Cheese Touch



"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 throughout the year. It is the overarching antagonist of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. If somebody has the Cheese Touch, they will be a social outcast until they pass it onto someone else by touching them, which is pretty difficult, as the main rule of the game causes no one to go near the person. The movie diary states that the Cheese is the overarching antagonist of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and its movie adaptation, despite it not being a character.

History
The Cheese Touch was first mentioned at the start of the first book, where it is revealed that The Cheese Touch originated from a piece of moldy cheese lying on the basketball court. 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.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
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.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
When Greg returns to school, he notices that the other students behave strangely around him (i.e. running away from him). He realizes that he still has the Cheese Touch from last year and that he had forgotten about it over the summer. Greg is initially worried that he will be stuck with it the whole year, as no one will come within thirty feet of him, but is able to pass it onto a new kid in his homeroom named Jeremy Pindle. It is not known what happened to Jeremy after he got the Cheese Touch.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down
In Double Down, Greg reveals that there's still a stain on the ground where the Cheese used to be. According to him, some students have tried starting up the Cheese Touch again though teachers have done their best to stop it from happening. One student snuck a slice of roast beef on where the cheese used to be and tried starting something called the "Roast Beef Touch", but it didn't have the same effect as the "Cheese Touch" and never came to be.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 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. Afterward, 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.

Known Victims
This is a list of people who are known to have had the Cheese Touch at some point.
 * Darren Walsh (Darnell Washington online version of Darren Walsh; getting tripped and touched the Cheese)
 * Dieter Muller (moved away with the Cheese Touch)
 * Abe Hall (book version of Dieter; moved away with the Cheese Touch as well)
 * 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)

Trivia

 * In the 2012 novel Wonder, the main character, Auggie, references the Cheese Touch when he notices "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.
 * Despite 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)