003

Did anyone else find Ally Sheedy really hot before Molly fixed her up?

Damn right! She looked pretty lame after the makeover.
I kinda think that character was the proto-gothchick.
posted by ursus_comiter at 6:53 AM on February 6, 2003

To this day, my wife and I will have conversations that degrade to her giving me the finger, and then me quoting from the movie.

Her response: "I am NOT pristine."
posted by thanotopsis at 6:56 AM on February 6, 2003

ursus-I kinda think that character was the proto-gothchick.

No.

She was the proto grungechick, dude.
posted by jonmc at 7:11 AM on February 6, 2003

huh. I always felt that I identified with Paul Gleason myself....
posted by bradth27 at 7:19 AM on February 6, 2003

"So which were you, Jock, Princess, Brain, Basket Case or Criminal?"

Each of us is a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.

Didn't any of you see the movie?

Sheesh.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2003

i'm waiting for a sequel that takes place in rehab.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:58 AM on February 6, 2003

Great idea pxe2000! Rehab can be full of Jocks, Basket Cases, and Criminals, the Brains can offer treatment, and the Princesses can just go to hell.
posted by rainbaby at 8:28 AM on February 6, 2003

Criminal (age 0-18), Brain (18-30), Basket Case (30+) .. can't wait for the princess years.
posted by stbalbach at 8:28 AM on February 6, 2003

I'm in the camp with bradth27:
I related most to Carl the Janitor. Still do.
posted by moses at 8:30 AM on February 6, 2003

I belonged to that unnameable group called "other".

But isn't that what Ally Sheedy's character is in the movie? I've always viewed her not so much as a "basket case" as someone just having fun, often at the expense of the other four.

In my (completely unscientific) experience, people who don't fit into the jock, brain, criminal, or princess stereotypes tend to identify with Allison--even if they're nothing like Allison at all, and don't fit into the basket case type any better than any of the others.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 8:36 AM on February 6, 2003

hey rainbaby, don't you think the princesses would be the first to end up in rehab? just a thought. :)
posted by pxe2000 at 8:49 AM on February 6, 2003

The basket case wasn't having fun at all. She was lonely, isolated, and an outcast. She wanted more than anything to just "fit" in so she did some weird stuff hoping for attention. Every basket case in high school history would have loved for the princess to give her a makeover so the athlete would fall in lust with her if even for just a day.I'd say Stephen King's character Carrie falls in that same category except she had all those great powers to take revenge.

Personally my parents wanted me to be a brain in high school but I turned into a princess and dated the athletes. Fortunately I escaped my parents after high school and adopted a pseudo criminal/basketcase personality for about a year before becoming a hippie and living happy ever after.

mr_crash_davis - exactly.
posted by oh posey at 9:13 AM on February 6, 2003

Did anyone else find Ally Sheedy really hot before Molly fixed her up?

Hell yes, especially compared to Claire. This may have been the impetous for my path towards low-maintenance women. Or Claire was just a shallow bitch, one of the two.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:15 AM on February 6, 2003

Who needs to go to the lavatory?
posted by Witty at 9:18 AM on February 6, 2003

DevilsAdvocate - I suppose you're right, but Ally Sheedy was characterized as a basketcase above and I guess I never saw myself that way. To be honest I never really felt that there was a label that fit. As for my post, I was kind of having a laugh at my own expense.
posted by btwillig at 9:28 AM on February 6, 2003

I'm embarrassed to say just how much that movie meant to me at the time (I was a freshman in high school).

And: Basket Case. definitely. (Although I hung out with the Criminals and Geeks.)
posted by JoanArkham at 9:35 AM on February 6, 2003

pxe2000 - I was going by the article - baskets most likely to see a shrink (25%), and jocks and criminals in rehab at 5% and 11%. I'd still like to send the princesses to hell.
posted by rainbaby at 9:36 AM on February 6, 2003

rainbaby: oops, this was about an article? [/self-deprecation]

i would also vote the princesses to hell, but i think they might consider being shut up in a gross hospital with others who are not the people they are hell enough. oh, wait. that's the point. bwahahahahaha. :)
posted by pxe2000 at 9:44 AM on February 6, 2003

Oh, we're being truthful?

I hung out with the criminals, beat the jocks at pick-up basketball games, fucked the princesses, outscored the brains on the SATs, and became a basket case.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:48 AM on February 6, 2003

Son...
Yea Dad.
How's your day Pal?
Great Dad, how's yours?
SUPER!
posted by Witty at 9:49 AM on February 6, 2003

hey bradth27, does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?
posted by jonmc at 9:56 AM on February 6, 2003

I'll just shut up now.
posted by Witty at 10:10 AM on February 6, 2003

When I run into or hear of people I knew in high school, it's really interesting hearing about what they've done since. But my theory is that it's individual personality and ability, rather than these arbitrary and artificial "types" that are the real indicator of future activities.

For example.....

One friend was a straight A+ student. She wasn't brilliant though she was well above average in intelligence - she got the grades she did because she drove herself relentlessly. She went off to university on full scholarships, got married in her second year, then promptly got pregnant, then quit achool. Now, at age 29, she has FIVE CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF SEVEN and is HOMESCHOOLING THEM ALL.

I did very poorly in high school, didn't graduate in fact, had lots of problems - definite "basket case". I'm 29 too, and I now have a B.A., a college diploma, a fistful of college certificates, plans to get more certificates and a master's, a modest career I like. Not married, childless, but dating lots of people and own my own apartment.

Neither outcome was what might have been expected from our "types" - but people who knew us well aren't that surprised.
posted by orange swan at 10:12 AM on February 6, 2003

I related most to Carl the Janitor.

"I am the eyes and ears of this institution."

personal best line: "Did your mom marry Mr. Rogers?" "No, Mr. Johnson."

full disclosure, i am a John Hughes obsessive, though TBC was not my favorite (that distinction goes to Ferris Bueller). it's pretty goofy and self-absorbed, but i like the weird dramatic gravity of TBC, though...it's like a play, and the plot is so skeletal all they have to do is sit around and ruminate on themselves, very 80s. note that after lunch Mr. Vernon never comes in to check on them or collect their essays or anything. JH was 35 when he directed this movie...it already seemed nostalgic when it came out, and i think now it feels as naive as "American Graffiti" in the post-Columbine-blah blah era. as for me personally, i'd say i was an unholy blend of weirdo (Brian, Alison) and princess (Claire)...more like The Geek in "Sixteen Candles" (also A.M.Hall), "The King of the Dipshits." ;-)
posted by serafinapekkala at 10:30 AM on February 6, 2003

My high school class [self link] was 54% basket case, 19% brain, 12% athlete, 9% criminal, and 6% princess, according to a highly scientific survey we put together.
posted by ook at 10:33 AM on February 6, 2003

$comment =~ s/athlete/jock/g

yes, I was a brain. Thanks for asking.
posted by ook at 10:52 AM on February 6, 2003

ook - I find it hilarious that 54% of your high school class was "basket case". It's all about self-perception, isn't it...
posted by orange swan at 11:00 AM on February 6, 2003

jonmc-

Admit it - Barry rocks.
posted by bradth27 at 11:07 AM on February 6, 2003

orange swan: you should've seen my high school. [rimshot]

Actually now that I look at the page again, it looks like a lot of people must've changed their responses after I calculated the averages. Either that or I'm not as much of a brain as I think I am. And I'm kicking myself for not including Carl the Janitor as an option.
posted by ook at 11:28 AM on February 6, 2003

I was definitely the basket case (so much so, that when I went to see TBC when it first came out, the friend I was with leaned over and said "heh...it's you!" - it was accurate enough to make me uncomfortable, and even now when I watch it I have squirmy flashbacks to my adolescence). However, I didn't need no steenkin' make-over from Molly Ringwald to find my sense of self-worth (and it sure as heck didn't come from conforming and fitting in - I always found that aspect of the movie kind of disappointing, like it betrayed its own message), and in retrospect, I was probably the first goth chick most of my friends knew (back before the word "goth" was even used much *coughwheeze*). I don't agree that Allison was proto-grunge - she seems pretty clearly proto-goth to me.

Best line in the movie (one which still gets used among my friends when someone coughs): "Chicks cannot hold de smoke...dat's what it eess".
posted by biscotti at 11:39 AM on February 6, 2003

I don't agree that Allison was proto-grunge -

Aw, come on, she had bad hygeine and a sugar jones, how much more grunge can ya get?

Besides, I never really "got" the goth thing...and being the last American male still going with the grunge aesthetic, I gotta claim allison for us. Sorry, biscotti.
posted by jonmc at 12:39 PM on February 6, 2003

How can she be proto-grunge when them movie came out after Goth became a fashion?

Goth (the current fashion not the original, which goes back at least 400 years) dates back at least to the late punk period in this country(early 80's). England first started seeing Goths in the mid-to-late 70's.

The Cure formed in 1976, so it's at least that old.
posted by Bonzai at 12:56 PM on February 6, 2003

John Bender: Oh God, you richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy into activities.
Claire Standish: You're a big coward.
Brian Johnson: I'm in the math club.
Claire Standish: See, you're afraid that they won't take you, you don't belong, so you have to just dump all over it.
John Bender: Well, it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes, now would it?
Claire Standish: Well, you wouldn't know, you don't even know any of us.
John Bender: Well, I don't know any lepers, but I'm not going to run out and join one of their fucking clubs.
Andrew Clark: Hey! Let's watch the mouth, huh?
Brian Johnson: I'm in the physics club too.
John Bender: Excuse me a sec. What are you babbling about?
Brian Johnson: Well, what I had said was i'm in the math club, the latin and the physics club...physics club.
John Bender: Hey, Cherry! Do you belong to the physics club?
quonsar: you know, george bush is a rich, club-joining leper who requires frequent physics.

OMFG. it's mefi.
posted by quonsar at 3:28 PM on February 6, 2003

Isn't someone remaking 'The Breakfast Club'? Or did I dream that?
posted by feelinglistless at 4:32 PM on February 6, 2003

Heh...good idea, feelinglistless...new contest: who should portray each character in The New & Improved TBC?
posted by davidmsc at 4:52 PM on February 6, 2003

I am not a Breakfast Club character! I am a free man!
posted by kindall at 8:39 PM on February 6, 2003

new contest: who should portray each character in The New & Improved TBC?

Oooo... good question. Let's see... The problem is that so many of the people I can think of off the top of my head are starting to push 30 (that's never stopped the moviemakers before). Alright, there's a bit of type-casting here, but that's the point, isn't it?

Freddie Prinze, Jr. as the jock, hands down, but this time he plays soccer. For the princess I see Julia Stiles or Tara Reid. Thora Birch gets to be the Basket Case. Some might instinctively put Jason Biggs as the geek, but he is more of the dumb-geek type. We need a smart geek, and so I've got to go with David Kumholtz. Finally, the criminal gets to be played by Ashton Kutcher.
posted by deanc at 10:19 PM on February 6, 2003

Isn't someone remaking 'The Breakfast Club'? Or did I dream that?

Let's hope it was a dream. I don't think I could handle a remake of a movie that came out during my teenage years... not yet anyway. Especially with actors from today's current "rat pack".
posted by Witty at 12:19 PM on February 7, 2003