The Terrible Two Get Worse is a kid's novel by Jory John, Mac Barnett, and Kevin Cornell, published in 2015. It is the second in the The Terrible Two series.
On their own, pranksters Miles and Niles were pretty devious. Now that they’ve formed a pranking duo, they’re terrible! But their powers will be tested when their favorite nemesis, Principal Barkin, is replaced by his stern and cunning father, Former Principal Barkin. Now Miles and Niles will do just about anything to get their old antagonist back—including pranking alongside him.
It was preceded by The Terrible Two. Its sequel was published in 2017, titled The Terrible Two Go Wild. The fourth and final book, The Terrible Two's Last Laugh, was published in the same year.
Tropes:
- Big Bad: While Niles plays the antagonist in the first book and Josh serves as an obstacle throughout all four books (particularly The Terrible Two Go Wild), the de facto villain of these books is Bertrand Barkin. As a no-nonsense, tough-skinned authority figure, he is the biggest threat to the Terrible Two's cause.
- Chekhov's Gun: Brought back and discussed. Niles brings it up early on and compares it with Occam's Razor. As a trope, it comes into play with Barry Barkin's sewing projects, which later lead to him sewing dissolving thread into his father's clothes to humiliate him.
- History Repeats:
- Principal Bertrand Barkin had a near-perfect attendance record as a child. It was only broken on the last day of school, when he was pantsed as a prank and he went home. At the end of this book, he is pantsed on the last day of school and runs off the stage.
- The trick that the Terrible Three play on Bertrand Barkin is reminiscent of Niles's prank on Miles in the first book. In both scenarios, one party is pretending to have been defeated or thwarted when it was all part of their plan.
- Idiot Ball: Miles and Niles pick this up at the beginning of the book and don't drop it for another six months: how did neither of them realize that getting Principal Barkin fired was a bad idea?
- Insult Misfire: At Principal Barkin’s hearing, his father claims he has two children, with one being Yawnee Valley Science and Letters Academy. Principal Barkin reminds him to count Bob. His father doesn’t bother correcting him.
- Internal Reveal: Miles and Niles being pranksters is outed to the whole school at the end of the book.
- Pants-Pulling Prank: The Terrible Three find out about Bertrand Barkin's experience with this in his childhood and use it to humiliate him at the end of the book.
- Played for Laughs: Principal Barry Barkin almost jumps off the edge of a quarry with a faulty hang glider; if he wouldn't have died, he would have at least been seriously injured. This is completely brushed over.
- Shout-Out: While testing a microphone, Gus the janitor quotes Abraham Lincoln ("Four score and seven years ago."), Gravity's Rainbow ("A screaming comes across the sky."), and William Blake ("Such were the joys. When we all, girls and boys, in our youth-time were seen on the Ecchoing Green").
- Spoiled by the Format: Invoked.Was this the end of the Terrible Two?
Had the story of these two great pranksters come to an end?
No way, of course not. There are still thirty-eight pages left in this book. - Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Parodied. Principal Barkin wonders how his son Josh went from a sweet little kid (who called anything and everything a "nimbus") to a teenage prankster (who still calls anything and everything a "nimbus")
