Zoo-Wee Mama!

Zoo-Wee Mama!
Name	Zoo-Wee Mama!
Written by	Greg Heffley (formerly) Rowley Jefferson
First appearance	Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
Last	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde

Zoo-Wee Mama! is the iconic comic strip created by Greg Heffley and pursued by Rowley Jefferson in the school newspaper for a brief amount of time after Greg relinquishes the comic. It is featured mainly in the earlier books of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise.

History

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Larry Mack Junior Middle School announces an aperture for the cartoonist slot in the school newspaper. Shortly after Greg discovered the news, he knew he had to try out as Bryan Little's comic 'Wacky Dawg' made him an icon and wanted a taste of stardom. Greg invited Rowley over after school to collaborate on the cartoon together. They instantly conceived a bunch of characters but when they went to the joke department they immediately faltered; Greg eventually came up with a solution where the punch line of every comic would be 'Zoo-Wee Mama!' so that they wouldn't be stuck devising authentic jokes and would prioritize the sketches. For the first few strips, Greg occupied most of the work and Rowley solely drew the boxes - eventually Rowley started complaining that he didn't have enough to undertake so Greg sanctioned him to compose a few strips.

Greg noticed a decline in quality after he permitted Rowley to write the strips and granted Rowley control over the entire operation. Greg told him maybe they should devise some new ideas but Rowley wanted to persist in producing Zoo-Wee Mama strips and gathered up all his comics and left. Greg comes up with a new cartoon strip and prospers, turning his comics into Mr. Ira's office.

When Greg abandons his cartoonist position due to the major alterations of his comic by Mr. Ira, they substitute his position to Rowley and his Zoo-Wee Mama comic which ends up being a hit amongst the school even towards teachers like Mr. Worth. This infuriates Greg as he was the one who composed the strip and now Rowley's acquiring the fame that he desired. After school. Greg confronts Rowley to compel him to acknowledge him as the co-creator but Rowley says Zoo-Wee Mama was his idea and that he wasn't involved with it. This allures the attention of the whole playground and soon a crowd emerges leading up to the dreaded cheese incident. Rowley ultimately ends up becoming friends with Greg again and becoming class clown in the yearbook for Zoo-Wee Mama.

Rodrick Rules

It is stated that Rowley quit Zoo-Wee Mama as he wanted further time to frolic with his Dinoblazer Action Figures. Greg presumably try's out for the cartoonist slot once again with Creighton the Cretin but gets rejected.

Diper Överlöde

Greg visualizes being harassed by his fans if he becomes rich and famous. One of them asks Greg to say "Zoo-Wee Mama!", Greg in response says it isn't his catchphrase.

Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid

Rowley gets invited to Greg's house and it starts raining forcing them to linger inside; they are obliged to not play video games as Greg got irked playing Twisted Wizard and demolished his controller. Susan Heffley hands them a notebook for them to get creative and compose comics like they used to. The notebook was filled with old Zoo-Wee Mama comics that they didn't try out for the school newspaper and Rowley tells Greg that they should produce more Zoo-Wee Mama comics but Greg rebuffed stating that the joke was stale and they should compose something new.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)

In the movie, Bryan Little, the creator for the original comic Wacky Dawg, contracted mono and will need to recover for three months. A contest is open for who will replace him, and, unlike in the book Zoo-Wee Mama!, wins and Creighton the Cretin loses. In the film, Rowley came up with Zoo-Wee Mama! himself, while Greg dislikes it and believes it isn't funny and thinks the school has no humour when Zoo-Wee Mama! wins. It is not shown in the other films, as it is presumed Bryan Little recovered and is continuing Wacky Dawg.

The Long Haul (2017 film)

Rowley says "Zoo-Wee-Mama!" in the first few minutes of the film.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)

In the 2021 movie, the way Greg discovers the aperture in the cartoonist slot is by one of Rowley's goons shoving him into a bulletin board where an ad for the comic contest presumably to replace Wacky Dawg is displayed. This time the reason on why the slot is open is because the cartoonist, Bryan Little quit instead of being fired or contracting mono. Greg knew he couldn't gain popularity by competing against Rowley's injury and he concluded that he should utilize the contest to achieve his desire.

This time, Greg doesn't invite Rowley to cooperate on the comic together and he instead arrives at his house wondering where Greg was after school. Rowley notices a crumpled up Zoo-Wee Mama comic about a guy mistakenly stepping into an acid puddle on the table and unfolds it impressed; Greg tells him he was composing a strip superior and unveiled to him the Creighton the Cretin comic about a Creighton requesting his doctor for a new butt because he misinterprets his old one as holding a crack in it. Rowley perceives Zoo-Wee Mama as better and Greg tells him to compose his own comic for the school newspaper by himself.

Alike to the book, Greg turns in his comic to Mr. Humphrey's office and wins only to realise that Mr. Humphrey meddled with it to promote the newly expanded sections of the library. Greg quits and Mr. Humphrey ends up substituting him for Rowley and his Zoo-Wee Mama strip; Mr. Humphrey doesn't censor Rowley's work and everyone starts using the catchphrase. Greg is outraged and when he confronts Rowley for stealing his comic a bully punches him for not "respecting Rowley". Rowley makes a new friend called Chirag and this incident overall becomes the driving force for their fight.

Comics

Bold means that the comic/part of the comic wasn't published. Underlined means that it appeared only in DOGHBF.

• Stepping on a Crack: Two characters spot a crack on the ground and one of them states the rhythm, "Step on a crack, break your momma's back!". The other one, Timmy, doesn't believe the rhyme and tramps on it carelessly -- Timmy then receives the news that his mother ended up slipping on a banana peel and fracturing her back to the shock of the character.
• Hamburger: A guy patiently waits three hours for a hamburger at a fast-food restaurant and when he finally gets to the front of the line they have all sold out; this causes him to black out startling the cashier.
• Acid Puddle: A man accidently paces on a puddle and is relieved that it wasn't an acid puddle. But the puddle is ultimately ends up being disclosed to be an acid puddle and a squirrel says "Zoo-wee mama" astounded. In the 2021 movie, the man is the one that says Zoo-Wee Mama, and the strip is instead drawn by Greg, not Rowley.
• Hairy Dog: A guy requests a lady to go out on a date with him, but the lady imparts that she is actually not a lady and is just a dog with long hair to the shock of the man.
• Scared Cat: A kid tells his dad that their cat looks frightened and his dad complains that the cat is actually frozen stiff because he had left it outside overnight. This stupefies the kid.
• Vampire: A guy asks someone with a scarf if he can look at his neck for a second. The guy questions why, and he replies that he's a vampire and chomps his neck shocking the guy.
• Buried Alive: A guy wakes up and says he had a bad dream where he was buried alive only to register that he actually is.
• Cloning Gun: A guy asserts that his cloning gun can make copies of anything however another guy doubts it so he zaps him causing him to be cloned numerous times amazed.
• Dog body: A kid asks a doctor where he is and the doctor claims that he survived a mishap. The kid questions if he will be able to walk again and the doctor says yes but before he is able to apprise him about the bad news, the kid discovers that his body was replaced by a dog's body astonished.
• Heaven: God greets a man arriving to heaven however the man exposes himself for stealing candy when he was eight so God thrusts him back presumably to hell.
• Hot Air Balloon: A guy asks his friend to make the hot air balloon soar higher, so the friend brings out a lighter however it makes them soar to high and they end up dying in space.
• Future: A guy travels back in time from future. Someone asks him if he came back to tell him how tomorrow would be like however he replies that he actually did to witness the impact of Meteor XLJ-42 right above them.
• Reporter: A reporter reports to a man on how it feels to be the first the person to go through a strip without exclaiming "Zoo-Wee Mama!". This makes him tense and he ends up declaring it nonetheless.
• Wig: A guy compliments someone for their hair however they divulge that it's actually a wig.
• Stone Age Christmas: A caveman delivers a present to a cave woman (in DOGHBF, it's another caveman) for Christmas, but she advices him that it is 20,000 B.C. (13,000 B.C. in DOGHBF) and Christmas hasn't even been invented yet.
• Painting: An artist has just finalized a painting and bents to exhibit it to the world but his wife informs him that the painting won't fit through the door.
• House Demolition: A construction worker dismantles a man's house but the man says that he wrote a note that evidently said not to. The construction worker replies that his note accidently got damp and alternatively said to do it to the man's bewilderment.
• Sleepwalking: Two campers realize that Joe is sleepwalking; One of them says that they should wake him up but the other one rebuffs as he has heard that rousing someone up from sleepwalking is risky. The other camper than yells at him that they are camping on a cliff just as Joe plummets off the cliff.
• Bank Robbery: A news reporter reports that someone robbed a bank and headed back with 30 thousand dollars. The reporter displays a sketch the police drew based on witness descriptions and it discloses that it's him.
• Backwards Gun: An inventor has recently assembled together a ray gun that makes everything go backwards; two people don't believe him so he zaps them with it and they exclaim: !AMAM EEW-OOZ
• Nightmare: A boy has a dream about a talking bear about to devour him; this fundamentally discloses to the kid that he's in a dream so the bear alerts him that one is about to in real life horrifying him.
• Insect: An explorer has finally discovered the rarest insect on Earth but before she is capture it for her own, her son ingests the insect.
• Giant Strawberry: Two kids have been chased by a mad scientist for days and are ravenous; They encounter what appears to be a giant strawberry and perceive that their saved only to realise that they have been diminished down to the size of bugs.
• Eiffel Tower: A guy has just finalised a model of the Eiffel Tower after 10 years and he bents to exhibit it to the world, but it doesn't fit through the doorway and ends up being demolished. (Similar to Painting)

Trivia

• Jeff Kinney came up with the idea of "Zoo-Wee Mama!" in college with his friend.
• In Stepping on a Crack, the quote, "Step on a crack, break your momma's back" is known as a superstition, and it is used as a verse sung on Whip It, by Devo.
• On social media sites, it is an Internet meme.
• In Rowley's versions, none of the characters have noses.
• The Bank Robbery comic is based off a real picture from the internet, in which an ABC7 news anchor looks just like the police sketch of a suspect.

Appearances

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (mentioned)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Diper Överlöde (mentioned)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
• The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
• The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary
• Diary of Greg Heffley's Best Friend
• Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (film)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film) (mentioned)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film) (mentioned)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)

Gallery

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

A do-it-yourself version.

Diper Överlöde