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[[File:diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-movie_7158.jpg|frame| [[Insistent Terminology|It's a JOURNAL!]] ]]
A series of graphic novels by Jeff Kinney based off his [http://www.funbrain.com/journal/Journal.html?ThisJournalDay=1&ThisPage=1 webcomic of the same name], aimed at kids around the age of 12 years old. They tell the story of Greg Heffley, a self-proclaimed "wimpy kid" attempting to navigate the pitfalls and perils of middle school life. The books are presented as Greg's journals. Befitting a child's diary, they are filled with handwritten notes and stick drawings of his daily adventures.
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Greg's family includes his mother, Susan; his father, Frank, and his two brothers, Rodrick and Manny. Rodrick is older and often picks on Greg, whilst Manny is the baby of the family who can get away with anything. Other kids in the neighborhood include Greg's friend Rowley, and the creepy kid Fregley, who lives down the block.
'''The books to date{{when}} are:'''
* ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' (2007)
* ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- Rodrick Rules'' (2008)
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* ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- Cabin Fever'' (2011)
'''To date,{{when}} there have been movie adaptations of:'''
* ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' (2010)
* ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid -- Rodrick Rules'' (2011)
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* [[A Day in the Limelight|A Movie In The Limelight]]: The second movie for Rodrick. It even has his name in the title.
* [[Adorkable]]: Greg.
* [[Adults Are Useless]]: Most of the grownups in the books are idiots, to put it lightly. It's not only a genre trait of school-themed works, but also from the point of view of a teen. Greg's mom is arguably the most useful...but she's just out of touch.
* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: In ''No-Brainer'', a student from Slacksville is shown being spotted in an air vent while attempting to steal the Fudgedogs recipe.
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: "Chicks dig bad boys."
* [[Amazingly Embarrassing Parents]]: Pretty much ''everyone's'' parents, although since Greg is the narrator his parents' antics get the spotlight most often.
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* [[Annoying Younger Sibling]]: '''''MANNY'''''. He would ''not'' survive in most families without being physically tortured as retribution; add in [[Parental Favoritism]] and you got the perfect recipe for [[Cain and Abel]].
* [[Anti-Hero]]: Greg is a Type III/IV, also with strong elements of a Type I.
* [[Art Evolution]]: The art used in the novels is less sketchy than the one in the webcomic.
* [[Art Shift]]: In the movies, sometimes the perspective will change from live-action to animated versions of the book illustrations.
* [[You Fail Biology Forever]]: Greg stated that the moose, along with humans, evolved from birds in his Science Project. The teacher was not amused.
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* [[Ascended Extra]]: ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' itself. It used to be a very obscure webcomic on a site meant for elementary school age kids (specifically Funbrain.com). Now it's a wildly popular 6-book series with two movies, a third in the making, and more books to come.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Do NOT make the gym teacher drop his groceries.
* [[Big Brother Bully]]: This trope could practically be called "The Rodrick".
* [[Big Ol' Eyebrows]]: Rodrick.
* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: The Heffleys are definitely not a stable family. Frank's a [[Jerkass]] and [[Bumbling Dad]], Susan's absolutely oblivious to how teenagers are nowadays, Rodrick's a step away from dropping out of school, Manny can't seem to stay ''in'' school and Greg is a slacker who could very well end up like Rodrick. The rest of the family isn't that much stable either.
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* [[Bishonen]]: Rowley's favourite singer, Joshie, is more or less described as being one of the sort. Emphasized in ''The Ugly Truth'' when Rowley goes to a Joshie concert and notices that he is the only boy in the audience.
* [[Black Bead Eyes]]
* [[Black Sheep]]: Several members of the extended family; especially Gary who is explained as having been married at least four times.
* [[Blatant Lies]]:
{{quote|'''Frank:''' ''(displaying a photo of Rodrick's party on the TV screen)'' Can you explain what you're doing in this photo?
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* [[Bumbling Dad]]: The father seems to act rather old for his age...and we mean like an 80-year-old. Except for the fact that he hates ''Li'l Cutie''.
* [[Bumbling Sidekick]]: Rowley
* [[Butt Monkey]]/[[Iron Butt Monkey]]: Any boy in Greg's year that isn't popular (ie. anybody who's not Bryce Anderson and his flunkies), it's just that we see Greg being a [[Butt Monkey]] the most since it is told from his point of view.
* [[Character Development]]: Throughout the books, Rowley learns to stand up for himself and grow a spine instead of blindly following people.
* [[Charlie Brown Baldness]]: The way Greg draws himself and Rodrick. This is untrue for the movie, however.
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* [[Cool Loser]]: Subverted. Greg ''wants'' to be seen as such by others (the reader included), but most will tell you that Greg is pretty much a dork.
* [[Comes Great Responsibility]]: Spoken by the Safety Patrol teacher in the film version.
* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Greg feels that the girls [[My Friends and Zoidberg|and Rowley]] did this in regards to the egg sitting project.
* [[Contemptible Cover]]: Greg's comment on the cover of the fantasy novel ''Shadowdoom'', a cover that features a female barbarian warrior in a [[Chainmail Bikini]]:
{{quote|'''Greg:''' I've read Shadowdoom, and from what I can remember there aren't even any women in the story. In fact, I kind of wonder if the person who designed the cover even ''read'' the book.}}
* [[Covers Always Lie]]: ''The Ugly Truth''. Greg is seen with his egg that he has during the brief [[Egg Sitting]] plot. It goes on for two journal entries, has no impact on the plot, and is never mentioned again.
* [[Crapsack World]]
* [[Creator Breakdown]]: In the first book, the school newspaper needs a new cartoonist after the kid who drew ''Wacky Dawg'' starts using it to handle his "personal business".
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** It's implied that that's [[Unfortunate Names|actually his name]], however, as Greg calls his mother "Mrs. Pants".
* [[Exact Words]]: In ''Rodrick Rules'', Rodrick drives Greg home, but makes him ride in the back. He then slams on the brakes each time that Greg hits his head. The next time Rodrick drives Greg, Greg asks him to please go easy on the brakes. What does Rodrick do? Say "okay", but then go over every speed bump he can.
* [[Extremely Overdue Library Book]]: In the ''Dog Days'' book, Greg found the ''How to Make Sock Puppets'' book, which he had under his procession for a long time. But he began to get worried about being arrested if he returned it to the library.
* [[The Faceless]]: A character in the webcomic named Herbie Meaner. He's the leader of a gang of bullies and pretty much the reason why no sane kid in Greg's school stays on the basketball courts past 3:00.
* [[False Reassurance]]: Deny, deny, deny.
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* [[Generation Xerox]]: In ''The Ugly Truth'', it turns out that Greg looks exactly like Frank's cousin, Terrence. He's ''not'' happy about it.
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Greg knows that most classics his mom will force him to read will have the [[Death by Newbery Medal]] trope. He does mess up on one prediction, though. He says that because ''[[Charlotte's Web]]'' is a "Classic", either the girl or the pig won't make it to the end of the book. He doesn't know this because he doesn't finish it.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]:
** In the first film, the "girls and motorcycles" magazine is probably standing in for something [[Porn Stash|a little more raunchy]].
** At the party in the second film, everyone's drinking out of red cups - standard for beer, IRL.
** There's this exchange from "The Last Straw"
{{quote|'''Manny:''' Wipe my heinie, Pootie!}}
* [[Gentle Giant]]: Rowley.
* [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Greg's mom tells him that if he lies again he'll be grounded for a month. The result? Greg starts to use ''[[Brutal Honesty]]''.
* [[G-Rated Drug]]: The energy drink Rowdy Riot (see [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] above for details).
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* [[Horrible Camping Trip]]: In ''The Last Straw'', the father-son Boy Scout trip is a wash for Greg and his dad after the first night. And it's not even Greg's fault!
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: Greg suffers one at the beginning of the second movie, which finishes with him falling into a cake and subsequently getting beaten up by the irate birthday girl and her friends.
* [[Hype Backlash]]: [[In-Universe]] in the webcomic; Gregory is shown as being incredibly anxious to play a video game called "Twisted Wizard 2" and then says it's the lamest game ever made.
* [[Hypocritical Humour]]: Greg gets an honourable mention in a contest for anti-smoking posters. The person who won first prize smokes at least a pack of cigarettes a day.
* [[I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham]]: When Rodrick tells Greg that Rowley's new babysitter Leland is the biggest nerd in high school, Greg is reluctant to play [[Dungeons
* [[Ignoring by Singing]]: In the third book, when Greg and Rowley are being driven to a roller skating rink to impress Holly Hills and Susan overhears the conversation:
{{quote|'''Susan:''' [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|Holly Hills? Holly Hills was the only fourth grader at school]] [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context|who wasn't potty trained]].
'''Greg:''' LA LA LA...I CAN'T HEAR YOU! }}
* [[I Got a Rock]]: Each year, for Christmases and his birthdays, Greg gets nothing but clothes and books.
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: It's not a diary, it's a journal, get it right.
* [[Jerkass]]: Let's just say that Rodrick would drive ''anyone'' to commit fratricide. He ALWAYS abuses his brother for no good reason (and it goes way beyond the normal siblings-pick-on-one-another thing), and he never gets in trouble for it. He also has NEVER been nice to Greg ONCE in the book. Even when Greg does something really nice for him at the end of ''Rodrick Rules'', [[Ungrateful Bastard|he doesn't ease up, even for a bit.]]
*** Well, he did teach Greg the "tie your trash bag near the bottom" trick when the two of them had to rake leaves. Greg himself even comments that "this is what older brothers are ''supposed'' to teach you."
** Greg's dad also is a pretty big one. He is VERY mean to his kids (although not to the extent of [[Abusive Parents]]) and has NEVER shown one bit of love to Greg, unless you count him {{spoiler|not sending him to military school. And even THAT was only after Greg's wimpiness helped him.}}
** Aunt Cakey in the webcomic. Even though it's [[Annoying Younger Sibling|Manny]] she's responding to, passing off his displays of affection as a sign that he needs ''speech therapy'' is pretty cold.
** Greg himself. When he and Rowley often try to accomplish tasks together, he usually makes him do all of the work. Also, there's his treatment of Chirag Gupta and pelting Patty Farrell with apples.
*** The movie makes this a little more justified, by portraying Patty Farrell as an [[Alpha Bitch]] who is stuck on an insult he did in kindergarten.
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Subverted with Bryce Anderson. Greg tries his best to make him seem like one, but so far there's no real evidence that Bryce is one of these.
* [[Just Following Orders]]: When [[Tempting Fate|Greg's mom wants Greg to no longer lie,]] he tells every single truth to the fact a 200 pound kid can't play basketball due to weight, to making his Mom stand in the rain to say she's not in the house in the second movie.
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* [[Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book]] / [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]]: Played with when Greg has to draw what he thinks teenagers would draw after watching violent horror movies (as part of Rodrick's science project). Played straight when Manny accidentally watches one of the movies from the same project, then draws a bunch of pictures that scare Greg when he finds them. (It's never explicitly stated that the movie actually scared Manny; in fact, the picture in the book just shows him looking at the TV confused.)
** Fregley is also a major [[Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant]], serving as the master of [[Squick]] without even trying.
* [[Only Child Syndrome]]: Rowley. In the fourth book and in the webcomic, when Rowley has a nightmare, his parents rush to his aid and ignore that Greg was thrown on his face.
* [[Parental Favoritism]]: Greg's parents clearly favor Manny, to the point where he'd pretty be a [[Spoiled Brat]]. Manny is allowed to get his way, such as throwing tantrums over minor things like how his sandwich wasn't cut the right way. And his parents ''let him do it''.
** Manny is also Gramma's favorite (all you need to do is look on her fridge for proof), to the point where everyone in the family (yes, even ''[[Parental Obliviousness|Susan]]'') is aware of it.
** Grandpa, however, will tell you straight up who his favorite is.
{{quote|Grandpa: '''Gregory''' is my favorite!}}
* [[Parental Obliviousness]]: Susan seems to be completely unaware of modern teenage behaviour.
* [[Periphery Demographic]]: ''Everyone''. The print publishers chose to market it as a kids' book but [[Word of God]] is that it was written as a nostalgia trip for adult readers "...like ''[[The Wonder Years]]''".
** An in-universe example: Rowley's favorite musician is a European singer named "Joshie", but Greg looks at the album cover and immediately tells Rowley that Joshie's music is more than likely targeted at eight-year old girls. More or less confirmed in the 5th book, when Rowley talks about the time when he went to a Joshie concert and is the ''only'' boy at the concert.
*** And the only one over 10, to boot.
* [[Perpetual Frowner]]: Greg and Rodrick.
* [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything]]: Zig-Zagged. Greg's mom doesn't appear to have a job, but he mentions that she runs an article in the newspaper, and it's implied she might have been a therapist (but one for younger kids if anything) but is implied to go to school. Otherwise...she's not really doing anything. Greg's dad escapes this because they don't mention what he does, only that he takes a carpool.
** Not to mention, this is arguably a case of [[Fridge Brilliance]] - it's told from Greg's point of view. What would he know about what his parents do on a day-by-day basis?
* [[
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Several things could have been avoided if Greg just ''told'' people what was going on. ▼
** Another student ends up with the role of a shrub. He ends up delaying the start of the play due to stage fright. Greg even comments on how ridiculous the whole situation was.▼
{{quote|'''Greg''': You'd think that someone whose job it was to sit on the stage and do nothing could just suck it up for one performance.}}▼
** In the movie adaptation, Greg wanted a main role in the play to make Rowley jealous. He can sing extremley well, but he's a male soprano. The theatre director said the only soprano parts in the play were Dorothy (he quickly made her drop that idea) and the Trees.▼
▲* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: Several things could have been avoided if Greg just ''told'' people what was going on.
** In ''The Ugly Truth'', this is what pretty much leads to Uncle Gary's second divorce.
{{quote|'''Lydia:''' I've got about thirty thousand in the bank.
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* [[The Quiet One]]: Manny and Rowley.
* [[Retraux]]: In the film version, "It's Awesome to Be Me" was done as something from 1980s.
* [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]]: Greg's mom forces Rodrick to play ''[[Dungeons
{{quote|'''Rodrick:''' You and your group of nerds fall into a pit and it's full of dynamite and you blow up. The end.}}
* [[Sadist Show]]: The books rely heavily on misfortune and the misery of everyone, but since it's Greg's diary, we see most of his misfortune and misery.
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** At one point, Greg accidentally calls out Bingo when he doesn't have the matching numbers and a rival table sends out one of their own to intimidate Greg because ''they don't like it when newbies win on their first night''. [[Serious Business]] indeed.
* [[Slice of Life]]
* [[So Proud of You]]: Averted somewhat.
* [[Spartan Sibling]]: Rodrick has it in for Greg.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: On page 52 of ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid,'' there's a picture of a guy with a hockey mask and a chainsaw chasing Greg and Rowley with the written sound effect "RRRRRRRRRRRRR!" (with exactly [[Friday the 13th (film)|13]] "R"s).
* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Greg and Rodrick in the movies.
* [[Stupid Good]]: [[In-Universe]], Greg's mom plays [[Dungeons
* [[Stylistic Suck]]: "Li'l Cutie". Oh, dear lord. "Daddy, is rain just God sweating?"
* [[Symbol Swearing]]: Rodrick does this when he drops a glass on the floor and it breaks. Manny imitates him.
* [[Tastes Like Diabetes]]: [[In-Universe]] example: ''Li'l Cutie''.
* [[Take That]]:
** ''Li'l Cutie'' is pretty much a [[Take That]] parody of ''[[The Family Circus]]''.
** ''Precious Poochie'' could be a subtle [[Take That]] toward ''[[Peanuts]]''. The two strips are not alike (Precious Poochie is shown sitting on a phonograph thinking "I just can't seem...to figger out...what's all the fuss...over these...new-fangled...phonograph devices!"), but both are being run in papers despite the author having died years ago. Whenever the newspaper tries to replace it with something ''fresh'', [[Fan Dumb|the strip's elderly fans]] protest.
** ''Sherlock Sammy'' is a [[Take That]] parody towards " [[Encyclopedia Brown]]". It's described as they are all the same where some adult commits a small crime, makes some stupid mistake, and then Sherlock Sammy solves it and then makes the adult look like an idiot. ("Your first problem was that you forgot to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius!")
*** In the webcomic, he actually ''names'' Encyclopedia Brown.
* [[Teens Are Monsters]]: This is a ''school''.
* [[Title Drop]]: A partial one in the second movie when one of Rodrick's friends scribbles "Rodrick Rules" on the Heffleys' bathroom door.
* [[This Loser Is You]]: The readers are meant to identify with Greg, who is not only a self-proclaimed "wimpy kid", but who regularly gets tormented from the bigger kids around him and hangs out with the likes of Rowley and Fregley.
* [[TMI]]: Gregory makes a comic strip telling people not to talk about that sorta stuff in public.
* [[Toilet Humour]]: Used a lot. For instance, Greg's secret in the second book.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: After Greg and Rodrick buy fish from a pet store (an angelfish and a very aggressive, carnivorous fish, respectively), Rodrick never bothers to feed his fish or clean the bowl (it lives off the algae growing in the inside of the bowl). Greg's mom sees this and finds it to be gross, so she puts Rodrick's fish in Greg's fish's bowl. You can guess what happens from there.
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* [[Token Good Teammate|Token Not-An-Anti-Hero Family Member]]: Susan. She's the only one who isn't a total [[Jerkass]] in the family.
* [[Took a Level In Kindness]]: Rodrick is way better in the second movie than the book (well, most of it).
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: In ''No-Brainer'', Principal Bottoms takes over Greg’s school and makes decisions such as canceling their contract with the exterminator, {{spoiler|causing standardized test scores to drop to the point where ''the state has to close down the school''}}.
* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: An example where it's [[Played for Laughs]]. One good example is during ''Ugly Truth'', Greg says that they got a good thing going whereas Rowley is shown pulling Greg up the hill.
* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Greg. Boy howdy, Greg.
* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Greg and Rodrick have their own special language that allows them to swear at each other without getting in trouble (e.g. "Spooky stork!" "Squishy slime stick!" "Raspberry plastic tickle bear!").
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** Fregley's cries of "JUUUIIICE!" when he has to use the bathroom.
* [[Wild Teen Party]]: Rodrick throws one of these in ''Rodrick Rules'' when Frank and Susan leave. (When the parents take another weekend trip in ''The Ugly Truth'', they have the boys' grandfather babysit all of them so this won't happen again.)
* [[What Does She See in Him?]]: One's a snarky, [[Jerkass]], grumpy, bumbling dad who hates teenagers, heavy metal, video games and only wants to toughen up his middle child while get rid of his eldest child. The other is a former kindergarten teacher who's a gentle, caring, well-meaning [[Moral Guardian]] mother who ''dances'' to heavy metal, loves her family for the way they are, the only thing wishing for them to be is more like a family and genuinely tries to do the best for her sons (though it's often lost because of her inability to understand the fact that problems teens face can't really be solved with methods used to solve problems for kindergarteners). They're married. Tropers, we present to you, Frank and Susan Heffley.
* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: The "Holiday Bazzar" in book 6 was never mentioned again after the signs were hung up.
** The sixth book: Manny hacks Greg's Net Kritterz account and disables it, preventing Greg from being able to log in. It's never mentioned again after that, [[Fridge Horror|likely meaning Gregory's Little Friend died]].
* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: In ''Rodrick Rules'' (the movie), Chirag dresses up as Holly to play a prank on Greg.
▲* [[You Are a Tree Charlie Brown]]: Greg is a tree in his school's production of ''The Wizard of Oz''. Subverted in that he ''wanted'' this role, in part because he didn't want to be in the show but was forced to audition by his mom.
▲** Another student ends up with the role of a shrub. He ends up delaying the start of the play due to stage fright. Greg even comments on how ridiculous the whole situation was.
▲{{quote|'''Greg''': You'd think that someone whose job it was to sit on the stage and do nothing could just suck it up for one performance.}}
▲** In the movie adaptation, Greg wanted a main role in the play to make Rowley jealous. He can sing extremley well, but he's a male soprano. The theatre director said the only soprano parts in the play were Dorothy (he quickly made her drop that idea) and the Trees.
* [[You Are Grounded]]: Well ''duh''! Who ''wasn't'' grounded as a teenager?
* [[Youngest Child Wins]]: Only in that Manny winds up getting treated much better than his siblings.
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[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Children's Literature]]
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