Patty Farrell

Patty Farrell
Name	Patricia J. Farrell Patty Ferrel (2022 film)
Alias	Patty
Gender	Female
Age	12-13
Occupation	Middle school student
Status	Alive
Actor	Laine MacNeil
First appearance	Diary of a Wimpy Kid (online)
Last appearance	Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rüles (2022 film)

“	You listen to me, Greg Heffley. I'm running for student council president and I'm warning you, if you get in my way, I will beat you up, just like I did in kindergarten and fourth grade.	”
	— Patty to Greg in the first movie

Patricia "Patty" J. Farrell is an antagonist in the series. She is a supporting role in the first and third books, as well as the online book, but plays a much larger role in the films.

History

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Patty gets hit by an apple during the play.

Patty first angers Greg after she tells Mr. Ira to cover up the map of the United States during a state capitals quiz, thus preventing Greg from cheating.

During the audition for The Wizard of Oz play, Patty is the first to tryout the role for Dorothy, the main character. She ends up getting the role which influences Greg's decision on picking the most antagonistic character towards Dorothy. At the play, Patty takes her role very seriously, to the point where she gets upset at Greg for stalling the play. This in turn leads Greg, playing the role of a tree, reminded him why he signed up to become a tree. Because of that, he decided to throw an apple at her. Since it technically follows the source material, the other trees gets in the act and one knocks Patty's glasses off, breaking them. Due to Patty's special need of glasses, the play was shut down.

Rodrick Rules

Greg mentioned that she performed in the Winter Talent Show, tap-dancing. It is proven in both of the film versions that she physically performs in said talent show.

The Last Straw

Patty was chosen by Mrs. Craig to look after the class during the time her dictionary was stolen. Due to Patty's serious behavior, she doesn't let anyone go to the bathroom. Alex Aruda minded the class on Monday, because she was sick.

This was also her last appearance in the book series, It is unknown if she will re-appear in any of the upcoming books but it's possible that the character has been retired.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)

In the movie, she serves as a major antagonist and a bully to Greg. She makes her first appearance by rudely pushing Greg and Rowley aside while they were looking at extracurricular activities to sign up for. When the boys question to themselves her problem, a flashback shows Greg making fun of her back in kindergarten, explaining her dislike for him. When Greg and Rowley sign up for wrestling, Greg puts on ankle weights to be in the same weight class as Rowley. Patty also joins the wrestling team and humiliates Greg by beating him up, they both make front page of the school newspaper titled "Great Day for Women."

Later in the year, her and Greg both try out for the school play, Wizard of Oz. With Greg's beautiful but high soprano voice, Mrs. Norton offered Greg the lead role. Patty gets angry and calls out how Greg does not deserve it, at that point, Greg is already untrustworthy for quitting wrestling and then terrorizing the kindergartners in safety patrol to which Patty calls him out on. Greg, of course, turns it down anyway since he does not want to be casted as a girl. He is then asked to play one of the three singing trees and only agrees when Chirag Gupta tells him that the trees get to throw apples at Dorothy, meaning he can get back at Patty. On performance night, when Greg stopped singing to avoid being recorded by Rodrick and embarrassed, the other trees stopped. This made Patty yell to Greg in front of the audience to sing or she will beat him up again, this angers Greg to throw the apple, even though the school play version does not allow it. Patty catches the apple that was thrown by Greg and threw it back at the trees before tackling Greg.

Near the end of the film, while witnessing Greg and Rowley argue, she encourages the boys to fight and getting the school to join and chant for them to fight. However, this gets interrupted when Pete Hosey and his friends show up for revenge on Greg and Rowley for Halloween. She, along with the rest of the students all run away. After Rowley is forced to eat the cheese and Coach Malone chases the teens away, Patty is the first to speak up and call out Rowley for eating the cheese and having the Cheese Touch, however Greg intervenes and takes the fall for Rowley claiming it is he who did. Despite Greg giving a moving speech about the unfair and oppressive class system of middle school, Patty ruins it by yelling about Greg having the cheese touch causing all the students to run away. She hands out the yearbooks at the end of the year and refuses to hand one to Greg and just puts it on the ground, thinking he still has the cheese touch. However, she hugs Rowley when giving him his yearbook and wishes him a great summer. Greg, Rowley, and Angie Steadman all laugh when she walks away knowing now, she has the cheese touch from Rowley.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011 film)

She has a minor role in this sequel with only a few notable appearances. First was for fighting with Greg on the first day of their 7th grade year for a seat near the back. Greg wanted the seat to be next to the new girl in town whom he develops a crush on, Holly Hills. Despite this, Patty acts entitled to it and when their history teacher Mr. Draybick intervenes, he forces Greg to come sit up front after realizing he is Rodrick's brother, assuming he is also a troublemaker just like Rodrick. Later in the year during class, when Greg attempted to have a note passed to Holly to compliment her hair, the note was intercepted by Patty who shouts and tattles on Greg. Greg gets laughed at as Mr. Draybick reads it aloud then moves Greg's desk next to him during quiet study time.

Her final appearance in the film was during the Plainview's Most Talented Show where she performed a song. She then berates Greg for his and Rowley's comedy magic act commenting people's bad taste in humor for bird poop, which she then gets pooped on by the bird.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012 film)

Patty continues to appear for this sequel. She first appears at the last day of school where she is shown to be best friends with Holly. However, she appears really annoyed and disgusted with Holly's friendship with Greg and Rowley when she says hi to them. Her first speaking role was berating Greg on the last day of class as Greg purposely chose to forget his textbook for the last day while she and everyone else did. During quiet study-time, she was passed a few yearbooks to sign to which she has a personal stamp for her signature. She then rushes Holly out while she was signing Greg's yearbook, much to Greg's dismay of wanting Holly's phone number.

She next appears in the Plainview Heights Country Club where she is a member. She shows up to be Holly's double partner in a tennis game with Greg and Rowley, where she begins to insult Greg with the comment "guess they let anyone in here." Greg shoots back by saying "that must explain why you are here." Patty then gets aggressive and almost charged at Greg for his comeback but was stopped by Holly. To get back at Greg, she keeps serving the ball really hard to attack Greg. When Holly realized the boys never played tennis, she offered to give them pointers. While Holly was helping Greg, Patty was teaching Rowley, and they kept fidgeting with each other.

Her final scene was after Greg was no longer invited to the country club as Rowley's guest. When Greg attempted to do the high dive to impress Holly, he instead fumbles and loses his boardshorts. While Greg is hiding in the pool naked, Patty is in her bathing suit and puts on her goggles before diving underwater like a submarine and swimming fast like a shark towards Greg. The scene cuts to hours later and at 10 mins to closing of the club, so it is unclear if she saw him naked. However, when Greg puts on a girl swim short to get out of the pool, she is among the rest of the members he passes to laugh at him, and she calls him a loser. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film)

She is mentioned when Rowley talks about The Wizard of Oz play. Besides this, Patty doesn't make any physical appearance in the film.

Rodrick Rüles (2022 film)

During the Talent Show Patty plays the piano off-key, making everyone moan.

Online

Just like in the first book, Patty tells Mr. Beardo about the map of the United States however, Greg shows more hatred towards her as he was willing to trip her in the hall the next time he sees her.

Patty also auditioned for Dorothy, just like she did in the books. Also like the book Greg only auditions as a tree so he can hurl Patty with apples.

Driving behind Rodrick Heffley's pickup truck was Patty who got to see Greg in the back hiding under the tarp.

Appearance

Patty is illustrated as wearing wide open glasses and pig-tails and this has been seen throughout the series. No other illustration of Patty has been shown other than glasses and her style of hair. According to Greg, she can't see two feet in front of her without her glasses and is practically blind without them, although in the movies she doesn't wear them. She also wears braces.

Personality

Patty can be characterized as the teacher's pet and a nerd, and due to events happening in the first book, she develops a vile relationship towards Greg Heffley though the teachers don't seem to see it or even her mom to the point that she is allowed to be school counsel. She is self-absorbed and paranoid, egotistical, and states (in the movie) that she will get her mother, who is the president of the PTA, to sue them if she doesn't get what she wants (implying that she is completely spoiled). In The Last Straw, when the teacher leaves the room, Patty is left in charge. Greg writes that she is very strict when in control, letting no one out of the classroom, even if a student has to use the restroom.

However, she is given a much bigger role in the movies, as she is a lot more hostile to Greg (The trivia explains why) and even threatens to beat him up if he were to get in her way likely actually meaning it. She also somehow joins the wrestling group Greg was in (what she threatened to Greg occurs when he is put against her) and she also ruins Greg's chance at having a bigger role in the play, demoting his role to a tree (in the book, Greg wanted to play a tree because the trees get to throw apples at Dorothy). Later on, she gets annoyed at Greg for ruining the play and he throws an apple at her. Unlike in the books, Patty catches it and tackles Greg. Also in this portrayal, her parents are involved with the school board. The motivation for her film counterpart's vile relationship with Greg is the latter's recital of an offensive playground chant poking fun at her that sent her bursting into tears in preschool.

Trivia

• Given estimates made based off of illustrations of her, Patty Farrell is most likely between 4' 7" (139.7 cm) and 4' 9" (144.78 cm) tall. However, this is entirely conjecture, as her height has never been stated conclusively within the series.
• She hasn't been seen or mentioned in any of the books since The Last Straw and it's unknown if she'll make another appearance. Rumors also declared that she'll appear in The Getaway, but she also didn't. The same thing happened in The Deep End.
• In the book she wears glasses while in the films she doesn't. It is high likely that her parents have already gave her contact lens. Both the book and film Patty sport pigtails, with the latter depicting the pigtails as braided versions.
• She appears more rude and mean-spirited in the films, especially to Greg. This is because, in kindergarten, Greg said “Patty, Patty is a fatty! Has a face just like a ratty!”, and she had hated him ever since. In the books, Greg's dislike of her is one-sided.
• In the films, she serves as the secondary antagonist in the first film and Rodrick Rules and a minor antagonist in Dog Days. Her middle initial is J. as seen in Dog Days.
  • Additionally, in the second film, it's implied she's terrified of weird people. At the Rocket Rollers Roller Rink, when they were people pairing up, Fregley walked up to her in interest, to which she backed away in fright.
• In animated scenes of the 2010 live-action film, Patty appears in her original book style. However, the 2011 film introduces a new design for her that is more accurate to Laine MacNeil's portrayal of her (braids instead of pigtails, bangs, and no glasses).
• In the second adaptation of Rodrick Rules, her last name is spelt "Ferrel" likely a name error.
• She was named after Patty Simcox from Grease (1978). Her hairstyle is also based on Jan's.
• She is based on Judy Hensler from the sitcom Leave It to Beaver, and the 1997 film of the same name.
  • She is also based on Penny Woods from Leave It to Beaver.

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: The Last Straw
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010 film)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2011 film)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (film)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021 film) (mentioned)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rüles (2022 film)

Gallery

See Patty Farrell/Gallery