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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Summary & Study Guide

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Summary & Study Guide Description

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules by Jeff Kinney is the second book in the series and begins with Greg writing in his new journal. School is getting ready to start back for the year and Greg writes about how his summer has gone. He joined the swim team and enjoyed his summer break, with one exception. And only Rodrick knows that secret.

Now that school is about to start, Greg suddenly recalls with dread that at the end of school last year he had gotten the "cheese touch." He calms when he realizes that he passed the "cheese touch" on to Jeremy Pindle. Rowley went to South America for the summer so they did not spend any time together, which makes Greg sad. The only person he had to hang out with was Roderick and that didn't go so well.

During the summer, Greg's mother tried to get Greg and Rodrick to "bond" but Rodrick was too fond of shoving and pushing. But, Greg shares, Rodrick got away with it because of "the secret." Maybe if Greg were to find out some good dirt on Roderick, he'd be able to neutralize Rodrick's hold over him.

Greg's father took the summer to work on a Civil War replica in the laundry/furnace room and declared the entire space off limits to kids. Rowley returned from South America and was eager to tell Greg all about it. Greg didn't seem to hear what Rowley was saying and interrupted his friend to talk about his own life. Rowley left. That summed up his summer, Greg writes in his journal. School starts and Greg is assigned a pen pal in his French class.

Greg's father, Frank, takes Greg to the mall on Saturdays to escape Manny (the youngest) and diaper duty. Greg isn't too fond of Manny either since Manny broke one of Greg's gaming consoles. On the bright side, Greg states, he received his first actual letter from Mamadou Montpierre, his new French pen pal. Greg is disgusted and amazed by his brother Rodrick's ability to will his parents to do his bidding. Despite Susan (Greg's mother) demanding that Rodrick type his own research paper, later that night Greg sees Frank typing it for him.

Chirag Gupta is a boy in Greg's class. Greg likes him and decides to pull a welcome back to school prank on him. Greg ends up getting the entire classroom in on it, but Chirag doesn't take it well. He goes to the principal to complain, but the principal can't understand Chirag's English and gets the name wrong. Chirag tells his father and when Chirag comes to Rowley's birthday party, Mr. Gupta (Chirag's father) tells Susan about it. Greg is made to apologize. Chirag and Greg reconcile and renew their friendship.

Susan starts a program that she calls Mom Bucks. Her sons can do various jobs and tasks and earn "Mom Bucks" which will allow them to have money for purchasing miscellaneous items. Career day comes to the school and Greg watches in horror as Rowley talks to someone about nursing school. Since Rowley received a diary for his birthday, Greg is determined to read it to find out why Rowley would want to be a nurse. His plans are foiled, however, when he sees that Rowley's diary has a key.

Cashing in his Mom Bucks, he purchases a diary that is identical to Rowley's so that he can open his friend's diary. When he does he doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. He feels that he has wasted his money. That next weekend, Greg's mother and father go away for some alone time, and they leave Manny with Greg's grandparents. Rodrick makes sure his parents are gone, and then he calls his friends and invites them over for a party. Greg vows silence if he can come to the party. Rodrick agrees, but the night of the party, he locks Greg in the basement. However, since Rodrick has "the secret" on Greg he manages to blackmail him into helping him clean up the house before their parents come home.

Frank, their father, notices that something is wrong with the bathroom door, but can't figure out what. The lock that used to be on it is missing. Greg and Rodrick switched the door with one in the basement after Rodrick's party because one of the party-goers had drawn inappropriate pictures on it. Greg decides that this is the "dirt" he has been waiting for and threatening to tell their parents about it will make Rodrick drop his blackmail treatment.

Greg receives a letter from his pen pal, but it irritates him because writing letters is so old school. He doesn't know why the teachers won't let them email each other. It'd be so much easier. Susan, meanwhile, is determined to make her two older sons bond with one another. She learns that some of the kids are into a role playing game called Magick and Monsters. She buys some cheat books for the boys to learn to play better. Unfortunately, Rodrick seizes on the opportunity to annihilate Greg's characters, then shows no mercy when they play their games. Greg believes that his mother's quest to promote sibling bonding is a waste of time.

The school notifies Greg's family that the music education program has been cancelled. Susan arranges for Rodrick to give both Rowley and Greg drum lessons in exchange for some Mom Bucks. It does not go well and Rodrick uses the opportunity to make both Greg and Rowley feel like idiots. In the meanwhile, over at Rowley's house, Greg finds the same fake money that his mother uses for her Mom Bucks. He asks Rowley if he can have it, then takes the money home and stashes it away in his room.

Greg finds himself short on time to write a paper for his History class. Rodrick tells him that he has an old paper that he will sell Greg in exchange for some Mom Bucks. He agrees and takes the paper, but it is completely on the wrong topic and he gets an F. Meanwhile, Rodrick tries to use the Mom Bucks that he's gotten from Greg, but Susan suspects something. She knows that Rodrick hasn't done anything to have earned all of those Mom Bucks. She suspends the program summarily.

In December, Susan asks Frank to go down to the corner to pick up the pictures that she'd dropped off to be developed from Thanksgiving, but the pictures that Frank returns with are pictures from Rodrick's party. They punish both Rodrick and Greg, whom they assume was also in on it. Their parents no longer trust them to stay alone at the house, so when Susan and Frank have to both leave the house, they take the boys over to their Grandfather's apartment.

Meanwhile, the school announces a Winter Talent Show and Rowley and Greg think that they will do something for that as a way of becoming popular. Frank ends the boys' punishment early as the drum practice is driving him crazy. Rowley stays the night at Greg's house and Greg ends up hurting Rowley on accident. Manny witnesses it and tells his mother. She makes Greg agree to be Rowley's assistant for his magic act for the talent show. They try out for the show, but don't make it. Roderick's science fair project is finally completed and Roderick goes back to practicing with his band.

Rodrick's science teacher, however, calls Susan and Frank and tells them that Rodrick's project didn't meet the standards and that he'll have to resubmit. Roderick's parents make him stop practicing with his band and focus on his science fair project. Rodrick defies his parents claiming that when his band wins they are going to go for a record contract and then they will be dropping out of school to go on tour. Susan and Frank start to argue but see that it is a losing battle. Susan agrees to film Rodrick on stage during the talent show. The film doesn't turn out well and is unusable, mainly because Susan starts dancing and it is captured on film by the school's official photographer. Greg is embarrassed twice.

Rodrick is furious and blames Greg for not shooting the film. He decides that it is time to unveil Greg's summertime secret to the general public. Greg shares what the big secret is. During the summer, Greg had accidentally walked into the women's bathroom when they had been visiting their grandfather at Leisure Towers apartments. He had tried to leave quickly, but had become trapped in a stall waiting for the women who had come in, to leave. Meanwhile, Rodrick has gone to work and before the day is out, Greg's story is out. Devastated, Greg asks his mother if he can be transferred to another school.

To Greg's surprise all of the students at school view Greg as a hero. Greg is confused and gets to the bottom of it. Apparently the story that Rodrick told was passed around so much that it changed. Instead of old women in the retirement apartments, the story has been changed to the story that Greg managed to get into the girl's locker room at Crossland high school. He is instantly popular...at least with the boys.

Meanwhile, Rodrick's day is made when his band gets noticed because of his mother's antics on camera. The video goes viral and is called "Dancing Mom" on the internet. Rodrick develops a reputation as being the drummer from the "Dancing Mom" video. Even though it does get Rodrick noticed, and his band, he is still extremely embarrassed. Greg finds himself feeling actually sorry for Rodrick. Later, the family receives word that if Rodrick doesn't turn in a real science project that he will fail for the year. Greg tells Rodrick that he will help him and the two brothers honestly work together to get it done. Rodrick tells Greg that he's glad that he's his brother.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the second book in the popular series. The same tweens who made Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney a bestseller wanted more. They got it with the second book in the very funny Diary of a Wimpy Kid series , Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules .

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series Popularity

The Wimpy Kid's popularity is due to both the illustrations and diary format and the emphasis on concerns that tweens actually have. The main character, Greg Heffley, who narrates the story through his diary, shares regular issues and crises kids face. Kids really identify with Greg, a goofy, self-centered and funny middle schooler who deals with a variety of problems, many of his own making.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules : The Format

The format of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the same as the first book. Lined pages and Greg's pen and ink sketches and cartoons really make the book seem like an actual diary, or as Greg would emphasize, “a journal.” Greg is still not the poster boy for the perfect kid, but that adds to the fun as he suffers the consequences of some of his poor choices.

Middle-schooler Greg Heffley's diary starts with summer and the misery of being on the swim team. His friend Rowley has gone on another exciting vacation that Greg doesn't want to hear about. His little brother, Manny, and his parents are still tending to drive him crazy.

Greg's biggest problem is his big brother, Rodrick, who knows an embarrassing secret about Greg. Despite this worry, Greg continues on his goofy way, dealing with school, bullies, homework, and family, especially Rodrick.

Ultimately, the secret gets out. However, due to all the changes in the description of Greg’s secret as it passes from person to person, it’s no longer something that is an embarrassment to Greg.

Despite all the teasing that goes on between Greg and his brother, they still care for one another. By the book's end, when push comes to shove, Greg has set aside his animosity and tries to help Rodrick when he needs it.

For More About the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series and Related Books

In addition to information about the books in the series, you'll also learn about related Wimpy Kid books. These include The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book , The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary and  The Wimpy Kid School Planner.  If your kids enjoy the humorous diary/journal/comic book mashup format, they will probably also love the Star Wars: Jedi Academy series.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney - review

Meet Greg Heffley, a teenaged boy who is a 100% accident prone (which isn't such a gift when you live with his family...a single mistake can mean BIG trouble). This time he is back in the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book with more jokes, stories and Greg's fabulous cartoons filled with humour. But you'd better be careful which page you touch as Greg still has the lurgy of the cheese touch!

Greg's older brother Rodrick now knows two of Greg's biggest secrets. One, is the existence of his diary. And the second, is the story about the kiss of death. The worst thing that can possibly happen to him (after death) is people knowing that he keeps a diary. This book is filled with surprising twists and there is a mere amount of things you can be sure of whilst reading it. But there is one thing that you can be sure of...there is no brotherly love between him and Rodrick.

Think he's in enough of a crisis? Well, think again. Aside from Rodrick there's Manny. Greg's three-year-old brother who would do anything to tell on Greg. How can Greg's Mum and Dad let him get away with stuffing a chocolate-chipped cooking in the disc drive of his video game system? How can giving him a ball with toothpicks stuck into it make everything better? How can Greg's life get any worse?

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are perfect reads on a wet boring day that will make your sides ache with laughter. I like the way Jeff Kinney made it into a mix of cartoons and text which spiced up the book and made Greg's character more fun and unique - it looks like a real diary or as Greg likes to call it 'a journal'.

It'd be a great present for someone who doesn't like to read novels yet or doesn't have a stretched amount of reading skills. The fact that it is written with a variety of cartoons and writing makes it less of a harsh book to read and more of a light one which was nice for me to get a mixture of different types of books.

Although there is no real climax to the story line, it covers the ongoing hassles that Greg faces at school and home which, like life, just keep surfacing! It also made me eager to read on because I wanted to know what the twist at the end would be.

My own personal and favourite highlight of reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules was reading it with my Dad who equally enjoyed it - laughing away on the bus together when X happened. Greg and his stories are entertaining and amusing for anyone who's ever been a humorous and goofy kid! You rule Greg!

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Rodrick Rules

38 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-6

Part 3, Chapters 7-8

Part 4, Chapters 9-11

Character Analysis

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Important Quotes

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Discussion Questions

Greg Heffley

Greg Heffley is a middle school student and the protagonist of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Greg is the middle child in his family with one older brother and one younger brother, and much of the novel focuses on his family dynamics with his siblings and his parents. Throughout the series, Greg uses his journals to tell stories about his life, his friends, his family, and his goal to become popular at his middle school. However, Jeff Kinney depicts Greg as an insecure person who struggles with dishonestly, irresponsibility, and insecurity.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jeff kinney, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Rodrick Heffley Character Timeline in Diary of a Wimpy Kid

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‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules’ Review: Oh, Brother

The beloved children’s book series receives another film installment.

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By Calum Marsh

The media franchise “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” has a long and storied history and has taken many, many forms. It started in 2004 as a kind of serialized web comic for kids on the educational website Funbrain. Its popularity led to a book deal for the author and illustrator Jeff Kinney, who turned the comics into a best-selling children’s book that combined text with crudely drawn cartoons. The book begot more than a dozen sequels; three spinoffs ; a Children’s Theater Company musical ; and six feature film adaptations, including two different versions based on the original book — one in live action, from 2010 , and one animated, from 2021 . A sequel to the animated one, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules,” streaming on Disney+, is based on the second book. It’s not to be confused with the live-action movie of the same name , from 2011. Got it?

If all that makes this latest “Rodrick Rules” sound a bit redundant, the movie itself does little to suggest otherwise. Of course, none of the earlier “Wimpy Kid” movies were particularly great, but this animated retread, in which the gawky adolescent dweeb Greg (voiced by Brady Noon) must contend with the petulant foibles of his big brother, Rodrick (voiced by Hunter Dillon), feels distinctly insubstantial.

It’s the sort of bland, innocuous trifle that will swiftly recede into the oblivion of a streaming service menu — a comedy without laughs and a family movie without heart, lacking any of the wit or charm of Kinney’s original stories. The director, Luke Cormican, keeps the action in a mild register that feels blandly televisual, hitting episodic beats that have no memorable emphasis. I imagine they’ll keep making these — why stop now? If so, let’s hope they reread the books to remember what made them endearing.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Watch on Disney+.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Endearing underdog hero Greg Heffley returns for another year of middle-school humiliation in "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules."

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

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Endearing underdog hero Greg Heffley returns for another year of middle-school humiliation in “ Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Rodrick Rules,” capitalizing on the sleeper success of the 2010 kidpic before puberty has a chance to render runt-sized Zachary Gordon any less wimpy. Quickie adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s second novel — which centers on big brother Rodrick’s ongoing torture of the seventh-grade weakling — blends “Brady Bunch”-style morality with other standard-issue sitcom tropes, then redeems itself via memorable supporting characters. It’s hardly Harry Potter, but even without wizards or vampires, Fox clearly has a healthy young-adult franchise on its hands.

The remarkable thing about the original “Wimpy Kid” was the fact that it didn’t take the lazy route of manufacturing a nemesis for its titular outcast, but instead allowed Greg to learn from his own mistakes, the way real adolescents inevitably must, even if it meant recognizing its self-absorbed hero as something of a jerk. This much safer follow-up feels far less subversive, falling back on stock coming-of-age devices, including bully Rodrick (Devon Bostick), out-of-his-league love interest Holly (Peyton List) and a school talent show where everything comes to a head.

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With the exception of Chloe Moretz, busy making “Hugo Cabret” with Martin Scorsese, all the key players are back, which makes for nice continuity as “Wimpy Kid” opens at the start of a new school year, with a retro roller-skating party for incoming seventh graders. True to Kinney’s books, screenwriters Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah recognize that nothing is more intimidating to today’s teens than the prospect of public embarrassment, a fear they exploit by repeatedly putting Greg in situations where he risks widespread ridicule: wearing Speedos to swim practice, being babied by his parents in front of Holly, getting trapped outdoors in nothing but his underwear, and so on.

Adolescence is humiliating enough without someone actively tormenting you, but Greg has it especially rough, with Rodrick dreaming up creative pranks to antagonize his brother. (Equally crafty younger sibling Manny, played by twins Owen and Connor Fielding, takes a backseat in this chapter of the series.)

Greg’s well-meaning mother (Rachael Harris) and mostly clueless father (Steve Zahn, barely tapping his comedic potential) try to remedy the situation by forcing their sons to spend quality time together. While the parents are away, the boys throw an illicit house party — a ridiculously PG-appropriate affair characterized by soda chugging and conga lines — that results in some genuine bonding before Greg spills the beans.

In the lead, Gordon has the wide-eyed appeal of a young Matthew Broderick: He looks nothing like Kinney’s crudely rendered cartoon character, but makes the mischievous character likable even when his often-inconsiderate actions invite reproach. It’s thanks to Gordon that younger auds can identify with the character while “Wimpy Kid” soft-sells the sort of behavioral lessons parents appreciate.

Pic’s animation demands are minimal, an artifact of the story’s first-person diary device, allowing “Astro Boy” helmer David Bowers to demonstrate his live-action chops. He gets mostly solid perfs from his young ensemble, though the characters feel more two-dimensional this time around, clearly doomed to sitcom-style supporting status in this and future installments. Bostick is just silly enough to sell the goofily rebellious Rodrick, while List looks pretty as the otherwise personality-bereft blonde, Holly.

Since production values are only modestly better than TV, Fox might as well rush to adapt the rest of Kinney’s “Wimpy Kid” series while the cast is still scrawny enough to fit the bill.

• Production: A 20th Century Fox release of a Fox 2000 Pictures presentation of a Color Force production in association with Dune Entertainment. Produced by Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson. Executive producer, Jeff Kinney. Co-producer, Ethan Smith. Directed by David Bowers. Screenplay, Gabe Sachs, Jeff Judah, based on the book by Jeff Kinney.
• Crew: Camera (Deluxe color), Jack Green; editor, Troy Takaki; music, Edward Shearmur; music supervisor, Julia Michels; production designer, Brent Thomas; set designer, John G. Burke; set decorator, MaryLou Storey; art director, Shannon Grover; costume designer, Tish Monaghan; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS), James Kusan; supervising sound editor, Donald Sylvester; re-recording mixers, Jim Bolt, Elliot Tyson; stunt coordinators, Dave Hospes, Doug Chapman; visual effects supervisor, Mark Dornfeld; visual effects and animation, Custom Film Effects; assistant director, Lisa C. Satriano; casting, Ronna Kress, Coreen Mayrs, Heike Brandstatter. Reviewed at 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, March 22, 2011. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 99 MIN.
• With: Greg Heffley - Zachary Gordon Rodrick Heffley - Devon Bostick Susan Heffley - Rachael Harris Rowley Jefferson - Robert Capron Frank Heffley - Steve Zahn Holly Hills - Peyton List With: Connor Fielding, Owen Fielding, Karan Brar, Laine MacNeil, Grayson Russell, Terence Kelly, Fran Kranz, Bryce Hodgson, Andrew McNee.

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A Hundred Years Ago

"A Hundred Years Ago"  is a poem written by  Rodrick Heffley  for an essay that  Mr. Huff assigned. In Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules , when the power goes out at the Heffley residence, Rodrick sells this poem to Greg for 20,000 in Mom Bucks . Greg reviews the assignment on the bus ride to school, noticing that it is a poem and not an essay; he decides to not turn it in.

Book and online version

Sometimes I sit and wonder About stuff I don't know Like what the heck the earth was like A hundred years ago.

Did cavemen ride on dinosaurs? Did flowers even grow? Well we could guess but that was back A hundred years ago.

I wish they built a time machine And they picked me up to go To check out what the scene was like A hundred years ago.

Did giant spiders rule the earth? Were deserts filled with snow? I wonder what the story was A hundred years ago.

===Movie version=== Sometimes I sit and wonder About stuff, I do not know Like, what the earth was like A hundred years ago.

Did cavemen ride on dinosaurs? Did flowers even grow? Did spiders rule the earth? Were deserts filled with snow?

There were no books or humans So how are we to know What the earth was like A hundred years ago.

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Back in middle school after summer vacation, Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick must deal with their parents' misguided attempts to have them bond. Back in middle school after summer vacation, Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick must deal with their parents' misguided attempts to have them bond. Back in middle school after summer vacation, Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick must deal with their parents' misguided attempts to have them bond.

• David Bowers
• Jeff Kinney
• Zachary Gordon
• Devon Bostick
• Robert Capron
• 86 User reviews
• 99 Critic reviews
• 51 Metascore
• 2 wins & 5 nominations

• Greg Heffley

• Rodrick Heffley

• Rowley Jefferson

• Susan Heffley

• Frank Heffley
• Manny Heffley

• Holly Hills

• Patty Farrell

• Coach Malone

• Mr. Draybick

• Rowley's Dad
• (as Alfred E. Humphreys)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Devon Bostick (Rodrick) learned to play the drums for this film.
• Goofs On YouTube, Greg and Rowley uploaded a video of him sitting on Manny's "present," and later they discover it has just four views. However it has over 20,000 comments (24,963 to be exact) and with just four views that would mean 6,241 comments per viewer.

Greg Heffley : I was thinking I would write her a note.

Rodrick Heffley : Like, one with words in it?

• Crazy credits The animated 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning of the movie changes to a cartoonified version, then pans down.
• Connections Edited into Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)
• Soundtracks Norgaard Written by Árni Árnason (as Arni Hjorvar Arnason), Freddie Cowan (as Freddie Clayton Cowan), Justin Hayward-Young (as Justin Hayward-Young) and Pete Robertson (as Peter Gareth Christopher Robertson) Performed by The Vaccines Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment (UK) Limited and Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User reviews 86

• Mar 21, 2011
• How long is Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules? Powered by Alexa
• March 25, 2011 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Nhật Ký Cậu Bé Nhút Nhát: Luật Của Rodrick
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Fox 2000 Pictures
• Color Force
• Dune Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $21,000,000 (estimated)
• $52,698,535
• $23,751,502
• Mar 27, 2011
• $72,526,996

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 39 minutes
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Literature / Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is the 2nd book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney . Releasing in 2008, this book follows the same example as the first book of Greg writing in his diary with simple illustrations.

Rodrick Rules provides examples of:

• Accidental Good Outcome : Greg writes a story called Rory Screws Up . In it, a monkey named Rory accidentally rings the doorbell (though it's not specified how he did so). His owners think he's smart and give him bananas as a treat.
• A Day in the Limelight : This book has a focus on Rodrick.
• Ageless Birthday Episode : Rowley celebrates a birthday party, although he doesn't get older and his age is unstated.
• Agony of the Feet : When Rowley sleeps over at Greg's house, he gets up to use the bathroom every five minutes, and whenever he returns he kicks a pillow across the room. This annoys Greg, who puts one of his dad's dumbbells under the pillow the next time Rowley uses the bathroom as a prank. When he comes back, Rowley ends up breaking his big toe, and Greg has to fill in for him at the talent show auditions .
• Alliteration & Adventurers : Greg plays a game called Magick & Monsters .
• Annoyingly Repetitive Child : Rowley (who's about twelve or thirteen) lies that he has to use the bathroom before kicking a pillow down the stairs. He does this every fifteen minutes, and Greg is initially amused, but he becomes sick of this. As such, he hides a heavy weight under the pillow in case Rowley tries to kick it again, resulting in Rowley breaking his toe .
• Antagonist Title : Rodrick is at his most antagonistic in this book, blackmailing Greg all over the book with an embarrassing secret.
• Awkward Poetry Reading : During the talent show, Charise Kline reads a poem about global warming, while Terrence James plays a harmonica while riding a unicycle. Greg notes that those two do not go well together, presumably because of all the noise (and/or because playing the harmonica on a unicycle is too silly to combine with such a serious poem).
• Greg is introduced to a game called Magick and Monsters , an obvious Dungeons & Dragons analogue.
• There's also mentioning of a book Greg repeatedly does book reports on called Sherlock Sammy Does It Again , with Sherlock Sammy being an equivalent of Encyclopedia Brown .
• Car Ride Games : Greg tries to entertain Manny in the car by making silly faces, but when Manny laughs so hard that he sprays apple juice out his nose, their mother says "You could've killed him!", which makes Manny cry.
• Chekhov's Gun : All the details that allowed Greg's embarrassing secret to unfold the way it did were introduced to the reader in a previous segment where Greg and Rodrick stayed over at their grandfather's apartment.
• Comically Missing the Point : Susan plays Magick & Monsters with Greg, Rowley, and Leland. Leland: You run into a pack of orcs... and they look HUNGRY! Susan: We give them all of our food! (Greg facepalms )
• Concert Episode : Rodrick plays in his band for the talent show. They become famous, but only because of Rodrick's mother's ridiculous dancing.
• Crappy Homemade Gift : Manny breaks Greg's video game device and tries to make him an Apology Gift . Unfortunately, being only three, the best he can come up with is a ball of tinfoil with toothpicks poking out, which Greg's friend Rowley accidentally sits on .
• Deliberately Cute Child : Discussed by Greg. He says that he used to have to do Rodrick's fundraisers for him, but now Rodrick makes Manny do them. Greg: Um... hello, sir... would you like to help support... Man: Not interested! Manny: Wood you wike some chokwits? Man: How precious!
• Does Not Like Spam : Greg hates watercress salad, which his grandpa always serves because Rodrick tricked him into thinking Greg liked it.
• Embarrassing Initials : Peter Uteger was the smartest kid in Greg's class until Greg and several other students teased him for having the initials P.U. As a result, Peter stopped raising his hand and became a C student. Greg admits that he feels bad about this, but it's hard for him not to take credit.
• Embarrassing Old Photo : During his sophomore year, Rodrick was Out Sick on Picture Day , so Susan told Frank to send in Rodrick's freshman photo, but somehow Frank screwed up and sent in Rodrick's second grade photo instead, and that's what ended up in Rodrick's high school yearbook.
• Embarrassment Plot : Rodrick blackmails Greg with an embarrassing secret, which turns out to be accidentally walking into the women's bathroom at a senior home and being mistaken for a "peeping Tom".
• Everyone Has Standards : Rodrick may drive Greg crazy, but Greg doesn't want him to flunk out of school, so he offers to help Rodrick with his science project.
• Exact Words : Rodrick drives Greg home from swim practice, but makes him ride in the back. He then slams on the brakes each time they stop so that Greg hits his head. The next time Rodrick drives Greg, Greg asks him to please go easy on the brakes. What does Rodrick do? Say "okay", but then go over every speed bump he can.
• Glass Eye : Greg imagines what it would be like if he had a glass eye—he would use it to play tricks on his friends, but mainly to cheat on tests by aiming his glass eye down at his paper and looking at a smart kid's paper with his real eye, "and the teacher would be too dumb to notice." Greg: Unfortunately, I DON'T have a glass eye. So if Mom asks me why I flunked my pop quiz in Pre-Algebra today, that's my excuse.
• Gone Horribly Right : Greg's mom tells him that if he lies again he'll be grounded for a month. The result is that Greg starts to use Brutal Honesty and absolute literalism until she can't stand it anymore and makes him stop — not out of a deliberate attempt at payback, notably, but rather because he genuinely thought that that was what he was supposed to do.
• Gone Horribly Wrong : Rodrick's plan to permanently ruin Greg's life by making an embarrassing secret public ( After Rodrick got hold of Greg's first diary while they were visiting Grandpa at his retirement home, Greg managed to get it back and locked himself in the bathroom to destroy it, only to find out that he locked himself in the ladies room. He got caught out later. ) fails spectacularly when he tells the secret to his friends who have younger siblings who attend Greg's school, only for the message to get so screwed up when, apparently according to a bit of Greg's guesswork, said friends tell their siblings who tell their friends about the story to the point where it turns into an entirely different story where Greg infiltrates the girls' changing room at Crosslands High School . This earns Greg a boatload of respect with the majority of the students for apparently pulling off a ballsy stunt, at the cost of the female students being absolutely disgusted.
• Good Behavior Points : Susan creates a system called "Mom Bucks", in which Greg and Rodrick can earn a currency called Mom Bucks in place of actual money by doing chores. One Mom Buck is worth only a penny, so that a hundred would be equal to only one dollar. She ultimately abandons the system when Greg attempts to cheat it after finding a large amount of the board game currency used for Mom Bucks at Rowley's house.
• Gossip Evolution : After all the footage of Rodrick's band performing at the talent show proves unsuitable to send to record companies, he takes it out on Greg by repeating an incident where Greg accidentally locked himself in the ladies' room at their grandpa's retirement home. This backfires for Rodrick , since the story gets mutated into Greg sneaking into the girls' changing room at Crosslands High.
• "Harmful to Pets" Reminder : Greg makes a book report about moose and notes that moose will eat just about anything , so he lists some things that moose do not eat, such as bubblegum, metal, and pizza. There is an illustration of a chef offering a moose pizza, only for the moose to turn it down.
• Hopeless Auditionees : Greg and Scotty are the only people to not get into the talent show. This is due to Greg not handing Scotty any of his props for his magic act.
• Hypocritical Humor : Susan frequently calls out Greg for lying to her but she lies occasionally too, such as the one time she pretended to call the dentist when finding out Greg wasn't brushing his teeth.
• I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham : When Rodrick tells Greg that Rowley's new babysitter Leland is the biggest nerd in high school, Greg is reluctant to play " Magick and Monsters " with him, but it turns out that he really likes it. Subverted in the fact that he ends up agreeing with Rodrick that Leland is the biggest nerd in the school .
• Incessant Music Madness : Listening to Löded Diper practicing for the talent show drives Frank insane, to the point where he ends Rodrick's punishment two weeks early just so Rodrick will be out of the way.
• Inept Aptitude Test : Greg takes a test for Career Day at his school. He thinks he'll be a billionaire with a mansion, but the test gives him the result "clerk."
• Greg stated in his science project that the moose, along with humans, evolved from birds. The teacher was not amused.
• Rodrick when he attempts to write an essay. Frank: Well, for starters, Abraham Lincoln didn't write To Kill a Mockingbird .

Did cavemen ride on dinosaurs? Did flowers even grow? Well we could guess but that was back A hundred years ago.

I wish they built a time machine And they picked me to go To check out what the scene was like A hundred years ago.

Did giant spiders rule the earth? Were deserts filled with snow? I wonder what the story was A hundred years ago.

• Irony : Rodrick shares Greg's secret to everyone he knows, expecting his entire school will make fun of him. Instead, miscommunications turn it into the best day of Greg's life.
• Just Following Orders : When Greg's mom wants Greg to no longer lie , he tells every single truth from the fact a that a two-hundred-pound kid can't play basketball due to his weight to the fact that Rowley's grandfather might not be alive next year.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey : After everything Rodrick put Greg through in the book, he is thoroughly ruined toward the end, with a chain of misfortunes hitting him in rapid succession. In the end, he is so cornered Greg helps him out of pity.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films : Greg talks about Rodrick's science project the previous year, which was called "Does Watching Violent Movies Make People Think Violent Thoughts?" It was really just an excuse for Rodrick and his friends to watch horror movies on school nights, because they never did any research, so Greg and his parents had to do all the work. Greg tried to imagine what teenagers would draw after watching horror movies, but Susan thought his drawings were disturbing, and only let him watch G-rated movies for the rest of the year. Ironically, Manny ended up watching horror under Susan's nose, and his drawings were even worse afterwards.
• When Susan joins the Magick and Monsters session at Leland's house, she decides she wants her character to be the mother of Greg's character. Greg lies that his character is an orphan, which Susan believes...but then she ends up simply naming her character "Mom".
• After Rodrick gets grounded for throwing a wild party, Frank makes him get out of bed at 8 a.m. Rodrick, who loves to sleep so much he once slept for 36 hours straight , manages to find a way around this rule: he drags his bedding into the living room and sleeps on the couch until dinnertime.
• Loud of War : When Rodrick's garage band attracts loitering teenagers, Greg's dad fights back by playing classical music from a boom box in the window.
• Memetic Mutation : In-Universe example: The local cable channel captures Greg's mom dancing while taping Löded Diper's performance while recording the winter talent show. After being uploaded to the internet, the video is dubbed "The Dancing Mom video".
• Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher : Mom's attempt to make Greg and Rodrick resolve a fight consists of writing down what they did wrong and making them draw pictures of it (something she did with misbehaving kids as a preschool teacher). Greg draws a picture of baby Rodrick crying after being called a name and Rodrick draws himself pushing Greg off a cliff into the mouth of a hungry shark.
• Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book : Played with when Greg has to draw what he thinks teenagers would draw after watching violent horror movies (as part of Rodrick's science project). Played straight when Manny accidentally watches one of the movies from the same project, then draws a bunch of pictures that scare Greg when he finds them. (It's never explicitly stated that the movie actually scared Manny; in fact, the picture in the book just shows him looking at the TV confused.)
• Nobody Likes a Tattletale : Greg is not happy with the fact that 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 spelled it out and Susan gave him the Soap Punishment and didn't punish Rodrick for saying it first .
• Noodle Incident : Subverted. Greg talks about how Rodrick is blackmailing him with an embarrassing secret that isn't revealed until the end of the book. He got stuck in the woman's bathroom at the old folks home.
• Rodrick, fearing his parents will find out about his party, has this reaction when Frank uses the bathroom and asks, "Didn't this door used to lock?".
• Greg has this reaction upon discovering that Rowley's parents suddenly switched babysitters from Heather to Leland.
• Greg has this reaction upon discovering that Rodrick told his secret to everyone he knew who had a sibling Greg's age.
• One-Letter Pun : A kid named Peter Uteger was said to be the only kid who broke the "last-name rule", a rule where kids with last names that started with letters earlier in the alphabet got called on more by the teacher, and therefore were smarter. However, once people found out what Peter's initials sounded like out loud, it was over for him. Nowadays, he doesn't raise his hand at all, and he's pretty much a C-student.
• Overly Prepared Gag : The new instalment of Creighton the Cretin Greg creates based on Scotty’s terrible magic act ends with one of the kids telling the title character “That’s not even a magician’s hat, it’s an Abraham Lincoln hat”. Anyone paying attention to the previous page will note that Creighton’s top hat is indeed taller than Scotty’s.
• Playing Sick : Upon seeing Rodrick with the flu, Greg's parents decide to take a vacation for a few days while Manny stays at Gramma's house. The instant his parents leave, Rodrick jumps up and calls his friends, revealing that he was just faking sick.
• Remote Control Ruckus : When Mr. and Mrs. Heffley suddenly start acting extremely lovey-dovey in front of Manny, Greg realizes it's because they found a crude picture Manny drew of two people yelling at each other and himself crying. He then realizes it's actually meant to be him and Rodrick fighting over the remote control, but decides not to tell their parents about that.
• Rock Bottom : By the end of the book, Rodrick has essentially hit this: His science project ends up being a complete waste of time, and without a makeup project, he’ll not only fail Science, he’ll flunk out of school all together. To make matters worse, his band both lost the school wide talent show, and the recording of the performance intended for record companies was ruined by Susan, who both commented over the tape and them danced to it, resulting in her embarrassing dance moves going viral and Rodrick (and Greg to a lesser extent) getting teased over it. And his attempt to humiliate Greg by revealing how he accidentally entered the women's bathroom at Leisure Towers backfires when the rumor is warped and Greg instead becomes popular for apparently infiltrating the girl's dressing room at Crosslands High School. Despite everything that’s happening, Greg decides to take pity on his brother and help him make a new science project. While the outcome isn’t revealed, it’s clear that Rodrick is still in school at least.
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies : Greg's mom forces Rodrick to play Magick & Monsters with Greg. On the very first turn, Rodrick (the DM) declares that everyone falls into a hole and died. Rodrick: You and your group of nerds fall into a pit and it's full of dynamite and you blow up. The end.
• Stupid Good : In-Universe , Greg's mom plays Magick & Monsters this way. For example, her solution to the party being attacked by a band of orcs is to give the orcs all of the players' food. She then gets the idea that the game is a good way to teach Greg and Rodrick to get along better. It fails miserably.
• Take That! : Sherlock Sammy is a parody of the Encyclopedia Brown series. Each novel has the same plot, where some adult commits a small crime and makes some stupid mistake, and then Sherlock Sammy solves it and makes the adult look like an idiot. ("Your first mistake was that you forgot to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit!" or "Your first mistake was that you forgot to convert miles to kilometers!" in some translations) In the webcomic, he actually names Encyclopedia Brown.
• Teacher's Unfavorite Student : At least two of Greg's new teachers dislike him on principle because they had his big brother Rodrick (a Book Dumb slacker and delinquent) in their classes a few years ago. His history teacher Mr. Huff glares at him and makes him sit in a chair right next to the teacher's desk, and his pre-algebra teacher Ms. Lee watches him like a hawk.
• Toilet Humor : Greg's "secret" is that he once walked into the wrong bathrooms at Leisure Towers .
• Unspoken Retort : Greg says he uses Sherlock Sammy books as material for his book reports. The illustration shows Sammy telling a man that he should've converted Celsius to Fahrenheit, and a police officer thinks, "Geek!"
• What Happened to the Mouse? : Jeremy Pindle is never seen nor mentioned after Greg gives him the Cheese Touch.
• Why Don't You Marry It? : Greg has a flashback to when he was little and a kid named Quinn asked him if he liked ice cream. Greg responds, "Yeah!" and Quinn says, "Then why don't you marry it?" Greg then thinks that he will literally get married to an ice cream cone . When his mother explains it, he tries the joke out the next day: Greg: You're gonna grow up and get married to some ice cream! Ha!
• Wild Teen Party : A major plot point in the book: Rodrick has one when Frank and Susan leave. (When the parents take another weekend trip later on, Greg and Rodrick stay with Grandpa so this won't happen again.)
• Wrong Bathroom Incident : Near the end of the book, Rodrick texts Greg's secret to everyone he knows: during the summer when they were staying with their grandpa at Leisure Towers (an assisted living center), Greg ran into the bathroom while trying to hide from Rodrick and locked himself in a stall, but it turned out to be the women's bathroom. He couldn't leave because it was never empty, and he was eventually caught and mislabeled a "peeping tom" . He expects to come into school the next day and be bullied, but the constant spreading by mouth warps the story into him sneaking into the girls' locker room at Crossland High School and taking photos, making all the boys think he's incredibly cool.
• You Are Grounded! : As punishment for throwing a wild party, Rodrick gets grounded for a month (but Frank ends the punishment two weeks early, because he's going bonkers listening to Löded Diper practice every day), and Greg gets a two-week video game ban because he was in on Rodrick’s secret.

Video Example(s):

Rodrick's party.

When Rodrick's parents go on a weekend vacation, Rodrick throws a party. His younger brother Greg invites his friend Rowley, who ends up livening up the party.

Example of: Wild Teen Party

• ImageSource/Literature
• Literature/Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
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Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

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