Cheese Touch

About

The Cheese Touch refers to a schoolyard game and superstition supported by students in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series where touching a moldy piece of cheese on the school's basketball court gives the person the "cheese touch," resulting in other students avoiding them. Someone with the cheese touch can only get rid of it by touching someone else. The cheese touch became the subject of memes throughout the 2010s and inspired a viral TikTok sound in early 2022.

Origin

The cheese touch is first mentioned in the 2007 book Diary of a Wimpy Kid and is described as giving off similar effects to the cooties. In the book, a group of teens forces Rowley to eat the cheese. The book's protagonist Greg, Rowley's best friend, defends Rowley by claiming he threw the cheese away, thus leading students to believe that Greg has the cheese touch.^[1] In March 2010, the film adaptation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid was released, where the character Chirag Gupta describes the cheese touch's backstory, explaining how nobody knows when or how the cheese showed up on the basketball court (shown below).

Good God, man. You almost got the Cheese Touch!

Spread

The cheese touch scene became the subject of memes in 2017. On February 12th, 2017, YouTuber KajabberGuy posted an edit of the scene where the bass boosts by 2db every time the word "cheese" is said, gaining over 12 million views in five years (shown below, left). On March 22nd, YouTuber ayymarkeh posted a distorted edit of the scene, gaining over 55,000 views in five years (shown below, right).

On July 5th, 2019, the Fox Family Entertainment YouTube channel uploaded a video recreating the scene with paper figures, gaining over 2.7 million views in three years (shown below).

On September 30th, 2021, Instagram^[3] user therealrodrickheffley posted a meme about the cheese touch, gaining over 31,000 likes in six months (shown below, left). On November 4th, Instagram^[4] user salad.snake posted a meme referencing the cheese touch, gaining over 62,000 likes in four months (shown below, right).

"You Almost Got The Cheese Touch" TikTok Trend

On January 8th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @lilzboy7 posted a sped-up version of the cheese touch's introduction in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film to TikTok, gaining over 5 million views in two months. The original sound became significantly popular as a lip dub trend in March, where TikTokers use the "Big Eye Baby" filter while dubbing to the audio. On March 20th, TikToker @yrfavpiscesgf posted a video using the sound, gaining over 19 million views in two days (shown below, left). On March 21st, TIkTokers @thehypehouse posted a similar video, gaining over 7.5 million views in a day (shown below, right). The sound was used over 170,000 times by March 22nd.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References