Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde

Not to be confused by the one by Greg Heffley.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde is the 17th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series that was released on 25. The book has a rock and roll theme featuring Löded Diper as a big part of the plot. The book's full title and cover were revealed on Amazon on May 25th, 2022. On September 13th, 2022, a sneak peek of the book was revealed.

The cover depicts Greg Heffley with a guitar in his hand with him with his eyes shut tight and pointing his finger up, similar to a rock star. There are speakers around him, and it appears he is on stage.

Major characters

 * Greg Heffley
 * Bill Walter (main antagonist)
 * Rodrick Heffley
 * Drew
 * Mackie
 * Susan Heffley
 * Manny Heffley
 * Frank Heffley

Synopsis
In Diper Överlöde, book 17 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series from #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, Greg Heffley is finding out that the road to fame and glory comes with some hard knocks.

When he decides to tag along with his brother Rodrick’s band, Löded Diper, Greg doesn’t realize what he’s getting into. But he soon learns that late nights, unpaid gigs, fighting between band members, and money troubles are all part of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.

Can Greg help Löded Diper become the legends they think they are? Or will too much time with Rodrick’s band be a Diper Överlöde?

Plot
Greg says he always wanted to be rich and famous but now is starting to question its downsides. Greg says there are times where he would much rather spend time to himself without any fans bothering him. So he wants to be friends with a famous person. The problem is, none of his friends has a good chance so he turns his attention to Löded Diper. Rodrick has big plans to become a famous musician but his band Löded Diper still practices in the basement and hasn't played a show in over a year. Despite that, Rodrick still thinks Löded Diper will make it big time by winning a competition called, Battle of the Bands, which Rodrick's favorite band, Metallichihuahua, won and launched their career. Greg has no idea how Löded Diper is going to win the competition but figures he could go and cash in their story if they do.

Rodrick tells his band that to be rock stars, they need to dress like rock stars. They try to rip their jeans to look cool, but Susan puts patches on the holes and irons the jeans. Then Bill finds some rock star clothes in Goodwill. However, his grandma, who donated the clothes, forces him to return them. Finally, Rodrick had an idea of renting a Halloween rock star costume. However, the costumes are revealed to be cheap, with fake inflatable guitars. The costumes also only cover the front, so Greg hopes Bill will wear pants underneath if he decides to wear the costume.

As professional photographers are too expensive, Rodrick asks Susan to make a photo shoot of their band in their backyard, trying not to get a fence or a swing set on camera. They try using things from the backyard to make photos more interesting, but they fail. Susan tells them to be happier on the photos, but photos with them having fun also aren't very good. Greg becomes in charge of the band photo shoot, ending up trying to get a good photo of the band in the bathroom, as that suits Löded Diper's brand. That leads to Drew, one of the people in the band, having a toilet plunger stuck to his back, with their neighbour helping him get it off. They finally find a photography place in the mall, but it's for babies. The photographer still decides to take photos of the band. They get a photo of them doing baby things. However, Greg doesn't think they'll use those photos either. Löded Diper choses the calendar option for their photos, leading to Susan using the calendar with Löded Diper.

Rodrick wants to improve everything related to the band, including the van, which was rear-ended by someone, and now the back doors don't open. Löded Diper finds a contest called Hands on a Van, where the person who'll hold his hand on a van for the longest time wins the van. When Löded Diper gets to the contest, the contestants are already in position. It's very hard for Drew to keep his hand on the van, as he has just drunk a lot of soda and wants to go to the bathroom. The guys, still keeping their hand on the van, become hungry, so Susan gives Greg food so he could give it to Löded Diper, causing Greg to feed Bill. Contestants start irritating each other to win. One person starts reading all names in a textbook, causing Mackie to lose because it's too much for him. Every contestant left spent the night near the car, and everyone is so tired that one lady starts patting a dog that doesn't exist. Finally, it's just Rodrick and Bill versus a lady, who is ready to sit there for days. She's watching a game show, and when she guesses a question right, she's so happy that she gets her hand off the van. Rodrick and Bill start to compete with each other then, and don't take their hand off the van for two hours. They finally reach a compromise and take their hands off at the same time. However, they don't notice a guy who's still standing on the other side of the van, who ends up winning.

Trying to be popular through social media, Loded Diper creates an account of them playing their songs in the basement. They don't get many views though, even when they try to film in more interesting places. Then, Mackie accidentally films a video of Bill getting his foot hit with a loudspeaker. They post that video as a joke, and it turns out to be their most popular video. Then they start posting more slapstick things, causing their channel to become popular. However, soon they go back to posting music videos, and then abandon even that.

The guys agree that the best video of their favorite group Metallichihuahua is the one that they filmed in a dog shelter with real dogs. That video is popular because the chihuahuas weren't fed before the filming, so they attack the lead guitarist. Bill has an idea of them filming a music video while jumping with parachutes. However, they decide to record a music video with babies, as no one has done it before. They find out, however, that they can't just borrow babies for a couple of hours. Last year, the guys filmed their songs on Manny's toy tape recorder. However, Susan deleted everything after Manny started playing the songs in preschool. Now, Rodrick says that Metallichihuahua has some of their best songs on albums with cool photos, like the ones he has in his room. He wants to release Loded Diper's songs on a vinyl record with big art. The guys rent a studio to record songs, where they try out every instrument at first. Then they choose the songs that they want to record first, even though from the looks of it, every song is pretty much the same. Rodrick wants to put a Parental Warning sticker on the album so teenagers would want to buy it, so they need to record a song with swear words. Mackie doesn't want to do it, however, because he wants his mom to listen to the album, but Rodrick tells him that they aren't making the album for Mackie's mom. Rodrick and Mackie then start fighting and cool down for a long time after getting separated. Then the band wastes a lot of time by trying to get a guitar pick out of an acoustic guitar. After that, it gets scary as the pick falls down Bill's throat. Mackie knows how to get it out, so he helps Bill, and because of a window, the pick doesn't land on Greg. After that, Bill needs to stop singing after two or three verses, because he's exhausted after the pick situation. The band gives Bill some water, and they get through the whole song without Bill choking.

January
The band gets invited downtown by a club next door to Renegades, called the Headless Chicken. Rodrick also wants to make his drum set extra cool, so he put skulls on the tops of his cymbals. He also tries to fill a fog machine with smelly substances and have a different odor for each song, but his mom stopped him because it was unsanitary. His bandmates also got other ideas, such as coming out of porta-potties when it was time for the band to go out onstage, but they were expensive when brand new, so they got one from Drew's uncle.

Trivia

 * This is the sixth book to not have the word "Diary" in yellow.
 * The cover resembles a speaker, referencing the music/concert motif of this book.
 * This is the second book in which Greg's tongue is shown on the cover. The first time it was shown was in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down.
 * This is the first book where Greg isn't miserable or sad on the cover (except for Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book).
 * This is also the first book where Greg's eyes are closed on the cover.
 * This is the second black-colored book. with the first being in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School.
 * This is the 2nd time a Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book had an animated cover, first time is in Big Shot.