Cheese Touch

The Cheese Touch is a game, mainly played at Westmore Middle School, throughout 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 Cheese Touch was started by touching a moldy slice of cheese on the basketball field that someone had left there, which never got picked up. The movie diary claims that the Cheese is the main antagonist of the first book and film, despite it not being a character.

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 the cheese, started the whole thing and lied to everybody by claiming he just looked at it, but nobody believed his lie because they saw him touch it. Greg says he "Doesn't want the cheese touch started up again because he doesn't want that kind of stress in his life anymore".

The only way for people to protect themselves from the Cheese Touch is to cross their fingers. Greg ended taping his fingers together so he doesn't get it, and he got a D in handwriting, but he said it was totally worth it. At the end of the story, Rowley Jefferson was forced into eating the moldy cheese by the teenagers who sprayed some fire extinguisher at Greg and Rowley on Halloween and started chasing them after Greg said "I saw your plates. We're calling the cops!", therefore Rowley ended The Cheese Touch, although he got the cheese touch when he ate it. Greg Heffley was known to have almost The Cheese Touch, because he lied to keep everybody from knowing that Rowley had The Cheese Touch. (It could be argued that almost touching the cheese was Greg's fault because he was the one who angered the teens, however, ultimately they are responsible for their own actions and Greg didn't mean to make them chase him and Rowley, so it wasn't really his fault, it was more like an accident.) In the movie, Patty technically got The Cheese Touch when she hugged Rowley in the end, but she didn't know that Rowley had the Cheese Touch and, ironically, she was trying to avoid it by not touching Greg.

In Dog Days, Greg passed the Cheese Touch onto Jeremy Pindle, but then it disappeared because Jeremy was new and didn't know what it was and nobody saw Greg touch Jeremy.

In Double Down, someone tried to start the Cheese Touch again, despite the teachers not wanting the nonsense to start again. The kid snuck a Roast Beef onto the basketball court at recess, then stating that he had the Roast Beef Touch. However, it did not get the same effect as the Cheese Touch.

People known to have the Cheese Touch

 * Darren Walsh
 * Greg Heffley (Not actually, was mistaken to in the book)
 * Rowley Jefferson (Only to be saved by Greg)
 * Abe Hall
 * Dieter Muller (film)
 * Jeremy Pindle (Current)
 * Patty Ferrel (film)

Appearances

 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid (First appearance)


 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid (film)


 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules


 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)
 * Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down (Mentioned only)

Trivia

 * Is it unknown if the Cheese Touch is game of tag.
 * It is not known what happened to the Cheese Touch, since it was not mentioned in any book after Rodrick Rules. It is likely that it dissolved as Jeremy Pindle is not seen giving it to anyone else and since Rowley ate the cheese.
 * This is further evidenced by Double Down, as everyone seemed to forget if people even had the cheese touch anymore.
 * In the 2012 novel, Wonder, Auggie references the Cheese Touch, when he notices "The Plague", a cooties-like game involving him.
 * 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.