Barbie's Midge Joke Explained

Barbie is now in theaters and while the film has plenty of Barbies and Kens making up Barbieland, there are a few other dolls from the rich Barbie universe who make an appearance in the Greta Gerwig directed film as well. Fans have already started to become big fans of Michael Cera's Allan, Ken's one-of-a-kind friend, but Barbie has a unique friend in the film as well, one who is the butt of a bit of a subtle running joke throughout Barbie. Played by Emerald Fennell, Midge's appearance is one of the more darkly comedic aspect of the film particularly if you know the doll's history.

Warning: spoilers for Barbie beyond this point.

Early on in Barbie, we're introduced to Stereotypical Barbie's (Margot Robbie) perfect day in the perfect world of Barbieland where literally nothing can go wrong. Barbie gets up for her day, has a perfect little routine of getting showered and dressed and ready for the day before floating to her car and heading into town to spend a great day with all the other Barbies and the Kens. As she's leaving her Dreamhouse, she waves to all the other Barbie's and such she encounters but there is one resident of Barbieland that she waves to and quickly dismisses: Midge. Midge is obviously very eager to say hello to Barbie, but Midge is also very visibly pregnant and as the narrator (Helen Mirren) notes that the pregnant Midge is just "too weird".

From that moment forward, anytime we see Midge in the movie, she's sort of on the edge of Barbieland's society — not fully excluded, but also not fully included, essentially the definition of being too weird to be part of things fully. After all, who would want to play with a pregnant doll? Interestingly, while this is a bit of dark humor in the Barbie movie, it has its basis in reality — or at least, the reality of the dolls. Originally released in 1963, Midge was launched as Barbie's best friend, a redhaired doll with freckles that could share clothes with Barbie, though Midge was much less glamorous than Barbie and tended to wear less makeup and her own wardrobe was more modest as Mattel brought the doll into the line for the "ordinary" girl. This version of the doll ultimately left the lineup in 1967 only to reappear a few times in the 1980s and the 1990s, but it was a 2002 variation of Midge that largely ended the doll's time as part of the Barbie universe.

In 2002, several years after marrying Midge and Allan in the dolls' continuity — there was a whole Midge and Allan wedding set even — Mattel launched the "Happy Family' line of dolls that saw Midge and Allan as a family with three children, including a newborn named Nikki. The Midge doll at that time was actually sold with a pregnant belly that contained the tiny baby Nikki inside the magnetic, removable womb. The controversy — outside of the idea of the pregnant doll itself just being strange — came in when the first issue of the doll came without wearing a wedding ring and did not come packaged with Allan or with Allan represented on the box, giving the impression that Midge was an unwed single mother. The details led to some consumers claiming that this Midge was inappropriate for children and that it promoted teen pregnancy.

That version of Midge was pulled from shelves and a new version, one that wasn't pregnant, had a wedding ring, and featured Allan on the package, soon replaced her. The 2002 dolls were the last time Allan appeared in the Barbie lineup. Midge made a few more appearances, last seen in 2015, but she's a largely forgotten member of the Barbie universe — and when she is remembered, the Happy Family Midge incident is one that comes up. It's that awkward bit of history that make the inclusion of Midge, specifically the Happy Family version, in Barbie both a neat nod to Barbie's rich history and makes for a dark joke, albeit at Midge's expense.

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you're a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera , Kate McKinnon , Michael Cera , Ariana Greenblatt , Issa Rae , Rhea Perlman , and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey , Hari Nef , Alexandra Shipp , Kingsley Ben-Adir , Simu Liu , Ncuti Gatwa , Scott Evans , Jamie Demetriou , Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya , Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren . Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach , based on Barbie by Mattel . 

Barbie is in theaters now.