History Literature / DiaryOfAWimpyKid

* 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.]]

* 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.

* 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.

-->'''Susan:''' Let me get this straight. You and two of your bandmates toilet-papered an elderly woman's house?
-->'''Rodrick:''' No, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint there were four of us]]!

* 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.

** 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.]]

** ''Literature/FlatStanley'' books are referenced, with a cutout of Stanley being brought by Susan for the road trip. Greg thinks that if he were flat like Flat Stanley, [[BlackComedy Rodrick would put him through a paper shredder.]]

* ToiletHumor:

* 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.

For 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. There are two ''VideoGame/Minecraft'' series borrowing the diary format, ''Fanfic/DiaryOfAn8BitWarrior'', with added [[ActionizedAdaptation action]], and Fanfic/DiaryOfAMinecraftZombie.

For 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.

* 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.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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 which the students were looking for the money to have for themselves now that Larry Mack's son found it and calm it maing the students disappointed, 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.]]

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* 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]].

** ''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.]]

* 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.]]

* TotallyRadical: Greg receives a book called ''Math is Rad'' for Christmas .

* TotallyRadical: Greg receives a book for Christmas called ''Math is Rad''.

* 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.

** 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.
** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

* TooMuchInformation: Greg makes a comic strip telling people not to talk about that sorta stuff in public.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Dog Days'' refers to the [[TimeTitle summer setting]], but also the Heffley's adopting a dog.