The Yogurt Extended Universe is a series of Diary of a Wimpy Kid fanfics (or LLBs/Look Like Books) by Reddit user u/IcyOpportunity9
, published on r/LodedDiper throughout 2019, but would be resumed in 2021 after the writer became active on the subreddit again, following a lengthy period of inactivity. The main idea of the fanfics is to create Alternative Character Interpretations of minor characters from the series. So far, they have included:
- The Mystery of Albert Sandy, in which Greg and Rowley investigate on how odd Albert Sandy has been acting lately.
- Inside the Mind of Albert Sandy, a short fanfic intended as a prequel to...
- The Revenge of Albert Sandy, in which Albert brainwashes the school into adoring him.
- A Man of No Words, in which Greg finds out that Great Uncle Arthur is stalking on girls in the neighbourhood.
- The Roleplay Club, in which Greg busts a Tower of Druids “roleplay club” at the local pizza restaurant.
- Joshie’s True Face, in which Greg finds out that Joshie has a possible connection to Dutch metal band Bloody Rose.
- The True Meaning of Diaper Hands, in which Greg discovers various fake social accounts promoting the upcoming film “Diaper Hands”, and decides to see what the fuss is about.
- A Frenchman in Plainview, in which Greg’s former pen pal starts putting cameras around his hometown of Plainview.
- Not My Rodrick, in which Rodrick gets replaced by the infamous version from The Long Haul movie.
- Seriously Uncool Brian, in which Mr. Nern and Aunt Veronica force everyone in Greg’s history class to join Cool Brian thanks to a shady plan.
- Fright Night Friday, the Halloween Special.
Read them here.
Tropes include:
- Adaptational Badass: Greg is portrayed as being a lot more clever and brave than he is in canon, often thinking on his feet and outsmarting the story's antagonists. He ends up putting a stop to Sandy's plans, as well as the other antagonists, exposes Joshie's dark past, comes up with a plan to save a Halloween party from the Mingo's, and pulls a successful escape from the Hand's family.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Albert Sandy is just a wiseguy giving his friends interesting facts in the books, but here he appears to be privately obsessed with yogurt, Dork Diaries and porn videos, and quickly enough he becomes the most popular kid in Greg’s school. It’s this version of Albert that usually appears on other Diary of A Wimpy Kid LLBs.
- Adaptational Villainy
- Albert Sandy in canon is simply another student at Greg's school, often telling tall tales and rumors at his school. In these stories, he has taken to putting brainwashing chemicals in dairy products to the student body. In the first story in the Yogurt arc, he tried to use it to satisfy a bizarre yogurt fetish.
- Preston Mudd, in canon is just an unpopular student due to his unfortunate initials and surname. Here he's a recurring, if near ineffective antagonist; he masterminds the stalking and recording of several girls at his school; he creates a notoriously crappy movie, and runs fake social media accounts to try to ruin Greg's relationship with Holly; failing that, he creates robotic doubles of the Heffley's based off his movie, to kidnap Greg.
- Played for Laughs with Manny and the Mingo's in ''Fright Night Friday". The Mingo's are portrayed as practicing Satan worshipers, who desire to summon a demon, and Manny is portrayed as idolizing Hitler, who enthusiastically joins the Mingo's in their worship of Satan.
- "Joshie's True Face": In canon, Joshie appears to be just a teen idol. In this story, Joshie is revealed to be a former rockstar who faked his death and changed his identity due to allegations of sexual misconduct. When Greg confronts him with this information, Joshie blows his cover by snapping at him.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Greg is a lot more heroic if still a bit of a jerk about some things. He actively investigates the disappearance of students in the first story and breaks the brainwashing in the second.
- Arc Villain: Albert Sandy for the Yogurt arc. Preston Mudd for the Diaper Hands Arc.
- Ascended Extra: Holly, especially when she starts dating Greg. Holly ends up involved in much of these fics, to the point of becoming co-protagonist many times, with Greg hanging out and working with Holly as much, if not more so than with Rowley.
- Ascended Meme: Sort of. “The Roleplay Club” is based on a meme about a Diary of A Wimpy Kid roleplay club at Subway, with the manager mentioning “they need a Rowley”.
- Big Damn Heroes
- "A Man of No Words": Greg and Rodrick knock out Great Uncle Arthur when he's caught in Holly's room, though Heather kicks them out. When Arthur breaks into her house a second time, he is bludgeoned by her father.
- "Not My Rodrick": Rodrick and his friends save Greg from Preston and Dr. Kagan towards the end of the story. In that same story, Rodrick himself was rescued when Preston was holding him captive.
- Big Damn Kiss: Greg and Holly share one in "The True Meaning Of Diaper Hands".
- Book Ends: “Fright Night Friday” opens up with Rodrick scaring Greg with the muddy hand from the horror movie he saw with Rowley back in Dog Days. At the end, Greg gets his revenge by using the Shel Silverstein mask he printed out earlier.
- Call-Back: “The True Meaning of Diaper Hands” has a call-back to the end of “A Man of No Words”, in which Preston Mudd was sent to jail for using Greg’s uncle to spy on girls.
- Continuity Nod: Holly still thinks Greg’s name is Fregley. This is done away with when they start dating.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: In addition to the sheer lengths Preston will go for petty revenge, these lengths are also pretty expensive. He apparently has enough money to make an - albeit crappy - movie despite operating from his house, and can hire out Dr. Kagan to create robotic replicas of the family in the movie.
- Darker and Edgier: Downplayed as the severity isn't always played up, and there's still a filter of dark comedy throughout the series. But this series the subject matter includes the following; brainwashing, drug dealing, kidnapping, stalking. As well as other things...
- A Man of No Words features an adult, Greg's great uncle Arthur, stalking minors (young girls no less!) and is Mistaken for Pedophile. It ends with Arthur being killed after attempting to attack Holly.
- Joshie's True Face has Greg uncover that Joshie was a washed up rockstar who faked his death following allegations; It's implied Joshie was being a sexual predator to his fans.
- Fright Night Friday portrays the Mingos as devil worshiping children, who plan to summon a demon at a Halloween party.
- Decoy Antagonist: Greg's great uncle, Arthur Heffley in A Man of No Words causes quite a bit of trouble and is initially thought to be a predatory stalker of girls at Greg's school. It turns out he's not doing this on his own, but was hired by Preston Mudd to spy on girls for him. From then on, Mudd becomes the antagonist of the Diaper Hands arc.
- Evil Is Petty: Preston Mudd really goes through a lot of trouble over his lack of popularity. He hires a man out to stalk several girls due to being unable to get a girlfriend; he makes a crappy movie in an attempt to become popular, and makes fake social media accounts to promote it (as well as trying to get Greg and Holly to break up); following that, he goes on to create robotic doubles to kidnap and replace Greg's family, based off the family in his movie, as revenge for Greg foiling both schemes and getting him arrested.
- Halloween Cosplay: Holly's costume in "Fright Night Friday" is Megumin from KonoSuba.
- Knight of Cerebus: Played with, as there is still an air to Black Comedy throughout these stories.
- Arthur Heffley, Greg's great uncle, is played with a rather heavy presence in "A Man of No Words", especially when it's revealed he's stalking young girls in Greg's class, and has a backstory about how the loss of his wife warped him. Notably, he's the only antagonist in this series to end up dying, with even Greg agreeing he was Beyond Redemption.
- Subverted with Preston Mudd. Even when it's revealed he was behind Arthur's stalkings, having hired Arthur out to videotape girls in his class, Preston doesn't get played up with the same weight. In his subsequent appearances Preston ends up pretty Laughably Evil due to how petty his motives are, and how his payback schemes amount to making a crappy movie, Malicious Slander and creating robots to kidnap Greg and his family.
- "Joshie's True Face" plays Joshie in a darker light when he's revealed to be a washed up rockstar by the name of Joop Vanderkoerp, who disappeared and took a new identity due to rumors of him being a sexual predator.
- Subverted with the Mingo's in "Fright Night Friday". Despite being portrayed as devil worshipers, who crash the Halloween Party and plan to summon a demon, this aspect ends up getting played for comedy, with Greg himself not taking the whole demon thing that seriously. They are ultimately ineffective, but it's implied they end up kidnapping Susan and Manny at the end of the story.
- Magic Realism: Despite the supernatural undertones of some stories like Irreversible Damage or All Because of Uncle Gary, the Yogurtverse and spinoffs retains the canon’s semi-realism.
- Man Behind the Man: Preston Mudd is revealed to be behind the stalkings done in A Man of No Words, the social media accounts and creation of the titular movie in The True Meaning of Diaper Hands, and the creation of the robotic Hands family in Not My Rodrick.
- Mind-Control Device: The milk that Albert uses to brainwash students into chanting “All hail the mighty Albert!”.
- Moral Guardians: Holly tells Greg that this is basically what his mom and Rowley's mom are.
- Mythology Gag:
- Holly and Greg bond over their annoying older siblings just like in the film version of Rodrick Rules.
- In "Seriously Uncool Brian", Rowley mentions that Heather Hills was fired from babysitting him due to her being caught smoking outside the house, which is basically the same reason why her online book counterpart, Lori Matthews, was fired.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: The ending of "The Revenge of Albert Sandy" has almost everyone undone from Albert's brainwashing. Key word almost, because H Games are being shared around the school for some reason, such as Boku no Pico and School Days.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: In-Universe. Joshie becomes this after He's revealed to be none other than former Bloody Rose singer Joop Vanderkorp, who was thought to have died after being exposed for sexual misconduct, which ends with Rowley's mom burning his Joshie merchandise.
- Relationship Upgrade: Greg and Holly become a couple.
- Robotic Reveal: In "Not My Rodrick", the Hands family turn out to be androids created by Greg's dentist.
- Running Gag: Greg and Holly blasting music by Krisstina whenever possible.
- Sdrawkcab Speech: What is supposed to be an audio clip of a Joshie song turns out to be a reversed clip of a Bloody Rose song.
- Take That!:
- Albert reading Dork Diaries, which is hated by Wimpy Kid fans for being a perceived rip-off of their preferred series.
- The "Diaper Hands" movie that Preston made is actually a version of The Long Haul movie. Greg states that it's awful.
- Team Member in the Adaptation: Holly is shown to be just-as-important to Greg as much as Rowley is, as Greg uses both Rowley and Holly to help him with research. They eventually become a couple.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Holly gives one to Trista (the girl who appeared at the end of The Last Straw only to disappear at the beginning of the next book) for abandoning Greg and Rowley the first chance she had. They make up in a similar fashion to the Slumber Party Pals characters as Greg notes.
- Twist Ending: “A Man of No Words” ends with the introduction of Preston Mudd, who had used Great Uncle Arthur to spy on girls and gets arrested for such. He would eventfully return in “The True Meaning of Diaper Hands” where he is revealed to be the owner of Mash and Sam Productions, and busted out of jail to create the infamous “Diaper Hands” movie.
