Manny Heffley

"Ploopy!"

--Manny Heffley, said as a slur against his family

"Bubby!"

--Manny Heffley, the way Manny says brother

Manuel "Manny" Heffley is Greg and Rodrick's younger brother, and is the major antagonist in all of the series as well as a major antagonist for the second half. In the movie, he is played by twins Connor and Owen Fielding. Manny is loosely based on Pat Kinney, Jeff Kinney's younger brother.^{[confirmation needed]}

Personality

Manny Heffley is a selfish and spoiled kindergartener. Greg believes that their parents treat Manny like a prince, but that is far from the truth as they treat him this way out of fear of what he will do to them. He watches a show called "The Snurples", which according to a newspaper sets kids back in social skills and language development (Manny starts speaking gibberish). He has never been a protagonist. Manny has shown that this is true - he has no real friends and never plays with other kids in playgroups, but has imaginary ones and uses these to get out of trouble and get extra food. Despite his seemingly air-headed exterior, Manny has shown that he can be very cunning, deceitful, manipulative, and intelligent for his age in unexpected ways. When Susan let him play on Greg's Net Kritterz account, he figured out how to sell all of his brother's items and change his password. He has also locked out the entire family from watching any TV shows except for his personal favorite cartoons. He also has been shown to speak Spanish, in The Long Haul.

Manny has also been characterized as extremely uncaring and holds powerful grudges that has endangered the family on multiple occasions. One of these is shown in Cabin Fever, where he shuts off all the lights as well as the air conditioning to every room except his own just because he wasn't taught how to tie his shoes. This caused the entire family to suffer in cold weather and starvation until Greg finally discovered the scandal.

Manny's unusual personality can however significantly help the Heffley family as a whole. Manny can speak Spanish properly, and that's just from listening to hours of Spanish-English wordbook-CDs that his mother bought from a local store. He also has an extreme ability of learning new things and abilities, which again, is shown when he learns to speak proper Spanish after just a few hours.

The fact Manny is able to learn perfect Spanish, change Greg's password, the parental lock, and kill all the lights except for his room is quite surprising for a child his age, meaning he is quite intelligent but is still socially awkward.

It is likely that Manny knows about his parents' favoritism towards him, and he takes advantage of this. This includes breaking Greg's gaming console, drawing on his bedroom door, taking a dirty magazine to day care, and twisting the "No Swearing" rule in such a way that he makes money out of it.

Manny also gets anything and everything he wants, and his parents trust his lies to Greg and Rodrick, so that's why they end up getting grounded, even though Manny deserves it.

Appearance

• Manny looks like a small kid with three hairs, rabbit-like teeth and wears a white shirt, black shorts and white shoes.
• In The Long Haul Movie, Manny has curly hair, a blue shirt and beige shorts.

Trivia

• In addition to calling Greg and Rodrick "Bubby", Manny also calls other characters he doesn't like or gets mad at a "Ploopy".
• Manny appears to be less spoiled in Cabin Fever than he is in other books.
• He may have meant to call Greg, (and possibly Rodrick and others he doesn't like) a poopy, but couldn't pronounce the word right and instead resourted to calling it a "Ploopy", similarly to the "Bubby" incident.
• In spite of his intelligence, in the few instances when he's shown speaking, (except the spanish instance in The Long Haul), he talks like a typical kindergartener, such as when he says "I'm onwly thwee!" . In multiple books, his being unable to pronounce brother correctly so as to pronounce it "Bubby", and his taking to calling Greg, (and possibly Rodrick and other charecters he dislikes as well as possibly calling Rodrick "Bubby" as well), a "Ploopy" as a kind of curse word of his.
• Manny is known to break, spoil, or sell Greg's things.
• With the proper calculations, the year Manny was born is presumed to be 2006.
• Susan Heffley (Their mom) made something called No Pants After Dinner, also stating that he needs potty training.
• He is one of the smallest characters in the Wimpy Kid series as he is only smaller than his father's and his mother's head.
• In the first book, after he yells "Bubby" at Greg on the stage, Greg says he's been able to keep that nickname quiet for 5 years, meaning Manny must be around 6 or 7. However, there is a storyline contradiction in Rodrick Rules, where it says that he was 3, and again in The Last Straw, where it says Manny has been held back from preschool three or four times, making him around 7 or 8. However, it is also possible that Greg used the five years thing as an expression but in the book Hard Luck in a flash back Greg mentioned that he was 8 years old when Manny started calling him bubby. Now that Greg is 12-14, Manny would therefore be around 4-7.
• In the online version, Manny is allergic to peaches. Greg also mentions this in The Ugly Truth.
• Manny is favored by Susan, Frank, and gramma Heffley, thus making him favorited by the most realitives.
• The only members of the family who do not appear to like him are Aunt Cakey, Greg Heffley and Rodrick Heffley.
• Despite spoiling him, it's even hinted that their father Frank is frustrated with babying Manny. As depicted in The last straw, when he throws away all of Manny's pacifiers and eventually his old blanket, Tingy.
• Manny serves as one of the main antagonists in Cabin Fever.
• Manny is quite smart, as he knew how to change the password to both, Greg's Net Kritterz account, so Greg can't log back in, the TV parental locks so he can watch whatever he likes, and also learned Spanish and the Snurple language fluently relatively fast.
• Manny loves Bitter Apple Spray, so he probably likes sour and bitter food.
• Manny also gives Greg two nicknames: Bubby (affectionate) and Ploopy (derogatory)
  • According, to the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Manny started calling Greg Bubby since he couldn't pronounce "Brother."
• Greg states that Manny is a tattletale and has been telling on him since he could talk. He also told his parents what wrong deeds Greg did before he could talk.
• He is fluent in Spanish.
• The main reason the producers picked twins was because they felt that twins would be easier to work with (on account that there would a backup should one refuse to cooperate.)
• He makes a lot of money because he gets paid for the older Heffleys' swearing, using the potty, and selling his own drawings. Therefore, Greg describes him as "rich."
• He can't pronounce his R's, and Greg couldn't when he was preschool age either.
• Aunt Cakey seems immune to his whole act.
• Manny seems to be fond of keeping random animals as pets. In The Long Haul, he is attached to The Heffleys' Pig and repeatedly attempts to get him back. In The Getaway, he attempts three times to keep wild sea animals as pets: First with hermit crabs and snails, second with a baby sea turtle, and third with a jellyfish.
• He may be modeled after Igdoof's little brother.^[1]
• It is likely in Rodrick Rules that Manny told Mom not to give his big brothers money.
• Manny is selfish and blames Greg and Rodrick.
• Manny likes Susan Heffley.
• Mom and Dad always trust Manny's lies.
• Manny got brand new things when he was a baby, like pacifiers, and his bed looked even newer than Rodrick's.
• Manny is very rich, because he blames Greg and then he gets payed 1 dollar, like when Manny says that Greg says a bad word, like "stupid", "jerk", and other words, and he is beloved by Susan Heffley, and he gets a quarter just for going to the potty. People pee 8 times a day and he did that for around 1 year, so he must have over $500. Even Manny blamed his older brothers for what he did, so he must have $600+. Well, it was said he can afford his education, so he must have many thousand dollars, but not over $50,000.

References

Gallery

Manny on Holiday.

One of his drawings.

Manny himself.

Manny,when he was born.

Manny watching The Snurples.

Manny as a Chef in the Do-It-Yourself Book

Manny in the movie.

Manny locking himself in Sweetie's exercise pen to hide toys.

Manny's book appearance compared to film appearance.

Manny watching ZOOM.

Manny saying "ploopy".

"Don't Be A Ploopy" shirt.

Manny says he's only Five.

Manny Heffley was born as Susan Heffley holds on him.

Manny shrugging.

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