| “ | ...and don't even ask me how the pig managed to do THAT. | ” |
| — Greg after the pig got into the drinks from the minibar. | ||
The Pig is a domestic pig that was owned by the Heffley family between the events of The Long Haul and The Getaway. He exhibits extraordinary intelligence and is able to do human things like opening cans despite not having opposable thumbs. The Pig only seems to be fond of Manny, similar to how Sweetie was only fond of Susan Heffley and Gramma, and is only the second farm animal won by the Heffleys, the first being a goat that was mentioned in Cabin Fever.
The pig runs away in The Meltdown after being sent to Obedience School for misbehaving after being excluded from the Heffleys' family vacation. Though he has made cameo appearances in the books since, the Pig is never seen again and his ultimate fate is unconfirmed.
In the film adaptation of The Long Haul, the Pig is played by an unnamed Juliana pig.
History[]
The Long Haul[]
While attending the state fair, Susan and Manny visited a tent hosting a pig weight-guessing contest. Meanwhile, Greg kept an eye out for the Beardos. Surprisingly, Manny won the contest, earning them a live baby pig as a prize. Susan, however, declined the unexpected gift, emphasizing their participation was just for fun. Despite her refusal, the crowd insisted they keep the pig, creating an awkward situation.
The pig, now part of the Heffley family, brought chaos. Attempting to escape, it nearly became roadkill but was rescued just in time. The Heffleys concealed the pig in a cooler when entering their second hotel. Inside, the pig caused havoc in a bathroom and devoured all the minibar snacks, resulting in extra charges and a violation of the no-pet rule. During a van ride, the pig's antics led to Greg getting bitten.
Faced with challenges, Susan decided to place the pig in a petting zoo, leaving Manny heartbroken. Concerned about the bite, the Heffleys took Greg to a vet. Later, with the help of two Spanish men and Manny, they retrieved the pig from the petting zoo. Back home, Susan successfully taught the pig some tricks, bringing a positive turn to their unusual adventure.
Old School[]
Greg says, that Susan would reward the pig with a cookie every time he stood on his hind legs. Since then, the pig had learned to walk on his back legs and never walks on all four feet. Greg then talks about how he doesn't wear collars or leashes because he thinks he is too good for them, also pointing out how he didn't know how the pig had managed to do it without thumbs and now had a pair of pants which is put on by Manny. The pig is able to walk into the open world to the content of his heart, with the addition that he does not have a curfew, unlike Greg. It is possible that the pig might have learned to write, as Greg seemingly gets a letter from the pig during his trip to Hardscrabble Farms. However, this could have been a prank set by one of the family members (possibly Rodrick).
Double Down[]
Greg said that the pig figured out how to use the See-and-Talk and can make him say almost full sentences. After Greg finishes his chores, he decides to help himself to a piece of candy corn, which he won in a contest. He comes up into his room to discover that the pig had eaten all of the candy corn, and found a way to open it. At first, Greg is angry with the pig, but when it started looking sick, Greg worries and calls Rodrick to help him. Rodrick tries to drive the pig to the vet, but before they get there, the pig throws up in the van. Since it was Greg's fault that the pig threw up, Rodrick makes Greg clean up the mess. He tries but is totally grossed out by the vomit, and throws up himself. Unfortunately, a lady raking the leaves witnessed the whole thing and called the cops. Greg explains to the cops what happened. When Rodrick and Greg finally start driving, Susan catches them, and as punishment, Greg has to take three chores out of the Grab Bag. The pig is later seen eating gummy worms when Greg tries to film a movie.
The Meltdown[]
After the pig getting mad about not going on the Heffley's vacation to Isla de Corales during The Getaway (due to him feeling he was part of the family), Frank sends him to obedience school, but the next day Frank gets a call from the person who runs the place saying that the pig had escaped. Greg and his family puts up posters to find him but is unsuccessful. At the end of the book, Greg says he thinks the pig is somewhere warm.
Wrecking Ball[]
One of Manny's stuffed animals in the stuffed toy pile references the pig. It is also possible that this is the pig and Manny has been caring for him in secret.
The Deep End[]
The pig made a cameo appearance as one of the animals drowning when Greg talked about Noah's Ark, and in the Target exclusive version (which has a paint-with-water mini-poster), he is swimming in the pool.
Big Shot[]
One of the items that Manny likes to buy at the store references the Pig on the box.
Personality[]
The pig using Greg and Manny's console
The pig is surprisingly super smart and human-like. He somehow opened three cans of soda, can use the TV remote to watch television with Manny, and was able to remove his GPS collar soon after being put on him, despite not having fingers. That made Greg feel annoyed. The pig also can walk on two legs, refuses to wear a leash, and eats at the dinner table. The pig also occasionally wears a pair of Manny's shorts which Manny put on him.
Trivia[]
- He is a domesticated pig, as he is from the livestock of a farm.
- In The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter, it was shown it was played by a Juliana pig.
- The name of the pig is currently unknown. It is also unknown if he has a name or not, but he was named "Junior" in the Spanish version of the books.
- According to a Twitter post by the series author, Jeff Kinney, he says that the pig's name might really be named "Junior", since he has that name in the series Spanish translation[1].
- He wears shorts as revealed in Old School. However, he does not wear it in Double Down, possibly because he has abandoned the idea.
- He eats at the dinner table, to Greg's disapproval.
- For a while, after Susan taught him to walk on two legs, he went through a phase of only walking like that. However, in Double Down, he goes back to walking on all fours. He returned to walking on two legs in The Meltdown.
- In Cabin Fever, Greg won a goat in a similar competition, but Frank refused to take the goat as his pet. This can be explained because the fair people let them not keep the goat but didn't let them not keep the pig.
- He might be able to write letters as seen in Old School[1], when Greg talks about his mail; though this is most likely a prank from Rodrick, who sent him candy wrappers of Greg's.
- He doesn't wear leashes or collars, because he supposedly thinks he is too good for them. Furthermore, he is capable of taking a leash off of him and grabbing things despite lacking thumbs.
- There are no instances of Greg talking about or even introducing the pig to his best friend Rowley. In Old School, Greg calls him to his house to inform him about his lemonade selling plan, and they were inside the house for a while because of the heat. Even so, there was no incident of Rowley with the pig. In addition, Rowley doesn't mention the Pig at all in Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid.
- Out of all the characters introduced, the pig seems to be the most unrealistic, as pigs cannot learn how to walk on their hind legs, due to their bone structure similar to that of dogs (there has only been one pig in the history of the world who currently resides in China who can walk on his front legs for the whole time, which was harmful for their backbone if it's in real life). Pigs cannot write for obvious reasons; however, the writing part was probably a prank.
- He once wore a collar, but he threw it out in about 5 minutes after thinking he was too good for it.
- The pig appears to be super smart since he can walk on two feet, can use the T.V. remote, can remove his G.P.S. collar despite not having fingers, supposedly thinks he is too good for leashes and wears a pair of Manny's pants given to him from Manny. It is also possible the pig can write. The pig also learned to use Manny‘s potty as shown in the book The Long Haul, when he goes to the bathroom despite no explanation that he's been trained too.
- The pig's ascension to being human-like may be a reference to the novel Animal Farm.
- This is not very unusual because pigs are actually intelligent animals.
- The pig did not appear in The Getaway. However, he did appear in The Meltdown, but only in a flashback--it's explained in the previous book, that the family left the pig in a kennel while they were on vacation. He got mad and disappointed when they came back and after being sent to obedience school, he ran away.
- Surprisingly despite imprinting with Manny, in The Meltdown after running away Manny doesn't seem that concerned with the Pig being lost. In fact, Susan seems more distraught about losing the Pig than Manny.
- The Pig made an appearance in a Happy Meal Commercial created McDonald's alongside Greg, Rodrick and Gammie Heffley, and Sweetie.
- The Pig's top art drawing can be seen as a sign named "All yeh can eat buffet" in Corny's restaurant.
- It's unknown if the pig will appear in any future installments of the series, due to him running away. It is most likely he won’t appear again, due to how badly he was received by fans.
- It is revealed by Jeff Kinney that the pig is a replacement for Sweetie, because Jeff wanted to keep Sweetie around more. However, Sweetie still makes cameos.
- A pig very reminiscent to the pig is shown as an animal on Noah's Ark Picture Book in The Deep End. The Pig also appears in a Target exclusive color with water mini-poster of the book, swimming with Manny, Fregley, Rowley, an unnamed person that looks like DooDoo, and some animals, with Greg on the middle.
- In the publishing of the Arab world, pigs are censored due to pork references in Islam, and the species was changed into sheep.
Appearances[]
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film)[2]
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Old School
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown (flashback)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball (cameo)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Deep End (cameo)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Big Shot (cameo)
- Happy Meal Commercial
Gallery[]
The Long Haul[]
References[]
- ↑ Old School, page 172
- ↑ The Heffleys' Pig is seen in multiple scenes in the preview of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film)