SOUNDTRACK: PHINEAS AND FERB-“I Really Don’t Hate Christmas” (2009).
I have grown to love Phineas and Ferb ever so much in the past year. Holy cow it makes me laugh so much that I would totally watch it even without the kids around.
This song, sung by the evil Dr Doofenshmirtz, explains how he has a backstory that makes him hate every holiday except Christmas–he just has a burning indifference to it. The song is catchy and funny.
Of course since he is an evil scientist, he finds a reason to hate Christmas and launch his naughtyinator. When carolers come to his door and repeat over and over that they want figgy pudding, he begins to get quite annoyed. And we get this hilarious exchange:
CAROLERS: (singing) We won’t go until we get some, we won’t go until we get some….
DR. DOOFENSHMIRTZ: What? Are you threatening me? How dare you! No one barges into my home and demands desserts! What sort of plan is that anyway? “Let’s go to a stranger’s house, sing songs to him, and refuse to leave unless he hands us a food dish no one’s prepared since the 16th century!”
Just in time for the holidays:
[READ: December 20, 2012] Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel
Clark was more excited for this book than I was! As soon as he saw it, he grabbed it and ran into his room to read it (for which I was both proud and a little annoyed as I wanted to read it). I’m not sure how much he could have enjoyed it as it is all about going on a date, but he seemed to like it.
It’s not all about a date though. It begins with Greg reminiscing about his time in the womb (a very odd thing for Clark to read, I’m sure). rtHis mom listening to Mozart and just how much he could hear while in there. Then he talks about his life as a wee one, which is very funny–he learned how to take the batteries out of the remote so his mom couldn’t put the educational shows back on (he’s also annoyed that Manny gets to watch whatever he wants now–no educational TV for him).
But Manny doesn’t come out on top all the time–there’s the boy who acts like a vampire at Sunday School and scares Manny to bits. This may be why Manny only has imaginary friends (well, that and the fact that their mom reads Manny the children’s book she wrote about the boy who used to bite Greg–it terrifies Manny). Of course, the imaginary friends get in trouble for all the things Manny does (maybe Manny does come out on top all the time after all).
One of the funnier aspects of the Wimpy Kid series is the locations that they go to. Like Corny’s, the family restaurant where the key is fun (not food), and the first time they went Greg almost sat on a PB&J sandwich that was never cleared away. (And wait till you see what the family next to them are doing!).
A big plot point in this book is that Uncle Gary crashes at their house for a few months. He sleeps on the couch (which means Rodrick has nowhere to rest after he wakes up). Gary gets an allowance even though he does no chores indeed, he doesn’t really do anything (except for giving Greg advice about girls). The funniest joke about Gary is that he plays the virtual reality video game and his character doesn’t have a job and buys scratch off tickets all day (and doesn’t always win).
Some other highlights of the book include take your child to work day (it is so true!), the amazing introduction of bringing your own toilet paper to school (because the school buys the cheap, rough kind) and a crazy new character named Ruby Bird (more biting). There’s a school election (and a boy named Brian Buttsy). Rowley runs for social chairperson (unopposed) and Greg is his campaign manager (check out his attempt at T-shirt boosterism). I also loved the school assemblies–like the hypnotist (and his after effects) and Krisstina, the pop sensation who has toured all over (their local area).
Most of the second half of the book shows Greg’s attempts to woo girls into going to the Valentine’s Dance with him. There’s some wonderful sequences in here, including a subplot about chicken pox, which I loved.
What I really enjoyed is that some of those early jokes make a later appearance–not as major plot points but as little jokes that are very funny to revisit.
This series continues to be very strong and very funny. I admit none of this book was quite as laugh-out-loud funny as the earlier ones, but there was still a lot of very funny stuff in here. And now that Clark has read them all (twice) we have two generations of Greg Heffley fans in our house.
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