Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Difference between revisions

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: Rodrick, all the way. [http://www.aceshowbiz.com/still/00004850/survival_of_the_dead09.html Whoa-oh!]

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: Especially in the second movie. In the books, at Rodrick's [[Wild Teen Party]], Greg is locked in the basement all night until Rodrick needs help cleaning up from it. In the movie, Rodrick locks Greg in the basement, only for him to find a phone down there and call Rowley to come rescue him. When his parents call, Greg threatens to tell their parents about the secret party if Rodrick doesn't let him out, so Rodrick lets him out. Also in the book, their parents don't find out until they go through the camera and see a picture accidentally taken of the party, in the movie however their mom finds out when a bathroom door they had to replace has no lock on it.

* [[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.

** Don't forget...THE CHEESE!!! in Book 1.

** The picture on the very first page<ref> As in even before the title and dedication</ref> in the 5th book.

* [[Child-Hater]]: ''Aunt Cakey''. Dear God, Aunt Cakey. <ref>You won't find her in any of the books. She's only in the webcomic.</ref>

* [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]]: Trista, a girl from New Mexico was introduced and set up to be a major character at the end of ''The Last Straw''. After a brief appearance in ''Dog Days'', she's never heard from again. Justified since she ditched Rowley and Greg at the country club in the summer between the end of ''The Last Straw'' and the beginning of ''Dog Days''.

** Aunt Cakey. Made an early appearance in the webcomic, disappeared from it and never appeared in any of the other media.

* [[Clueless Chick Magnet]]: Rowley. He doesn't seem to be all that interested in girls, yet in ''Rodrick Rules'' he's managed to socialize with some of the most popular girls in his year.

* [[Cool Big Bro]]: Rodrick can be this when he wants to.

* [[Cringe Comedy]]: From start to finish, each book is filled with it.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Greg but his dad isn't really far behind him in levels of snarkiness.

* [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?]]: In the movie when Rodrick catches Greg and Rowley in his room, Rowley clings to Rodrick's leg to hold him off.

* [[Demoted to Extra]]: Manny and Patty in the second movie.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: After Greg's school stops selling an energy drink called Rowdy Riot, [[G-Rated Drug|several students who have been drinking several cans of it on a regular basis start to suffer from withdrawal.]]

* [[Don't Touch It, You Idiot!]]: In the original ''webcomic'' version, a younger Greg has to stay with his Aunt Cakey for the night while his parents are on a trip or something. Right before Greg goes to bed, Aunt Cakey tells him not to touch the iron because [[Captain Obvious|it's still hot]]. Guess what Greg does after Aunt Cakey goes to sleep.

{{quote| '''Greg:''' ''(Dad is standing up in the canoe and about to hit his head on a tree branch)'' Duck! Duck!<br />

'''Dad:''' ''(looking through binoculars)'' Where? Where? }}

* [[Egg Sitting]]: Used for a mini-plot in ''The Ugly Truth.'' {{spoiler|All the boys break their eggs except for Greg and Rowley; Greg's mom accidentally [[Crowning Moment of Funny|scrambles his egg for breakfast.]]}}

* [[Embarrassing Old Photo]]: Used a ''lot'' actually. There is a time in which Rodrick had a high-school yearbook that had his ''second grade'' picture instead of his ''seventh'', due to a screw up on the part of Greg's dad.

* [[The European Carry All]]: Greg states that he doesn't want to take Home Ec. 2, even though he was pretty good at Home Ec. 1, because this kept happening:

{{quote| '''Kid 1:''' Hey, look, Greg has a purse!<br />

* [[Gaslighting]]: In 'Cabin Fever', Greg believes Rodrick was doing this to him with the Santa Scout.

* [[Generation Xerox]]: In ''The Ugly Truth'', it turns out that Greg looks exactly like Frank's cousin, Terrence. He's ''not'' happy about 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]].

* [[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.

* [[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 and Dragons]] <ref> in the books it's ''Magic and Monsters'', likely due to copyright restrictions</ref>. Subverted in the fact that while Greg actually likes D&D, he agrees with Rodrick that Leland is a nerd.

{{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]]. <br />

'''Greg:''' LA LA LA...I CAN'T HEAR YOU! }}

* [[Loud of War]]: When Rodrick's garage band attracts loitering teenagers, Greg's dad fights back by playing classical music from a boom box in the window.

* [[Mean Character, Nice Actor]]: [http://www.twitter.com/devbostick Devon Bostick], who plays Rodrick.

* [[Middle Child Syndrome]]: Oh my god, Greg.

* [[Multiple Choice Form Letter]]: Greg does this in the first book, typing out his Christmas cards on the computer with parts missing so he could just fill in the necessary adjustments to it later. (It doesn't work completely well though, such as when he fills out a thank you card for a new pair of pants and he has to say that all is friends would be jealous of it or that he likes how it looks on his legs).

* [[School Play]]: In the first book, Greg's school puts on a production of ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]''. It does not end well.

* [[Shout-Out]]: To ''Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing:'' in ''Dog Days,'' Greg and his family have a Father's Day brunch. Dad tells the story of his dog Nutty running away to a butterfly farm when he was a kid, and {{spoiler|Grandpa reveals that Nutty didn't actually run away to a butterfly farm; he was accidentally run over by Grandpa's car. Angry, Dad leaves Grandpa with the brunch bill, goes out and buys a dog.}} Rodrick suggests that the dog's name be Turtle.

** In the movie adaptation, Greg's mom tells him something along the lines of: "[[Harry Potter|it's our choices who make us who we truly are...]]"

* [[Serious Business]]: Bingo, for the old ladies that Greg's grandma hangs out with. They use things like lucky blotters and Bingo Trolls and whatnot when they play. ("One of Gramma's friends is so good she memorizes all her cards and she doesn't even NEED to use a blotter to mark them off.")

* [[So Proud of You]]: Averted somewhat.

* [[Spartan Sibling]]: Rodrick has it in for Greg.

* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Greg and Rodrick in the movies.

* [[Stupid Good]]: [[In-Universe]], Greg's mom plays [[Dungeons and Dragons]] this way. For example, her solution to the party being attacked by a band of orcs is to give the orcs all of the players' food. She then gets the idea that the game is a good way to teach Greg and Rodrick to get along better.

* [[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.

* [[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.

*** In the webcomic, he actually ''names'' Encyclopedia Brown.

* [[Teens Are Monsters]]: This is a ''school''.

* [[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.

** 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.