| “ | The Cheese Touch. Nobody knows when or how, but one day, that cheese mysteriously appeared on the blacktop. Nobody knew who it belonged to. Nobody touched it. Nobody threw it away. And so there it sat, growing more foul and powerful by the day. | ” |
| — Chirag Gupta in the film adaptation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. | ||
The Cheese Touch is a game mainly played at Westmore Middle School during Greg Heffley's first school year. It is the overarching antagonist of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its movie adaptation and serves as one of the the major antagonists in the online book despite it not being an actual character.
If somebody has the Cheese Touch, they will be a social outcast until they pass it onto someone else by touching them.
History[]
Diary of a Wimpy Kid[]
Darren chasing kids with the Cheese Touch
The Cheese Touch was first mentioned at the start of the book where it is revealed that the Cheese Touch originated from a piece of moldy Swiss cheese that lay on the basketball court for months. The first person to have the cheese touch was Darren Walsh, who touched it with his finger. Greg Heffley says that Cheese Touch works like the cooties: you have it until you pass it on to someone else. Greg says that the only way to protect yourself from the Cheese Touch is by crossing your fingers, and Greg ended up taping his fingers together (he got a D in handwriting as a result, but felt that it was worth it).
Greg says that a kid named Abe Hall got the Cheese Touch in the last April before middle school, and nobody would go near him for the rest of the school year. Greg says that Abe took the Cheese Touch with him when he and his family moved out to California, and Greg expresses hope that no one starts up the Cheese Touch again.[1]
Later, a wrestling unit was taught to the school which leads Greg to open up the possibly of the resurgence of the Cheese Touch.[2]
Everyone runs away from Greg after he says he threw the Cheese away in the first book
Towards the end of the first book, Greg and Rowley Jefferson are confronted by a group of teenagers they ran into on Halloween night, who end up forcing Rowley to eat the Cheese--they were going to make Greg and Rowley split it, but Greg was able to get out of it by claiming he was allergic to dairy. After Rowley was forced to eat the Cheese, kids at school the next day noticed that it was gone and started coming up with theories as to what happened to it. Greg ultimately kept his mouth shut about what happened to him and Rowley, and eventually claimed to the other students that he ended up throwing it away, which freaked them out because by saying that, Greg technically has the Cheese Touch.
Rodrick Rules[]
Kids running away from Greg (as he has the Cheese Touch) in Rodrick Rules
When Greg starts his second year of middle school, he notices all the other students are going out of their way to avoid him. He's confused by this, but then realizes why this is: Greg had gotten the Cheese Touch during the last week of the previous school year but had completely forgotten about it over the summer. Greg's initially that he'll be stuck with the Cheese Touch for the entire school year, but he ends up passing it onto Jeremy Pindle, a boy in his homeroom who's also a new transfer student to their school. After this, everybody at Greg's middle school seems to forget about the Cheese Touch for the most part.[3]
Double Down[]
The first mention of the Cheese Touch since the second book, Greg claims that there's still a stain on the ground where the old slice of cheese used to be. While Greg's happy that the cheese (along with the Cheese Touch) is gone, he claims that some students actually kind of miss it and have even tried starting it back up -- thankfully, the teachers have done everything they can to stop that from happening. One student tried starting it back up again but used a slice of roast beef instead of cheese -- as a result, they tried calling it the "Roast Beef Touch." However, it didn't have the same ring to it as "Cheese Touch," so it ultimately never came to be (and the roast beef was removed from the blacktop).
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)[]
Darren Walsh touching the Cheese in the 2010 Diary of a Wimpy Kid film
In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie, according to Chirag Gupta, the Cheese Touch’s history is slightly changed. Instead of Abe Hall, the student it is passed into before it dissipates for most of the book, the film has a German exchange student named Dieter Muller take the Cheese Touch and move back home to Düsseldorf.
Eventually, Rowley is forced to eat the cheese by the teenagers. When confronted, Greg takes the fall for eating the cheese, picks it up and has a powerful speech about the state of the school in place of his much more underwhelming reaction in the book. Despite this, the end result is the same: everyone is in consensus that Greg has the Cheese Touch and they scatter, all because of Patty. Afterwards, Greg picks up the cheese again and throws it away, before he and Rowley walk home together as they both have the Cheese Touch.
Near the end of the movie, as everyone gets their yearbook, Patty avoids Greg as she didn't want to get the Cheese Touch. She then hugs Rowley and gives him his yearbook. Both Rowley and Greg smile as since Patty hugged Rowley, he secretly passed his Cheese Touch to her, though Greg still has his.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011 film)[]
In the film, Greg mentions to Rowley that he passed his Cheese Touch to Jeremy Pindle, as he's the new kid. Later, the stain where the cheese was is shown.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)[]
Instead of Chirag telling Greg about the story of the cheese touch, Rodrick tells him, and it stay true to the book by having Abe Hall take the cheese touch with him after getting it.
Online[]
The start of the Cheese Touch was caused by Darnell Washington tripping over the cheese. [4]
Known Victims[]
This is a list of people who are known to have had the Cheese Touch at some point.
- Darren Walsh (got curious and touched the Cheese with his finger)
- Darnell Washington (online version of Darren Walsh; getting tripped and accidentally touched the Cheese)
- Abe Hall (moved away to California and took the Cheese Touch with him)
- Dieter Muller (movie version of Abe Hall; moved away with the Cheese Touch to Dusseldorf)
- Rowley Jefferson (forced to eat the Cheese in the first book, later saved by Greg)
- Greg Heffley (took the fall for Rowley Jefferson, who ate the Cheese)
- Patty Farrell (took the Cheese Touch by hugging Rowley Jefferson, without knowing)
- Jeremy Pindle (last known person with the Cheese Touch; was given the Cheese Touch by Greg in Rodrick Rules)
Trivia[]
- In the 2012 novel Wonder, the protagonist, August Pullman, references the Cheese Touch when he explains about "The Plague", a cooties-like game involving him.
- The type of cheese is Swiss, and it was said in the movie diary that they had to try out lots of different types for the movie.
- In the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies, the cheese used for The Cheese Touch is made out of silicone as stated in The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary.
- It was also stated that the rotting effect was generated using CGI.
- In the movie version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, as well as in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down, there is a dark stain from where the Cheese used to be.
- Due to this, students still avoid the stain, indicating that touching or stepping on the stain could still cause The Cheese Touch.
Appearances[]
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011 film)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)
Gallery[]
Online[]
Diary of a Wimpy Kid[]
Rodrick Rules[]
Cheese Became bad
References[]
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid, pages 8-10
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid, page 84
- ↑ Rodrick Rules, pages 9-10
- ↑ Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online), page 24