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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-movie_7158.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:[[InsistentTerminology It's a JOURNAL!]]]]
3%%
4->''"I'll be rich and famous one day, but for now I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons."''
5-->-- '''Greg Heffley'''
6
7A [[LongRunner long-running]] series of heavily-illustrated novels by Creator/JeffKinney based on his [[Webcomic/DiaryOfAWimpyKid webcomic of the same name]] hosted on Website/FunBrain, aimed at preteens. 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 own journals, filled with handwritten notes and stick drawings of his daily adventures.
8
9Greg'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 [[KarmaHoudini who can get away with anything]]. Other kids in the neighborhood include Greg's friend Rowley, and the strange kid Fregley, who lives down the block.
10
11One of the most popular and influential children's book series ever, spawning a [[FollowTheLeader massive movement]] of similar children's realistic fiction book series presented as diaries that combine text and drawings.
12
13!!The books to date are:
14[[index]]
15# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' (2007)
16# ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidRodrickRules'' (2008)
17# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw'' (2009)
18# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days'' (2009)
19# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth'' (2010)
20# ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidCabinFever'' (2011)
21# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel'' (2012)
22# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck'' (2013)
23# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul'' (2014)
24# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School'' (2015)
25# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down'' (2016)
26# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway'' (2017)
27# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown'' (2018)
28# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball'' (2019)
29# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End'' (2020)
30# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot'' (2021)
31# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde'' (2022)
32# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer'' (2023)
33# ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess'' (2024; upcoming)
34[[/index]]
35There is also a ''[[https://wimpykid.com/books/do-it-yourself/ Do-It-Yourself Book]]'' (2008; expanded in 2011) and, tying in with the film adaptation of the first book, a making-of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wimpy_Kid_Movie_Diary Movie Diary]]'' (2010; updated in '11 and '12 to include the sequels, and a separate one called ''[[http://www.wimpykid.com/books/the-wimpy-kid-movie-diary-the-next-chapter/ The Next Chapter]]'' about the making of the ''Long Haul'' film in '17), as well as three SpinOff books set in a PerspectiveFlip from Rowley; ''Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid'' (2019), ''Literature/RowleyJeffersonsAwesomeFriendlyAdventure'' (2020), and ''Literature/RowleyJeffersonsAwesomeFriendlySpookyStories'' (2021).
36
37The series got multiple film adaptations, the tropes for which can be found [[Film/DiaryOfAWimpyKid here]].
38
39For other children's book series in a diary format, see ''Literature/DorkDiaries'' and ''Literature/DearDumbDiary''. See also ''ComicBook/ZombieKidDiaries'', which was the subject of a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against the ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' series.
40
41For tropes concerning the original webcomic, go [[Webcomic/DiaryOfAWimpyKid here]].
42----
43!!This series provides examples of:
44[[foldercontrol]]
45
46[[folder:Multi-book tropes]]
47* AdaptationNameChange: Some of the names got changed in the transition from the webcomic to the book. Ann Heffley became Susan Heffley, Uncle Freddie became Uncle Charlie, the Smedley family became the Snella family, Piper and Lori Matthews became Holly and Heather Hills, Darnell Washington (the first kid who touched the Cheese) became Darren Walsh, and Sweetie Pie the dog became Sweetheart (though his nickname is "Sweetie" in both versions).
48* AdaptedOut: Herbie Reamer was a bully and TheDreaded for Greg in the webcomic, and it was him who made Rowley eat the cheese. The teens from Halloween take his place in the first book, and to this day, Herbie Reamer has never appeared in the book series.
49* AdultsAreUseless: 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 stories from the point of view of a teen. Averted with Vice Principal Roy, who is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure and punishes Greg when he deserves it.
50* AmbiguouslyBi: Sometimes, Rowley's actions are a bit suspect, especially with Greg. You'd think that a 13-year-old boy would realize that sharing a "Best Friends" locket (in the shape of a ''heart'') with ''another'' 13-year-old boy isn't something that looks like platonic friendship or realize that being a fan of a rather effeminate pop singer isn't exactly manly. It could be argued that he's just completely unaware of these things considering that he is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and is completely sheltered, however. [[spoiler:Also supporting this is that he's the one who gets a girlfriend in ''The Third Wheel''.]]
51* AnnoyinglyRepetitiveChild:
52** In ''Dog Days'', Manny tries to pass the time in the car by [[CannotTellAJoke telling lame jokes]]. At first, his parents play along with it, but as time goes on, even they become annoyed by his nonstop jokes.
53** Two examples in ''The Last Straw''; Manny the toddler calls Greg (his middle school-aged brother) [[EmbarrassingNickname "ploopy"]][[note]]Or "pootie" in the original webcomic[[/note]] as a childish insult. Greg approaches Susan when she's on the phone to tell her about what Manny said and says, "Mom?" several times. She is quite annoyed by this interruption [[ArmorPiercingQuestion and asks what that even means]], which throws him for a loop. Manny then continues to call him a "ploopy" for the rest of the day. (Though [[MoralMyopia he isn't quite so pleased when Greg calls him that later.]])
54** In ''The Ugly Truth'', the middle school boys are having a sleepover at the school. [[ToiletHumour One of them farts loudly]] every once in a while, and Mr. Palmero gets tired of this, so he orders the students to cut loose behind the curtain. The guys then take this opportunity to [[MistakenForFlatulence make fake flatulent sounds]] such as BlowingARaspberry or playing a low note on a tuba for quite a while.
55* AnswerToPrayers: In "Dog Days", Greg claims that whenever his grandmother can't find something, she prays and it appears.
56* ArtEvolution: The art used in the novels is less sketchy than the one in the webcomic, and as the series has gone on, the illustrations have gotten much cleaner and more detailed.
57* AthleticallyChallenged: Greg is very bad at sports -- he spent most of his swimming lessons hiding in the bathroom because the water was too cold, he gets distracted playing soccer, and he once mentioned doing badly at baseball.
58* BackForTheDead: The plot of ''Wrecking Ball'' is kicked off by the death of Aunt Reba, a minor character who only appeared in ''The Last Straw''.
59* BaffledByOwnBiology:
60** In the first book, Greg makes a comic about [[TheDitz Creighton the Cretin]]. Creighton asks a doctor to get him [[JokeOfTheButt a new butt because his old one has a crack in it]]. The exasperated doctor informs him that everyone's butt has a crack in it.
61** In "The Third Wheel", Rowley sees a pimple when Greg has him look in the mirror, and freaks out, thinking it's chicken pox. Greg can't correct him, since he also thinks it's chicken pox, which is why he had him look in the mirror.
62* BathroomControl:
63** In the first book, this is played with. Rowley informs Greg that he needs to go while they're trick-or-treating, and Greg has him hold it for forty-five minutes. By the time they reach Greg's grandmother's house, Rowley's quite desperate, so Greg lets him use the grandma's bathroom (though he threatens to steal some of his candy if he doesn't hurry up).
64** In ''The Last Straw'', Patty the AcademicAlphaBitch becomes the classroom monitor and is noted to take her job way too seriously. Greg asks if he can be excused to use the bathroom and she responds with a BluntNo.
65* BigBadEnsemble:
66** Greg Heffley has plenty of enemies, mostly bullies or adults that look down on him. Namely Rodrick, Patty, Mr. Jefferson and in ''Cabin Fever,'' [[spoiler:Manny]].
67** The movies make the main villains more clear: Pete Hosey in the first, Bill Walter (the closest you're gonna get) in the second, and Heather Hills and Stan Warren in the third.
68* BigBrotherBully: Greg details various mean things Rodrick has done to him, from punching him to pushing him off a diving board to stealing his food.
69* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Heffleys are definitely not a stable family. Frank's a JerkAss and BumblingDad, Susan's absolutely oblivious to how teenagers are nowadays, Rodrick's a step away from dropping out of school, Manny is a [[SpoiledBrat spoiled brat]] who can't seem to stay ''in'' school and Greg is a slacker who could very well end up like Rodrick.
70* BirthdayPartyGoesWrong: In ''Dog Days'', the trope is exaggerated for Greg's birthday. His presents are lame, his birthday money in confiscated, his uncle's dog eats the cake, and his 'make-up' present of a fish is eaten by Rodrick's fish.
71* BlackBeadEyes: Most of the characters have these. Unless they're wearing glasses of course, but even with that Patty Farrell is an exception.
72* BlackComedyPetDeath:
73** In "The Long Haul", the Heffleys try to lead some lost funeral people to the cemetery, only to find a pet cemetery instead.
74** In "Dog Days", Greg gets a fish, only for it to get eaten by Rodrick's fish. Also, Frank tells Greg of how his childhood dog Nutty ran away to a butterfly farm, only for Greg's grandpa to admit that what really happened was that he accidentally ran over Nutty in their driveway.
75** In "Hard Luck", Greg remembers keeping an inchworm named Squirm as a pet two years ago, only for him to be stepped on by a baby Manny.
76* BlandNameProduct: Several products throughout the series; these especially cropped up within the webcomic-to-book transition presumably to avoid copyright issues.
77* BooksVsScreens:
78** ''Dog Days'' features ''two'' examples. First is when Greg and Rowley are traumatized after watching a horror movie and Mrs. Heffley thinks it's because twelve-year-olds aren't reading enough and so starts a reading club (which she then captions the photo of with "The Reading is Fun Club says, 'no' to video games"), then later when the boys stay at a hotel without computers and TV, the Jeffersons suggest Greg read instead, which he thinks is ridiculous.
79** In ''The Long Haul'', Rodrick watches movie versions of books and does book reports on them, rather than reading the books. This causes him trouble when he's asked to read ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' but instead rents a wrestling movie called ''Lords of the Ring''.
80* BoringReligiousService: Greg finds church services boring, and is annoyed that his parents always bring lots of toys to keep his little brother Manny occupied, when they never did that for him at the same age.
81* {{Bowdlerise}}: A few small details were mildly censored in the transition from the webcomic to the books.
82** The caption on Mamadou's picture of himself that he sends to Greg changes from "Sexy" to "Super Cool."
83** Bryan Little's "Wacky Dawg" comic ends with "Barry Palmer, you still owe Bryan five dollars, you schmuck!" The print version changes it to "...you still owe Bryan five dollars, you bum!"
84** Greg writes a children’s book about a character who hates Eskimos until he gets saved by one. In the book version, the character hates polar bears instead.
85* BrainyPig: The pig seems to be this in ''Double Down''. He can walk on two legs, is seen holding a toothbrush at one point, and uses a "See and Talk" toy correctly to say "Pig eat ice cream". In ''Old School'', Greg receives a letter from the pig while on a school camping trip, reading "OINK OINK OINK." He isn't sure if Frank wrote it as a joke or if the pig can actually write.
86* BrattyHalfPint: Manny throws tantrums over things such as having mustard applied on his hot dog "wrongly" (he wants it vertically down the middle, not horizontally across) and not having his sandwich cut into slices.
87* BraveTheRidePlot: Zigzagged in ''Dog Days''. Greg wants to ride a ride called the Cranium Shaker, and he does but he gets nauseous. Rowley on the other hand is too scared to ride it but gets a shirt saying he survived the Cranium Shaker anyway.
88* BrilliantButLazy: A lot of Greg's problems in school would be avoided if he weren't so lazy. It's shown in books like ''Hard Luck'' and ''Double Down'' that Greg ''can'' be creative...when he's not forced to be.
89* BrokenAesop: Considering that Jeff Kinney thinks that electronics and devices are bad for children, it can be presumed that Susan is supposed to communicate these views to the reader. However, instead of actually being reasonable, Susan [[ItsAllAboutMe always wants things done her way]], is unnecessarily restrictive with tech, restricting usage of them when the alternative is just sitting still and doing nothing (''The Long Haul'' and ''The Deep End'') and even going so far as to try and force the entire town to stop using devices for a time and comes across more as a mockery of overly protective parents.
90* BumblingDad: Frank spends most of his time trying to force his sons (mainly Greg) to do activities he considers “manly”, trying and failing to dismantle video games, and screaming about the “dagnab teenagers”.
91* CastOfSnowflakes: Background characters throughout the series are very rarely recycled.
92* CharacterDevelopment: Throughout the books, Rowley learns to stand up for himself and grow a spine instead of blindly following people. By the end of ''The Third Wheel'', [[spoiler:he's also learned how to talk and relate to girls via the student council, becoming a couple with Abigail]]. This continues into his side series, especially ''Awesome Friendly Adventure'', where his HeroicFantasy manuscript is sent off the rails thanks to Greg's meddling to make the book more commercial, only for Rowley to decide to end the story the way he wanted.
93* ChekhovsGun: Throughout the series, Susan constantly says that Manny is special and very smart for his age. This ''finally'' pays off at the end of [[spoiler:''The Long Haul'']], in which Manny [[spoiler: being completely fluent in Spanish]] saves everyone.
94* ChekhovsGunman:
95** Early on in ''The Last Straw'', Greg talks about a teenage hellion named Lenwood Heath who was the bane of Frank Heffley's existence until his parents shipped him off to military school. Lenwood reappears later on as a ticket-taker at the movie theater, having done [[HeelFaceTurn a complete 180 in terms of personality]]; it's this that convinces Frank to send Greg to military school, kicking off the major conflict of the book.
96** At one point in ''The Third Wheel'', Greg presents an incomplete relationship chart regarding the kids at his school. Not only are Abigail and her boyfriend Michael on it, but [[spoiler:the girl Michael ended up cheating on Abigail with is marked down as having a crush on Michael]].
97* TheChewToy: Greg. Whenever he does something even mildly unethical karma goes into overdrive and screws him over, while whenever he does something good or productive he still gets screwed over anyway.
98* ChildrenAreAWaste: Greg says that when he grows up, he wants to spend his money on himself and not a bunch of ungrateful kids. He also makes sure to dispose of his gum and Popsicle sticks properly out of fear of being cloned when he's rich and famous and said clones come to his house asking for money.
99* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Several.
100** [[TeachersPet Patty Farrell]] has not appeared in the books following ''The Last Straw'' and the movie adaption of ''Dog Days''.
101** Chirag, one of Greg's friends who was at times a plot central character, later disappeared following a brief scene in ''Cabin Fever''.
102** 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''.
103** Double subverted with Aunt Cakey -- she made an early appearance in the webcomic, disappeared from it and never appeared in any of the other media...and then had a minor role in 2013's ''Hard Luck''. As of ''The Meltdown'', she hasn't reappeared.
104* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Fregley is this, asking Greg "Wanna see my secret freckle?" Furthermore, he's got his own weird slang, so when he needs to go to the bathroom he yells "Juice! Juice!"
105* CluelessChickMagnet: 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. [[spoiler:At the end of ''The Third Wheel'', he ends up in a relationship with Abigail. It doesn't last, but that he'd be used to ''make another boy jealous'' is impressive.]]
106* ColorCodedSpeech: The Do-It-Yourself Book'': In the comics section, Fregley's comic "Trevor" has speech bubbles colored white when Doug is speaking, and yellow when Trevor is speaking.
107* ComedicUnderwearExposure:
108** In one of the books, Rodrick locks Greg out of his hotel room while the latter is in his underwear.
109** In ''The Last Straw'', Greg climbs up a tree to save a blanket his little brother Manny threw up into it, only for his pants to fall down, exposing his embarrassing ComicBook/WonderWoman underpants.
110* CoolBigBro: Rodrick can be this when he wants to in the films, serving as something of a mentor to Greg. The books, however, have him remain a BigBrotherBully.
111* CopycatMockery: When Rowley breaks his hand but Greg doesn't realise it's broken, he tries to cheer him up by saying, "Look, I'm your dad! Durr, durr, durr".
112* CosmicPlaything:
113** Greg.
114*** In ''Old School'', Grandpa [[spoiler:chooses Greg's bed and Greg must sleep with Manny.]]
115*** In ''The Ugly Truth'', the Jeffersons [[spoiler:hire someone to be Rowley's replacement friend.]]
116** The Heffleys as a whole seem to be this. For the crime of wanting to enjoy their vacation, renovate their house, and move to a nicer house, they get utterly screwed over because of pure bad luck.
117* CrappyHolidays: Greg ''never'' gets anything he actually wants for Christmas, just clothes or practical things.
118** In ''Hard Luck'', Easter starts out okay but ends in an old family feud being brought up and everyone except the Heffleys searching for a lost diamond ring. [[spoiler:Greg accidentally finds it a few months later and hides it in his parents closet.]]
119* CutAndPasteComic: The artwork in the illustrations is reused constantly. (Explains why there is a Christmas Tree in the background when Greg is opening his Wonder Woman Underoos birthday present ''in June''.)
120* DeadpanSnarker: Greg, but his dad isn't really far behind him in levels of snarkiness.
121* DecemberDecemberRomance: Grandpa Heffley is still into dating, as shown in ''Hard Luck'' and ''Old School''. Greg's surprised to see this.
122* DemotedToExtra:
123** In the books, Fregley slowly becomes this, meriting only one mention in ''The Third Wheel''. Though in ''Hard Luck'' Fregley does get a lot more attention. [[spoiler:He becomes the most popular kid in school, because he can launch stuff from his belly button across the room.]] After disappearing completely for the next four books, he returns in ''The Meltdown'' for two jokes and has a cameo in ''Wrecking Ball''.
124** Collin was a major character in the webcomic as Greg's second best friend but he only makes a brief appearance in the first book and most of the stuff he did in the webcomic is given to Rowley. He has a different design in the books as well.
125* DiariesAreGirly:
126** Greg insists on calling his diary a journal, despite the cover saying otherwise, to avoid being called a sissy.
127** Rowley, on the other hand, [[InTouchWithHisFeminineSide proudly owns a diary that's clearly designed for little girls]], a "Sweet Secrets Diary" that has hearts on the cover. Greg is desperate to find out what Rowley writes about, but the cover has a lock on it, so Greg convinces his Dad to buy an identical diary so he can use the key to open Rowley's. Mr. Heffley, unaware of this plan, [[WantedAGenderConformingChild is not happy about this]].
128* TheDreaded: The Mingos, a gang of possibly feral children who appear in ''Hard Luck'' and ''The Meltdown''.
129* DysfunctionalFamily: The Heffleys, and as later books would show, this goes for almost everyone in their extended family as well.
130* EarlyPersonalitySigns: Greg has been a LazyBum for a long time, as shown when he was four and would sing the clean-up song with his classmates but never do any actual cleaning.
131* EasilyEmbarrassedYoungster: Greg is ''extremely'' easily-embarrassed, which is why he can be bossy (believing nonconformity is a no-go) and a lot of the comedy comes from him getting into embarrassing situations.
132* ElderlyAilmentRambling:
133** Greg's great-grandmother Gammie gives him "the talk" about how [[GrowingUpSucks he should enjoy his childhood and not rush to grow up]]. She mentions that getting to be her age isn't fun, and starts talking about hemorrhoids and shingles. When she starts rolling down a sock to show him, he quickly leaves the room.
134** In one book, Greg pranks his great-grandmother with a WhoopeeCushion, but she doesn't feel it and thinks she genuinely farted. In her apology note, she claims to have had "trouble controlling her body" and wonders if her recent surgery had given her gas.
135** In ''Dog Days'', Greg tries to write a newspaper comic named "Hey, People!" a blatant AuthorTract where he complains about other people's habits that he finds gross. One strip depicts him overhearing an old man loudly discussing his ingrown toenail surgery while at a restaurant.
136* EmbarrassingPyjamas: [[BigBrotherBully Rodrick]] once pranked [[EasilyEmbarrassedYoungster Greg]] by telling him that the next day is "Pyjama Day" at school. Greg later redoes this prank on his friend Rowley.
137* EmphasizeEverything: Good luck finding a single page in any of the books that doesn't contain at least one word IN ALL CAPS.
138* EntertainmentAboveTheirAge:
139** "Old School" sees Manny, who is only three years old, requesting ''Literature/TheHobbit'' as a bedtime story (though it's implied that he mainly just wanted to stall going to bed).
140** In "The Ugly Truth", it's mentioned that Greg's younger cousin Benjy (who is [[VagueAge either]] a [[ChildProdigy toddler]] or a [[BrainyBaby baby]]) is already reading chapter books.
141* EveryoneHasStandards:
142** In ''Rodrick Rules'', Greg refuses to buy a paper off of Rodrick, noting that even though he's copied off of other people during quizzes, buying a paper from someone is too far, even for him. Even though he makes a meaningful effort to try to complete the paper on his own, he caves in to doing this when he loses his progress due to the power going out.
143** In ''Cabin Fever'', Greg takes the blame for inadvertently defacing the school walls rather than name Rowley for doing this. Even though Greg could have blamed Rowley for this while evading punishment himself out of spite for being thrown under the bus, Greg takes the blame as he had dragged Rowley into doing this.
144** In ''Hard Luck'', Greg refuses to cheat on a science project using one that had been made by another student, after he notices his brother's science project (the school dumped tons of old projects and papers in a storage room, and some bullies were using it as a money-making venture). He knows it's going to land him in huge trouble, and thinks it's stealing. (He thanks his instincts as he later notes [[LaserGuidedKarma the teachers staged a raid after a tip-off from another student, and the bullies landed in summer school.]]) He also hides a precious diamond ring near the end, so Mom's family won't kill each other over it. Finally, he does not like the fact that a nice kid got put in detention for earning his hero points (which the same school bullies as above counterfeited, which caused the teachers to get suspicious) legitimately and that the removal of hero points removes the incentive for people to help others in need, such as someone with a broken leg and crutches carry lunch to the table.
145** In ''Double Down'', he thinks about his deceased Nana and regrets not being nice to her when he was young, hoping that she is happy in heaven and not watching an "ungrateful middle schooler."
146* EverytownAmerica: Greg's town is called Plainview in the movies.
147* FatAndSkinny: Greg is a LeanAndMean AntiHero while his FatBestFriend, Rowley, despite being childish and chubby, is a NiceGuy overall.
148* EvilVersusEvil: While Greg is by no means a good guy, some of the people he faces are much, ''much worse''.
149* FatBestFriend: Rowley is Greg's best friend, and is chubby both in the book's art and in the movies.
150* FictionalVideoGame: Various video games shown in the series include ''Twisted Wizard'', ''Formula One Racing'', ''Discovering the Alphabet'', and ''Net Kritterz''.
151* FilmOfTheBook: Actually, film of the book of the webcomic.
152* FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode: Throughout the series, Greg has flashbacks about his first days of preschool and kindergarten.
153* FirstPersonSmartass: Greg frequently makes snarky comments about the events that befall him.
154* {{Flanderization}}:
155** Rowley was simply gullible and slow on the uptake before becoming a kiddy kid. This Flanderization is countered by his CharacterDevelopment, however; [[spoiler:''The Third Wheel'' even implies that he is maturing faster than Greg is]].
156** Susan Heffley, in many ways.
157*** At first she only showed concern if Greg did something she objected to, and was sometimes embarrassing and behind the times of what teenagers were into, such as trying to get Greg less interested in video gaming. Her stern attitude only showed if something severe had happened (such as Rowley's broken arm in the first book or the party that happened in Rodrick Rules). As of Hard Luck, however, Susan's character has essentially delved into a ThinkOfTheChildren type mother who shows extreme distaste to anything electronic to the point she gets the town as a whole to unplug (which she simply bribed her way through by getting elderly party-goers of Grandpa to sign the signatures she needed).
158*** Susan has gotten more selfish over time. While initially Susan only forced her family into embarrassing activities out of cluelessness to their feelings in the matter, by ''The Long Haul'' Susan forces the entire family into going on a surprise road trip, well aware of their complaints and not caring because she desires a perfect family.
159** Greg has become more unsympathetic. In ''Cabin Fever'', he and Rowley get in trouble and Rowley accidentally confesses with Greg's name. Greg is upset, but decides to accept his punishment without bringing Rowley into it. In ''Hard Luck'', he's upset when people start abusing the school's system of rewarding people who are nice, and also fears that Meemaw's ring will break up the family and hides it where nobody will find it. In ''Double Down'', he thinks about his deceased Nana and feels bad that he wasn't nice to her, saying that he hopes she's happy in Heaven and doesn't have to watch over "an ungrateful middle-schooler." But in ''Wrecking Ball'', he tries to scam kids by selling them broken toys and ''celebrates'' his aunt's death!
160*** Greg also seems to have gotten dumber and more gullible over the years. Granted, he was never anything close to a straight-A student, but by ''Double Down'' he thinks that his parents using the phrase "recharge our batteries" might mean they’re robots. This seems more like something he’d make fun of Rowley for thinking in the earlier books.
161** Manny has had all his character traits exaggerated up to eleven. He started off as a {{Jerkass}} SpoiledBrat [[DeliberatelyCuteChild who played up how cuteness]] to get away with being a jerk to a borderline sociopath ''who leaves his family to die in a blizzard'' ForTheEvulz and blames it on not knowing how to tie his shoes. His mild {{Cloudcuckoolander}} traits were initially things you would expect a child to do, but nowadays he comes off as totally insane and does things like hijack the family car and try to crawl down a toilet. His intelligence went from Susan claiming he’s smart for his age to justify his oddness to him building a house out of spare construction materials just for giggles.
162* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling:
163** Gary and Frank are this to a T: Gary is a ManChild who can’t hold down a job or a marriage, but he’s also a CoolUncle. Frank is more mature and has a steady job and a family, but he’s also stuffy and acts like he’s far older than he really is. As expected, Frank doesn’t really like Gary, although Gary is nicer to Frank.
164** Their brother Joe is a combination: He has a family and career and is mature, but is fun loving and comedic. While Frank is annoyed by him, he does seem to like him.
165* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Heffley Family
166** '''Susan:''' [[MyBelovedSmother sanguine]]
167** '''Frank:''' [[DadTheVeteran choleric]]
168** '''Rodrick:''' [[EmoTeen melancholic]]
169** '''Greg:''' [[LazyBum phlegmatic]]
170** '''Manny:''' [[TheBabyOfTheBunch eclectic]]
171* GagNose: Many background characters are drawn with one.
172* GamesOfTheElderly:
173** In the movie adaptation, Greg's grandmother isn't home because it's "Bingo Night".
174** In ''The Last Straw'', Greg invites his grandma over to stay, in order to avoid his dad chewing him out. When she leaves to go to bingo, he comes too, and ends up playing with a bunch of seniors.
175** In ''Rodrick Rules'', Greg's grandpa plays gin rummy with the Heffley boys while staying over with them.
176* GassyGastronomy: Implied in the "Do it Yourself Book", in which one comic, ''The Amazing Fart Police'', portrays farting as illegal. One comic that's advertised is "The Fart Police Invade a Burrito Factory", indicating that they're arresting the workers for producing a food that makes people fart.
177* GossipyHens: A variation. Albert Sandy has a lot of stories to share at lunch, such as how a guy practiced jumping out of a hole that he made slightly deeper everyday until he was able to jump several feet in the air. Whether or not they’re actually true, if he's gullible and believes they're true when they're not, or if he's spicing it up or not is never revealed. Of course, the other kids believe him straight, though Greg has come to realize by ''The Meltdown'' that [[KnowNothingKnowItAll most of what he has to say is just complete nonsense]].
178* GrossoutFakeout:
179** In "The Long Haul", a raw cinnamon roll explodes in the hot car, and when Rodrick gets some on his head, he thinks it's his brains. When Manny starts licking the dough off his fingers, Rodrick screams.
180** In "Rodrick Rules", Rodrick and his friends put fake throw-up on strangers' cars.
181** In "The Ugly Truth", during the school sleepover, some boys pretend to fart behind the curtain. One of them even uses a tuba.
182* GrossGumGag:
183** In the original book, Ricky Fisher's establishing moment is Greg stating that he'll pick the old gum off of the bottom of desks and chew it if you give him fifty cents. Greg is not too thrilled to have this guy on his independent study group.
184** In "The Ugly Truth", Rodrick spits out his chewed gum at a swarm of moths, but he misses and hits Frank in the face with it. Frank gets so frustrated that he chases Rodrick around the parking lot, only to trip and twist his ankle (though he [[CutHimselfShaving lies that he tripped over a toy car]]).
185* GrossOutShow:
186** Downplayed. While the series can use ToiletHumor sometimes, it's not as bad as other examples of this trope.
187** Played straight in the first book though where Fregley gives Greg a letter with a booger on it.
188* GroupIdentifyingFeature:
189** Discussed. When Rowley goes through a phase of copying Greg, the latter ends up rolling up one pants leg and and tying a bandanna to his ankle. The former copies, and their neighbour mistakes them for "thugs" sporting the "gang colours".
190** In "Old School", there are some teenagers in a reform camp, who all wear orange jumpsuits.
191* HarmfulToPetsReminder: In "Double Down", Greg has a bagful of candy corn in his room, but the family's pet piglet ends up finding it and eating the whole bag. He looks quite ill and nauseous, so Greg and Rodrick try to take him to a vet before Susan finds out, but this backfires when [[VomitIndiscretionShot the pig throws up in front of her]].
192* HeavySleeper: Greg and Rodrick, but the latter especially--in fact, Greg claims that Rodrick ended up sleeping for 36 hours straight during one autumn (from Sunday night to Tuesday morning) and didn't realize that he missed an entire day of his life until he couldn't find ''Series/MondayNightFootball'' on Tuesday evening.
193* HelpingAnotherSaveFace: After Rowley [[spoiler:is forced by a group of older bullies to eat "The Cheese" (a piece of moldy cheese on the playground that became infamous at the school), students are suspicious to where it went. Wanting to save his friend the humiliation of what happened (as well as try and rekindle the friendship), Greg claims that he got sick of the Cheese and threw it away, causing the students to be grossed out by him instead of Rowley.]]
194* HousepetPig: In "The Long Haul", the Heffleys win a piglet at a county fair and keep him as a pet for the next few books before he runs away in "The Meltdown" and is never seen again.
195* InsignificantAnniversary:
196** In ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck'', Rowley gets Abigail a cupcake to celebrate their nine-and-a-half-day anniversary.
197** Every time one of the Snellas' kids turns six months old, they throw a "half-birthday party", during which they record attempts to make the baby laugh in hopes of appearing on TV.
198* IntentionalMessMaking:
199** In "The Meltdown", the pig is mad at the Heffleys for having excluded him from their vacation in the previous book. Greg mentions that he had been taking his anger out on the family by destroying things, like knocking over a potted plant.
200** In "The Last Straw", Frank unknowingly throws Manny's SecurityBlanket Tingy in the trash. Manny gets back at him by wrecking his Civil War battlefield diorama.
201* {{Jerkass}}:
202** Greg can be a hard guy to like sometimes. When he and Rowley often try to accomplish tasks together, he usually makes him do all of the work while he takes all the glory. 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 a {{Jerkass}} who is stuck on an insult he did in kindergarten.)
203** Rodrick always abuses his brother for no good reason (and it goes way beyond the normal siblings-pick-on-one-another thing), and [[KarmaHoudini he sometimes never gets in trouble for it]]. He also has never been nice to Greg ONCE in the books. Even when Greg does something really nice for him at the end of ''Rodrick Rules'', [[UngratefulBastard he doesn't ease up, even for a bit]].
204** Manny is a horribly spoiled and bratty KarmaHoudini, to the extent that he did not get punished in ''Cabin Fever'' when he left his entire family for dead in a blizzard.
205** Greg's dad Frank is a bit of an asshole to his sons, and frequently forces them to engage in activities they dislike (i.e. sports).
206** Aunt Cakey in the webcomic (and later the books). Even though it's [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Manny]] she's responding to, passing off his displays of affection as a sign that he needs ''speech therapy'' is pretty cold.
207** Patty Farrell in the movies is selfish and annoying, and she could nearly make Greg look like a saint in comparison.
208** The pig that Manny forces the Heffleys to keep is, despite being insanely intelligent and almost human-like, a total jerk who only causes problems for the Heffleys, particularly Greg, for no reason at all.
209* JerkJock:
210** Kenny Keith seems to fit the description. However, Greg is a jerk to Kenny whenever he gets the chance and we don't see how Kenny acts around people he actually gets along with.
211** 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.
212* KarmicButtMonkey: Greg is an egotistical, smart-alecky DirtyCoward who often doesn't give a damn about others. He usually ends up paying for it whenever [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin he steps out of line in any way]], especially when he tries to hide what he's done. Although in some of the later books, bad things happen to him for no reason, even if it's not (directly) karmic.
213* KiddieKid: Greg's best friend Rowley acts like a seven-year-old. It's justified by the fact that he's extremely sheltered because of his overprotective parents. Manny might be a "baby kid", being older than 5 (two years have passed after he mentions that he's only 3), but still acting like a toddler.
214* KidsAreCruel:
215** This is middle school, so kids mock, bully, and humiliate each other for kicks. Greg himself isn't above it; Chirag Gupta will tell you that firsthand.
216** Manny, especially in ''Cabin Fever'', when he leaves the rest of the family to freeze to death.
217* LaboriousLaces: Rowley is described by his best friend Greg as "one of those kids who are always gonna be a few years behind everyone else maturity-wise." He's in middle school, but doesn't know how to tie his shoes because he still has Velcro instead of laces. Last year, his mom bought him sneakers with laces, and Greg had to help him tie them numerous times.
218* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: Since ''The Long Haul'', the books are usually single events rather than the usual random plot-relevant events. ''Double Down'' and ''The Meltdown'' avert this.
219* LighterAndSofter: The books when compared to the webcomic. And the movies to the books, which gives some hints that Greg's cynical worldview taints his journals and distorts reality, even though Greg himself is obviously a nicer person in the first three movies, as are everyone around him.
220* MarketBasedTitle: The series has gone through many name changes.
221** First, there's the book series as a whole, the title of which often is changed in translation.
222*** The Swedish title translates to "Diary for all my fans." This is a reference to how Greg says that when he becomes rich and famous, he'll give reporters his old diary to read so that he won't have to waste time answering their questions.
223*** The Dutch title means "The life of a loser."
224*** In Vietnam, it's called "Diary of a shy boy."
225*** The French translation is "Journal d'un dégonflé," meaning "Diary of a wimpy kid." The "dé" appears to be crossed out, making the title translate to "Diary of a courageous kid."
226*** The Icelandic title translates to "Diary of Kiddi, the clumsy person". "Kiddi" is Greg's name.[[note]]"Kiddi" is a pet form of "Kristján", equivalent to English "Christian".[[/note]]
227** The first book is just called ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'', so translators have often made up their own titles for it.
228*** In Sweden, it's called "The feats of Greg".
229*** In the Netherlands, it's called "[[DubNameChange Bram Boterman's]] logbook".
230*** The title in Brazil replaces "Wimpy Kid" with a slang for idiot, "Banana".
231* MessyPig: The pig that Manny and Susan accidentally win at the country fair and are stuck with, which they then leave at a petting zoo, then eventually come back for in ''The Long Haul''. It becomes the family pet, though it's never named. By ''The Meltdown'', [[spoiler:it runs away over being excluded from the Heffleys' trip in the previous book ''The Getaway''.]]
232* MiddleChildSyndrome: Greg. His older brother Rodrick frequently bullies him and gets away with it through intimidation and covering his tracks. Meanwhile, his younger brother Manny makes himself a pest, but Greg can't do anything to him without getting into trouble with his parents.
233* MiddleSchoolIsMiserable: This trope is one of the [[TropeCodifier codifiers]]. The series pulls no punches in its portrayal of middle school as a nightmare where pubescent awkwardness reigns and everyone is a dick. Protagonist Greg Heffley ([[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist who's hardly immune himself]]) even says as much in the first book, noting that the mix of pubescent and prepubescent students is a natural recipe for disaster. Although it's noted more than once that Greg's school is an ''exceptionally'' bad one, with the worst test scores in the state, and literally falling to ruin in ''No Brainer'' due to loss of funding and staff layoffs.
234* TheMillstone: The pig causes nothing but trouble for the Heffleys by eating food it shouldn’t that belongs to them and making the most simple of tasks difficult. And that’s when it’s not ''actively'' trying to cause trouble. When it does, it usually results in a lot of property damage.
235* MistakenForInsane:
236** In the first book, Rodrick tricks Greg into thinking it's the first day of school. Frank yells at Greg for waking him up so early in the morning and Greg tells him what Rodrick did. They go to Rodrick's room, where he has fallen asleep so that he won't be suspected, and Greg comments in his narration that Frank probably thinks that Greg "has a screw loose or something".
237** In "The Long Haul", the Heffleys' car gets a flat tire. Two men stop their car and approach them, and [[LanguageBarrier since they only speak Spanish]], the Heffleys try to non-verbally tell them what happened by pointing to the tire and blowing a raspberry to simulate a deflating sound. Greg notes that the guys probably think they're crazy, at least until Manny notifies them of their situation in Spanish.
238* MoralGuardians: In-universe: Susan tries to be this as well with various rates of success.
239* MyspeldRokband: Rodrick's band is called L[[HeavyMetalUmlaut ö]]ded Diper (although Greg remarks that his brother probably doesn't know how to spell "Loaded Diaper" anyway).
240* NeverMyFault: You can probably count the number of times that Greg has (whether voluntarily or forced to) taken responsibility for something bad he's done or otherwise acknowledged that he made a mistake on one hand. Again, this book is probably (intentionally or not), an excellent exploration of the ProtagonistCenteredMorality trope and the thought process of a borderline sociopath.
241* NoodlePeople: Almost everyone. Subverted with Rowley, Mr. Beardo, and a few other minor characters.
242* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Greg started middle school in the first book and stays there. [[WordOfGod Jeff Kinney is on record]] saying [[http://parnassusmusing.net/2014/01/17/will-greg-heffley-ever-grow-up-wimpy-kid-author-jeff-kinney-answers-questions-about-his-most-famous-characters-future/ Greg will be in middle school forever]].
243** This was the reason why everyone had to be recast for the film adaptation of ''The Long Haul'', since a FloatingTimeline doesn't translate well and age is an unstoppable factor.
244* NightmareFuelColoringBook: Fregley is the master of {{squick}} without even trying.
245-->'''Fregley:''' Wanna see my "secret freckle"?
246* NotWhereTheyThought:
247** In "Rodrick Rules", Greg remembers accidentally walking into the women's bathroom at a retirement centre thinking it to be the men's bathroom, and being [[AccidentalPervert mistaken]] for a DirtyKid.
248** In "Wrecking Ball", the Heffleys go to what they think is their Aunt Reba's funeral. Greg is wondering why no one looks familiar. When they all go to the gravesite, they see that the grave belongs to someone named Robert Law, meaning that they had been at the wrong funeral all along.
249** In "The Long Haul", Greg tries to catch his family's car right before it goes through the tollbooth. He bursts into what appears to be their car, but [[FailedASpotCheck he fails to notice that there's no boat attached to it]] and quickly finds out that there's a woman and her daughters in there. Cue screaming from both daughters.
250* OnceDoneNeverForgotten:
251** In "Rodrick Rules", Rodrick keeps bringing up "that thing" that happened to Greg over summer ([[spoiler:Specifically, he [[NotWhereTheyThought accidentally]] entered the women's bathroom at a retirement home and was [[AccidentalPervert mistaken for a Peeping Tom.]]]]) and threatening to tell people about it.
252** In one book, Greg reveals that his classmate Cody [[EmbarrassingNickname gets called Dookie]] by his classmates, teachers, and even the principal, all because he once [[RoadApples stepped in dog poop.]]
253** One book reveals that Greg's father Frank believes Rowley Jefferson to be accident-prone just because Rowley once broke a plate.
254* OnlySaneMan: Greg sees himself as this. Even if he often does stupid things, he can be the snarky narrator to his clueless parents, his DumbassTeenageSon of an older brother, and his odd and spoiled little brother. Greg's dad can also play this role, both in the books and the movies.
255* PacManFever:
256** Arcades are shown to be still culturally relevant in Dog Days and Cabin Fever where Greg tries to get the high score in an arcade game and Greg trying to make an arcade game for a holiday festival respectively.
257** Greg is shown to own what resembles a Nintendo 64 in most books
258** Additionally, video games are depicited to be 80s style Shmups most of the time.
259* ParentalFavoritism: Greg's parents clearly favor Manny, to the point where he's becoming a SpoiledBrat. 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''.
260** 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 ''[[ParentalObliviousness Susan]]'') is aware of it.
261** Grandpa, however, [[AtLeastIAdmitIt will tell you straight up who his favorite is]].
262-->'''Grandpa:''' Gregory is my favorite!
263* ParentalObliviousness: Susan seems to be completely unaware of modern teenage behavior. One notable example in ''Rodrick Rules'' is that she thinks that the other students at Greg's school would agree that [[spoiler:walking into the ladies bathroom at the retirement home by accident]] was an honest mistake and they'll let him off easy.
264* ParentsAsPeople: Even through Greg's ProtagonistCenteredMorality, it's clear that Susan and Frank have their own flaws to work through and do love their sons. They do want the three to succeed better, and they just don't provide the necessary means to actually help them. Other parents across the books are also shown to be flawed, but well-meaning.
265* PeripheryDemographic: 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 Ugly Truth'', 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.)
266* PerpetualFrowner: The default state of most characters sans notable exceptions like Susan.
267* PerspectiveFlip: The spin-off ''Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid'' is set from Rowley's point of view.
268* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: 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 ''The Third Wheel'' shows a flashback of him bringing Greg to his office for Bring Your Kid to Work Day, boring Greg because he just works on his computer (although what he's doing on it is unknown). This is a [[JustifiedTrope justified example.]] The story's told from Greg's point of view. What would he know about what his parents do on a day-by-day basis?
269* PlotAllergy: Greg has told two lies about allergies:
270** In the first book, he convinces bullies not to force him to eat an expired slice of cheese by lying that he's allergic to dairy.
271** In "The Ugly Truth", he lies that Manny is allergic to peaches to try to convince the advertisers of peach ice cream to make him their mascot instead of Manny. Ironically, Manny was ''actually'' allergic to peaches in the webcomic.
272* PoorCommunicationKills: Several things could have been avoided if Greg just ''told'' people what was going on.
273* PrettyBoy: Rowley's favorite 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.
274* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Greg suffers from this big time. For example, in ''Rodrick Rules'', he mistreats Chirag Gupta by pretending he doesn't exist. If the same thing happened to ''him'', he'd almost certainly complain about it and call the kid(s) doing it to him bulllies. The book series might actually be one of the best explorations of this trope, especially if one treats it as a look into the worldview, life and perceptions of a borderline amoral Middle School student.
275* TheQuietOne: Manny. Averted [[spoiler:at the end of ''The Long Haul'' where he has a conversation with two mechanics in fluent Spanish for almost an hour]].
276* ReallyFondOfSleeping: This applies to all three Heffley brothers:
277** Greg dislikes waking up early and often takes naps in the afternoon to feel rested.
278** Rodrick likes napping even more than Greg and once accidentally napped for a day and a half.
279** Manny hates being woken up from his naps.
280* RightForTheWrongReasons:
281** In "Rodrick Rules", three-year-old Manny Heffley draws a picture of two people arguing and a third, smaller person crying with ears covered. His parents correctly assume that the picture is of himself and two family members and depicts a real argument, but they think it's a drawing of an argument they had, when actually it's an argument his older brothers Rodrick and Greg had over the TV remote.
282** In "Cabin Fever", Greg berates [[GenkiGuy Rowley]] for skipping. Rowley thinks that Greg is [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of him for not being able to skip, but Greg actually just thinks skipping looks stupid. However, Rowley ''was'' right in the assumption that Greg can't skip.
283* SadistShow: 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 - he also could be an UnreliableNarrator for all we know.
284* SantaAmbiguity: While the webcomic clearly states that Santa isn't real, the books leave it ambiguous. The first book strongly indicates that Greg no longer believes in Santa, but in ''Cabin Fever'' he does [[{{Retcon}} and seems to act like he always has]]. The book also has a doll named Santa's Scout who behaves as an Elf on the Shelf {{expy}} and supposedly reports to Santa at night. He changes his position every day but Greg never sees him move and wonders if it's really Rodrick who moves him, though he still avoids acting badly when within the doll's sight, just in case.
285* SealedEvilInACan: PlayedForLaughs with the Cheese Touch. It's just a slice of expired swiss cheese that somehow became the basis of an UrbanLegend in Westmore Middle School. Anyone who touches it or a victim of the moldy cheese becomes infected with the Cheese Touch, causing everyone to scream in a blind panic as they try to get away from the "infected". The only cure to the Cheese Touch is to pass on its "curse" to someone else. After Abe Hall moved out as the last person cursed by the Cheese Touch, the remaining students swore to never go near the cheese again in hopes that the curse would end with Abe.
286* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Manny and Rowley (Sensitive), Rodrick (Manly), and Greg (Manly to Manny and Rowley, Sensitive to Rodrick).
287* SeriesFauxnale: ''Wrecking Ball'' has the feel of a GrandFinale, having [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]] and [[CallBack Call Backs]] to previous books, the amount of misfortunes the Heffleys can experience apparently reach their peak, a far more somber tone than the rest of the series, and focusing on an event (the Heffleys moving away) that could end the series. But in the end the Heffleys are forced to stay in the neighborhood and nothing really changes, except for the Heffleys’ house being destroyed. The next main series book, ''The Deep End'', is a VacationEpisode that takes place while it's being repaired.
288* ShoutOut: In the ''Do-It-Yourself Book'', the comic strip ''Office Antix'' seems to be a reference to ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'': both comics are office-related, and the office worker and supervisor somewhat resemeble Dilbert and the Point-Haired Boss, respectively.
289* SliceOfLife: The entire series is written around the perspective of an average teenager.
290* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism:
291** Extremely cynical for a children's book series (however, this might just be Greg's view on the world, as he's displayed some sociopathic styled tendencies, and thus this leaks into his journals). The main character, Greg, is a lazy, selfish, self-absorbed {{Jerkass}} with almost no redeeming qualities. Almost all the other child characters are {{Jerkass}}es & bullies as well. All authority figures are incompetent, and the school itself is a SuckySchool. The only truly nice character in the main cast, Rowley, is coddled by his parents and abused by Greg (who doesn't seem to like him despite calling him his best friend). Greg's family is quite [[DysfunctionalFamily dysfunctional]], and his father and older brother seem to actively ''hate'' him. Almost everyone not named Greg who does something bad is a KarmaHoudini.
292** The movies, however, are in the middle of the scale. While the cynical humor from the books are still there, the movies balance it out by giving Greg [[AdaptationalNiceGuy more moments of likability compared to his book counterpart]] and actually having him fix his relationships with his older brother and father. There's a very good reason why the series' [[Heartwarming/DiaryOfAWimpyKid heartwarming page]] mostly consists of scenes from the movies.
293* SmallNameBigEgo: Greg thinks everyone is an idiot except him. In ''The Last Straw'', he's talking about his family's New Year's resolutions and about finding ways to improve himself... but it's not easy for him to improve himself because, in his own words, "I'm pretty much one of the best people I know". So he starts thinking of ways to "improve other people" and telling them what he doesn't like about them. In ''Wrecking Ball'', he wants to have a holiday named after him. In ''Double Down'', he outright says that he thinks the world revolves around him and that he believes his life is being broadcast on TV.
294* SpoiledBrat: Manny. Though one could argue he's not to blame; his parents are the ones who spoil him rotten and never tell him the difference between right and wrong.
295* StatusQuoIsGod: No matter what happens by the end of a book (ex. Greg meets a pretty girl neighbour wanting to be friends with him and Rowley), it's always negated by the events of the next book (ex. she doesn't have any romantic interest in him at all and he immediately forgets about her).
296* StrongFamilyResemblance: Rodrick in the book is Greg with thicker eyebrows and hair, so it's hinted Greg sees the resemblance between him and Rodrick, but considers Rodrick a nastier version of him.
297* StylisticSuck: The Do-It-Yourself book features comic strips by some of the characters. Most of them fall under this. In Rowley's strip ''Action Fighterz'', the only action was one character hitting the other with a FryingPanOfDoom. The rest of the page is just them discussing what's about to happen.
298* SuckySchool: The unnamed middle school Greg attends is so inadequately funded that it lacks heating systems. The teachers also tend to be either overly strict or straight-up incompetent. Due to the stupidity of the students, the playground equipment has been recalled. The rules are so tight that it is forbidden to simply ''sit down'' or play tag during recess.
299* SymbolSwearing: When done in the series, characters have a speech bubble filled with random symbols.
300* SympathyForTheDevil: Greg may not like his siblings very much, but he does feel sorry for them when they get the short end of the stick. He thinks Rodrick is grumpy because he's TheUnfavorite in the family and he feels bad for Manny for being too afraid of other kids to make friends.
301* TeensAreMonsters: Besides the bullies at school, a lot of teenagers outside of Greg's school are portrayed as juvenile delinquents. Also, Rodrick, as an older teen, often acts aggressive and reckless. Frank believes this up to eleven and is noticeably more upfront with Greg after he turns 13 in the webcomic.
302* ThisLoserIsYou: 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. Probably not the best example of this trope though if he's meant to represent the average Middle School reader since Greg is just really lacking in places where most of his age would be decent at or even excel.
303* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Holly is taller than Greg in the movie adaptation of ''Rodrick Rules''. They are almost the same height in ''Dog Days'' though.
304* TookALevelInJerkass: Greg. He's not a consistently nice person, but throughout the first six books, has brief WhatYouAreInTheDark moments. This is best shown in ''Cabin Fever'', where despite Rowley getting him in trouble for something they both did, he decides not to get Rowley involved and accepts the punishment himself. ''Wrecking Ball'' severely increases Greg's regular bad behavior, featuring him celebrating a relative's death and [[LiesToChildren scamming children by selling broken toys to them]]. ''Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid'' seems dedicated to showing him as an awful person, abandoning Rowley alone in the woods at night, preventing him from using the bathroom during a sleepover, and then flushing his toys down the toilet.
305* TookALevelInDumbass: While books like ''Rodrick Rules'' establish Rodrick as dumber than Greg, he does have moments like tricking Frank into writing his assignments for him, and showing Greg how to avoid Fregley by going through the sewers. In ''The Long Haul'', he locks a pizza in a safe that he confuses for a microwave oven and somehow believes that his brains have been blown out and eaten. ''Double Down'' has him applying to dog colleges. Greg notes that he doesn't know if Rodrick doesn't realize they're for dogs, or if they're the only ones he thinks he can get into.
306* TheUnFavourite: Rodrick and Greg always get the short end of the stick, while Manny is pampered and spoiled. Especially Rodrick, more so than Greg (not by much though).
307* ThemedStockBoardGame: ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'' of all things. There's also one for Hot Potato.
308* TokenGoodTeammate: Susan. She's the only one who isn't a total {{Jerkass}} in the family. However, she is also the epitome of StupidGood and can still be rather selfish at times.
309* TooUnhappyToBeHungry:
310** In one of the movies, Greg feels guilty about not owning up when Rowley gets punished for something he (Greg) did because [[MistakenIdentity Greg was wearing Rowley's coat]]. His mother Susan observes that he hasn't "badgered [her] for any snacks" and asks if he's OK.
311** In "Dog Days", Greg's fish dies, leaving him "bummed out", so he picks at his food over brunch.
312* UnexpectedKindness:
313** In "Hard Luck", the family has been bickering about who gets to keep Meemaw's ring once it's found. Greg fears that they're going to fight again when they have another gathering, but they're actually quite happy to see each other. A few family members are even shown going over to hug each other.
314** In "Dog Days", Greg [[OutOfContextEavesdropping overhears Frank talking about giving someone away]] and wonders if he's talking about him. Later, he looks in Frank's schedule and finds that it has "Sell Greg" written in it (it's implied Rodrick wrote that). When Frank tells him to get in the car because he has a surprise for him, Greg panics and calls the cops on him. Then it's revealed that Frank was actually planning to take Greg to a baseball game and he even got front-row seats. However, Frank no longer has the energy to attend the game and gives their tickets to the cops. Also, Frank was going to [[UnsuccessfulPetAdoption give their dog Sweetie away]].
315* UnsoundEffect: Nearly every time a character screams, their speech bubble simply reads "SCREAM!" or "SHRIEK!". Occasionally shows up in other ways, such as when Greg uses "type type" to describe his dad typing.
316* UnreliableNarrator: The books are a downright SadistShow filled with incompetent characters whereas Greg seems to view himself as the OnlySaneMan, but even his journal entries leave hints to the reader that all is not what it seems in his world. An example where it's PlayedForLaughs is during ''The Ugly Truth'', Greg says that they got a good thing going whereas Rowley is shown pulling Greg up the hill.
317* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: The Heffleys adopt a pig in ''The Long Haul''. It seems as though the pig will stick around, but he escapes in ''The Meltdown''.
318* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Greg. The movies downplay this a bit and make him a more fleshed out JerkWithAHeartOfGold, so if we take the movies as to what really happens behind the scenes, then Greg really needs to work on writing himself better in his journals.
319* WearingItAllWrong:
320** In "Hard Luck", Fregley has a hard time putting on a shirt and ends up with his head sticking out of an arm hole.
321** "Old School" has Greg put his socks on over his shoes because [[IdiotBall he can't remember which order they go in.]]
322* WebFirst: This series started a webcomic. Then it adapted into a successful book series, which in turn was made into a series of films.
323* WhatExactlyIsHisJob: Because this is told in Greg's point of view, we never find out what Frank's job is. ''The Third Wheel'' reveals that he works in an office, though.
324* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The series is loosely implied to take place in the United States, but as the Movie Diary puts it, "you don't know if they live along the West Coast, or the East Coast, or somewhere in the middle."
325* WomenAreWiser: Girls are portrayed as well-behaved and sensible, barely breaking any rules; meanwhile, the boys (except for Greg, Rowley, and Fregley) are portrayed as mischievous and complete troublemakers. ''The Meltdown'' {{Subvert|ed}}s this by introducing some girls who are just as bad as the boys.
326* WorldOfJerkass: The number of genuinely kind and altruistic characters could be counted on one hand, and they tend to be sent through the wringer through no fault of their own. Even the main character is a selfish, judgemental, lazy, and massively egotistical blowhard whose only heroic actions [[NominalHero have self-serving motives behind them]]. Although it's implied that some of what's shown [[UnreliableNarrator may be biased in Greg's favour]] to make himself look better.
327* WrittenRoar: A character's screaming or shrieking is written as "SCREAM!!!" or "SHRIIIIIEK!"
328* YoungestChildWins: Only in that Manny winds up getting treated much better than his siblings.
329[[/folder]]
330
331[[folder:''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' (first book)]]
332* AdaptedOut: Ben, Greg's former best friend who moved away never appears in the books.
333* AdaptationalNiceGuy: An InUniverse example where the trees in a school play version of ''Film/TheWizardofOz'' sing to Dorothy instead of throwing apples. An [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of this trope is {{Invoked|Trope}} by Greg himself when Dorothy annoys him.
334* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Greg wants to be elected treasurer so he can use his power to do favors for the cheerleaders.
335* AsianAndNerdy: The girl who was voted "Most Likely To Succeed" in Rodrick's middle school yearbook is named Kathy Nguyen, a common Vietnamese last name.
336* AttackOfThePoliticalAd: Parodied. When Greg runs for treasurer, he makes posters claiming that his opponent had head lice in second grade, to which Vice Principal Roy informs him that spreading "fabrications" of other candidates is not allowed (even though Greg tells him that the head lice incident actually happened). This gets him kicked out of the election.
337* AuthorTract: In-universe: The school paper's ''Wacky Dawg'' comic is cancelled because the author has been using his comic as a mouthpiece to talk to other students, such as by trying to butter up his friend after he caught him kissing a girl he presumably liked behind the lockers.
338* BeYourself: This stock aesop is discussed and mocked, where one chapter has Greg complain about his class watching a movie titled ''It's Great to Be Me'' and how the message of being fine just the way you are and not needing to change anything about yourself is a terrible lesson to tell the kids in his school. His point is proven by an illustration of two bullies declaring "It's great to be me" while beating up another kid.
339* {{Bowdlerise}}:
340** In the webcomic, Bryan Little, artist of the school's newspaper comic ''Wacky Dawg,'' uses said comic to complain that "Barry Palmer, you still owe Bryan five dollars, you schmuck!" The print version changed it to "...you still owe Bryan five dollars, you bum!"
341** Then later InUniverse. Greg creates a comic called 'Creighton the Cretin', which focuses on the titular idiot. When he gets published, the published comic (where [[ItMakesSenseInContext Creighton eats his maths test]]) is turned into a blatant ad for the local school library. He promptly quits, and when Rowley takes his place, the published Zoo-Wee Mama comic is published without edits. Greg is understandably pissed.
342* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Rodrick's Christmas list is for new drums, a new van, and a shrunken head.
343* BrokenAesop: In-universe, Greg's class watches a video called "It's Great To Be Me" about how you should [[BeYourself be happy about who you are.]] All the kids at Greg's school (most of which are bullies) [[ExactWords misinterpreted it as]] "it's fine to be a jerk if you're already one". The illustration emphasizes his point by showing a bully shoving a kid to the floor and saying, "It's great to be me!" and his friend laughing.
344* ChekhovsBoomerang: Three teenagers terrorize Greg and Rowley on Halloween night and are never brought up after that point. Near the end of the book, [[spoiler:the same teens confront the two and make Rowley eat the Cheese.]]
345* ChekhovsGun: At the start of the book, Greg talks about a moldy piece of cheese and how it started a "Cheese Touch" craze, which thankfully ended when the last recipient moved away. He hopes he doesn't have to deal with it again, but at the end of the book, [[spoiler:Rowley is bullied into eating it]].
346* ChristmasEpisode: Greg's Christmas doesn't go as he hopes when he ends up getting a Big Wheel and an 8x10 photo of his uncle.
347* CopycatMockery: When Rowley breaks his hand but Greg doesn't realise it's broken, he tries to cheer him up by saying, "Look, I'm your dad! Durr, durr, durr".
348* CreatorBreakdown: An InUniverse example. The school newspaper needs a new cartoonist after the kid who drew ''Wacky Dawg'' starts using it to handle his "personal business."
349* ComicallyMissingThePoint: The mean kids at Greg's school mistake [[BrokenAesop the message of the]] [[BeYourself "It's Great To Be Me"]] video to say that it's alright to be a bully if you are already one.
350-->'''Bully 1:''' ''(shoving a kid)'' It's great to be me!\
351'''Bully 2:''' Ha ha ha!
352* DidntThinkThisThrough: Greg protects Rowley's reputation by saying he threw the Cheese away. He doesn't realize until it's too late that, in order to toss the Cheese in the trash, he would have had to touch it, ergo giving himself the Cheese Touch.
353* TheDitz: Greg’s character, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Creighton the Cretin]], is this in spades. He’s tricked into thinking his name is “Stewart Pid” (and then says his name is [[PunnyName “Stew Pid”]]), mistakes a brick for a box, and asks a doctor to give him a new butt because his old one has a crack in it.
354* TheDreadedThankYouLetter: Greg doesn't want to write his Christmas thank-you notes due to wanting to spend time on his snowman-building project instead. He hurriedly writes fill-in-the-blank letters with the format, ''"Dear A. Thank you very much for the awesome B! I love the way the B looks on my C. All my friends will be so jealous that I have my very own B. Sincerely, Greg"'', which comes out looking awkward when he thanks his aunt for a pair of pants.
355-->'''Greg:''' ''Dear Aunt Loretta, thank you so much for the awesome pants! How did you know I wanted that for Christmas? I love the way the pants looks on my legs. All my friends will be so jealous that I have my very own pants. Thank you for making this the best Christmas ever! Sincerely, Greg.\
356
357* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
358** The story takes place over an entire school year - later entries would take place over a few months or even only about a ''week''.
359** There is also not much of an underlying "Theme" or a story arc to the first book, therefore it comes off as more of a RandomEventsPlot compared to the later books.
360** While the book establishes it's trademark illustrations, at one point, one of them is on the bottom right corner of a page rather than a part/half of a page. Something the books never did again.
361* ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe, Greg's school newspaper comic is edited by a teacher to replace the punchline with a bland advertisement for math tutoring. The title ''Creighton the Cretin'' is also changed to ''Creighton the Curious Student''.
362* FaintInShock: Greg passes out when he realizes he accidentally put his thumb on [[NoseNuggets snot]] that Fregley left on a letter for him.
363* FakedRipVanWinkle: Rodrick's "you slept through summer vacation" prank on Greg. In the movie he doesn't explain why the summer has ended, he just counts on Greg being too sleepy to know.
364* HoodOrnamentHottie: Referenced. Manny gets ahold of one of Rodrick's magazines, which Greg mentions has a picture of a woman in a bikini spread out on the hood of a car on the cover. Manny brings it to show-and-tell Although Greg said it was [[DoubleEntendre "nothing to get worked up over"]], their mother is not pleased.
365* HypocriticalHumor: Greg says that at his school there was a "No Smoking" poster contest. Ironically, though, the guy who won actually smokes a lot himself.
366* LosingYourHead: In the ''Xtreme [[Letters2Numbers Sk8ters]]'' comic strip, one of the stick figures gets decapitated by a telephone wire. His head still manages to talk.
367* MemeticMutation: In-universe: "Zoo-Wee Mama!" from the comic that Greg and Rowley created, and which Rowley later used in his own comic, becomes a meme at school, much to Greg's dismay.
368* MisleadingPackageSize: Greg recalls opening a video-game sized gift-box only to find a memory card. When he opens his gift, he's sure it's a video game he wants... but it's actually a framed picture of his uncle.
369* MoralGuardians: In-universe example when a teacher yells at Greg and Rowley for listening to rock and roll [[TheNewRockAndRoll because it's "evil" and is going to "ruin [their] brains".]]
370* MultipleChoiceFormLetter: Greg types out his Christmas cards on the computer with parts missing so he can 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 his friends would be jealous of it or that he likes how it looks on his legs).
371* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Pete Hosey and his goons forced Rowley to [[spoiler:eat the cheese]] and attempted to force Greg to do the same. The aftermath ultimately led to Greg and Rowley becoming friends again.
372* NothingIsScarier: Greg can't even bring himself to write that [[spoiler: Rowley ate the Cheese. The only thing we see of the act is a speech bubble of Rowley gagging as Greg looks upon sickened.]]
373* InjuredLimbEpisode: Rowley breaks his left hand falling off a tricycle. This happens in the first movie, too.
374* OneJokeFakeShow: Rowley creates a comic strip called "Zoo-Wee Mama!", where the punchline of every strip is a character shouting out the title phrase. Despite its repetitive premise, the strip becomes a major success at school and even gets published in the school paper.
375* OneLetterPun: A boy named Preston Mudd is named athlete of the month. However, his poster lists him as "P. Mudd", and it only took people about 5 seconds to figure out what that sounds like when you say it out loud.
376* PlasterCastDoodling: After Rowley breaks his hand and it gets encased with a cast it draws the attention of other students who want to sign it. Greg gets [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of the attention, so he wraps his arm in gauze, pretends he has an infected splinter, and offers students to sign his "sympathy sheet" (a clipboard). The only one who wants to sign it is [[CloudCuckoolander Fregley]], who wants to look at Greg's so-called infection.
377* PlayingATree: Greg is a tree in his school's production of ''The Wizard of Oz''. Subverted in that he ''wanted'' this role (it meant he got to throw apples at Dorothy AKA Patty Farrel), in part because he didn't want to be in the show but was forced to audition by his mom. Another student gets the role of a shrub due to more students auditioning for the play than there are roles. He ends up delaying the start of the play due to stage fright. Greg even comments on how ridiculous the whole situation was. In the movie adaptation, Greg wanted a main role in the play to make Rowley jealous. He can sing extremely well, but he's a male soprano. The theatre director said the only soprano parts in the play were Dorothy (Patty quickly made her drop that idea) and the Trees.
378-->'''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.
379%%* PottyDance: Fregley does this while screaming "JUUUIIICE!"
380* PottyEmergency: Happens several times.
381** When Fregley has the urge to go, he says "Juice! Juice!"
382** Rowley has to use Grandma's bathroom during Halloween.
383* SchoolPlay: Greg's school does a play of ''The Wizard of Oz''. Greg's role is [[PlayingATree a tree]] and he only has one word. He's satisfied with how the play goes when he and the other trees start throwing apples at someone, although his parents don't approve.
384* SeasonalRot: An in-universe example in the form of a school comic called ''Wacky Dawg''. Greg states that the strip was pretty funny until it became a vehicle for the author to handle his personal business.
385* ShowAndTellAntics: Manny comes across a heavy metal magazine that his big brother Rodrick owns and takes it to his school for show-and-tell, much to his teacher's horror, as the cover has a photo of a bikini-clad woman lying across the hood of a car. Rodrick gets in trouble with his mom for this, as she is a MoralGuardian who doesn't approve of such things.
386* ShrunkenHead: While one doesn't physically appear, Rodrick [[CreepySouvenir asks for one on his Christmas list]]. [[TeensAreMonsters This is normal for him]].
387* StealthPun: On page 52, there's a picture of a guy with [[HockeyMaskAndChainsaw a hockey mask and a chainsaw]] chasing Greg and Rowley with the written sound effect "RRRRRRRRRRRRR!" (with exactly [[Franchise/FridayThe13th thirteen]] "R"s).
388* StickFigureComic: The ''{{Xtreme|KoolLetterz}} [[Letters2Numbers Sk8ters]]'' comic strip has characters without faces and very simple bodies.
389* StylisticSuck: The various comics that Greg looks through as submissions for the newspaper are all drawn in different, cruder styles than Greg's usual drawings.
390* TechnologicallyBlindElders: {{Discussed}} by Greg, mentioning that Frank often tries to dismantle Greg's video game system, but fails due to his ignorance of technology and the fact that the manufacturers deliberately proofed it against this scenario.
391* ToiletHumor: Manny is fond of eating his morning cereal while sitting on a plastic training potty. He also dumps the remaining cereal in the potty when he's done eating, which Greg has to scrape out and is disgusted by.
392* TotallyRadical: Greg receives a book for Christmas called ''Math is Rad''.
393* UnusualEuphemism: Fregley's cries of "JUUUIIICE!" when he has to [[PottyEmergency use the bathroom]].
394* ViewersAreMorons: In-universe, one of the prospective cartoonists for the school newspaper seems to believe his audience isn't particularly bright, despite (according to Greg) being a dim bulb himself. The text of his comic, "Dumb Teachers", helpfully clarifies that the stink lines he drew are in fact stink lines, and they are, in fact, emanating from the poop in a teacher's soiled pants.
395* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Greg lies and says he threw away the Cheese (in the movie he says he ''ate'' it) to cover for [[spoiler:Rowley being forced to eat it]]. Only he, Rowley, the teen bullies and, in the movie, Angie know the truth.
396* WokenUpAtAnUngodlyHour: In the first book, Rodrick wakes Greg up to tell him that he [[FakedRipVanWinkle slept through the summer]]. Greg makes a beeline downstairs to get breakfast and he eats so loudly that it wakes up Frank, who yells at him for waking him up at 4 AM. Later, Greg plays very loud music late at night. He realizes too late that he forgot to plug the headphones into the speakers, which awakens a pissed-off Frank. Frank, in a state of TranquilFury, proclaims that he wants to tell him something before referring to him as "[[TermsOfEndangerment friend]]". Greg notes that [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious he only calls him that when he's especially furious.]]
397* XtremeKoolLetterz: The comic ''Xtreme [[Letters2Numbers Sk8ters]]'', which is made by some kid at Greg's school.
398[[/folder]]
399
400[[folder:''Rodrick Rules'']]
401See [[Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidRodrickRules Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules]]
402[[/folder]]
403
404[[folder:''The Last Straw'']]
405* AbandonTheDisabled: Greg is nearsighted and wears contacts. He mentions that he's glad that he isn't a caveman, because then his family might abandon him because he wouldn't be able to hunt.
406* AdaptationalNiceGuy: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Kenny Keith; he's still a JerkJock who frames Greg for scaring [[DrillSargeantNasty Mr. Litch]] with the car's horn, but most of his actions thereafter from the webcomic have been omitted.
407* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Greg's mother shows up to school to bring Greg his lunch, while wearing her workout clothes. And to rub salt in the wound, it was on fourth period, where he and [[LoveInterest Holly Hills]] share a session.
408* BlindWithoutEm: Greg can't see without his contacts.
409* BrickJoke: Greg turns in a 4-page long biology report (cover included), with the last page saying "Well, it looks like I'm out of paper, so I guess this is THE END." The book ends the same way, with a similarly-sized "THE END" and Greg writing that it's "corny" to end on a happy ending.
410* ChekhovsGift: For Christmas, Uncle Charlie buys him a pair of ComicBook/WonderWoman[=-=] [[UncoolUndies themed underoos]]. [[spoiler:As it turns out, his subsequent ComedicUnderwearExposure from wearing these saves his dad from humiliating himself at the birthday party by trying to make a baby laugh, and saves himself from being sent to military school.]]
411* TheComplianceGame: Greg complains that his grandfather bought him a "laundry hoop" for Christmas. It's a plastic hoop attached to a net, and said grandparent claimed it would make putting his clothes away more "fun", but Greg says that Grandpa essentially bought him a chore.
412* DetentionEpisode: One scene deals with Greg in detention. He is annoyed by the students sitting next to him, but manages to get out early when he tricks the teacher into thinking one of the students punched him.
413* EmbarrassingNickname: Manny comes up with the nickname "Ploopy" for Greg.
414* FirstDayOfSchoolEpisode: Manny gets scared by his classmates' Halloween costumes on his first day of preschool.
415* HeelFaceTurn: Lenwood Heath was the biggest troublemaker in the Heffley's neighborhood, and Frank's biggest enemy. His enrollment at Spag Union changed him for the better, leading Frank to consider sending Greg there.
416* HighSchoolDance: Greg attends one to meet Holly Hills... only for her to not recognize him anyways.
417* HorribleCampingTrip: The father-son Boy Scout trip does not go as Greg expects, when he has to bring Rodrick along and their campsite gets rained out.
418* HotDrinkCure: When Greg is sick and talks about how his parents usually fuss over him when he gets sick, he draws Susan offering him a steaming mug and saying, "Are you strong enough to hold this cup?"
419* IgnoringBySinging: When Greg and Rowley are being driven to a roller skating rink to impress Holly Hills and Susan overhears the conversation, she starts sharing some less-than-flattering trivia about her from her preschool days. Greg, who is nursing a major crush on Holly and doesn't want to hear about this, starts tuning her out by loudly sining "LA LA LA".
420-->'''Susan:''' Holly Hills? Holly Hills was the only four-year-old at preschool [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext who wasn't potty trained]].\
421'''Greg:''' LA LA LA... I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
422* IllnessBlanket: While Greg likes being wrapped in a blanket anyway, he plays this trope straight when he's sick and is seen sitting on the couch in a blanket with a thermometer in his mouth.
423* KarmaHoudini: Greg wrote very rude anonymous Valentine's Day cards to everyone in his class (case in point: "Dear James, you smell.") He was savvy enough to write a card for himself so the teacher wouldn't suspect him. It worked.
424* LoopholeAbuse: Rodrick finds a way around mom's ban of the word "ploopy" as an insult in "The Last Straw". He calls Greg "ploopy" over the course of three days, beginning with "pl" on the first day, moving onto "oo" the second, and finishing with "py" on the third.
425* MailOrderNovelty: Greg reveals that he has no disposable income because he spent them on comic book ads that turned out to be scams. The XRayVision glasses don't work, the money-printing machine is just a magic trick you have to load with your own money first, the ventriloquism book's lessons are useless, and the HoverBoard is actually a manual with (prohibitively expensive and complicated) instructions on how to build one.
426* MilitarySchool: A major plot point in this book is Frank deciding to sign Greg up to Spag Union Military School for [[SummerSchoolSucks it's summer program]] after seeing it changed local former troublemaker Lenwood Heath for the better and and Greg trying desperately to avoid this fate.
427* MistakenForThief: Mrs. Craig, a teacher, notices that her dictionary is gone. The bullies accuse Peter Lynn and Corey Lamb as both [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness use big words a lot]]. [[spoiler:The book actually wasn't stolen; Alex Aruda had simply been using it to study. Unfortunately, Corey gets put in detention because Mrs. Craig saw him return it.]]
428* NeverMyFault: While Greg, Erick, and Kenny are waiting for Mr. Litch in the car, Kenny honks the horn as a joke; due to Greg being in the passenger seat, Mr. Litch believes he was responsible and deliberately takes a long time driving them home. Erick and Kenny are consequently mad at Greg, ''despite Kenny being the one who honked the horn in the first place.''
429* NightmareFuel: In-universe. A younger Greg is afraid of Creator/ShelSilverstein after seeing his picture on the back cover of ''Literature/TheGivingTree''. His father uses this to his advantage by telling him if he gets out of bed late at night, he will run into Silverstein in the hallway. Greg ''still'' doesn't leave his bed at night.
430* NobodyLikesATattletale:
431** When Greg and Rodrick were little kids, they used to tattle on each other so often that their mom gave them a toy turtle called the Tattle Turtle that they could tell their problems to instead of her. It worked in Rodrick's favor, because he could do things like steal all the money from Greg's piggy bank and Greg couldn't tell their mom.
432** Greg is ''not'' happy with the fact that [[TheStoolPigeon Manny's constantly ratting him out]]. He notes that he used to be a tattletale until the day he was cured of the habit; he overheard Rodrick swearing, so he [[CensorshipBySpelling spelled it out]] and Susan gave him the SoapPunishment and [[KarmaHoudini didn't punish Rodrick for saying it first]].
433* PlatonicValentine: Zigzagged. Greg is made to write Valentines for his whole class, which does include Holly, his crush, but it also includes his friends, and his rivals. He decides to just say what he thinks of everyone, which [[BrutalHonesty ends up offending the rivals]]. He also wrote a Valentine for ''himself'', saying, "Dear Greg, I hate your guts", to cover his tracks after offending the rivals.
434* PottyEmergency: Discussed when Greg dreads the bathroom situation at Spag Union and says he highly doubts he can hold it in all summer.
435* ReluctantGift: Greg is supposed to put a twenty-dollar bill into the church collection basket but is trying to hold on to it. His mom Susan does it for him.
436* SeriesFauxnale: This book wraps up all the content from the webcomic, but since the series became more popular in book form, Greg’s misadventures continue to this day.
437* ShoutOut: ''Sherlock Sammy'' is based on ''[[Literature/EncyclopediaBrown Encyclopedia Brown]]''. In fact, the webcomic references Encyclopedia Brown and the fact that the titular character charges a quarter.
438* SickEpisode: Greg gets sick with the flu before a camping trip, and is forced to skip it.
439* SmallNameBigEgo: Greg is talking about his family's New Year's resolutions and about finding ways to improve himself...but it's not easy for him to improve himself because, in his own words, "I'm pretty much one of the best people I know". So he starts thinking of ways to "improve other people" and telling them what he doesn't like about them.
440* TheSwearJar: Susan sets one up because Manny is learning too many bad words from Rodrick and Greg. And Manny gets the money.
441* SoapPunishment: Greg gets his mouth washed out with soap as a result of a failed attempt to tell on Rodrick for saying a bad word. Rodrick gets off scot-free.
442* ThermalDissident: Greg is given swimming lessons, but he finds the water too cold despite his teammates not being bothered. His father Frank yells from the sidelines, "Stop shivering, Greg!", and later, Greg gives up, goes to the bathroom, and wraps himself in toilet paper to keep warm.
443* SymbolSwearing: Rodrick does this when he drops a glass on the floor and it breaks. Manny imitates him.
444* TripTrap: Greg does this prank on Rowley's dad, tripping him with a wire while he's walking home. He doesn't understand why Rowley's dad doesn't find it funny.
445* UncoolUndies: Greg is given a pair of ComicBook/WonderWoman[=-=]themed underpants that he is too ashamed to ever wear. However, after running out of clean clothes to wear, he is forced to wear them to a birthday party [[ComedicUnderwearExposure where his pants end up slipping down and revealing the underpants to everyone.]]
446* UnusualEuphemism:
447** Manny invents "[[BabyLanguage ploopy.]]" The meaning of the word is never explained, but he seems to use it as an insult.
448** Greg and Rodrick have their own special language that allows them to swear at each other without getting in trouble (e.g. "Spooky stork!" "Raspberry plastic tickle bear!").
449* VacationEpisode: One scene has Greg, Rodrick, and Frank go on a camping trip. It doesn't go very well when they have to stay in a hotel due to rain.
450* WarmWaterWhiz: Greg is at a sleepover with Rowley and a bunch of younger (all supposedly no older than six years old) boys. Some of the boys sneak up on Greg with a bowl of warm water, clearly intending to invoke this trope, but Greg is still awake and scares the kids off.
451[[/folder]]
452
453[[folder:''Dog Days'']]
454* FiveFiveFive: The number on the VIP Lawn Service poster starts with 555.
455* AbsentAnimalCompanion: Rodrick and Greg get a fish each. Greg's fish dies, but Rodrick's fish survives, [[NoodleIncident yet still is never seen again.]] On the other hand, the webcomic clarifies that Rodrick's fish died after becoming immobile due to eating the other fish.
456* AdaptationSpeciesChange: Frank's childhood pet Nutty is a cat in the webcomic, but a dog in this book.
457* AgelessBirthdayEpisode: Greg celebrates his birthday, although his age is never stated.
458* ApatheticPet: Sweetie. When Frank adopts him, he doesn't get along much with the other members of the family. The only one he shows much affection to is Susan, and she doesn't pay him a lot of attention either. He is afraid of Frank and can be a nuisance to Greg. [[UnsuccessfulPetAdoption This ends up being the reason why the Heffleys give him to Gramma.]]
459* ArrangedFriendship: Greg mentions one of his birthday parties where, since he's not too popular at his school and doesn't have many friends besides Rowley, his mother Susan invited her friends' kids over. Greg doesn't know any of those guys, so it's quite awkward for him.
460* AsinineAlternateActivity: Greg wants a cell phone for his birthday, but Susan believes that it's too much responsibility and she's concerned he'll rack up a huge phone bill like his older brother Rodrick tends to do. Her solution is to give him a "ladybug phone", which can only call the house phone and 911.
461* AuthorAvatar: In-universe, Greg's "Hey, People!" comic features a main character that resembles him.
462* BalloonBelly: Rodrick's fish gets bloated after he eats Greg's fish.
463* BileFascination: InUniverse -- Greg and his dad can't resist reading the dreadful newspaper comic ''Li'l Cutie'' (a parody of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'') just to see how bad it is. (One of the captions for a ''Li'l Cutie'' comic is "Daddy, is rain just God sweating?")
464* BondingOverDislikes: Greg and his dad don't have the best relationship, but they always manage to reconnect over how much they hate the ''Li'l Cutie'' comic.
465* CarRideGames: Manny tries to entertain his family in the car by telling nonsensical jokes.
466* ChattyHairdresser: Greg befriends some at his mom's beauty salon.
467* ChildrenAreTenderHearted: Implied; an illustration shows a younger version of Tyler Post ([[WriteWhoYouKnow who Li'l Cutie is based on]]) asking his father Bob if a green bean's parents will be sad if he eats it.
468* ChristmasCreep: A "Back to School" variant. Greg discovers a Back to School ad in his newspaper, two months before school actually starts. He thinks that whoever advertised that [[ChildHater doesn't like children.]]
469* ChekhovsGift: Greg gets a "Ladybug" phone that can only call home and 911 as a birthday present. [[spoiler:At the end, he calls 911 with it because he thought Frank was going to sell him.]]
470* ChekhovsGun: Greg and Rowley watch a horror film about a muddy hand and [[ParanoiaFuel become paranoid]] [[NightmareFuel about it]]. Later in the book, Greg pranks Rowley into thinking his hand is the muddy hand, and Rowley whacks his hand with a mallet. Due to the injury, Greg is unable to play well in a video game tournament that day.
471* DeathByNewberyMedal: Discussed when Greg's mom tries to organize a summer reading club and assigns him ''Literature/CharlottesWeb''. Greg predicts that either the girl or the pig pictured on the cover won't live to the end of the book. [[spoiler:[[InUniverseFactoidFailure He never learns he's wrong]] -- it's Charlotte the spider who dies -- because he only gets three chapters into it.]]
472* DebatingNames: Frank adopts a dog for the Heffleys, who then decide what to name it. Greg wants to name him something edgy like Shredder or Ripjaw, but Susan won't let him. Manny suggests "Elephant" or "Zebra" and Rodrick suggests "Turtle" (just so he can call the dog [[ToiletHumour "Turd"]] for short). Susan goes with her idea, "Sweetie," despite Greg finding it too girly.
473* ADogNamedCat: Discussed when the family gets a new dog. Manny wants to name it after other animals, like "Zebra" ("Zeeb for short!"). Rodrick wants to name it "Turtle", though that's mostly because he wants to shorten it to "Turd". [[SubvertedTrope However, the dog's actual name ends up being "Sweetie"]].
474* DogGotSentToAFarm: Greg's father tells him that he used to have a dog named Nutty who ran away to a butterfly farm. Greg's grandfather speaks up and says the truth that he accidentally ran over the dog while backing out of the driveway.
475* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Dog Days'' refers to the [[TimeTitle summer setting]], but also the Heffley's adopting a dog.
476* DownerEnding: The book ends with Greg and Rowley's friendship temporarily in shambles and Greg's vacation being absolutely atrocious.
477* DramaticIrony: When Greg looks at the cover of ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' he predicts neither the girl nor the pig will make it to the end of the book. [[spoiler: They both do. It is the spider that dies.]]
478* {{Duck}}: Greg and his dad in this scene in ''Dog Days''.
479-->'''Greg:''' ''(Dad is standing up in the canoe and about to hit his head on a tree branch)'' Duck! Duck!\
480'''Dad:''' ''(looking through binoculars)'' Where? Where?
481* EmbarrassingAdGig: Greg says that he was on the cover of a book a few years ago... but unfortunately, the book was titled ''Your Child and Constipation''.
482* ExtremelyOverdueLibraryBook: Greg has a book, titled ''How to Make Sock Puppets'', that he checked out when he was eight. He is most likely 12-13, which means the book is 4-5 years ago. He is afraid he will get arrested if he returns to the library. He even gets nervous around librarians.
483* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The original gimmick of the series was that it was a cringe-inducingly nostalgic lookback on middle school. As such, this book was unique because it was the first one that took place entirely away from middle school and instead focused solely on Greg's summer vacation.
484* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: In-universe, the movie, ''Hello, You're Dead!'', is about the muddy hand that goes around killing people. The last person who sees the hand is always the next victim. At the end of the movie, the hand crawls straight towards the screen, implying that Greg and Rowley are the next victims. This kept them nervous and paranoid for the rest of the book.
485* GenreSavvy: Greg knows that most classics his mom will force him to read will have the DeathByNewberyMedal trope. He does mess up on one prediction, though. He says that because ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' is a "Classic", either the girl or the pig won't make it to the end of the book. He doesn't finish it, so he doesn't learn that [[spoiler:it's ''Charlotte the spider'' who dies]].
486* HideAndSeekHorror: PlayedForLaughs. Greg and Rowley have a sleepover and watch a horror movie, and in the middle of the night, they hear a small voice coming from the closet that says, "I'm hiding...can you find me?" They run up the stairs and Greg tells Dad that the house is haunted and they have to move immediately. Dad roots through the closet and discovers that the noise is from a talking doll named Hide-and-Seek Harry.
487* {{Irony}}: Greg's parents gave Greg a "Ladybug" phone instead of a regular cellphone in hope that it will cost them much less[[note]] Because Rodrick got his own cellphone and racked up a huge phone bill.[[/note]]. Later on, Rodrick's manipulations cause Greg to think Frank will sell him away, so he uses his phone to the cops... on his dad. Ultimately, the Ladybug phone cost a lot more than just money.
488* KidsShouldntWatchHorrorFilms: Greg and Rowley watch a B-Movie called ''Hello, You're Dead'' that they found in Rodrick's room, featuring a muddy hand. Rowley has his eyes covered the whole movie. Greg doesn't find the movie all that scary... until the end, when the "muddy hand" crawls straight to the screen, meaning [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the "hand" is coming for the viewer next]].
489* IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam: Greg does not look forward to attending a beauty salon instead of his normal barbershop, but ends up enjoying it due to the gossip he hears.
490* LudicrousGiftRequest: Greg wants a dog and a leather recliner for his birthday. Although his father buys the family a dog later in the book, Greg never gets a recliner.
491* NightmareFuel: In-universe. Greg watches an old BMovie about a muddy hand who kills the person who sees it right after it kills someone else. The last shot of the movie implies that [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou the hand will go after the viewer next]], causing Greg throughout the rest of the book to try to prevent a muddy hand attack.
492* SeriousBusiness: Senior citizens are obsessed with a newspaper comic called ''Precious Poochie''. The series is over fifty years old and the creator died a long time ago, but the newspaper keeps recycling it despite the jokes and references being extremely outdated and not understood by younger viewers (the shown comic was made during the time ''phonograph devices'' were recently invented). The reason for this is because if removing it was ever attempted, large mobs of seniors would protest outside the building and not leave until it was put back in. Greg theorizes that this is likely because the seniors think of Poochie as their own dog. It's also the reason why the newspaper company doesn't take any new animal or pet-themed comics, fearing that the seniors will protest about the new comics either being a ripoff or trying to steal Poochie's thunder.
493* ShoutOut:
494** When the Heffleys get a new dog and can't agree on what its name should be, [[{{Literature/Fudge}} Rodrick suggests naming it Turtle.]]
495** One child brings a book for the Reading is Fun group, ''Green Wasp'', that had been adapted into a film. This is a reference to the movie ''Film/TheGreenHornet''. His mother brings "classics": ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'', ''Literature/LittleWomen'', ''Literature/OldYeller'' and ''Literature/TheYearling''. She then makes Greg read ''Literature/CharlottesWeb''. Greg assumes that to be considered a classic the book must be at least fifty years old, and some character dies in the end. The former is true of all books, and the latter [[spoiler: happens for some books too]].
496* SillyPrayer:
497** When Greg's grandmother can't find something, she prays to find it, and apparently it works every time.
498** When Greg owes his friend's dad money, he prays for [[TapOnTheHead him to be hit on the head so he forgets about the money]], and also to be able to beat a video game. He then ends his prayer with "Amen, and thank you in advance."
499* StylisticSuck: ''Li'l Cutie'', a ridiculously saccharine newspaper cartoon about a cute little boy. One example of its style is a panel where the titular cute child asks "Daddy, is rain just God sweating?" This is the only thing that Greg and Frank agree to hate.
500* TakeThat:
501** ''Li'l Cutie'', a saccharine newspaper cartoon about a ridiculously cute little boy, is a Take That parody of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus''.
502** ''Precious Poochie'' is a parody of ''Fred Basset'' and other pet-focused comic strips that have likable main characters but not particularly funny punchlines.
503* TimeTitle: Dog Days is a term used for Summer, which is the time period the book is set in.
504* TooMuchInformation: Greg makes a comic strip telling people not to talk about that sorta stuff in public.
505-->'''Caption''': When in public, please refrain from discussing details of your recent surgery.
506* TrojanVeggies: According to Greg, Rowley's mom is "one of those moms who sneaks healthy food into your snacks." She puts spinach in her brownies, but she doesn't hide them very well, as Greg can immediately tell they have spinach in them when he takes a bite. The first time Rowley had a regular brownie was at Greg's house, and he spit it out in surprise.
507* TroublesomePet: Frank decides to buy a new dog, to the rest of his family's displeasure. The dog, named Sweetie by Susan, is lazy and is particularly a nuisance to Greg: he sleeps in the middle of Greg's bed--leaving little room for Greg to sleep on--then use Greg's face as a launch pad when he gets up; when not on bed, Sweetie likes to laze around on the living room couch, which prevents people from sitting down and watch TV, then bark at the TV unless a particular commercial is playing. He is eventually given away to Greg's grandmother.
508* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: When the Heffleys adopt a dog named Sweetie, they find him too annoying and give him away to Grandma.
509[[/folder]]
510
511[[folder:''The Ugly Truth'']]
512* AmbiguousSyntax: When Greg is talking about his uncle Gary's previous marriages, an illustration is shown of Gary and his second wife Lydia discussing finances. Lydia says she has thirty five or forty thousand dollars in her bank account, to which Gary says he "has forty-five". Lydia thinks he means forty-five thousand dollars, but as Greg mentions in his narration, Uncle Gary only has forty-five dollars ''total''. This ambiguity leads directly to their getting divorced.
513* BigBrotherMentor: A company called "Cool Brian" invokes this trope, advertising itself as providing "wholesome mentors for growing boys." Rowley's parents hire a Cool Brian to hang out with him after his fallout with Greg.
514* BookshelfOfAuthority: Rodrick photoshops himself to make it look like he's sitting in front of a bookshelf while wearing glasses and reading an encyclopedia, in hopes that he'll come off as smart.
515* BrickJoke: Greg mentions that it's hard for him to be friends with Tyson because he can't get past the fact that he pulls his pants all the way down at the urinal. When Greg's team gets accused of photographing one of their butts at the school lockdown, Tyson is afraid that the teachers will make them compare butts. Greg responds that Tyson doesn't have to worry because he pulls his pants down at the urinal, so everyone already knows what his butt looks like.
516* CentralTheme: Puberty. The kids take a health class about their "changing bodies", Grammie is preparing to give Greg "the Talk", and Greg's mom going back to college makes Greg learn to take more responsibility, which is part of growing up.
517* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
518** Greg feels that the girls [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Rowley]] misunderstood the point of the egg sitting project; instead of just taking care of their eggs, they also decorated them and even knitted elaborate pouches for them. He has a point, as the assignment was to simply keep the egg from breaking until the next health class and they get so imprinted on the eggs that they enter hysterics when the teacher disposes of them.
519** Grandma buys some ''Toys/{{Lego}}'' so the boys have something to do when she comes over - then, to keep them from getting scattered, she glues them all into one giant block.
520* CoversAlwaysLie: Greg is seen with his egg that he has during the brief EggSitting plot. It goes on for two journal entries, has no impact on the plot, and is never mentioned again. It does, however, vaguely tie into the CentralTheme of puberty.
521* TheDentistEpisode: Greg changes dentists. He is very uncomfortable with his new dentist, whose office is full of unsettling posters and tools. He has X-rays taken, but bites on the dentist's finger instead of the thing he's supposed to.
522* EggSitting: Greg and his peers are tasked with preventing an egg from breaking until their next health class. All the boys break their eggs except for Greg and Rowley; Susan accidentally scrambles Greg's egg for breakfast. The girls (and Rowley) get theirs to school safely, some having sewn little pouches for their eggs and decorated them with sparkles and glitter, but they burst into tears when the teacher collects the eggs and throws them in the trash. Greg's conclusion is, "This assignment has got me seriously worried about the next generation of parents in our country."
523* EmbarrassingOldPhoto:
524** Gammie advises Greg to not let anybody take his picture while he is going through puberty, showing old photos of Greg's father and other relatives.
525** Greg learns that one of his uncles looked exactly like him as a kid. He plans to save up for plastic surgery.
526** An illustration depicts a picture of Greg and Rodrick freaking out on Santa's lap, captioned "Season's Greetings."
527* FlushTheEvidence: Greg goes to a lock-in at his middle school where a kid named Jeffery Chang brought a big bag of cheese puffs. Due to a ban on snacks, he locked himself in the boys' bathroom to eat them, but the adults caught on quickly, so Jeffery was forced to flush the cheese puffs down the toilet.
528* GenerationXerox: It turns out that Greg looks exactly like Frank's cousin, Terence, when they were the same age. He's ''not'' happy about it.
529* GiftForAnOutgrownInterest: Greg and his brothers are left with their Grandpa Heffley when their parents go out of town. Grandpa follows an instruction book the parents wrote, but it was written years ago, when Greg and Rodrick were still small children and Manny hadn't been born yet. For example, Grandpa only puts on {{Edutainment Show}}s, which the twelve-year-old Greg doesn't like.
530* IrritationNightmare: Greg is having trouble learning to wake himself up because the sound of his alarm clock keeps coming into his dreams instead of waking him up. He's illustrated dreaming about a rabbit [[SillyAnimalSound making the alarm's noise]] and Greg shouting, "Cut it out!".
531* KarmaHoudini: Greg once accidentally stunk up the Snellas' house by dumping devilled eggs in their plastic potted plant, forcing them to move out. Greg is never caught, though he admits to feeling a pang of guilt watching them carrying their potted plant with them, knowing what's in there.
532* MegaMealChallenge: Greg mentions that his Uncle Gary finished the "Monstrilla Burger" in one sitting and got a tattoo for it.
533* MistakenForFlatulence: When Greg pranks his great-grandma, Gammie, with a WhoopeeCushion, everyone at the dinner thinks she actually farted, even Gammie herself. In her apology letter, she wonders if her latest surgery made her gassier.
534* NoodleIncident: Throughout the book, Greg and Rowley avoid each other following a massive fight at the end of last summer (which was never shown in ''Dog Days''.) Then again, it's strongly implied to have been the incident where Rowley crushed Greg's hand with a mallet after Greg pulled a prank on him.
535* NotWhatItLooksLike: A group of boys take a photo of one boy's bent arm for a class game, but the teacher mistakes it for a photo of someone's butt crack, and doesn't believe otherwise until the boys recreate the position of his arm, using a mole on the elbow as proof.
536* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: According to Greg, Gammie does this whenever he tries to prank her. For instance, after putting a WhoopeeCushion on Gammie's chair, everyone (including Gammie herself) thinks she actually farted, which leads her to write an apology letter to the entire family.
537* OneEpisodeFear: Greg becomes afraid of eggs due to accidentally stinking the neighbours out by putting devilled eggs in a plastic plant. However, previously and since then, he has not been afraid of eggs.
538* PoorCommunicationKills: Prior to Uncle Gary marrying his second wife Lydia, they have a conversation where Lydia says she has "30 thousand dollars, maybe 40", whereas Uncle Gary says that he has 45. He means that he has 45 ''total'' dollars, but she thinks Gary means that he has 45 ''thousand'' dollars. Lydia doesn't learn the truth until they get married and the time comes to pay the band, which results in a divorce.
539* SickEpisode: Greg wakes up sick after attending the Lock-In.
540* StrongFamilyResemblance: Greg finds out that one of his relatives was physically ''identical'' when they were his age. He then makes plans for plastic surgery for the future.
541* TechnicalEuphemism: The boys in Greg's group take a photo of Tyson's bent elbow and the teachers [[GrossoutFakeout mistakenly believe]] they took a photo of someone's "posterior". The guys are confused until they look in a dictionary and find out that it means "butt", much to their amusement.
542* TheUnintelligible: Greg's Great Uncle Arthur is this, only making sounds like "muurp" and "rrup".
543* WeddingFinale: The climax of the book takes place during Uncle Gary’s fourth wedding.
544* WhereTheresAWillTheresAStickyNote: In ''The Ugly Truth'', the narration reveals that Greg's great-grandmother, Gammie, is so old that people have started putting sticky notes on her stuff. Greg points out that it's disrespectful before admitting that [[HypocriticalHumor he also did it himself]].
545* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: After the puberty unit in health class, Rowley starts avoiding the older kids at school because he thinks he's going to "catch puberty" from them, as if it's a disease.
546[[/folder]]
547
548[[folder:''Cabin Fever'']]
549See [[Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKidCabinFever Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever]]
550[[/folder]]
551
552[[folder:''The Third Wheel'']]
553* AbhorrentAdmirer: Greg tries to be nice to a Fregley-like girl named Ruby Bird because he's terrified of her, but he worries that he's being ''too'' nice to her and is scared by the idea that she might develop a crush on him. We never get to find out her feelings on the matter.
554* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The rule at Corny's where you're not allowed to have a tie, and that they cut it off and put it on the Wall of Shame should you do so anyway would not be allowed in real life over laws relating to damage and theft of personal property. Given that it is already illegal in certain jurisdictions to confiscate or tamper with fake ID (over these same laws relating to personal property), there's no way that doing this with ties (which aren't breaking any laws) would be legal.
555* BittersweetEnding: The book ends with Rowley and Abigail broken up and Greg with chicken pox. At the same time, however, Greg enjoys a bath and it's revealed that Rowley and Abigail, who were both suspected to have chicken pox, actually only had zits.
556* CandlelitBath: Greg claims that he tries to recreate the time when he was in Susan's womb by taking a bath in the dark with lit candles and a washcloth over his eyes, but usually gets [[InterruptedBath interrupted]] whenever Rodrick and Manny use the bathroom.
557* ChekhovsGag: Corny's Family-Style Restaurant turns out to be [[spoiler:where Greg goes with Abigail and Rowley for dinner before the dance]].
558* ChickenpoxEpisode: During the book, there's an outbreak of chicken pox, stemming from local {{Kidanova}} Evan Whitehead. Greg is surprised that you can even still get chicken pox anymore. Later, Greg and Rowley are about to go to a school dance, but Greg sees that Rowley has a few red bumps on his face. Thinking that he's gotten chicken pox, Greg has him wear a hat and a scarf to cover it up. At the dance, Greg sees that Abigail has a red bump by her lip and freaks out, fearing that she's gotten it too. [[SubvertedTrope As it turns out, neither of them had chicken pox and they were just zits]]. Ironically, ''Greg himself'' gets chickenpox at the end of the book.
559* FailedASpotCheck: Uncle Gary takes over a street corner store that sells souvenir t-shirts. Problem is, all the t-shirts read "Botson." Rodrick buys one from him anyway.
560* FeelingTheBabyKick: As Greg recounts his life before he was born, he mentions that he [[AffectionHatingKid hated when his parents would kiss]], so he would kick to try to get them to stop, but that only made them kiss more.
561* {{Foreshadowing}}:
562** Greg at one point creates a chart detailing the relationships between the kids in his grade. On the chart, he shows that students Abigail Brown and Michael Sampson are currently dating, though a second girl, Cherie Bellanger, is also shown to be interested in Michael. This comes back around just before the Valentine's Day dance when Michael has a family obligation and can't go to the dance, leaving Abigail date-less and leading to Greg and Rowley taking her out to the dance. Cherie factors into this because [[spoiler:it turns out that Michael was actually planning on going out to the dance with Cherie (and was lying about the family obligation) instead of Abigail, who catches the two-timer red handed when he (who was clearly not expecting Abigail to be there) shows up at the dance with the other girl. Ultimately, this sets up Abigail's brief relationship with Rowley.]]
563** Early on in the book, Greg mentions that a kid in the basement of the church terrorizes Manny. Later when Greg learns the Stringer family has a son Greg's never seen, Greg concludes their son must be in the church basement. It's revealed they're the same kid.
564*** Wesley's hair is also curly and black, just like Mr. Stringer.
565* FoulBallPit: The family-style restaurant Corny's has a play area with a large ball-pit and a plastic tube area with slides. Manny got stuck in the tube area and was too scared to come out, so Greg had to rescue him since he was the only person in the family that could fit inside the tubes. It was difficult for him to find his way around there, and when he got inside, a kid had vomited and all the other children were running away. The tubes smelled like dirty socks so heavily that Greg had to throw out his favorite pair of jeans, because he couldn't wash out the smell no matter how hard he tried.
566* HighSchoolDance: The Valentine's Day dance, where TheClimax takes place.
567* HypocriticalHumor: Greg says that Uncle Gary having been married four times means he's an expert on relationships. Unsurprisingly, the advice Gary gives Greg turns out to not be too helpful.
568* ImaginaryFriend: Manny has many imaginary friends, including Joey, Petey, Danny, Charles Tribble, The Other Charles Tribble, Tiny Jim, and Johnny Cheddar. He mainly uses them as scapegoats and excuses to get extra dessert.
569* LandslideElection: Eugene Ellis becomes president in a landslide, all because he promises the students better toilet paper in the bathrooms.
570* LoveTriangle: Greg likes Abigail, but Abigail likes Rowley. [[spoiler:Greg loses.]]
571* MarketBasedTitle: The Spanish title for ''The Third Wheel'' is "Three is Not Company."
572* AMinorKidroduction: The book's beginning details Greg's entire life, from before he was born to where he is now in middle school.
573* MirrorReveal: Rowley has two pimples on his face. Greg sees them and [[JumpingToConclusionsDiagnosis instantly thinks they're chicken pox]], then shows him a mirror. Rowley [[{{Hypochondria}} assumes it's chicken pox too]] and screams.
574* MoreHypnotizableThanHeThinks: After a school assembly featuring a hypnotist, a kid who thinks he was a fake tries hypnotizing two other kids into thinking they're superglued together. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works a little too well]], and they have to track down the hypnotist at his job to unstick them.
575* MultipleChoiceFormLetter: The candygram messages used to raise money for the Valentine's Day dance are designed for the giver to fill in their and the recipient's name. Greg tries to cover multiple bases by filling in the blank with one girl's name, then writing in a P.S. telling her that if she doesn't want to go to the dance with him, she should give it to a particular girl who sits nearby.
576* NoInfantileAmnesia: Greg claims this applies to him at the beginning of the book. He goes on to explain that he was born three weeks early because he couldn't take all the noise he heard from the outside world (especially because Mom was using prenatal speakers to talk to and play classical music for him) and that as a result he has been trying to catch up on all the sleep he missed out on ever since. His love of long baths also stems from memories of peacefully floating in the womb.
577* RewatchBonus: Abigail and her boyfriend Michael can be seen on the relationship chart, as well as [[spoiler:the girl Michael cheats on Abigail with (who's listed as having a crush on him)]].
578* SeriousBusiness: Toilet paper for the students at Greg's school. One candidate for student council president didn't bother campaigning at all and his entire speech was him promising to make the school replace the regular toilet paper with the quilted kind. He won the election by a landslide. It's decided that, since the school doesn't have enough money to replace the toilet paper, kids can bring in their own from home. The kids bring in so much of it, they have to carry bags of the stuff to class with them because it wouldn't fit in their lockers.
579* ShoutOut: The theme of the dance is ''Film/MidnightInParis'', which unfortunately doesn't last throughout the dance. A different event by seniors happens at the same time, and as they request that the lights be turned on for their event, it ruins the nighttime vibe.
580* SmallNameBigEgo: Implied with Krisstina, the local pop singer who calls herself an "international pop sensation" despite only having local venues such as a car wash and skate rink. Greg assumes she has never even travelled out of the state.
581* SuckECheeses: Corny's Family-Style Restaurant. Greg has a traumatic experience trying to rescue Manny from the indoor playground, and the serving staff and overall chaos easily makes up for the lack of animatronic robots and video games. Remember, anyone who comes in wearing a tie clearly isn't having ''fun'' and ''will'' [[RefugeInAudacity get it snipped off.]]
582* TakeYourChildToWorkDayPlot: Greg's dad takes him to his office job on the designated day. To offset the boring aspect of the work (and let the adults get some work done), they hire clowns to distract the kids. Greg watches his father work, and to get rid of him, he sends Greg to get some snacks. Greg returns with jawbreakers, which Greg's father finds even more distracting. Greg sits in the bathroom to eat, and his parents forget about him at the end of the day, only for him to be discovered by the nighttime janitor.
583* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The "Mad Pantser" was never caught!
584* WriteWhoYouKnow: [[invoked]] InUniverse. When Greg was little, a kid named Bradley always bullied him. After Bradley moved away, Greg's mom wrote a book called "Bad Bradley" about a kid who was always misbehaving, though she made Bradley out to be [[EnfantTerrible way worse than he actually was]]. She never got to publish it because Bradley and his family moved back to their neighborhood.
585[[/folder]]
586
587[[folder:''Hard Luck'']]
588* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Greg caricatures the children who Grandpa and Darlene could possibly conceive, assuming they'd have elderly-looking children. However, given Darlene's age, she would be infertile. This could be {{Handwaved}} by Greg not knowing about menopause or just being dramatic.
589* BizarreHumanBiology: [[CloudCuckoolander Fregley]] can blow a bubble ''out his belly button''.
590* BrickJoke:
591** The Easter egg hunt plot goes nowhere. However, near the end of the book, [[spoiler:the egg is found in a pile of wood in Gramma's yard. It's actually hinted at earlier, visually, where the egg will be found- the egg is seen in the same pile of wood.]]
592** Fregley claims he can blow a bubble with bubble gum in his belly button. It doesn't work, and Greg comments that he should have known that was impossible. Later, Greg's taking his picture for the yearbook, and he does it, much to Greg's shock.
593* CentralTheme: The concept of luck. The grown-ups become obsessed with finding Meemaw's wedding ring, hoping to find the ''lucky'' egg. Soon after, Greg starts using a Magic 8-Ball, becoming dependent on it for every decision. He eventually gets mad at it and throws it in his grandma's backyard, but goes back to retrieve it, [[spoiler:and it leads him right to Meemaw's wedding ring.]]
594* ChekhovsGun: When Greg is talking about how he once found a used tissue in a plastic Easter egg, there's an egg hidden in a pile of logs in the background. [[spoiler:It's the egg with Meemaw's diamond ring in it.]]
595* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover has Greg using his diary to shield himself from a rain of 8-balls. This doesn't happen in the book; however, the Magic 8 Ball is an important plot element.
596* DIYDentistry: Greg mentions that he was too nervous to let anyone pull his loose tooth out when he was younger, so Frank tricked him into tying his tooth to a door and slamming it. He then brings up his younger cousin Georgia, who refuses to let anyone help her pull out her own loose tooth. Greg goes to look for some string so he can do the same trick to her, but he never gets a chance to do this because the Easter egg hunt starts just then.
597* DontTouchItYouIdiot: In an incident from the original webcomic that becomes a flashback in ''Hard Luck'', a younger Greg has to stay with his Aunt Cakey for the night while his parents are away. Right before Greg goes to bed, Aunt Cakey [[TemptingFate tells him not to touch the iron because it's still hot.]] [[TooDumbToLive Guess what Greg does after Aunt Cakey goes to sleep.]]
598* DreadedKidsTable: At Easter, Rodrick and Greg are forced to sit at the children’s table despite the former being almost an adult and the latter in middle school. To add insult to injury, their toddler aged adoptive uncle (who was adopted by a great aunt) is allowed to sit with the adults.
599* DroppedInTheToilet: After Susan lends him her old phone, Greg is so shocked when his aunt Veronica tries to video-chat with him while he's on the toilet that he drops his phone. It lands in the toilet, and while he does get it out, it no longer works.
600* DysfunctionalFamily: We finally meet the rest of Susan’s side of the family and they’re just as dysfunctional as Frank’s. Especially Susan and her sisters, to the point where Greg is shocked that they all grew up together.
601** Conflict brews as Greg's relatives desperately try to find Meemaw's ring. [[spoiler: Greg is arguably the least dysfunctional here as he hides the ring to avoid conflict, even though he could pocket it for himself.]]
602* EasterEpisode: A recurring theme in the book is Greg and his relatives (on his mother's side) who are visiting for Easter looking for a plastic egg in which a dead relative allegedly hid her wedding ring.
603* FiveSecondRule: Exploited by some students in ''Hard Luck''. They decide that you can eat food off the floor within five seconds, even if it isn't yours. This leads to one of them getting sick after eating a piece of ham that had been on the floor for way more than five seconds.
604* GoodBehaviorPoints: To prove his point that his mom’s plan to be nice at school to be popular does not work out today as did for when Mom was his age, Greg talks about how his school once implemented a system called "Hero Points" in an attempt to stop bullying. The idea was that if a student was seen being kind to someone else, they would earn a single Hero Point, and if a student got enough Hero Points, they could trade them in for prizes. The system quickly went [[GoneHorriblyWrong horribly wrong]], however, starting with people faking good deeds in front of teachers, followed by counterfeit Hero Points being produced and sold. The school tried making changes to the system to try to deter the illegitimate earning of Hero Points, but these attempts either failed or had negative consequences, such as how a student got detention for having too many Hero Points, despite having earned them all legitimately. After a janitor discovered a Hero Point-copying operation, the school decided to abandon the system. Regrettably, this meant that students wouldn't help others in need of help.
605* GottaPassTheClass: Greg has to finish all of his missing assignments or else he has to go to summer school.
606* HoldingInLaughter: In ''Hard Luck'', whenever the Heffley family is having a reunion, Greg always tries not to laugh when something silly happens. One time, when his great-grandfather blew out the candles on his birthday cake, his dentures went flying out of his mouth, and Greg tried not to laugh, especially since his mouth was full of chocolate milk. He tried to think of something sad, but all he could come up with was Sweetie the dog wearing a sweater. Then he thought about Sweetie farting in his dad's face and laughed so hard he spewed chocolate milk everywhere.
607* HypocriticalHumor: Greg assumes Abigail is only dating Rowley to use him because she makes him carry her bags to school, even though he made Rowley do the exact same thing.
608* ImplausibleDeniability: Greg mentions that a kid named Aric Holbert got suspended for breaking into the school and spray painting "Aric Holbert is cool" on the lockers. He tried to deny it was him, but as Greg points out, "it was pretty pointless."
609* LaserGuidedKarma: Greg's introduced to a shady science fair project black market run by some students which puts past projects on sale. Understandably, Greg turns down the offer and runs away. Later on, Greg reveals that the faculty received an anonymous tip from a student, and a bunch of teachers staged a raid on the storage room where all the old homework assignments are kept--all the students who got caught now have detention for the rest of the school year and Greg figures that they'll also be forced to go to summer school.
610* LuckyCharmsTitle: The U in ''Hard Luck'' is [[RuleOfSymbolism a horseshoe]].
611* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Discussed; Greg says that his mom often claims that her mother (Greg's maternal grandmother) has ESP. Greg remarks that if it's true, she's not using her powers to their full potential.
612--> '''Greg:''' So, Gramma, what do you think the lottery numbers will be tonight?\
613'''Grandma:''' I'm not sure, but I "predict" you're going to enjoy these cookies!
614* OperationJealousy: It's implied that [[spoiler:Abigail Brown only dates Rowley]] to make her ex jealous. It works.
615* PictorialLetterSubstitution: On the cover of ''Hard Luck'', the "u" in the title is replaced with a horseshoe.
616* ReversePsychology: Greg recalls his parents using this technique on him and Rodrick as kids. He then wants a cell phone but tells his parents that he ''doesn't'' because it's too much responsibility: this works, and his mother buys him a new phone.
617* RightForTheWrongReasons: [[spoiler:Greg's assumption that Abigail is using Rowley is clearly only out of jealousy, but it actually ends up being correct: she was only dating him to make her ex-boyfriend jealous]].
618* ScatterbrainedSenior: When Greg's great-granny Meemaw was alive, she hosted an Easter egg hunt for the family every year and filled the eggs with prizes herself. But as she got older, she "wasn't as sharp as she used to be" and started putting strange things in the eggs, including green beans, tissues, and [[spoiler:her extremely valuable diamond ring]].
619* {{Sequelitis}}: In-universe with the ''Slumber Party Pals'' series. Greg thinks the first 30 books were good, but that the quality went downhill when the author ran out of ideas. Volume #87 is titled ''Lindsey Loses a Mitten''.
620* SickeningSweethearts: This is the reason why there's a couples table at the school's cafeteria. The couples will be acting so sweet to each other that no one would stand being near the table.
621-->'''Greg:''' Let me just say that you couldn't PAY me to sit and watch Abigail feed Rowley his pudding every day.
622** Towards the end of the book, Greg gets a sick feeling when [[spoiler:he has to take Rowley and Abigail's picture for the school catalog and sees that the two had been voted the cutest couple.]]
623* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: A good example of the cynical attitude in the books is the Hero Points story. The teachers start giving Hero Points to kids whenever they catch them doing good deeds, and the points can be exchanged for rewards like extra recess time. Not even this manages to make them nicer: most decide to fake good deeds when teachers are around, or just buy counterfeit Hero Points. After the program is shut down due to the rampant counterfeiting, Greg remarks that "now that extra recess is off the table nobody's willing to do anything nice".
624* SlippingIntoStink: Greg steps in dog poop and mentions that "normally, [he finds] poop as funny as the next guy," recalling laughing at people walking and almost tripping into horse poop.
625* StatusQuoIsGod: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d. Greg and Rowley do become friends again, but despite his commendable acts of maturity by the end of the book, Greg doesn't make any effort to improve himself for the future. He just thinks he and Rowley will get in another fight later, and they're good for now.
626* SuperstitionEpisode: The main plot of the book is Greg getting a Magic 8 Ball and using it to make decisions for him. He just wants something to answer all his questions for him and acts upon its responses.
627* YourTomcatIsPregnant: In a flashback, Aunt Gretchen told the Heffleys that her rabbit, one of the many pets she offered them to look over, was male. The Heffleys weren't happy when it gave birth to a litter.
628[[/folder]]
629
630[[folder:''The Long Haul'']]
631* AmbiguousEnding: It's never revealed in this book or the later books whether [[spoiler:Greg tells his family that the key to the locker at the water park was in his shorts after all, which would have saved everyone so much trouble had it been found earlier, or not]].
632* AuthorTract: The book is heavy with the NewMediaAreEvil message: Greg, the UnreliableNarrator who's done plenty of things not to be proud of and is meant to be an anti-role model, says that "electronics are the key to family happiness", followed by a picture of him grown up with a large family, all of which are sat at a restaurant table playing with electronic devices. Susan also bans technology from the road trip, to Greg's dismay.
633* BrainyPig: The Heffleys accidentally winding up adopting a piglet. The piglet turns out to be very smart; he can use a potty, and in the next book, "Old School", he even learns to walk on his hind legs, use the TV remote, and communicate with Manny's See-n-Say.
634* BrokenPedestal: Downplayed. Greg likes the ''Underpants Bandits'' series so much that he write a letter to the author, Mik Davies, in his own time. Despite commending the author, Greg does not receive a personalized response, but just an ad for a new book, as the author receives so much mail that he is unable to give back a personalized response.
635* CarRadioDispute: Frank says that only the driver gets to control the radio station. Greg likes sitting in the front seat besides needing to listen to his country music. Later, when Frank gives Rodrick the lead to drive over a high bridge, he sets it to heavy metal, which makes Frank uncomfortable.
636* CarRideGames: The Heffleys are on a road trip and they play two games: Alphabet Groceries where people have to think of food that begins with each letter of the alphabet, and I Must Confess which is similar to the real-life game Never Have I Ever.
637* ConformingOOCMoment: Greg says that all the boys in his class read a book series called ''[[ToiletHumour Underpants Bandits]]''. This isn't OOC on its own, but it becomes this trope when he says they'd become illiterate if the teacher banned the books, implying that's all they read. Actually, one of his male classmates, Alex Aruda, is nerdy and it's clear he reads a lot more books than just ''Underpants Bandits''.
638* DenserAndWackier: Generally speaking, the events of all the previous books were more or less plausible in reality. ''The Long Haul'' takes on a wackier, more cartoony tone with its characters and events (especially the pig), which would continue into later installments.
639* DestinationRuse: Frank and Susan tell the kids that they're going to a retirement home for their summer trip, when really, they were going to Disney World, as to surprise them. This backfires on them as they talked up the retirement home so much that Manny ended up actually ''wanting'' to go to the retirement home, so everyone has to do that before going to Disney World.
640* DisasterDominoes: Frank has an important work call that he has to take while driving, and everyone else has to be quiet so Frank's client will be under the impression that he's in his office as normal.
641** Rodrick gets a pack of gum and starts chewing five pieces at once, making a lot of noise.
642** Susan snaps her fingers to get Rodrick to stop chewing, but her snapping is louder than his chewing, irritating Frank further.
643** Susan opens the sunroof so that Rodrick can dispose of his gum, but the rush of air only makes even more noise. Susan starts to close the sunroof, but Rodrick throws his gum out at the last second. The roaring air causes the gum to fly back down and it jams the sunroof open.
644** Susan frantically tries to close the sunroof, but a gust of wind carries Flat Stanley, a paper cutout they were meant to keep with them, out of the roof.
645** Frank starts trying to close the sunroof, but he has one hand on his phone and the other on the center console, so he is steering with his knees. He drifts out of his lane and is honked at by a large tractor-trailer.
646** The horn startles Frank, causing him to to drop his phone.
647** The horn also startles Manny, whose pacifier falls out. Greg tries to unbuckle his seat to put Manny's pacifier back in, but he accidentally unbuckles the cooler with the pig instead.
648** Frank jerks the car to the left, causing the cooler to tip over and the pig to fall out. It starts running around.
649** The pig picks up Manny's pacifier. Greg tries to get it out, but the pig bites him and then attempts to climb out the window.
650** Susan grabs the pig, but accidentally hits a button that causes the stereo to play a Spanish lesson at full volume.
651** Frank manages to pull over and turn off the stereo, and then yells at everyone for ruining his work call. [[spoiler:Then he picks up the phone, and his client is still on the other end.]]
652* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Rodrick wins the "I Must Confess" game by revealing that Löded Diper trashed Mrs. Tuttle's house for [[DisproportionateRetribution calling the police because they were playing too loud]]. Susan is clearly angry and confronts Rodrick about it, but the latter, instead of trying to find a way to bail himself out, cheerfully tells her "there were four of [them]!". Cue Susan making Frank pull over and [[OrderedApology forcing an apology to Mrs. Tuttle out of Rodrick]].
653* DisgustingPublicToilet: Greg goes into a gas station bathroom only to find out that it's full of [[BathroomStallGraffiti graffiti]], toilet paper sprawled on the floor, and the mirror is partly broken. He decides to go in there anyway.
654* DownerEnding: Greg's parents lose their credit cards and wallets at a water park. After everything is sorted out, Greg finds the key to the locker where they were and wonders what he should do with it: accept the consequences, blame Rodrick for it, or flush it down the toilet. He compares it to ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' books and, as he explains earlier in the book, he always seems to make the wrong choices and get the bad endings.
655-->'''Greg''': And whichever way I go from here, it's hard to see this story having a happy ending.
656* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Compared to previous books which last for at least a few months, this one only lasts for nine days, three of which take place during a TimeSkip after the family gets home.
657* FakeInteractivity: Discussed. Greg recalls watching TV shows that pretended to be interactive. Due to a coincidence in which a character seemed to answer Greg, he believed that the characters actually listened to what he told them, so his mother had to tell him that they couldn't.
658* InappropriatePride: In ''The Long Haul'', [[DumbassTeenageSon Rodrick]] enthusiastically admits to having TP'd an elderly neighbor's house. This doesn't go over well with Susan.
659* LetMeGetThisStraight: During a car game that involves bringing up moments of the family's lives, Rodrick tries to win the game by bringing up how he and the rest of Löded Diper threw toilet paper at their neighbor's house for complaining about how loud their music is. His mother is ''not'' amused.
660-->'''Susan:''' Let me get this straight. You and two of your bandmates toilet-papered an elderly woman's house?
661-->'''Rodrick:''' No, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint there were four of us]]!
662* LoudSleeperGag: While staying at a hotel, Greg reveals that his parents both snore, so he packed some earplugs for this exact reason. However, he can only find one of them in his bag, and has to sleep with his free ear pressed against the floor.
663* MarketBasedTitle: The Spanish title for ''The Long Haul'' translates to "Road and Blanket," a Spanish expression meaning "to travel."
664* MistakenForThief: The Heffleys think the "Beardos" stole their luggage, but [[spoiler: in actuality, they just got the locker number wrong]].
665* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: Anyone with even just the most basic knowledge of Spanish can tell that Susan Heffley doesn't understand it nearly as well as she thinks she does--she thinks "Tengo hambre" means "Tango hamburgers" (it actually means "I'm hungry") and she thinks that "Te amo" means "What is your name?" (it actually means "I love you"). It embarrasses a younger Greg when he once tried asking a Spanish-speaking waiter what his name was by repeatedly saying, "Te amo."
666* OrderedApology: After telling his family about his tee-peeing incident that he and his bandmates did to a neighbor's house, Susan ordered her husband to pull the car to the side of the road, and then demanded that Rodrick get on the phone to apologize to the neighbor. Greg notes in his diary that it was awkward for everyone in the car to hear.
667* OutOfFocus: ''Everybody'' save for Greg, his immediate family and the Beardos in this book, in which Rowley only turns up in a flashback illustration and no other recurring characters appear. However, Rowley is in the film adaptation, as he gets to come along with the Heffleys to a restaurant.
668* PottyEmergency: Both Greg and the pig have one while on a road trip, and end up using a DisgustingPublicToilet in the gas station.
669* RedHerring: [[spoiler:"The Beardos"]] would appear to be villains, [[spoiler:stealing the Heffleys' beach chair, locker key and in turn wallets and cellphones]]. But, aside from [[spoiler:the beach chair (which could have easily been a misunderstanding) and being slight {{jerkass}}es]] they aren't.
670* {{Retcon}}: Greg mentions that the previous summer, his parents tricked him into believing they were visiting relatives, when they were actually planning on going to Disney World. This equates to the summer during ''Dog Days'', which has no mention of this.
671* {{Retool}}:
672** The book focuses on just one summer trip, whereas all the other books unfold over longer timespans -- one year for the original, six months for 2 and 3, and two-to-three months for later installments.
673** Also, the book takes on a much more [[DenserAndWackier cartoony tone]] than the previous ones. It focuses less on satire and more on the ridiculously bad luck of the Heffleys, while also introducing a bizarrely intelligent pig that only gets more humanlike over time.
674* RoadTripPlot: The entire book is about Greg and his family going on a road trip. Cliches such as a dirty motel, DisgustingPublicToilet jokes, and CarRideGames, all happen on the vacation.
675* ShoutOut:
676** Greg recalls reading the ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books. He says that no matter what choices he picks, [[TheManyDeathsOfYou they always seem to be the wrong ones.]]
677** The ''Underpants Bandits'' series is a clear nod to ''Literature/CaptainUnderpants'', right down to the MoralGuardians being opposed to it being used for book reports. It may also be a nod to ''Film/TimeBandits'', a film involving characters who go back in time to steal things.
678** ''Literature/FlatStanley'' books are referenced, with a cutout of Stanley being brought by Susan for the road trip. Greg thinks that if he was flat like Flat Stanley, [[BlackComedy Rodrick would put him through a paper shredder.]]
679* SymbolSwearing: Frank shouts various symbols in a flashback of one of Greg's family barbecues gone wrong.
680* ThermometerGag: After getting his temperature taken by a veterinarian (since it was the only doctor's office the family could find), Greg is informed by Rodrick that they stick the thermometer [[AssShove somewhere else]] when they check the temperature of animals, and they probably use the same one for all patients. Greg is briefly freaked out, but figures he should take it with a grain of salt since Rodrick's not all that smart, and is eating pellets meant for animals at that moment.
681* ToiletHumor:
682** Greg needs the toilet, and has to go in a disgusting gas station bathroom.
683** In-universe with ''Underpants Bandits'', with one book depicting Mona Lisa farting.
684*** Greg writes a letter to the author, Mik Davies, excitedly asserting that he should use more toilet humour.
685* TwoDecadesBehind: At one point in the book, the Heffleys accidentally lock their keys in the car. This isn't possible with electronic locking systems, which have been mainstream in American cars since the 1990s, and the car's curved body shape indicates that it was not made before then.
686* VacationEpisode: This book unfolds over the course of a road trip for the Heffleys (and thus takes place in the shortest time span of the series -- less than a month -- up to that point).
687* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Greg tries to remember the family locker number at a water park when he loses their key. The locker he remembered turns out to be empty, leading the family to believe their stuff was stolen, which means [[spoiler:Mom and Dad have to cancel their credit cards and get new cell phones. At the end of the book, it turns out that Greg had the key the whole time and got the locker number wrong. He doesn't know what to do about it, but he knows it'll turn out badly. By the next book, the whole thing is completely forgotten, although it is possible he went with flushing it]].
688[[/folder]]
689
690[[folder:''Old School'']]
691* AcquaintanceDenial: The book has Mrs. Heffley make a petition to shut off electricity for a day. Her son [[EasilyEmbarrassedYoungster Greg]] finds this [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents embarrassing]] and pretends that they're not related.
692* AppealToTradition: The driving trope of the book. First of all, Mom wants her family to take a break from electronics and live like the old days. She successfully convinces the town to set an Electronic-free Weekend. Second, Greg goes to Hardscrabble Farms, which is old-styled and doesn't allow anything modern.
693* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Greg's opinion on his mom's anti-technology views.
694-->''But if Mom had HER way, we'd be living like people did before there were computers and cell phones and baby wipes.''
695* ArtisticLicenseLaw:
696** No health laws would allow Hardscrabble Farms to serve the stew to the campers, given that the "stew" is actually leftovers combined into one pot, and they use the same pot from ''over thirty years ago''. The stew even gave a camper indigestion.
697** Other aspects of the camp clearly violate health and hygiene code. The pancakes were hard enough to break someone's teeth. There was no running water to allow campers to properly wash themselves as water had to be transported via a bucket from a river during a challenge (and they apparently have only one shot to do so), which could contain leeches and other things you wouldn't want pouring over you in the shower. The mattresses on the bed had weird stains on them while the floor inside the cabins was extremely filthy.
698* BizarreBeverageUse: Greg and Rowley sell some (actually completely normal) water from the Heffleys' garden hose as "fitness water", but it only really becomes useful when some women cleaning the park raid their supply to water their flowers.
699* BlindWithoutEm: Greg's cabinmate Emilio Mendoza is as blind as a bat without his glasses, something Greg finds out after he and fellow cabinmate Jeffrey Swanson accidentally break Emilio's glasses in a high-five. This bites the whole cabin in the butt later when their deoderant raid is found out by Mrs. Graziano, who caught Emilio stumbling around in the dark and brought him with her.
700* ButtMonkey: Rodrick ''really'' gets it bad during his shift at the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor; he's initially stuck taking the trash out and getting embarrassed by Susan's attempts for the Heffleys to stick by him as long as possible when they visit him at work. The manager then "promotes" him to the position of the parlor's mascot, Old-Timey Tobias, and poor Rodrick suffers ProducePelting and attacks left and right by angry kids. And on the night Greg is taken to the restaurant to celebrate his seemingly great academic process, Rodrick's attempt to take the carpool lane to go to work faster is a disaster and ends with the police having his trusty Löded Diper van towed away, leaving him an open target for passing kids while walking on the side of the road. Thankfully, he does not lose his job over this.
701* ClingyChild: Greg once mentions that the [[NervousWreck extremely neurotic]] Julian was the type to get extra upset whenever he was dropped off at school. One time, he clung to his mother so tightly that it took the vice principal to pry him off her.
702* ComicBookTime: [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Lamp]][[LampshadeHanging shaded]].
703-->'''Greg''': And to be honest with you, I feel like I've been in middle school FOREVER.
704* ConnectedAllAlong: Two major plot points in this book are the legend of Silas Scratch and Greg's dad having to come to Hardscrabble Farms. [[spoiler:The two plots are linked when it's revealed Greg's father created Silas Scratch.]]
705* CoversAlwaysLie: The book has a cover illustration of Greg holding a cassette tape, which doesn't actually appear in the book.
706* DisasterDominoes: Greg drops the toothpaste cap down the drain. His attempt to get it back starts a chain of events that ends with the family car rolling down a ''ditch''.
707* DisgustingPublicToilet: Greg's father reveals that when he went to Hardscrabble Farms, the only available toilet was a singular gross outhouse.
708* EasilyForgiven: Greg changes his mind about attending the Hardscrabble Farms camp after being involved in accidentally messing up Frank's car bumper, reasoning that him being absent will give Frank time to cool down at least a little. However, at camp, his cabin loses its chaperone, and him and the rest of his roommates end up earning the ire of Mrs. Graziano, who insists on calling an emergency replacement chaperone... who turns out to be Frank. Despite the aformentioned bumper accident, the fact that Frank was already hacked off at Greg for an earlier incident and the fact that Greg caused Frank to have to drive all the way over to camp in the middle of the night due to his group misbehaving, Frank never acts coldly to Greg once, or it at least isn't described, which means Greg didn't think it was bad enough to write about it in his diary. He civilly explains how a spooky rumor came to be after Greg encounters him using an maintenance shed connected to said rumor, sneaks Greg and his roommates back into their cabin so they can sleep properly instead of in a shelter outside, and offers him a ride home with him as opposed to taking the bus at the end, with not one mention of the trouble he caused.
709* FollowTheLeader: Discussed in-universe when Greg complains about a kid copying his lemonade stand [[HypocriticalHumor even though opening one wasn't his idea in the first place]] -- his father did the same thing as a child and suggested it to him.
710-->''See, this is the problem when you have an original idea. Five seconds later you've got a million copycats.''
711* {{Foreshadowing}}: The kids start discussing the tale of Silas Scratch, one of them says that his dad told him about a child named Frankie encountering him, traumatized to the point of being unrecognizable. Later the children start noticing inconsistencies with the story, and when Greg's dad has to substitute for Mr. Jefferson as the overseer for Greg's hut, he seems to know everything about the camp already. [[spoiler:It's pretty weird that the name of the kid was explicitly stated, since it was actually a clue that Frank made the story up when he was at the camp]].
712* FoulCafeteriaFood: When Greg arrives at Hardscrabble Farms, he learns that the food he's given is not only disgusting (one kid got a pancake as stiff as a board), but it's also recycled from past meals. So really, it's anyone's guess how far some of the food dates back to.
713* GettingSickDeliberately: When the students hear that they can be sent home from Hardscrabble Farms early if they're sick, they try to think of ways to make themselves ill. Melinda eats a lot of [[LethalChef the chef's stew, which is made by compiling the campers' leftovers,]] to give herself indigestion and she gets to go home. Julian eats an entire stick of deodorant and he also gets to go home, though by the time his mother comes to pick him up, he seems to have gotten better, so he may have faked eating it.
714* HorribleCampingTrip: The trip to Hardscrabble Farms. Nothing remotely modern is allowed, the cabin bedding is nonexistent (with no word on the brochure recommending that campers bring their own), Greg's bedmate is Rowley's father, the foods served include a stew made from leftovers which was a thing ''when Greg's father was Greg's age'', and the attendees try to get sick to go home early. After this works the first time from a cabinmate eating a stick of deodorant, the teachers confiscate all the boy's deodorant so the others can't escape. This, of course, makes all the cabins smell horrible.
715* HypocriticalHumor:
716** Greg complains about a kid copying his lemonade stand even though making one wasn't his idea in the first place -- his father did the same thing as a child and suggested it to him. [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], since Frank suggested this explicitly so that Greg could make his own, whereas the other kid saw their work and emulated them with a bigger budget.
717** Susan petitions for the town to go electronics-free, only to butcher it herself by using a pet-tracking app on her phone to find Greg. Even Greg, who is frequently hypocritical himself, calls this out.
718* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Greg [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] that it seems he's been in Middle School forever. That book represents the fourth time we've seen Greg start a school year and each successive book spans a shorter period of time (the first being a year, the latter books spanning months or weeks). Then again, it's pretty normal for some schools to consider Middle School as being up to the 9th or (on MUCH rarer occasions) even 10th grade.
719* MultigenerationalHousehold: After the rent at his retirement home was raised, Grandpa moves in with the Heffleys.
720* NewMediaAreEvil: Susan petitions the town to not use any electronics for a weekend. Greg dislikes this and says that electronics are a good thing. Later, at the old-fashioned Hardscrabble Farms, Greg's cabinmates try to look up survival techniques on a phone, but get distracted and watch videos of screaming goats instead, running out the battery when it's actually needed.
721* NoFullNameGiven: The books generally avert this trope but this is unexpectedly played straight with the kid named Frankie who saw Silas Scratch. [[spoiler:This is to hide the fact that Frankie's full name is Frank Heffley, who is also the one who created the rumor of Silas Scratch in the first place when he went to the camp in his youth]].
722* TheNoseKnows: Emilio Mendoza has a keen sense of smell, which more then makes up for his inability to see without any glasses.
723* OneSteveLimit: A teacher mentions that a kid named Frankie once saw Silas Scratch. Greg's dad is named Frank. [[spoiler: It's later revealed that they're the same person, and Frank had made it up in order to keep other campers from finding a maintenance shed that contained bearable toilets and showers.]]
724* ParodyOfEvolution: Greg illustrates how humans have come to depend on the comforts of modern life with a parody of "The March of Progress", in which the upright-walking human is followed by Greg wrapped in a blanket playing video games.
725* PottyEmergency: Discussed. After Albert Sandy claims that Silas Scratch might move through the pipes, the kids get too scared to use the bathrooms. Some of them decide to hold it in until they get home, but Greg writes that it doesn't sound so smart because they're only on day 2 of a week-long trip.
726* RewatchBonus: A teacher mentions that one kid named Frankie saw Silas Scratch and was "never the same afterwards". [[spoiler: After the twist is revealed, it's ridiculously obvious that this is Greg's father. His name is Frank, and the flashback drawing is how he's portrayed as a kid.]]
727* ScoobyDooHoax: Downplayed. While there is no disguise involved, [[spoiler: the UrbanLegend of deranged murderer Silas Scratch was invented by Frank Heffley to frighten his fellow campers away from the maintenance shed so he wouldn't have to share its running water and electricity.]]
728* TheScrappy: InUniverse, Old-Timey Tobias, the mascot for the Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor, gets pelted with ice cream left and right every time he comes out to entertain the kids at the restaurant.
729* ShaggyDogStory: One of the activities during the trip to Hardscrabble Farms tasks the campers to move heavy bales of hay from one side of a farm house to another. Greg's group manages to do it, with Greg himself mentioning that everyone in the group felt pretty accomplished… until the next group comes in and has the campers in them move the hay back to where it started. Greg is reminded of something that he did in elementary school involving delivering "top secret" notes around the school, which turned out to be completely blank.
730-->'''Greg''': So if anyone wants to know why I have a hard time taking work seriously, that's how it started.
731* ShoutOut: The pig the family adopts in ''The Long Haul'' begins walking on its hind legs, wearing clothes, and starts acting oddly human, with Greg theorizing pigs would take over the world because of them. A shout out to the climax of George Orwell's ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', in which the pigs (a representation of Stalinist leadership) begin separating from animalism (communism) by walking, dressing and acting like the former human overlords (the capitalists), ensues.
732* SickEpisode: Nearly everyone in Greg's group ends up having to be seen by the nurse, including Rowley who gets sent home on the first day after accidentally butting heads with another kid, whose tooth gets lodged in his head. The day he gets back, he has an accident with poison ivy. Rowley's father ''inhales'' poison ivy and they both get sent home early.
733* SoupOfPoverty: {{Invoked|Trope}} when Greg's class goes on a field trip to Hardscrabble Farms, a wilderness survival camp. The people running it don't believe in wasting food, so at the end of each meal, everyone's leftovers are dumped into a giant stew pot. Mr. Healey tells Greg that they did the same thing when ''he'' went to the camp 30 years ago as a kid, and they're still using the same pot. One girl eats three servings of the stew to make herself sick so she can get sent home early, which Greg finds a bit extreme.
734* SuckECheeses: Old-Timey Ice Cream Parlor, where Rodrick gets a job dressing as the restaurant's creepy mascot, Old-Timey Tobias. He doesn't enjoy it due to the incessant pelting of ice cream and drinks from the kids.
735* TechnologicallyBlindElders: Susan tries to convince the neighborhood to shut down electronics for a weekend, but [[HypocriticalHumor flubs it]] when she [[ItMakesSenseInContext uses a pet-tracking app on her phone to find Greg]].
736* TemptingFate: When the teachers claimed that students are not allowed to leave the awful camping trip early with the exception of medical reasons, students deliberately start getting sick in various different ways, including by eating deoderant.
737* UrbanLegends: An urban legend occurs at Hardscrabble Farms, that a deranged and maniac farmer with long, sharp claws, known as Silas Scratch, roams the farms and will kill anyone who goes near his shed. [[spoiler:It is revealed that it was a hoax created by Frank as a child in order to keep other campgoers from using a maintenance shed with amenities such as lighting and a working shower. Greg decides to keep the legend going, since he wants to use the maintenance shed himself when he grows up.]]
738* VacationEpisode: The second half of the book has Greg on a school camping trip to Hardscrabble Farms.
739[[/folder]]
740
741[[folder:''Double Down'']]
742* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: Greg hears that humans only use 80% of their brains. He hopes that people don't figure out how to get the last 20%, imagining it being complete chaos.
743* AbortedArc: Despite the book ending with Rowley becoming famous on [=TV=] and Greg being jealous of him, they end up being back to being friends by the next book without any explanation.
744* AmateurFilmMakingPlot: The end of the book has Greg and Rowley storyboarding and filming a horror movie. They only get to the end of the introduction before things start going wrong.
745* AngstWhatAngst: Enforced in-universe. While working on their NoBudget indie horror film ''Night of the Night Crawlers'', Rowley is so freaked out that Greg has to shoehorn in a joke to keep him from running away. This joke turns out to be an unnamed man reacting to his wife's horrifying death by saying "Well, I guess this means I'm single!" and [[AsideGlance winking at the camera]].
746* AwkwardPoetryReading: Greg points out that several of the poems in the ''Poetry Anthology'' book are pretty dumb, such as one called "My Turtle Fred", which is just about a turtle that will probably smell bad when he dies. Greg comments that the latter looks like it was written by a five-year-old.
747* BlandNameProduct: Greg reads a series of scary books called ''Spineticklers'', a parody of ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}''.
748* BrainBleach: Greg remembers scaring his father after his father just got out of the shower. He writes that he would pay money to get rid of that memory.
749* BrickJoke: Very early in the book, Greg says that he sometimes does ridiculous things to keep people entertained because he thinks his life is being broadcast on TV. When Rowley goes on the news at the end of the book, he says that "[[HypocriticalHumor you'd never see ME making a fool out of myself to get a cheap laugh from the people watching at home]]."
750* CallBack: The Cheese Touch from the first book is referenced. Greg says that people are trying to start it again with different foods, but the teachers always catch them.
751* CharacterCatchphrase: Greg thinks that his life is a TV show and comes up with a catchphrase of "Well, bite my biscuits!" It just confuses people.
752* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Greg's mother tells him that he'll end up being a garbage collector if he doesn't think of a job to get earlier. Greg thinks being a garbage collector would be pretty cool.
753** When told that geese are scared of dogs, Rowley uses a toy that plays out the word "Dog" repeatedly.
754* ContinuityNod: Greg says that the ''Underpants Bandits'' books (from ''The Long Haul'') are old news now and that ''Spineticklers'' has replaced them.
755* DreamSequence: A small scene in the book is Greg recalling various strange dreams he has had: one about sneezing his teeth out, one where he's a turtle, one where he is made to walk the plank, one where he grows a tail, and another that is just some space non-sense.
756* FollowTheLeader: In-universe. Greg says that the school book fair only has ''Spineticklers'' books and ''Spineticklers'' knockoffs: he doesn't think those are legal.
757* FoulWaterfowl: Some geese migrate to Greg's street. Greg notes them to be very aggressive, chasing him and Rowley when they go home from school, and even Greg's dad has to be cautious while going to get the mail.
758* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Susan thinks that Maddox Selsam, a homeschooled boy with NoSocialSkills whatsoever who does nothing but practice his violin and build Lego sets, is a good role model for Greg. Probably because Maddox's mom doesn't let him [[NewMediaAreEvil play video games or watch TV.]]
759* LiteralMinded: Greg thinks his parents saying "maybe we should go away for the weekend and recharge our batteries" means that his parents could be robots.
760* LosingYourHead: Greg's bizarre dream involves himself kicking his own head, which is shouting, "Mustards on my turnips, please!"
761* MovieMakingMess: Greg tries to make a horror movie titled ''Night of the Night Crawlers''. He has to shoehorn jokes into the script because the only actor, Rowley, is easily frightened and doesn't even ''want'' to make a horror movie. Rowley keeps forgetting his lines and refuses to wear a dress when he [[CrosscastRole plays an unnamed woman]]. The [[SpecialEffectFailure terrible special effects]][[invoked]] include throwing gummy worms at Rowley's face in an attempt to make a scene where worms come out of the shower. After Rowley runs out of the house with barely any clothes on and climbs a tree to escape the geese that ate the gummy worms on the ground, Greg's dad gets home and the attempt to make a movie comes to an end.
762* NoBudget: In-universe, where Greg and Rowley try to make an indie horror film. Their low-end equipment is "borrowed" from their parents, the only actor is Rowley, and their "special effects" are gummy worms and ketchup.
763* NotWhatItLooksLike: A chain of events at the fall concert leads to Rowley playing the flute while coloring in Greg's underpants in the band room. Frank interrupts and grounds Greg, accusing him of "goofing off."
764* ItWontTurnOff: The witch Rodrick gets cackles at the slightest movement, even after Frank removes the batteries.
765* RealDreamsAreWeirder: While remembering various dreams he had and what they relate to, Greg remembers one where he kicked his own head over an American Football goal while declaring "Mustards on my turnips, please!". It currently serves as the page image.
766* RevelingInTheNewForm: Greg dreams that he grows a tail and loves being able to do tricks with it. While this dream eventually [[NightmareSequence becomes a nightmare when he gets hunted down for having a tail]], he's still disappointed when he wakes up with no tail.
767* ShaggyDogStory: Greg takes up playing the French horn to get invited to Mariana Mendoza's Halloween party. Then he learns that only the woodwind section will be invited and that his best friend plays the flute, meaning that he can just go with his friend.
768* ShoutOut:
769** The book starts with Greg wondering if his life is a TV show, recalling that he once saw a movie where a man's life was filmed without him knowing it. Greg must have watched ''Film/TheTrumanShow''.
770** Maddox's only hobby besides playing his violin is building Toys/{{LEGO}} sets.
771** The ''Spineticklers'' series is a clear nod to ''Spinetinglers'' and ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}''. The Swedish translation even calls it "Kalla Kårar," which is the Swedish title of the ''Goosebumps'' series.
772** Real life musician George Deveney appears in this book.
773** Greg learning about humans only using [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain 80 percent of their brain]] and discussing chaos if people got to use the other 20 percent of their brain may be a reference to ''Film/{{Lucy}}'' (except this movie uses the premise of people only using 10 percent of their brains), while the depiction of characters using telekinesis and floating with chaos ensuing may be a reference to ''Film/{{Chronicle}}''.
774* SpecialEffectFailure: In-universe where Greg tries to create a homemade horror movie on NoBudget:
775** Rowley is the only actor, and has to [[ActingForTwo act for many]]. Since Greg has no video editing skills, this means that no scene in the movie can feature more than one character.
776** Rowley [[CrosscastRole plays an unnnamed woman]]. Unfortunately, he refuses to wear a dress, and they don't have a wig for him. He ends up wearing yoga pants and a hooded sweater, and having the character never show her face.
777--> '''Woman:''' I hope you don't mind if I don't turn around but I am really concentrating on doing these dishes.
778** They try to make a scene in which an unnamed man tries to take a shower, but worms come out instead of water. Greg can't find a way to make it looks natural, and settles for throwing gummy worms at Rowley's face and hoping it'll look realistic once they make the final cut.
779** They use ketchup as fake blood.
780** Discussed when Greg points out that he still hasn't figured out how to film the climax of the movie, which would feature a battle against a giant worm. Sadly, they never get around to attempting this scene at all.
781* SituationalHandSwitch: Greg, who is right-handed, buys a French horn and learns the hard way that it's a left-handed instrument.
782* SymbolSwearing: Greg is shocked when he watches a video with swearing, pictured by a speech bubble full of symbols and exclamation points coming out of the computer.
783* ToiletHumor: Greg was once lied to by Rodrick that sitting on the toilet with the seat down is "for girls," and Greg sat ''in'' the toilet instead. He would've believed it for the rest of his life if he hadn't accidentally left the door unlocked and had his mother come in.
784** In addition, he theorizes that flies are drones sent in by aliens, noting that they have a "fasciation" with dog poop.
785* TooDumbToLive: Uncle Gary cuts off a branch that he happens to be sitting on, thus falling and breaking his collarbone.
786* TrumanShowPlot: Greg wonders if the world really does revolve around him and thinks that people are watching him on TV. This leads to situations such as him inventing a CatchPhrase, Greg wondering if his family members are actors or robots, Greg suggesting new plots to the "writers" by talking into a mirror, and doing funny things to make sure people keep watching.
787* TitleDrop: The back cover of the book contains the line "But is ''doubling down'' on movie-making a smart plan?"
788* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to Maddox after Greg's "playdate" with him?
789* WildTeenParty: Mariana Mendoza is known for hosting annual Halloween parties, which are rowdy and wild. Her parents don't care, as long as the party stays in the basement. A year before the books' events, the party got so large, that it spread to outside the house and the police had to end the party. This year, Mendoza only invites the band [[spoiler:(actually only the woodwind part)]], so Greg tries to join the band.
790** When Greg's mother accompanies Greg and Rowley to Mendoza's party, she takes control of it and changes the party from what could become a wild party to a tame party with games typical of children's parties. This made Greg a target of derision from the boys who were unhappy about this intervention.
791* YouAreGrounded: Extra chores aside, Greg gets punished a lot of times in this book:
792** He suffers a week of grounding for spraying Frank down with a garden hose to check if he's a robot.
793** Back in fourth grade, Susan took away his TV privileges for a whole month for faking a bullying case and getting an innocent kid in trouble (something he admits he deserved).
794** Frank then bans him from video games, TV, or friends for two weeks for "goofing off" instead of performing at a music festival (Greg says that the only thing he can do is practice his instrument, which he thinks is the point).
795[[/folder]]
796
797[[folder:''The Getaway'']]
798* AccidentalPervert: Greg accidentally steps onto a nude beach on the Wild Side with a camera. He ends up paying for it.
799* AdultsAreUseless: When Greg is cornered by a spider in the hotel room, he calls room service for help. The room service guy is scared of the spider, too. However, Greg does work with him to trap the spider.
800* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: A monkey is regularly served at a swim-up bar. This is frowned upon in real life, as even if they were serving it safely (such as with bananas rather than alcohol), there would be concerns over it attacking human patrons.
801* BigBrotherInstinct: In a rare case of Rodrick actually having a heart in the books, he willingly tried to help Greg to safety when he saw him in serious danger of getting cornered by an angry mob.
802* BrickJoke: Greg finds a giant spider in his slipper and attempts to flush it down the toilet with the help of the room service waiter. Later, Dad says he tried to use the toilet, but that same spider was on the underside of the seat, so he hit it with the room's bathrobe and it seemed to disappear into thin air. This joke continues near the end of the book when Greg attempts to scale a fence to evade security, and Rodrick tries to [[RuleOfEmpathy help Greg over]] as he cannot quite reach the top. The spider crawls out of his sleeve and onto Greg, causing him to fall. This is because Rodrick had to wear the bathrobe dad hit the spider with to a fancy restaurant as he could not find any trousers, and he carried the spider with him all along.
803* CreatorsCultureCarryover: There is an arcade in one scene which is depicted as having retro arcade games from the 2nd to 6th generation and redemption games such as basketball hoops. While this is pretty accurate to Arcades in the United States that don't upgrade their video games and put emphasis on ticket games, most arcades in Latin America put emphasis on newer cabinets from the 7th and 8th generation that put emphasis on fighting games (though they are unoffical cabinets that run on Xbox hardware)
804* ChestBurster: Greg gets startled by a sea horse while snorkeling, and in a panic, swallows some water. Worried that he might've accidentally swallowed the seahorse, Greg imagines it bursting out of his midsection at school.
805* ChristmasEpisode: Doubles as a VacationEpisode by having the Heffleys take a Mexican resort vacation to avoid traditional Christmas trappings and hassle.
806* ChildrenAreAWaste: Greg says that if he has children, he'll send them out of the house as soon as they become old enough to order at fast food restaurants.
807* DownerEnding: The Heffleys' vacation to Isla de Corales is ruined by [[ContrivedCoincidence Contrived Coincidences]] and bad luck; [[spoiler:Rodrick is left with severe sunburns and finds out his new girlfriend is cheating on him, Manny loses all of the animals he tried to take home as pets, the resort is left in shambles, and the Heffleys have been banned from Isla de Corales, which is now trying to actively track them down, meaning Frank and Susan can't return to the place they had their honeymoon for some time. The only one who gets what they want, ironically, is [[CosmicPlaything Greg]], who briefly gets to swim with the dolphins, the thing he wanted to do the most, while fleeing from the local police and to add salt to the wound, ''The Meltdown'' reveals this led to the Pig running away.]]
808* EpisodeOnAPlane: Part of the book deals with Greg's first plane ride. He is seated between a family with a baby, has fantasies about everything that could go wrong, has a bathroom break ruined by turbulence, and is not happy with only getting pretzels for food.
809* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: On Page 171, Manny can be seen swimming underwater with a bucket in hand. Seven pages later, we find out what he put in said bucket...
810* MistakenForThief: How the Heffley's get kicked out of the resort initially, as they used clothes that they got in a wrong suitcase to get access to the country club there. They were planning on returning them after they left the club, but the family of the original suitcase spots them and assumes that they stole it to gain special privileges. This causes the Heffley's to be ordered to return the clothing to the owners, and the security guard who caught them drove them to the airport, as the resort does not tolerate "theft."
811* NewMediaAreEvil: Greg complains about how many people are on their phones and not watching the airplane safety video. Later, the "Teen Zone" at the resort is just a bunch of teenagers on their phones, and while everyone is watching turtles hatch, the spectators take photos and the camera flashes cause them to lose their way to the ocean.
812* NotHelpingYourCase: When the Heffley family are at the country club with stranger's clothes, a security guard confronted them, saying that they were reported for wearing a family's missing clothes. Instead of coming clean and explaining the truth to him, Greg steals the guard's golf cart with his family behind them, and they attempt to take off. Not only do they fail to escape as the guard catches up with them, but this act also convinces him that the Heffley's ''intentionally stole'' the other family's clothing to use for themselves and attempted to flee in order to avoid getting caught, and he refuses to listen to any further explanations as he makes them give back the clothing and kicks them out of the resort.
813* PlaneAwfulFlight: It's Greg's first time going to the airport and taking an airplane. He can't find a seat in the waiting room due to people lying across the seats or placing their bags on them and [[ItMakesSenseInContext his sock is launched into a urinal via a blow-dryer]], forcing him to go without it... and that's just in the airport. On the plane, he is just about denied having a row of seats all to himself by a family with a baby, and he also gets anxious over something happening to the plane after he watches the safety demonstration video (and he also gets worried about the turbulence and the pilots being allowed to move about the cabin), the passenger behind him puts his bare feet up on Greg's armrests, the baby he's next to uses his screen to watch cartoons (and the [[SensoryAbuse brightly colored animation]] stops him from falling asleep) and he can't lean his seat back because he's sitting in the emergency exit row. Also, meals are only given to first class passengers. The Heffleys also have to alternate between who gets to sit in first class, but Greg never gets his turn due to the aisle getting blocked by the broken food cart after turbulence hits.
814* ShoutOut: Manny's obsession with collecting sea creatures and turning them into "pets" is a reference to ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' where Dot has a obsession of collecting monsters and putting them into her box as "pets", which in numerous occasions, scares people (or animals) with them. The gimmick works for Manny, except it's backwards because the parents see what's inside his bucket. Later in the book, the Jerry Lewis caricature (AKA Director of Fun) pokes around in Manny's bucket and gets scared because there is a box jellyfish in his bucket.
815* ShownTheirWork: Yes, there really ''are'' box jellyfish around the Caribbean.
816* ToiletTeleportation: Greg assumes the stewards are not afraid of having to leave because they have their own emergency exits. We then get an image of one leaving by flushing himself down the toilet.
817* UnsuccessfulPetAdoption: Manny tries to keep multiple pets, including a sea turtle and a box jellyfish. Susan returns them to the ocean.
818* VacationEpisode: This time, the Heffleys fly to the island resort while Frank and Susan spent their honeymoon. The first leg of the book is about the flight and then the story turns to the actual vacation. Doubles as an unconventional ChristmasEpisode; Frank wants a break from traditional Christmas trappings and hassle.
819[[/folder]]
820
821[[folder:''The Meltdown'']]
822* AuthorTract: The book begins with Greg ranting about climate change.
823* BrawnHilda: Latricia Hooks, one of the residents of Surrey Street. She's 6'2", has a very broad physique, [[TheBully used to bully Rodrick when they were younger]], and during the snowball fight between the Surrey Street residents, she's shown punching people in the face on two occasions.
824* BrickJoke: Greg introduces various kids in his neighborhood at the start of the book. They all reappear during the snowball fight climax.
825* BuyOrGetLost: While stuck out of their homes in the freezing weather outside due to their parents intervening, Greg and Rowley attempt to hide out in a pizza parlor to keep warm by the kitchen oven, but the owner made them leave once he figured out that they only came in for the heat. But the next day, the two boys decide to come in again and buy a meal this time, [[LoopholeAbuse so they could bask in the warmth of the newly baked product]]. The owner is visibly not amused at them taking advantage of this escape clause.
826* CallBack: Greg talks about his Christmas vacation from ''The Getaway''.
827* CuttingTheKnot: When Greg has to stay home from school because of snow, Susan realizes that he'll want to watch TV, so she takes out the batteries out of the remote and hides them in ways that Greg would only find them if he did chores around the house. It would take four batteries for the TV in the living room, but Greg instead goes to the TV in Susan and Frank's bedroom because it requires only one battery.
828* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: A kid called Mitchell Pickett sells pre-made snowballs. When there's a big snowfall he expands his business to include more advanced weaponry like snowball launchers, icicles and even custom-made snowballs with a slushy center. He sells to the kids on the Surrey Street hill and the kids on Lower Surrey Street who are in a constant feud with the kids on the hill. He buys a snowmobile with the money he makes. Greg comments that this proves war CAN pay. One imagines Mitchell would be very successful as an amoral ArmsDealer should he decide to go down that route when he grows up.
829* EnemyMine: The snow war starts with the Upper Surrey Street kids vs. each other, then all the Upper Surrey Street kids vs. the Lower Surrey Street kids, then all the Surrey Street kids vs. the Safety Patrols, then the Whirley Street kids join the fight and it turns into a free-for-all, and then finally the entire neighborhood vs. the Mingo kids.
830* EscalatingWar: The climax of ''The Meltdown'' ends up being about this, as the different factions of kids' in Greg's neighborhood go to war over long-simmering tensions on a snow day-- soon all sorts of other factions join and it devolves into a massive free-for-all, which is ended by the snowplow coming up the road and blindsiding everybody.
831* EveryoneHasStandards:
832** The Upper Surrey Street kids immediately stop fighting and call a ceasefire when someone gets hit in the face with an ice ball and loses a tooth.
833** When faced with the problem of the Lower Surrey Street kids scaling their defensive wall with ladders, the Upper kids ignore the obvious solution of simply pushing the ladders over, likely because it could injure those climbing them. They instead resort to dumping barrels of slush over them to force them to retreat.
834* FeudingFamilies: Greg mentions that one of the houses on Upper Surrey Street is a duplex but that the two families that live in it hate each other.
835* FleetingDemographicRule: One of Fregley's lines, "Betcha I can find your 'tickle spot'!", is taken word for word from the earlier tie-in do-it-yourself book.
836* {{Foreshadowing}}: All the Surrey Street residents that Greg brings up near the start of the book, even the Mingo Kids and the Safety Patrols, return in the snowball fight climax.
837* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: Greg decides to put on a sweater his Grandma knit for Sweetie in her house. It fits, but it's super itchy, possibly because the dog had fleas.
838* HumanSnowman: The cover for ''The Meltdown'' has Greg as one. In the book proper, Fregley is seen as one when Greg passes by him while walking to Rowley's house.
839-->'''Fregley:''' Wanna finish "building" me?
840* KidDetective: One of the kids in Greg's neighborhood is a boy named Pervis Gentry, who solves neighborhood crimes (most of which are committed by the same delinquent) from his backyard treehouse during the summer.
841* LaserGuidedKarma: For once, the kids at Greg's school recieve consequences for their chaotic games. After engaging in war with each other using their wet socks, the stench endes up being so strong that the janitor that night opens up the windows to get some fresh air. But he forget to close them when his shift is over, so the air cools down the school greatly, which isn't so great for the kids the next day.
842* LipLosses: Discussed in "The Meltdown" when Greg says he wouldn't want to lose his lips to frostbite because he would look like he was smiling at unfitting moments (listing a funeral as an example).
843* LiteralMinded: Greg plays "The Floor is Lava" with Manny. Before he can explain the rules, Manny screams and refuses to touch the floor at all, thinking it really is lava.
844* MistakenForGay: Greg and Rowley sneak into Gramma's house while she's gone so that they can get warm. Greg figures that they could warm their clothes in the dryer in the basement, but since [[DidntThinkThisThrough they’re naked otherwise]], they decide to use some of Gramma's clothes. Cue [[OhCrap Greg's mom]] walking in on them. Initially, it seems that she’s in TranquilFury that they went into Gramma's house without permission to do shenanigans, but she later sits down with Greg to tell him that it's okay for boys to "play pretend" and that it's part of growing up. Greg doesn't understand what she means, but it's obvious to older readers what she was thinking.
845* MoralMyopia: The lower Surrey Street kids do not allow any of the upper kids to step on the flat ground they have and force them to stay on the hill. But during winter, the lower kids want to use the hill to sled, and the upper kids defend them just the same as the lower do with their part. And the lower kids don't seem to realize that this is just like how they defend their part during the other seasons and are always trying to take the hill.
846* NewMediaAreEvil: Greg says that selfies and phones caused a lice outbreak in school.
847* NoTrueScotsman: One of the kids from the hill section of Surrey Street, Trevor Nix, later moved down to a bigger house on the flat section of it. But the kids who already lives on the lower part considers him to still be a hill kid and won't let him play outside with them, while the hill kids view him as traitor, so he has nowhere to play and has to sit inside all day.
848* PlayingSick: Greg tries acting sick to get out of going to school. It doesn't work and his parents catch him.
849* PottyEmergency: Rowley really has to pee while walking home from school with Greg. He ends up peeing behind a large rock.
850* PrincessPhase: One of Surrey Street's many residents is a little girl named Emilia Greenwall, who always dresses like a fairy tale princess. Greg thinks she's been watching too many Disney movies.
851* ShoutOut:
852** Manny builds some snow monsters that seem to be a reference to the grotesque snow creatures built by Calvin in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes.''
853** Greg talks about how he wants a TV on his ceiling and hopes that whoever installs it does so properly, saying that he doesn't want to become the next ''Literature/FlatStanley''. He draws a picture of a TV screen falling on him while on his bed, alluding to how Flat Stanley was flattened from a falling bulletin board while on his bed.
854* SiblingTeam: The Marlee sisters, who live in Greg's neighborhood and will attack anybody or anything that comes into their yard.
855* ToiletHumor: Rowley pees behind a rock.
856* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Greg doesn't find anything strange about Rowley showing up to his door dressed as a member of the Queen's Guard.
857* UrbanLegends: The Goat Man is brought up. Greg thinks it's the top half of a goat and the bottom half of a man, but Rowley thinks it's split down the middle.
858* WomenAreWiser: By this point, the Safety Patrol at the school consists only of girls, because boys would either quit or be kicked out, or in the case of the last two, get into a snowball fight with each other in front of the Elementary School. The girls also take their jobs seriously and report anyone who so much as steps out of line.
859[[/folder]]
860
861[[folder:''Wrecking Ball'']]
862* AnAesop: Parodied. Greg says that he's sure that he can learn a lesson from the experience, such as "be happy with what you have" or "there's no place like home," but what he says is the moral is "don't be late to an old lady's funeral or she'll make you pay."
863* ArtShift: The Grout is drawn in a much more realistic, gritty style than the rest of the series. Justified in that it's what Greg thinks, so he imagines it being really scary.
864* BlatantLies: Rodrick tells Greg about "sewer wasps" that come out of the toilet. Greg believes him and is ''very'' cautious when he goes to the bathroom.
865* TheBusCameBack: Nasty Pants appears for the first time since ''Cabin Fever''. He's dancing at Greg's going-away party.
866* TheCameo: Fregley only appears once in this book.
867* ContinuityNod:
868** A picture on Rowley's collage depicts him and Greg in their two-headed monster costume from ''Double Down''.
869** Various characters from ''The Meltdown'' appear attending Greg's going away party.
870** There are three references to Literature/DiaryOfAnAwesomeFriendlyKid. Two illustrations (Greg's baby pictures and Rowley with an ice cream cone on his head) from said book reappear here in Greg's style, and a picture that Rowley draws in cement is done in the ''Awesome Friendly Kid'' style.
871** The Family Frolic magazine from ''The Long Haul'' and ''Double Down'' appears once again, with Susan using it to help Greg with the yard sale.
872* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler:The Heffleys' house, which the family were planning to sell, getting a giant hole through the middle from their old hot tub being dropped from the roof. This caused both the family buying the house to back out, and leaving the Heffleys unable to afford their new house. On the other hand, Greg is glad to have not left Rowley, as he initially thought.]]
873* EmbarrassingOldPhoto: Rodrick once fell asleep in a hot tub, getting his skin wrinkly for two weeks, and got his picture taken a few days later.
874* ForgedMessage: Rodrick once wrote a bunch of notes signed by Greg, supposedly saying that he "owes" a bunch of stuff to Rodrick.
875* GarageSale: The book opens with Greg holding a yard sale after doing spring cleaning. Among his objects for sale are one of his old diaries, broken toys, old birthday cards, and socks full of random objects. He is unable to sell anything, unconvincingly trying to use VeryFalseAdvertising. Greg's yard sale is eventually rained out and ends early.
876* GrubTub: Manny's idea for home renovation is to have a pool filled with chocolate pudding.
877* HypocriticalHumor: The Heffleys wound up with a large sum of inheritance money and they host a meeting to decide what to do with it. Susan says that the money needs to be spent on something that everyone in the family agrees on, but gets upset when nobody likes her new kitchen idea and leaves.
878* LiesToChildren: At Greg's GarageSale, he puts broken toys on a table labeled "FUN TOYS" and outright says that he hopes kids who can't read will buy them.
879* MovingAngst: Discussed and inverted. When Greg is about to move (though it's [[TimeToMove later canceled]]), he reads Rowley a book called ''Preston Platypus Says Farewell to a Friend'', which is about the titular Preston Platypus being distraught when his best friend Pelican Pete moves away. He overcomes this angst when he meets some new friends, which Greg notes [[EsotericHappyEnding isn't that happy of an ending]] since Preston Platypus forgets all about Pelican Pete.
880* MovingAwayEnding: {{Subverted}}. The story sets up an ending where Greg and his family would move, but a last-minute disaster strikes and forces the family to stay in their old house after all.
881* NewMediaAreEvil:
882** Greg thinks that if he got electrical powers, people would just have him charge their phones.
883** He also wants a moving sidewalk in his house so that he can pay more attention to his phone, with an audio indicator when the sidewalk is ending.
884** Greg goes on his phone instead of learning about how the car works.
885* OneEpisodeFear: Greg is afraid of wasps in this book.
886* PestEpisode: Subplots involve the Heffleys dealing with wasps and rats. Greg wishes that his house would be infested by something cute like koalas.
887* PropertyLine: It turns out that an extension to the Heffleys' house is over their neighbor's property line, so they have to tear it down and patch up the hole in the wall.
888* StatusQuoIsGod: [[spoiler:Greg is about to move away from Surrey Street and to a new neighborhood. Until, in the last ''two pages'', it turns out that the family that was going to move in cannot afford the house and that their house is in no condition to live in anyways. So Greg's stuck on Surrey Street for a while.]]
889* SymbolSwearing: Frank does this while trying to fix an appliance.
890* TitleDrop: The titular wrecking ball is mentioned a few times.
891* ToiletHumor:
892** Manny uses a toilet on display while at a hardware store.
893** Greg shows a page of his biography, depicting him having stepped in dog poop.
894* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Discussed. Greg reads a ''Preston Platypus'' book where Preston's best friend, Pelican Pete, moves away. He thinks it's fine until the ending in which Preston makes new friends and just forgets all about Pete, and that it's never shown if Pete is happy in his new neighborhood. He considers writing the author an angry letter over this.
895* WithAFootOnTheBus: The book sets up Greg's family moving away from Surrey Street. Rowley is very upset about it, and he has a going-away party with other people in his neighborhood. [[spoiler:But when the last bit of construction goes wrong, the house is in disrepair and is not sold, so Greg and his family have to stay.]]
896[[/folder]]
897
898[[folder:''The Deep End'']]
899* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Greg lists three great inventions in the modern era: medicine, smartwatches, and peanut butter-filled pretzels.
900* BlandNameProduct: One of the electronic devices locked in "The Vault" appears very similar to a Platform/NintendoSwitch.
901* CavemenVsAstronautsDebate: Greg goes fishing with a group of kids who get into a heated argument over whether it would be more difficult to fight a person with the head of a shark or a shark with the head of a person.
902* ContinuityNod: Sweetie is mentioned once again. And he's still as spoiled and overfed as ever.
903* ContinuitySnarl: Greg does jigsaw puzzles in this book, despite an incident in ''Cabin Fever'' in which he finds a nest of crickets in a box of puzzles giving him a fear of them. However, it is possible that he had gotten over his fear since.
904* ContrivedCoincidence: Lightning strikes the bridge leading in and out of Campers' Eden, destroying a section of it, trapping everyone inside and preventing the food truck from bringing supplies in. The gap that's destroyed is ''exactly'' as wide as the Heffleys' RV is long, and it gets perfectly wedged in the gap when it washes down the river in a flood.
905* DidntThinkThisThrough: Susan paid for a fundraiser and gave Greg a planet named after him. However, she forgot to include his last name, so Greg thinks that anyone with his first name can go to "Planet Greg" and claim it as their own.
906* EarnYourHappyEnding: The Heffleys have to endure living in Gramma's basement for months, a bear encounter, being sprayed by a skunk, teenage hooligans, the sewage tank in their RV backing up, inconsiderate campers, [[spoiler:being trapped at a campsite with no food, and nearly getting swept away in a flash flood, among ''many'' other mishaps, but after that, with all the other rude campers gone from the campsite, they are able to have a pretty good vacation.]]
907* EmergencyBroadcast: A flash flood warning is issued for the RV park right before the climax.
908* {{Foreshadowing}}:
909** Whenever Greg does a jigsaw puzzle, Manny always insists on putting in the last piece. At the end of the book, [[spoiler: Manny steers the Heffleys' RV into the broken bridge to fill the gap, which Greg describes as snapping in "like a puzzle piece".]]
910** Manny's favorite book at the moment is a retelling of the Noah's Ark story, presaging the flash flood in this story's climax.
911* HorribleCampingTrip: The perils encountered here include a curious bear, roving skunks, flaming marshmallows and a flash flood.
912* ImagineSpot:
913** Annoyed with him, Greg imagines sending Rodrick to space in a rocket.
914** Greg imagines being the guy whose job is to [[ItMakesSenseInContext collect wolf urine]].
915* LighterAndSofter: In-universe, Greg calls out the Noah's Ark picture book Manny loves as this given it only features a happy Noah and happy animals, disregarding how almost all of humanity perished in the Great Flood.
916* NamesakeGag: Greg goes over the story of the man who invented the toilet, Thomas Crapper. He then hopes he made a lot of money from it, since he wouldn't want a synonym for defecating named after him. Cue an illustration of a man saying to his roommate:
917--->'''Man:''' Yo, I'm gonna take a Greg!
918* NewMediaAreEvil: Susan makes Greg and Rodrick put their electronic devices in a vault, to be locked for two hours. Greg and Rodrick try to break it, but are unable to.
919* NoAntagonist: There is not a clear antagonist in the story unless Juicebox (one of the kids that Greg befriends) counts when he betrays Greg.
920* NoahsStoryArc: Early in the book, Greg discusses the story of Noah's Ark. He says that if he were Noah, he would've left off animals like scorpions and kept more puppies and pandas. The climax of the book sees Greg and his family trying to escape (and eventually save) people from a flood.
921* PreviouslyOn: Greg claims that the story of him and his family now living in his grandmother's basement is a long one, so he just shows an image of [[spoiler: a crane dropping a hot tub through the roof of their house, which happened at the end of ''Wrecking Ball'']].
922* {{Retcon}}: Greg talks about doing jigsaw puzzles, when ''Cabin Fever'' claimed that Greg had a phobia of puzzles after finding a family of crickets living in a puzzle box.
923* ReusedCharacterDesign: Doo-Doo, one of the kids at Campers' Eden, is identical to "Stinky Williams" (a precursor to Fregley) in the webcomic.
924* RoadTripPlot: The first third or so of the book is about a road trip the Heffleys go on before sticking with the RV park for the remainder of the plot.
925* SequelEpisode: This book picks up where ''Wrecking Ball'' left off: [[spoiler:the family's house is destroyed]], so they have to stay in Gramma's basement for now.
926* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: As it turns out, [[spoiler: all the other campers abandoning Campers' Eden during the second storm allows the Heffleys to finally have a wonderful vacation over the next few days]].
927* SymbolSwearing: Susan lets Manny sit up front in the RV. However, he starts blaring the horn and [[FromTheMouthsOfBabes swearing at other drivers]], portrayed by an assortment of random symbols in his speech bubble.
928* ToiletHumor: The above NamesakeGag talks about not wanting to have a name used for a bodily function, such as to "take a Greg."
929* TookALevelInJerkass: The normally nice Grandma is openly not happy about the family living with her, to the point where she makes them live in the basement because the guest room is “Sweetie’s room” and when she has friends come over, she refuses to let them come upstairs, not even to ''use the bathroom.''
930* ThrowTheDogABone: After several disastrous [[VacationEpisode Vacation Episodes]], [[spoiler: the Heffleys finally have a vacation they end up enjoying -- after the second storm, anyway]].
931* VacationEpisode: The fourth in the series. This time, the family takes an RV trip on the open road.
932* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Invoked. The pool party features a movie screening that appears to be a ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' knockoff, to the terror of all the little kids in the pool.
933* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Not much to Greg. He shamelessly admits that if he were Noah, he would've left off the creepy and dangerous animals like scorpions in favor of cute ones.
934* WhenItRainsItPours: The RV park the Heffleys stay at gets hit with two back-to-back powerful storms.
935* YouMustBeThisTallToRide: Manny is unable to take part in any activities in a family adventure theme park other than a water slide since they require a certain age and height, as shown in one drawing where he can't reach a bear's paw that functions as minimum height.
936[[/folder]]
937
938[[folder:''Big Shot'']]
939* ArtisticLicenseSports: The lunch ladies win at tug-of-war because one of them sits down with the rope tied around her waist, making her team impossible to move. This is illegal in real life tug-of-war competitions.
940* AutopilotArtistry: In ''Big Shot'', Greg learns he can only make a shot in basketball when he throws it backwards.
941* BittersweetEnding: Despite all of their hard work and effort, [[spoiler:Greg's team never wins a single game. Greg himself gets to be on a winning team, though, when he's traded during the final game to fill in for an injured opponent on a different team of lovable underdogs. The final panel shows Greg celebrating happily with his new teammates, while his original teammates and Susan (their new coach) are dejected by their loss and sore at Greg.]]
942* TheBusCameBack: The members on Greg's basketball team include Marcus and Darren Woodley (the boys who Frank chaperones at the campout in ''The Last Straw''), and Ruby Bird from ''The Third Wheel''.
943* ChekhovsSkill: Early on, Greg accidentally makes a basket shooting backward and claims that he shoots better that way, only for Coach Patel to refuse to let him do so again. [[spoiler:During the final game, he scores while throwing the ball backward without really meaning to do so.]]
944* ContinuityNod: Greg's team is initially sponsored by Marconi's Sub Shop, which appears in ''The Meltdown''. Greg is suspicious because they've been closed due to health code violations. Later, Coach Patel takes them there to eat at the end of the season.
945* CulturalTranslation: When Greg's family watches the Olympics, Manny is holding an American flag. In some translations of the book, Manny holds the country's respective flag (colored in black and white), such as a striped flag in the Spanish version and the United Kingdom flag in UK releases.
946* DamnedByFaintPraise: After Greg's team has lost every game, Coach Patel gives them a speech that while they might not end up being professional athletes, there are other (lame) jobs they can take up in the future. Greg notes that it's not particularly encouraging. He leaves with an award that congratulates him for "attempting to learn a sport".
947* DidntThinkThisThrough: In a flashback, Greg explains that one of the reasons why soccer was better when he was little was being able to have slushees at the snack bar. But then Susan and the other parents had the stand changed to sell only produce and granola bars as snacks, resulting in sales dropping-and the field becoming overgrown, because selling the slushees paid for upkeep.
948* DisgustingPublicToilet: In a flashback, Greg talks about when he went to a professional sports match for the first time and had to use a port-a-potty:
949-->'''Greg:''' But I wish Dad had given me a little advance warning about what those things were like inside, because I would've just HELD it.
950* EpicFail: Greg's team plays against Slacksville midway through the book. They score 2 points, while Slacksville gets ''103''.
951* FailureMontage: Greg mentions having tried out for previous Field Days at school, playing a variety of sports. Cue three consecutive illustrations of him on his 32nd strike in baseball, accidentally falling off the diving block on a swim team, and failing to block a puck in hockey. He mentions that he's been trying to block out these memories.
952* LovableJock: Preet Patel is the only good player on Greg's team (at least until he's injured early on) and is surprisingly nice for a jock in the series. He happily goofs around with Greg and the other un-athletic kids in one scene. He later shows up to cheer for them during the final game after their humiliating season, while happily agreeing to play while wearing an orthopedic boot.
953* {{Nepotism}}: Greg points out that the evaluators for the basketball tryouts appear to favor their own kids over the other kids.
954-->'''Greg:''' Some of the evaluators had kids who were trying out tonight, so I wonder how fair the scoring really was.
955* OutclassedAtTheGym: Greg goes to the gym with his father to get fit. When he can't figure out the normal exercise machines, he goes to the bodybuilding area and notices all the tough weightlifters. Believing this will speed up the process, Greg tries haplessly to lift some heavy weights. When trying to remove weights to make it easier, he takes everything off one side, resulting in a loud clang that disrupts everyone and gets him and his father kicked out of the gym.
956* PhysicalFitnessPunishment: Coach Patel makes the kids run wind sprints whenever he sees them making mistakes.
957* ProductPlacement: Greg is not above this, noting that if he ever became an Olympic champion, he'd advertise everything he was asked to as long as he gets paid.
958* SmallTownRivalry: Greg's hometown of Plainview has an ugly feud with a neighboring town named Slacksville ever since Slacksville (supposedly) used bribery to get a profitable factory built in their town instead of Plainview. They are bitter sports rivals, but it goes deeper than that. Plainview changed its zoning laws so a smelly dump would have to be built in Slacksville, and Slacksville stuck Plainview with chemically dangerous lumber under the guise of a peace offering.
959* SpitefulSpit: The Plainview-Slacksville rivalry dates back so far, it's tradition in Plainville elders to spit whenever they just mention Slacksview, illustrated with a pair of seniors spitting when one of them says he has to go to Slacksville to fix his vacuum cleaner.
960* ThrowTheDogABone: [[spoiler:Greg manages to be on the winning team in the last round of the "second chance" tournament and avoids being part of the worst basketball team of the state, though he was transferred to the Funky Dunkers during the match. Not only that, it's because of his throw at last possible second his new team wins and he's seen celebrating and having genuinely a great time with his new team.]]
961* ToiletHumor: After coming second-to-last in the fifty meter dash suring Field Day, Greg defends himself by saying he can only properly run when motivated... like the time he fled from an incensed Rodrick for making fun of him when he stepped in dog poop, with the elder Heffley sibling chasing him down with it.
962* UnderdogsNeverLose: Zigzagged. Greg's basketball team is made up of students who flunked the tryouts for the good teams (and the coach's athletic son, who's quickly injured), and it shows. They try hard, but fail to win a single game during the main season and only score a handful of points. ''Then,'' Susan enlists them in a two-day "second chance" tournament where all of the worst basketball teams from each league play each other, and each team that wins a game exits the tournament. All of the teams there are underdogs, but the other underdogs keep beating Greg's team, who end up as one of the last two there. They play against the Funky Dunkers, five kids who have some athleticism and grit but are all pretty short and only have five players. [[spoiler:This makes the Funky Dunkers the underdog for most of the final game and they end up beating Greg's team, although Greg is transferred to their team beforehand to even the odds after a Funky Dunker is injured. So Greg gets to be on a winning team, but none of his original teammates do.]]
963[[/folder]]
964
965[[folder:''Diper Överlöde'']]
966* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Rodrick's bandmates are all angry with him near the end of the book: Bill is mad at him for making him break up with Becky and showing NoSympathy to his heartbreak, Mackie's fed up with Rodrick's poor practice scheduling, and Drew's upset... because Bill and Becky's break-up means that there will be no free donuts for them anymore.
967* AvoidTheDreadedGRating: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when Löded Diper argues over which songs to record at the studio. Rodrick insists on making sure their album has lyrics warranting a Parental Warning sticker on it, reasoning that teenagers won't buy it without one. Mackie disagrees, stating that [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas he wants an album his mom can enjoy.]]
968* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Löded Diper doesn't win the Battle of the Bands competition and Rodrick's main band members quit to pursue their own ambitions.]] On the plus side, [[spoiler: Bill reconciles with him and the two begin reforming the original Löded Diper, while Rodrick's favorite band, Metallichihuahua, is back in the music business and better then ever, indirectly saving the latter from a lawsuit involving his band's name. Greg is also relieved that the whole debacle is over, and refuses to get involved in a rock band's life again.]]
969* CombatPragmatist: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] as we're talking about a non-physical contest here, but some people in the "last one to take their hand off a truck wins it" competition play fairly dirty in order to sabotage others. One woman sings loudly and out of tune, a man starts reading from the phone book, and someone else even puts ''expired tuna'' in his mouth, and breathes into other people's faces in order to try and stink them out.
970* CompressedHair: The SuckECheeses security guard has quite a mass of hair under his cap, although it is a pretty bulky cap. [[spoiler:This makes it harder to realize that he is the former Metalchihuahuas bassist until he takes off his cap to reveal his trademark spiky hair while watching the Battle of the Bands.]]
971* ADayInTheLimelight: This marks the second book where Rodrick takes center stage and is also the first book to properly focus on Löded Diper, with Greg observing from the sidelines for long stretches of the action and having little direct bearing on what happens.
972* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Sebastian Sleeves is a deconstruction of the ReclusiveArtist rock star living luxurious isolation and just waiting to serve as a potential source of wisdom and advice to younger musicians. He spent so much money on his BigFancyHouse that, after the end of his music career, he had to sell all of his other luxury items to maintain the house. That money ran out too after a while, so his water and electricity got shut off years, if not decades, ago. His advice to Rodrick and the others boils down to getting out of the music business before they end up like him. [[spoiler:He does make a comeback at the end of the book, though.]]
973* ExactWords: Löded Diper plays a gig at the Headless Chicken rock music club, after the owner promises to pay them half of the admission revenue. After the gig is over, they find out that admission was free that day, so they don't actually make any money.
974* FailedASpotCheck: While participating in a "Last to take their hand off a truck wins it" contest, Rodrick is apparently down to just one more competitor in the form of fellow band member Bill, and the two argue over who should get to keep the truck. They decide to both simultaneously release the truck in hopes that they would both win it after striking a deal, only to find that they had neglected to check if anyone was still holding onto the other side of the truck, resulting in them both losing to someone who was.
975* TheFellowshipHasEnded: Near the end of the book, [[spoiler:Rodrick's band breaks up and Bill gets a job with another band (although he comes back after they fire him) while the other two musicians accept that they are never going to be rock stars and enroll in college and go to work at the deli, respectively]]. Downplayed in the sense that [[spoiler: Rodrick and Bill are revealed to have reformed the band on the final page]].
976* {{Foreshadowing}}: TheReveal at the Battle of the Bands is hinted at throughout the book thanks to the details given about Metallichihuahua as well as the designs of several characters.
977** At one point there's a picture of every band member of Metallichihuahua with their respective names on it. [[spoiler:The lawyer who sends Rodrick a letter later has the exact same name as the band's singer and when he shows up in person at the end it's revealed that he is in fact Metallichihuahua's singer.]]
978** When Warwick recalls the band's breakup, he says the lead singer went back to law school and their bassist went in to "some kind of law enforcement." [[spoiler:This hints at Stewart becoming a lawyer and Wayne becoming a security guard]].
979** Also, eagle-eyed readers may recognize [[spoiler:that the security guard at the SuckECheeses looks awfully similiar to Metallichihuahua's bassist. In fact, that's exactly who he is.]]
980* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: InUniverse; Sebastian Sleeves claims that he's been living off on money from royalty checks he gets from the ''Metallichihuahua Pups'' cartoon still airing in Denmark.
981* InsistentTerminology: Greg accidentally forgets Rodrick's trusty drumsticks at home during the setup for the Headless Chicken gig, so the latter devises a plan to get a pair from Hipp 'O' Henry's, a restaurant nearby. Greg worries that it's stealing, but Rodrick insists that they are "borrowing" it for a while, and reassures him that they might even get them back before anyone notices.
982* LaserCutter: Drew thinks laser light shows work like this, and as such doesn't want to do one for the band, because he is afraid that he will get cut in half by a laser.
983* NoodleIncident: Greg mentions that, at some point, the Löded Diper van got rear-ended and Rodrick can't use its back doors. How exactly it happened and what occurred next is unknown.
984* NoNameGiven: Drew's brother has several important scenes, but Greg only ever calls him "Drew's brother."
985* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: A combination of the band blowing up at Rodrick for his selfishness and the threat of a legal lawsuit looming over their heads drives Bill, Drew, and Mackie to hightail it out of the Heffleys' house in the ice-cream van, [[spoiler:[[TheFellowshipHasEnded marking the (temporary) end of Löded Diper.]]]]
986* ShoutOut: The Revolving Runts trading card series is a reference to the [[Franchise/GarbagePailKids Garbage Pail Kids]] trading card series with the grotesque characters.
987* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Inverted in-universe. Mackie wants Löded Diper's first album to be free of swear words so that his mom could enjoy it.
988* SuckECheeses: The pizza place with arcade games and singing animatronic robots is a blatant parody of Chuck E. Cheese's. There's even a woman who claims the establishment is recycling pizza slices, which is a real and infamous rumor surrounding Chuck E. Cheese.
989* TabloidMelodrama: Greg discusses avoiding this at the top of the book as a key reason he'd rather not be famous. But if someone like ''Rowley'' were to become famous and Greg rides his coattails, the latter will gladly take advantage of it to sell gossip about the former to the press! This is one reason Greg goes along with becoming the band's roadie.
990* TookALevelInKindness: Rodrick towards Greg, that is. In this book he's never seen bullying Greg like in the older books. The closest thing to it is the band making Greg carrying their stuff so that they don't have to do so themselves. When Greg later demands to be payed for his services in the band Rodrick doesn't even object and immediately accepts it.
991* YokoOhNo: When Bill enters a relationship with donut shop assistant manager Becky, his love for her begins affecting his work as he starts writing corny love ballads that don't exactly fit in with the band's sound. She also encourages him to see himself as the band's face and even rewrites Rodrick's "Can You Smell Us Now?" into the less abrasive "Can You Hear Us Now?"
992[[/folder]]
993
994[[folder:''No Brainer'']]
995* AbsurdlyPowerfulStudentCouncil: Greg wins a bid to be principal for a day, which in real life is generally a ceremonial position with some limited responsibilities, like being a student council member. Nonetheless, the school secretary asks him to sign checks, the janitors can get extra days off from him, and a teacher asks him for a better parking space. Greg lampshades that he isn't sure if he actually has any binding authority to do this, but none of the adults seem to think otherwise.
996* ArtisticLicense: Midway though the book, the school starts renting out rooms in Wing C to people or businesses who need additional space. That's not possible to do in real life.
997* AscendedFangirl: A girl named Lily Stubman who got to ride in a fire truck as part of a [=PRA=] auction the previous year ends up being in the truck when it is called to an emergency and helps hold the hose to fight a fire. Greg suspects that the incident mentally scarred her, although she seems to be content in a picture of the fire.
998* BalloonBelly: A snake that escapes during a school assembly is allowed to wander the halls by the students because it is eating the mice and the exterminator was recently fired. Two of the three panels featuring the snake show it slithering around with a mouse-sized bulge in its midsection.
999* CheatersNeverProsper: In order to get higher grades so they're allowed into the High Flyers Club program, some students resorts to cheating, but they usually end up caught. Adam Katz put a sticker with all the answers on his water bottle during a chemistry test, but he was discovered because it was clear to see what he was doing. And during a science test, Damon Fell made a fake arm to put on his desk while he used his real arm under the desk to look up the answers on his phone, but that [[StealthPun fell]] apart when his phone got a notification. [[AvertedTrope Some kids do get away with their cheating]], such as a group of girls who wrote the answers to a history test on the back of their necks and then moved their hair out of the way so the girl sitting behind could see it. And in English, some boys used their pens to communicate in Morse code.
1000* CoolTeacher: Ms. Masie, the librarian (who puts a graphic novel section in the library and works hard to compromise with parents who want to ban certain books), and Mr. Rask, the science teacher (who engages his apathetic students by teaching them to think of how scientific terms apply to gross stuff) are both O.K. at their jobs and well-liked by their students. Mr. Leyton, the Latin teacher, is also a nice enough guy but is a fraud who is teaching the kids gibberish, which eventually gets him fired.
1001* DumbBlonde: Sophie, a Slacksville girl Greg dates in the final act, is a fair-haired girl who can't spell or understand how a clock tells time. However, this (probably) isn't because Sophie herself is inherently dumb or a bad student and is instead a symptom of the pathetic curriculum at her school.
1002* EveryoneHasStandards: Principal Bottoms is a DirtyCoward who engages in some pretty ludicrous promotions to raise money (like renting sticker space on the science textbooks to a flat-Earth-believing magazine called ''Science Scoffers''). Still, when he puts the name of the school up for bidding, even he refuses to accept a bid from a school in a rival town who submit the name "Slacksville Rules! Middle School."
1003* FromBadToWorse: After the school bans the Commando Crocodile books, there is security added to the entrances checking the students' bags for books in the series, which means it takes a long time to get inside the school. Then, after the kids starts bringing digging tools to the school in hopes of finding Larry Mack's rumored buried money, they start using said tools to dig shortcuts through the walls, which leads to one student digging right into the principal's private bathroom. So now the school searches through their bags for both books ''and'' tools, meaning it takes twice as long.
1004* HeroOfAnotherStory:
1005** Greg makes a brief reference to some {{Intrepid Reporter}}s who found proof that a former principal embezzled thousands of dollars from the school.
1006** One of the school reporters breaks the story about the school facing closure after spending a week eavesdropping on the teachers from the nurse's office.
1007* HopeSpot: When the school is being shut down, students are being transferred to one of two alternatives: the advanced and luxurious Fulson Tech, or the even worse Slacksville Middle School. Greg is glad to learn he's headed to Fulson Tech, until Alex Aruda, who was at the top of the list, is transferred to his own private school, offsetting the list by one and sending Greg to Slacksville.
1008* LaserGuidedKarma: At the start of the book, the teachers either barely teach about what they're supposed to (Mrs. Lackey only teaches about countries she's planning on visiting with her husband after she retires as it's her last year) or not at all (Ms. Pritchard uses her smart board for things like helping her pick out which breed of puppy to get). Needless to say, when the school has to take a standardized test, the student's scores tank so badly (Greg mentions there wasn't a single question about farts or burps which is what Mr. Rask was near exclusively teaching everyone due to apathetic students) the middle school makes the news as a result.
1009* NotSoStoic: The normally quiet and reserved Alex Aruda ends up in the Principal's Office after he deliberately makes a mess so he could get a lollipop after learning Greg has been handing them out as part of his Principal For A Day and then he starts crying when he is in the office, likely from never being in trouble before.
1010* ObviousRulePatch: Principal Bottoms comes up with the rule to use hall passes to curb students spending more time in the hallways. When students promptly respond by making their own, Principal Bottoms changes the hall passes to every teacher having their own unique hall pass the students ''can't'' fake easily such as Madame Lefrere's hall pass being a big French-English dictionary.
1011* OhCrapSmile: A student displays this in an illustration while a security guard is shaking digging tools out of the student's duffel bag after Principal Bottoms passes a rule forbidding digging tools after Christian [=McKay=] tries to see what his locker connects too to create a shortcut, finds out his locker shares a wall with the Principal's private bathroom.
1012* RealAfterAll: [[spoiler:Tall-tale teller Albert Sandy actually gets something right for once when the construction crew renovating the school finds a bunch of money that Albert had previously claimed embezzling former Principal Larry Mack hid on school grounds.]]
1013* RidiculouslyHumanRobot: The school buys a used cleaning robot from the grocery store to serve as a janitor. Said robot eventually becomes more and more human-like and starts taking tests with the students, playing cards with the janitors, posting job applications when the school begins to go under, and by the end of the book, [[spoiler: becomes the school's temporary principal.]]
1014* StatusQuoIsGod: In the last act, [[spoiler:the middle school is closed due to bad test scores and lack of funding and the students are sent to other schools (splitting up Greg and Rowley). Rowley ends up in a prestigious academy with lots of luxury stuff like massage tables, while Greg is sent to a school in the rival town of Slacksville but becomes the smartest and most popular student in school (it’s not a high bar to beat) and starts dating Sophie, the daughter of the local millionaire. Within a few pages, the old middle school gets a new stream of funding and reopens, getting all of the students sent back there (something few of them appreciate), and causing Sophie to dump Greg due to the difficulties of long-distance relationships]].
1015* StealingTheCredit: [[spoiler:Greg's Schools' lunch lady created a new food called Fudgedogs, tofu dogs dipped in fudge. They become a hit and are beloved be the students so much that [[SeriousBusiness when the new Principal tried to stop their production, the students protested and succeed in getting them back]]. After the school is shut down and Greg is sent to Slacksville Middle School, he introduces the recipe to the school and they love it just as much as the Plainview students do. When the school opens back up, they can no longer make Fudgedogs, because Slacksville decide to take the claim for making them, patented the recipe, and even made it so that production of Fudgedogs outside of Slacksville against the law.]]
1016* SupremeChef: The school rents a room in a closed-down wing to Mrs. Jackson, a fantastic baker who has customers lined up down the block to buy her muffins and snickerdoodles.
1017* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler:The school is forced to shut down due to repeated bad test scores and all the remaining students are transferred to two nearby schools. While many students get to go to a much better, more luxurious, and better funded school, Greg is forced to go to an even worse school, but is able to make the best of it because he's turned into a NormalFishInATinyPond, becoming popular, smart, and even gaining a girlfriend and the respect of her rich dad. Then, Larry Mack's son finds the bags of money his dad hid in the walls of the school, uses the funds to reopen the school, and everyone is forced to come back. Consequently, the kids who liked their new schools are mad at Greg,[[note]] since his rapid popularity at his new school is a large part of what motivated Larry Mack Jr. to reopen the old school[[/note]], Greg's girlfriend dumps him, and the cafeteria isn't even allowed to make fudgedogs anymore because Greg told his new school how to make them and they [[StealingTheCredit stole the credit]] and patented it. All of this happens in the last ''fifth'' of the book to boot.]]
1018[[/folder]]
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