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The first Captain Underpants book.

The Captain Underpants series, by Dav Pilkey, is a series of American children's books about two 4^th graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, and the aptly-named superhero they accidentally create by hypnotizing their principal, Mr. Benny Krupp. The book series had recently won a Disney Adventures Kids Choice Award.^[1]The most recent book in the series, Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, was released on August 15, 2006. Ever since the first book was published, Dav received letters from parents of reluctant readers, telling him that their kids who hated reading enjoyed and loved Captain Underpants.^[2] Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Captainunderpantscover. ... Image File history File links Captainunderpantscover. ... David Dav Pilkey (b. ... Childrens books redirects here. ... Education in the United States is highly decentralized with funding and curriculum decisions taking place mostly at the local level through school boards. ... Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People is the eighth book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. ...

Overview

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Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

Development

David "Dav" Pilkey originally got the idea of Captain Underpants back when he was in the second grade. Pilkey says during in interview:^[3]

The debut novel, The Adventures of Captain Underpants which Dav Pilkey had created, was based on a superhero that he invented in 1973.^[4]When Dav Pilkey began making children books in 1986, starting with World War Won, his goal was to one day publish a book about Captain Underpants. Because of that, he wrote several different versions of the story, including a 48 page comic book. Afterwards, he sent the versions of the story to many different publishers. For years, every publisher who saw it turned it down. It was not until 1995 until the book was finally accepted; the first Captain Underpants book was published in the United States by Scholastic, Inc. in March 1997. The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a childrens book by Dav Pilkey, the first novel in the Captain Underpants series. ... David Dav Pilkey (b. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Scholastic Inc. ...

Characters

Main

• George Beard and Harold Hutchins - Two pranksters who are best friends and next-door neighbors. They own a popular comic book making club called Treehouse Comix Inc. and every day at school they run off several hundred copies of their latest comic book and sell them on the playground. George is identified by his tie and flat-top haircut and Harold is recognizable by his T-shirt and bad haircut. They have saved the world eight times now. George is 9¾ years old while Harold is 10 years old. They are currently the class clowns of 4th grade at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, a school which discourages imagination.
• Mr. Benny Krupp - George and Harold's meanest, and sourest principal in their school. Principal Krupp has a very deep hatred against other children, especially with George and Harold. He constantly tries to make up schemes to punish George and Harold, and also to protect Jerome Horwitz Elementary from the boys' antics.
• Captain Underpants - The main hero of the series. He always wears a red cape with black polka-dots and a pair of white briefs. He is really Mr. Krupp hypnotized to think he is Captain Underpants, a character created by George and Harold. When he gets water poured on his head it turns him back into Mr. Krupp. Whenever Mr. Krupp hears the sound of fingers snapping, he turns back to Captain Underpants which causes George and Harold to follow him and keep him out of trouble. In book 3, Captain Underpants drank a carton of Super Power Juice that caused him to have super strength and the ability to fly into the air.
• Sulu and Crackers - Introduced characters from book 6 to book 7. Sulu was Melvin's abandoned pet hamster after he yelled at Sulu which offended him badly, but afterwards adopted by George and Harold. Crackers is their pet Quetzalcoatlus. Both appeared in the Big, Bad, Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy part 1 and 2. Sulu was briefly a villain after being hypnotized by Evil George and Evil Harold in The Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People. Crackers was hypnotized as well, but didn't turn evil. (presumably because Crackers is a female as hypnosis has the opposite effect on females).
• Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle - Appearing in the eighth book, Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle are (respectively) Harold's grandfather and George's great-grandmother. They battled (and beat) Captain Blunderpants to save their grandsons. George and Harold accidentally gave them Super Power Juice while showing them a new comic in a two-family dinner during grandparents' day.
• Melvin Sneedly - George and Harold's nerdy nemesis. He is an annoying tattle-tale and a mechanical genius. He was first introduced in book 2. Melvin is described as "the kid with the bowtie and glasses". He was the main villain of book 6 (Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1 Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets) after accidentally transforming himself into the Bionic Booger Boy. In book 8, Melvin became what George and Harold made him...a dumb nerd.

George Beard and Harold Hutchins are two star characters in the Captain Underpants series. ... Captain Underpants is a fictional character in the popular childrens book series Captain Underpants. ... Captain Underpants is a fictional character in the popular childrens book series Captain Underpants. ... Sulu is a fictional character in Captain Underpants. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Species Quetzalcoatlus northropi (type) Quetzalcoatlus, named after the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, was a pterodactyloid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous of North America (Campanian–Maastrichtian stages, 84–65 ma), and one of the largest known flying animals of all time. ... Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle are two superheros in the Captain Underpants series. ... Melvin Sneedly is a fictonal character in the Captain Underpants series. ...

Minor

• Ms. Ribble- George and Harold's mean 4th grade teacher, introduced in book 1 as an unnamed character. In book 5, she turned evil(er) after George and Harold accidentally made her think she was Wedgie Woman, one of the characters in their comic books. Afterwards, the two best friends made changed her behavior to be nicer and happier with their 3D Hypno-Ring, including making her serve freshly-baked cookies to the class every day of school. She enjoys chunky tofu ice cream, as revealed in book 5. She also almost marries Mr. Krupp in Book 5, but refuses because he has a "silly nose" (the joke being that they have identical noses).
• Mr. Meaner - Jerome Horwitz Elementary School's gym teacher; he's depicted as being a fat man, and with a personally similar to Mr. Krupp's. Like him, he is very cruel to students and often yells at them.
• Miss Anthrope - The school secretary; she is not very nice. She helped set up Ms. Ribble and a Mr. Krupp's marriage.

Ms. ... Mr. ...

Villains

• Dr. Diaper - Dr. Diaper's plan was to blow up the moon with the Lasermatic 2000 and all the big hunks of it would come crashing down on earth.
• The Turbo Talking Toilet 2000 - The toilet's plan was to eat up Captain Underpants and take over the world.
• The Talking Toilets - They were with The Turbo Talking Toilet 2000
• Zork, Klax and Jennifer - Their plan was to turn everybody into mindless zombies
• Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants (Tippy Tinkletrousers) - He wanted everybody to change their name since everybody laughed at his and returns in the ninth book.
• The Wicked Wedgie Woman - Her plan was to destroy Captain Underpants and rule the town.
• Robo-George - The robot that Ms. Ribble built to help her.
• The Harold 2000 - Another robot Ms. Ribble built.
• The Bionic Booger Boy - His plan was to destroy Captain Underpants and rule the town.
• Carl, Trixie & Frankenbooger (The Robo-Boogers) - Their plan was to destroy Captain Underpants and wreck the town.
• Captain Blunderpants - His plan was to take over the world.
• Evil George and Harold - The opposite clones of George and Harold. They helped Captain Blunderpants.
• George the Gigantic tickle train Captain - torturous tickler George W. Keays tries to tickle the tinkle out of children.

Ms. ... Robo-George is a character in the book Captain Underpants and the Wrath of Wedgie Woman. Robo-george was crated by the evil Wedgie Woman to resemble George Beard, along with The Harold 2000 who resembles Harold Hutchins. ... Melvin Sneedly is a fictonal character in the Captain Underpants series. ...

Captain Underpants Main Series

• The Adventures of Captain Underpants (1997)
• Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (1999)
• Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds) (also 1999)
• Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (2000)
• Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (2001)
• Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets (2003)
• Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (2003)
• Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (2006)
• Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers (2007)
• Captain Underpants and the Brainy Bamboozle of Black Cheetah Man (2008 tentative date)

The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a childrens book by Dav Pilkey, the first novel in the Captain Underpants series. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets is a childrens book by Dav Pilkey, the second in the series of books with Captain Underpants in the titles. ... This article is about the year. ... Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds) is part of the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. ... Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants is the fourth book in the Captain Underpants series written by Dav Pilkey. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Captain underpants (book fifth) cover Captain Underpants and The Wrath of The Wicked Wedgie Woman is the fifth book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy is the first two-part story of Captain Underpants book series. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy is the first two-part story of Captain Underpants book series. ... Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People is the eighth book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 10th 2007-edited By Jack Rogers Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers (also known as Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Professor Poopypants) is the ninth epic novel in the Captain Underpants series, written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... 2008 (MMVIII) will be a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (common) era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ...

Super Diaper Baby and Others

• The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (2002)
• Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers
• FrankenFart vs. the Bionic Barf Bunnies from Diarrhea Land (2007 tentative date)
• The Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun
• The All-New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun 2
• The Captain Underpants Cartoon-O-Rama, Book 1: Heroes, Villains, and Super Creeps

Meanwhile, back at the power plant, radioactivity causes Deputy Doo-Doo to grow into a giant, and he resumes his rampage through the city. ... FrankenFart vs. ... The Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o Fun is an activity book based on a series of childrens books by Dav Pilkey with Captain Underpants in the titles. ... The All-New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o Fun 2 is an activity book based on a series of childrens books by Dav Pilkey with Captain Underpants in the titles. ...

Treehouse Comix

These Captain Underpants stories are George and Harold's comics that appear in the books.

• Book 1; The Adventures of Captain Underpants (6 pages)
• Book 2; Captain Underpants and the Talking Toilets (6 pages) and The Top-Secret Truth About Captain Underpants (3 pages)
• Book 3; Captain Underpants and the Night of the Living Lunch Ladies (6 pages) and Wedgie Wars (3 pages)
• Book 4: Captain Underpants and the Pied Pooper of Piqua(6 pages) and The Top-Secret About Captain Underpants (3 pages)
• Book 5: Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (8 pages), The Origin of Captain Underpants (7 pages) and The Trouble With Captain Underpants (3 pages)
• Book 6: Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Tale of the Tattle-Tron 2000 (9 pages) and The Awful Truth About Captain Underpants (4 pages)
• Book 7: Captain Underpants and the War of the Wily Wonder Nerd (9 pages) and The sad, sad Truth About Captain Underpants (8 pages)
• Book 8: The Preposterous Plight of Captain Blunderpants (7 pages), The Adventures of Boxer Boy and Great-Granny Girdle (13 pages) and The Often Told Untold Story of Captain Underpants (6 pages)(the difference is that Mr. Krupp now says "I'm all mean and stuff!")
• Super Diaper Baby Book 1: The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (109 pages) and The Origin of Super Diaper Baby (4 pages)
• Super Diaper Baby Book 2: Super Diaper Baby 2: Invasion of the Potty Snatchers (123 pages)
• Book of fun 1: George and Harold's College o' Art 1 and 2 (15 pages) and Hairy Potty and the Underwear of Justice (32 pages)
• Book of fun 2; The Night of the Terror of the Revenge of the Curse of the Bride of Hairy Potty (54 pages)

Recurring Jokes and Themes

• George and Harold often break the fourth wall in the books. The characters in the series know that they are created by an author. For example the line ""Enough with the description, already! You're making us all sick!', yelled George to the narrator."
• The last phrase of a chapter has the answer as the title of the next chapter. (Example: Mr. Krupp says "Where, oh where?"; the title of the next chapter is "Here, oh here")
• Every book has a chapter with just a few words and one page, titled "To Make a Long Story Short". "It did" is the usual phrase in the chapter. The eighth book bent this a little, making two chapters on it, the first being the usual, and the second being entitled "To Make A Longer Story Even Shorter"
• Every book begins with "George and Harold" as the first chapter, with George and Harold switching a sign around to make a funny phrase. The only one that bent this pattern was Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy (part 2), which also introduces Melvin Seedly, Mr. Krupp, Sulu, Carl, Trixie, and Frankenbooger, due to the chase. George and Harold still switch a sign around. Oddly enough, the eighth book did not include introductions of Sulu and Crackers.
• Every book has two comics, one at the beginning (an intro) and one in the middle (for humor, and someone often complains about it afterwards), the exceptions are book 5 where George and Harold create a third comic to save the world and book 8 where the evil twins of George and Harold created a third comic.
• There is a little boy who, after seeing a fight between Captain Underpants and the book's villain, says something like, "Mommy, I just saw a guy in his underwear fighting someone!", to which the mother denies it by saying something like, "Don't be silly." She is often seen reading something even more unbelievable, such as a book about how to lose 20 pounds in 3 days (see: Irony). In fact, in book 4, the boy notices Professor Poopypants climbing into the then-giant Gerbil Jogger 2000. His mother then sarcastically asks if the next event will be the giant robot fighting a giant in his underpants in the middle of the city. Later on in the book, the boy sees Poopypants and Captain Underpants fighting each other, just as his mother predicted: "Mommy?" "Yes?" "Um, never mind." He and his mother only appeared in books 1 through 4.
• Every book has a chapter known as "The Incredibly Graphic Violence Chapter", which has an animation mode known as Flip-o-Rama or "The Cheesy Animation Technique". It begins with a silly warning about how the "violence" might be offending, instructions on how to work Flip-o-Rama by flipping one page back and forth, and then one to three groups of pages that you flip back and forth. Instead of a violence chapter, book 7 includes instructions on how to do the Underpants Dance. However, book 8 did not include a silly warning on the first page of a flip-o-rama chapter.
• At the end of Chapter 1 in every book the last line is "But before I can tell you that story I have to tell you THIS story", reverting to another sub-plot story that often ties into the main-plot.
• There is occasional meta-humor, the most common joke being a character declaring something only happening in poorly written children's stories, usually right before the actual event happening.
• There is often a mention of things that happened in previous books (usually in the background). Like in the fourth book when Professor Poopypants was at the cafe, the newspaper he was reading said that NASA discovered robots living on Uranus (at the end of the second book the heroes told Robo-Plunger to take the evil toilets to that planet). In the fifth book they make numerous references to the previous books, like when Harold says that the stuff that fell on Ms. Ribble was the alien juice from the third book George asks "you mean the one with the annoyingly long title?".
• In the George and Harold's comics, the gym teacher is usually attacked somehow by the antagonist (and the principal doesn't seem to care).

The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theater, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. ... Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy is the first two-part story of Captain Underpants book series. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Ironic redirects here. ... Meta-joke may refer to three somewhat different, but related categories: self-referencing jokes, jokes about jokes (see meta-) also known as metahumor, and joke templates. // Self-referential jokes This kind of meta-joke is a joke in which the joke itself, or, rather, a certain category of joke, is... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (IPA [ˈnæsə]) is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nations public space program. ...

World Savers

Starting with Book 2, someone other than Captain Underpants saves the day. The following is a list of the world savers.

• Book 1: Captain Underpants/George & Harold
• Book 2: Robo-Plunger
• Book 3: Captain Underpants/George & Harold
• Book 4: Captain Underpants
• Book 5: Captain Underpants/George & Harold
• Book 6: Sulu the Bionic Hamster
• Book 7: Captain Underpants
• Book 8: Captain Underpants/Boxer Boy & Great Granny Girdle/ George & Harold
• Book o' Fun: Captain Underpants
• Book o' Fun 2: Captain Underpants/Super Diaper Baby/Diaper Dog
• Super Diaper Baby Book 1: Super Diaper Baby & Diaper Dog

Controversy

Book bans

The Captain Underpants books were reported by the American Library Association to be the sixth most frequently challenged books in the year 2002. David "Dav" Pilkey also mentioned this in his website. According to the American Library Association, Pilkey's Captain Underpants series was banned for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group, as well as encouraging children to disobey authority. ALA Logo The American Library Association (ALA) is a group based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. ...

Costumes

Captain Underpants Halloween costumes create controversy at Long Island (NY) high school. After 3 female students dressed up as Captain Underpants the principal placed a costume ban for all students. The three girls donned beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes to portray the superhero, who has battled such foes as talking toilets. To Restivo, "the appearance was that they were naked." (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305876,00.html)

References to other heroes

• In the comics, the principal says,"This looks like a job for...". It is a reference to Superman.
• Miss Anthrope said,"Go get 'em, Tiger!" after she kisses Cap. This is a reference to Spider-man's girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson.
• Dr. Diaper has the personality and intelligence of Dr. Doom.
• Melvin Sneedly parodies Peter Parker's unfortunate reaction.
• Captain Blunderpants parodies Ultraman.
• Sulu the Bionic Hamster parodies Krypto as the superhero's animal ally.
• The Dandylion of Doom is similar to a Venus Flytrap.

Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ... Spider-Man swinging around his hometown, New York City. ... Mary Jane Watson or Mary Jane Watson-Parker, depending on the adaptation, is (in the fictional world of Spider-Man) the wife of Peter Parker (Spider Man) and a supporting character in the Marvel Comics Spider-Man series. ... Cover to Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four #5. ... Spider-Man swinging around his hometown, New York City. ... Ultraman is a supervillain who appears in stories published by DC Comics. ... Krypto, also known as Krypto the Superdog, is a fictional character; he is Supermans pet dog in the various Superman comic books published by DC Comics. ... For other uses, see Venus Flytrap (disambiguation). ...

Distribution outside of the USA

• Brazil: Cosac & Naify
• Canada, Argentina, Mexico, UK, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand: Scholastic
• Catalan: Editorial Cruilla, a division of Ediciones SM, Barcelona
• Chinese Simplified: Thinkingdom/New Buds
• Chinese Traditional: Commonwealth
• Czech: Egmont
• Danish: Forlaget Sesam, a division of Egmont
• Finland: Tammi
• France: Le Petit Musc, a division of Playbac, Paris
• German: Ueberreuter, Vienna
• Greek: Modern Times
• Iceland: JPV Forlag
• Indonesia: Gramedia
• Ireland,Dublin(CaptainUnderpants)
• Italy: Piemme (Captain Underpants), Salani (Super Diaper Baby)
• Japan: Tokuma Shoten
• Norway: A.W. Damm
• Poland: Egmont
• Portugal: Gradiva
• Romania: Editura National
• Russia: Machinyi Tvorenyia Publishing
• Slovene: Zalozba Mladinska Knjiga
• Spain: Ediciones SM, Madrid
• Sweden: Egmont Richters
• Thai: Pearl Publishing
• Turkish: A.I. Iletisim/Altin Kitaplar

Tammi has multiple meanings. ... Tokuma Shoten (徳間書店) is one of the largest entertainment publishers in Japan. ...

References