Captain Underpants

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Captain Underpants is a children's novel series by American author and illustrator Dav Pilkey. The series revolves around two fourth graders, George Beard and Harold Hutchins, living in Piqua, Ohio, and Captain Underpants, an aptly named superhero from one of the boys' homemade comic books, that accidentally becomes real when George and Harold hypnotize their ill-tempered principal, Mr. Krupp. Soon after, Mr. Krupp gains superpowers by drinking alien juices in the third book.

The series includes 12 books and three spin-offs, and won a Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Award on April 4, 2006. As of 2016, the series had been translated into over 20 languages, with more than 70 million books sold worldwide, including over 50 million in the United States. DreamWorks Animation acquired rights to the series to make an animated feature film adaptation, which was released on June 2, 2017 to positive reviews.

After the main series concluded with the twelfth novel, Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot, in 2015, an in-universe spiritual successor, Dog Man, was released the following year. Currently it has four books.

Video Captain Underpants

Characters

Main

• George Beard and Harold Hutchins - Two fourth grade pranksters, who are best friends and next-door neighbors and the main protagonists of the series. They started a comic book company called "Treehouse Comix, Inc.", and every so often at school they sneak to the secretary's office to make copies of their latest comic book and sell them on the playground for 50 cents. George is 9 ³/₄ years old, while Harold is 10 years old, identified in The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby book. They are the class clowns in 4th grade at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, a school which discourages imagination and fun, located in Piqua, Ohio. It is revealed in the sixth book that their grades are rarely above C. They often get in trouble and serious events with Mr. Krupp. In Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000, duplicates of themselves arrive from the future and the four friends share the same life. In Sir Stinks-A-Lot, it is revealed that they both have ADHD. In that book, they meet themselves as adults; George is a comic book writer, has married a woman and has two children named Meena and Nik; Harold is a comic book illustrator, and is revealed to be homosexual as he is married to a man named Billy, with whom he has adopted twin children named Kei and Owen. They met in kindergarten. The two bonded after George used his wits and tie to save Harold from a bunch of bullies. George in particular is described as very intelligent for his age, to the point where he could have skipped a grade at will, and only causes trouble at school because he finds school boring.
• Principal Benjamin "Benny" Krupp - The overweight and cruel principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School and the antihero of the series (usually when no real dangers are happening). Mr. Krupp has a deep hatred of children, and also tries to protect Jerome Horwitz Elementary from George and Harold's antics. Why he is so mean to children in general is unknown. In the first book, George and Harold hypnotize him with a 3-D Hypno-Ring, made by the Li'lmaking Melvin Sneedly's invention do the wrong things, and he becomes the superhero Captain Underpants, with a flaw in their attempt to return him to normal resulting in Mr. Krupp turning into Captain Underpants whenever someone snaps their fingers, and reverting to Mr. Krupp whenever someone pours water on Captain Underpants. He does not know about his superhero identity, though in the ninth book it's revealed that he does know of Captain Underpants's existence. His first name is revealed as Benny in Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. His favorite book from his childhood is revealed as How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (with the last seven pages he tore out of his book) in Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers. In Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers, his full first name is revealed to be Benjamin. Also, in Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, he is revealed to be Jewish.
• Captain Underpants - The alter ego of Mr. Krupp, when he is hypnotized to think he is "Captain Underpants," a character created by George and Harold. He always wears underpants and a red cape with black polka-dots. Whenever Mr. Krupp hears the sound of fingers snapping, he turns into Captain Underpants, and he turns back into Mr. Krupp when he is soaked with water. Originally, he did not have any real superpowers (even though he believed he did), so George and Harold would have to follow Mr. Krupp every time he transformed into Captain Underpants to make sure he did not get hurt. He gained his superpowers in the third book by drinking some Extra-Strength Super Power Juice found on an alien spaceship. Captain Underpants is considered to be the "light side" of Mr. Krupp himself, as he is nice and kind to everyone, especially children. In his Captain Underpants form, Mr. Krupp seems to know everything about Captain Underpants from George and Harold's comic books. This may be due to the fact that he actually read all the comic books made by the two boys, which he confiscated by the hundreds over the years. During the final book: The Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-lot, Mr. Meaner in a massive blob form absorbs old George and old Harold then robs Captain Underpants of his powers and absorbs them into his body. Orlando, Tony, and Dawn, the hamsterdactyls (hamsters and pterodactyls both at once) defeat Sir Stinks-A-Lot with Diet Coke, Pop Rocks, and Mentos, with Diet Coke and Pop Rocks combined exploding, also with Diet Coke and Mentos, so it could create a big explosion, like the destruction of planet Smart Earth, and George and Harold's adult selves are released but Mr. Krupp loses his powers permanently and the hypnosis is undone meaning Captain Underpants no longer exists.
• Melvin Sneedly - George and Harold's nerdy nemesis. He is an annoying snitch, mechanical genius, the school brainiac, and tattletale. He was first introduced in the book Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets, where he invents the "PATSY 2000" for the second annual Invention Convention. In book 4, he has a silly name, Pinky Pizzabrains. He is described as "the kid with the bowtie and the eyeglasses". He becomes the main villain of book 6, Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets, after accidentally transforming himself into the Bionic Booger Boy. In Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2, Melvin switches bodies with Mr. Krupp and gains his powers, but loses them once they are given back to Captain Underpants. In Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People, the alternate Melvin was not at all intelligent. In book 7, at the end he was chased because of the trouble he caused. In book #11, he defeated the Turbo Toilet 2000 but after returning George, Harold and Mr. Krupp to the present, he was excited not to be a superhero anymore and let the hamsterdactyls destroy him. In book 9 on the front of newspaper it says "Melvin spoke about George and Harold in court" though does not appear onscreen. At the end of book 10 he appears in a Robo-Squid, which he uses to take George and Harold back to the present. And it is revealed in the latest book that Melvin uses it for time travel to save George and Harold from danger instead of being a tattletale, which he is known as. George and Harold are shown to be smarter than Melvin in saving the world from villains, quoted in book 6.
• Sulu and Crackers - George and Harold's pets. Sulu was Melvin's abandoned pet bionic hamster after he yelled at Sulu which offended him, but afterward was adopted by George and Harold. Crackers is their pet Quetzalcoatlus they got when they traveled back in time with Melvin Sneedly's time machine. Sulu first appeared in The Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1. Crackers first appeared in The Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 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 did not turn evil because "he" was a female, and as shown in Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman, hypnosis does the opposite effect for women than what the hypnotizer says (Crackers was in an alternate universe at the time, but the hypnosis ring came from the original universe). Sulu and Crackers accompanied George, Harold, and Mr. Krupp on their time-traveling battles with Tippy Tinkletrousers, and after he turned giant and activated a nuclear bomb, they sent him back 13.7 billion years and were presumably blown up along with him in the explosion that caused the Big Bang (or Big Ka-Bloosh) that created the universe - but not before Crackers laid three eggs, which were revealed to be bred from a bionic hamster and Quetzalcoatlus. Their names were Orlando, Tony and Dawn, after the acclaimed 1970s musical trio. Tony, Orlando, and Dawn saved the world from Sir Stinks A-Lot by destroying Captain Underpants's super powers that Mr. Meaner took. After that following scene, Mr. Krupp was never able to turn back into Captain Underpants by the snap of a finger, and the series was over.

Minor

• Ms. Tara Ribble - George and Harold's mean 4th grade teacher, introduced in the first book as unnamed. In book 5, she turned evil after George and Harold accidentally made her think she was "Wedgie Woman," one of the characters in their comic books. Afterward, the two 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. Ms. Ribble's favorite ice cream flavor is chunky tofu, as revealed in the fifth book. She also almost marries Mr. Krupp, but refuses because he has a "silly nose" (Ironically, they have the same nose). Ms. Ribble appears in the sixth book and is still nice to her class, even playing a prank on Mr. Krupp, although she gets sick as a result of Melvin. She doesn't appear in books 7 and 8. She appeared in the 9th book at a meeting with Mr. Krupp and Mr. Fyde during the part of the book set in the past, appearing in her original state. The name Ms. Ribble is a pun on "miserable" while Tara Ribble is a pun on "terrible." It is implied in book 11 that she reverted to her original personality sometime during her absence as she was among the other teachers who thought that they were in a dream upon seeing two Georges and Harolds.
• Mr. Meaner - Mr. Meaner is Jerome Horwitz Elementary School's gym teacher. He is depicted as being a very fat man, and with a personality similar to Mr. Krupp's. Like him, he is very cruel to students and often yells at them. His name is a reference to the word "misdemeanor". George and Harold express their dislike for him by constantly having gym teachers being attacked or killed by various monsters in their comics.
• Miss Edith Anthrope - The school secretary who is often shown to be in a bad mood. Like all the other teachers at the school including Mr. Krupp, she is unkind to children. Also like most of the school's teachers, she is overweight, although only slightly in comparison to many of the other ones, which are grossly obese. She helped set up Ms. Ribble and Mr. Krupp's marriage. Her name is a reference to the word "misanthrope" while her full name is a pun on the phrase "Eat it and throw up" and in the seventh book she proved to be unkind as shown she hanged Mr. Krupp (who was in Melvin's body) by his underwear.
• Mr. Morty Fyde - Mr. Fyde is the science teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. He quit in the book Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. He is not cruel like all the other grown ups in the school but rather dorky and stupid. Mr. Fyde is a pun on the word "mystified" and Morty Fyde is a pun on the word "mortified". Mr. Fyde quit in book 4 because he thought that he was dreaming thinking that he had been eaten by a talking toilet, imagined that the school got flooded with sticky green goop, thought he saw a group of abominable snowmen chasing George and Harold down the hallway and he saw a big, fat, bald guy in his underwear fly out the window. He appeared in book 9 at a meeting and was in court to talk about George, Harold and Mr. Krupp as seen in the newspaper. Mr. Fyde, thinking he had obtained madness, "Left Jerome Horowitz Elementary School for the greener pastures of The Piqua Valley Home for the Reality-Challenged."
• Mr. Rected - Mr. Rected is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. He is the school guidance counselor. His name is a pun on the word "misdirected". He appears in books 4 and 5. He is shown pictures but speaks no lines in book 8.
• Miss Fitt - Miss Fitt is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. Her name is a pun on the word "misfit". She appears in books 5, 11 and 12.
• Ms. Guided - Ms. Guided is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. It is unknown what subject she teaches. Her name is a pun on the word "misguided". She appears in book 5, and is seen in pictures in books 4 and 8.
• Miss Labler - Miss Labler is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. She is the school psychologist. Her name is a pun on the word "mislabel". She is mentioned in book 4 and appears in books 11 and 12.
• Mr. Rustworthy - Mr. Rustworthy is the music teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. His name is a pun on the word "mistrustworthy". He appears in books 5 and 12.
• Ms. Dayken - Ms. Dayken is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. Her name is a pun on the word "mistaken". She appears in books 5, 11 and 12.
• Ms. Zurry - Ms. Zurry is a teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. Her name is a pun on the word "misery". She appears in book 12 and is seen in pictures in books 10 and 11.
• Miss Anita Calculator - The school's math teacher who despises George and Harold. Her name is a pun on "miscalculator" and her full name is a pun on a random sentence, "I need a calculator".
• Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle - Appearing in the eighth book, Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle are Harold's grandfather and George's great-grandmother. George and Harold accidentally gave them the remains of their Super Power Juice while showing them a new comic at a two-family dinner during Grandparents' Day. The two later save George and Harold from Captain Blunderpants, and share a romantic moment (much to George and Harold's disgust) before flying off.
• The Lunch Ladies - The ladies do not play large roles in most of the books, but are essential to the plot of the third book. Two of the ladies' names are given; they are: Miss Creant and Mrs. DePoint, which are puns on "miscreant" and "misses the point", respectively. The third lady's name is unknown. The lunch ladies quit because they can't stand the awful things that George and Harold been doing to them in the same book they were in one of George and Harold's comic books: Captain Underpants and the Night of the Living Lunch Ladies. Zorx, Klax and Jennifer then take their jobs and try to take over the world.
• Miss Singerbrains - Miss Singerbrains is the librarian at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School who banned all but one of the books in the library and eventually closed down the library, that's why many kids in the school aren't acquaintaned with the library. Her name is a pun on "missing her brains". She gets fired in book 7 and, her opposite appeared in book 8 from the opposite dimension of Captain Blunderpants.

Villains

• Dr. Diaper - A mad scientist resembling a baby whose plan was to blow up the moon with the Lasermatic 2000: all the big chunks of it would come crashing down on every major city in the world. This chaos would allow him to take over the Earth. He made a brief appearance at the end of the fourth book, where he met Professor Poopypants in jail and, along with all the other inmates, laughed at his name, much to Poopypants' annoyance and anger. When Poopypants, now called Tippy Tinkletrousers, alters history, Dr. Diaper succeeds in blowing up the moon, but is eaten by the Talking Toilets. This was reversed when Tippy restored history to the way it was. In the British release of The Adventures of Captain Underpants, he is called Dr. Nappy.
• Dr. Diaper's Evil Robots - They were robots created by Dr. Diaper, and assigned to steal a diamond, the power source to Dr. Diaper's Lasermatic 2000 and kidnapped Mr. Krupp (who was hypnotized to think he was Captain Underpants). They were destroyed by George and Harold.
• The Turbo Toilet 2000 - A giant toilet created by George and Harold, who was accidentally brought into the real world with a modified photocopier. His plan was to devour Captain Underpants and conquer the world with his army of vicious Talking Toilets, but he was defeated and flown to Uranus; in the fourth book, in the newspaper Professor Poopypants was holding, one of the articles states that there were talking toilets found on Uranus and the Piqua Order Of Professional Space Interplanetary Explorers (POOPSIE) later discovered the talking toilets on Uranus yet again In Book 7. It is also a running gag in the book series that bad guys get sent to Uranus. He came back to life and he gets defeated by two different people in two different universes. In the first universe, George, Harold, and Captain Underpants were on a big adventure traveling through time with Tippy Tinkletrousers. Melvin enjoyed this until the Turbo Toilet 2000 arrived and ruined his experiment. Angered, after Melvin yells at him to be quiet, the Turbo Toilet 2000 chases Melvin all the way over to the school, where Melvin finds one of Mr. Krupp's recently clipped-off toenails from the day before. He gets the idea of extracting it into DNA and transferring Mr. Krupp (Captain Underpants)'s superpowers to himself. He ends up doing so and defeating the Turbo Toilet 2000. In the second universe, George and Harold have created duplicates of themselves and have three of Crackers' and Sulu's eggs. When the Turbo Toilet 2000 arrives, The Georges and Harolds run to the asylum to try to get to Mr. Krupp, but after having been unsuccessful, the group take some cardboard boxes and outdoor grills to create talking toilet disguises. George and Harold climb in the disguises, which fools the Turbo Toilet 2000, and manage to convince him to break down the wall of the asylum. With the snap of every finger, George then turned Mr. Krupp back into Captain Underpants, who prepared to fight against the Turbo Toilet 2000. Captain Underpants ends up winning the fight, but after that the Turbo Toilet 2000 starts crying and his giant tears fall on his head, he turns back into Mr. Krupp once again. After being grabbed by the Turbo Toilet, Mr. Krupp decides to direct the planetary privy towards George and Harold's treehouse, where Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold are. After making it there, the Turbo Toilet opens his mouth and swallows Mr. Krupp whole, and then proceeds to ram the base of the treehouse. In the chaos, Cracker's eggs fall to the ground with a sonic boom and a terrible "CRASH!" As Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold sift through the broken eggshell fragments, they discover that Cracker's children are half-pterodactyl, half-hamster. The Turbo Toilet grabs Yesterday George and Harold, but the hamster-pterodactyl children save them by lifting the Turbo Toilet up, and shattering him with a deafening "BOOM!" The hamsterdactyls are later called Orlando, Tony and Dawn. A variation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 appears in the movie created by Melvin, and modified by Professor Poopypants, and is at first as an electronic toilet invention in the Invention Convention. It is unknown if that Invention Convention is the first or second, or any number. George and Harold do a prank where it throws toilet paper, and Poopypants zaps it and grows it with his Sizerator 2000, and it is filled with toxic goo.
• The Talking Toilets - Ferocious sharp-fanged toilets who were minions for the Turbo Toilet 2000. They ate all the teachers in the school, but after being fed food from the school cafeteria they vomited the unconscious-but-unharmed teachers before dying. When Tippy Tinkletrousers alters history, they take over the world and eat Dr. Diaper before they are killed presumably by the zombie nerds. History's original events were later restored. Variations of the Toilets appear at the end of the film.
• Zorx, Klax and Jennifer - Three female space aliens who had the head of a frog, the face of a snake, the tentacles of an octopus and the legless body of a slug who planned to create an army of gargantuan zombies from the school's students and teachers to take over the world. They were later blown up in a horrific UFO explosion. In the alternate dimension, they are firemen with Professor Poopypants. When Tippy Tinkletrousers alters history, they are presumably spared from their fate as they are shown to have grown the zombie nerds to incredible size, but Tippy would later restore history to the way it was.
• The Dandelion of Doom - A dandelion that drank alien rapid-growth juice, causing it to grow into a giant, evil monster. It attempted to eat Captain Underpants, forcing George and Harold to give Captain Underpants superpowers in order to escape. The dandelion was later killed by Captain Underpants.
• The Lunchroom Zombie Nerds of the Zombie Juice - After being fed the lunches, zombie nerd milkshakes served by Zorx, Klax and Jennifer the students and teachers transformed into mindless, dangerous zombie nerds. The aliens intended to use rapid-growth juice to make the zombies grow to a gigantic size, allowing the aliens to use them to conquer the world. After the aliens' defeat, George and Harold returned the zombie nerds to normal by giving them Root Beer mixed with Anti-Evil Zombie Nerd Juice. When Tippy Tinkletrousers alters history, they are shown to currently be in control of the world, grown to gigantic size. This is reversed when Tippy restores history.
• Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants (Later known as Tippy Tinkletrousers) - A brilliant scientist who unfortunately comes from a foreign culture in which everyone has a silly name. Because of his name, he was never taken seriously by any of the American universities, so he decided to go into teaching science at the school after Mr. Fyde quit - however, he was eventually driven insane by being constantly made fun of and his plan was to give everyone on the planet a silly name. He was defeated by a giant Captain Underpants and was taken to jail. George and Harold convince him to change his name but it is still silly. He returns (under his new name Tippy Tinkletrousers) in the ninth book, and reappears in the tenth book, where he freezes Kipper and his friends and creates two versions of himself called Tiny Tippy and Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy, and while the others betray Tippy, him and his clones return to the eighth chapter of the ninth book for the Goosy-Grow 4000 to enlarge themselves (a paradox against time, because if Tippy returns to book eight and froze the policemen, they never arrested George, Harold, and Mr. Krupp, therefore, that also means that what happened in book nine never happened, therefore, neither the events of chapter eight happened ), however Tiny Tippy was enlarged (becoming Supa Mega Tippy) and betrays Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy and returns to the prehistoric age (with Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy, but he didn't notice), so Tippy took a bomb that could extinguish all life on the planet, so Supa Mega Tippy frees Captain Underpants from the robotic arms of the Robo-Pants of Tippy and travels to the ice age (George, Harold, Crackers, and Sulu also go with it), but before that he kicks Tippy so hard that he lands in Mexico with his bomb and the bomb explodes there which extinguished the dinosaurs, killing Tippy and showing that Tippy Tinkletrousers was the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. In the movie, Professor Poopypants is voiced by Nick Kroll and is named Professor PeePee Diareahastein Poopypants esquire.
• Wedgie Woman - A villain originally created by George and Harold who was based on their teacher, Ms. Ribble. After a second mishap with the 3D Hypno-Ring the real Ms. Ribble becomes convinced that she really is Wedgie Woman - at first she has no superpowers, but after her hairstyle gets splattered with the superpower juice from the third book her hair transforms into arms and she gains super-intelligence. She is later changed back to normal by George and Harold, where she becomes nice and bakes chocolate chip cookies everyday for the class.
• Robo-George and The Harold 2000 - Two giant robots built by Wedgie Woman based on George and Harold. They were totally obedient to Wedgie Woman, each had a vast arsenal of powerful weapons and gadgets and were programmed to destroy Captain Underpants once they heard him say "Tra-la-laaa!" They were completely destroyed by Captain Underpants when he used The Harold 2000's own hands against them.
• The Bionic Booger Boy (Melvin Sneedly) - A mix of Melvin Sneedly, boogers, and a super-powered robot. He went crazy after a person named Mr. Snoddy threw tissues at him, the thing he hates the most. He grew bigger and more annoyed, and plotted to get revenge. He is later broken down by Sulu, George, Harold, and Mr. Sneedly, but in the process Melvin and Mr. Krupp switched bodies.
• Carl, Trixie and Frankenbooger (The Three Robo-Boogers) - Boogers that planned to destroy Captain Underpants. They all came from the Bionic Booger Boy. They all share a weakness to oranges, which Captain Underpants successfully used to destroy the rampaging trio of living mucus. Carl had the Bionic Booger Boy's legs, Trixie had the tentacles, and Frankenbooger had the arms. Whenever they eat, they become bigger and more evil.
• Evil George and Evil Harold - Evil versions of George and Harold from an alternate dimension who are both intelligent and evil. They helped Captain Blunderpants and unlike the sketchy, amateurish George and Harold they are actually good authors and illustrators (ironically the main George and Harold consider the alternative George and Harold's work inferior). Additionally, they also tended to correct the spelling on signs to evil phrases (while their counterparts often change the signs into funny words). They had also hypnotized Sulu and convinced him to wreak havoc on the city and grew him to an enormous size. He was later shrunk. Both were shrunk and sent back to their universe by George and Harold.
• Captain Blunderpants - The opposite of Captain Underpants from an alternate dimension who plots on taking over the world and destroying Captain Underpants. Captain Blunderpants has a toupee and looks and acts more like Mr. Krupp, while the alternate Mr. Krupp is nice. He was defeated by Boxer Boy and Great-Granny Girdle. Also his transformation is opposite; when water is splashed on him, he becomes the evil Captain Blunderpants and when someone snaps their fingers, he becomes nice Mr. Krupp.
• Kipper Krupp - A sixth-grade bully and Mr. Krupp's nephew, who would bully George, Harold and other children when they were all in kindergarten. He appears in the ninth book. After George and Harold make him think he is being haunted by a ghost, he changes his ways. When Tippy Tinkletrousers alters history by traveling to this scene with a robot resembling the ghost, Kipper and his friends go insane and are sent to Piqua Valley Home for the Reality Challenged. Mr. Krupp is blamed and is fired, resulting in the destruction of Earth, but all this is reversed when Tippy of the future goes back in time and freezes them so they never see the Robo-Pants and lose their minds, restoring history.
• The Bullies (Finkstein, Bugg, and Loogie) - Kipper's friends who also bully George, Harold, and the other kindergarteners. They appear in the ninth book. George and Harold get revenge on the bullies and their boss Kipper by tricking them into thinking a ghost is coming to curse them, immediately changing their ways. When Tippy Tinkletrousers alters the timeline, Kipper and his friends run into him as they are leaving school, and are scared so badly, they reach the point of insanity and are taken to a mental hospital. This is reversed when Tippy goes back to the night when the bullies encounter him. He freezes the boys, so they don't see the Robo-Pants and the flow of events is restored.
• Tiny Tippy (later known as Supa Mega Tippy) - When Tippy Tinkletrousers traveled back in time, he shrank himself from the past, nicknaming him "Tiny Tippy". Tippy tucked him in his shirt pocket, keeping him for a while without anything to see. When Mr. Krupp and George, Harold, Sulu, and Crackers escaped back in time, Tippy gave Tiny Tippy the task of spying for five to ten minutes before they escaped. Then, when Tiny Tippy encounters Tippy again, he explains that he was ten minutes older than the Tiny Tippy in his pocket, and that the five escaped to the Mesozoic era. When the three Tippys went back in time, Tippy was rather mean with his two tiny twins, saying: "This is a job for a MAN, not two little twerps like you!". Tiny Tippy and his ten-minute younger self traveled back to the time when they were fighting Captain Underpants and he removed the top half of the Robo-Suit, with intent to take the Goosy-Grow 4000 and enlarge themselves and get back at their huge identical. Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy zaps Tiny Tippy two times, making him grow sixty feet. Supa Mega Tippy betrays his younger twin, saying: "This is a job for a MAN, not a little twerp like you!". Supa Mega Tippy then went to the past to kill his twin from the future. Supa Mega Tippy escapes from the huge waves, along with the five. Supa Mega Tippy had traveled to the time of the cavemen, and the five use this as a way to escape. The cavemen later stand up to Supa Mega Tippy, defeating him. Supa Mega Tippy's intent to freeze the cavemen resulted in freezing himself and creating the Ice age for some strange reason.
• Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy - When Tippy sent Tiny Tippy to the past, he caused another Tippy to exist. Tippy was really rude with him and his older self, and he and Tiny Tippy devise a plan to get back at Tippy. However, Supa Mega Tippy betrays him, and to get back at him, Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy rigged the Robo-Pants system. This is what caused the Ice Age. Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy then tried to enlarge himself, but stopped at 120 feet when the Goosy-Grow fell and expanded the ice, creating the Ice Age. Slightly Younger Tiny Tippy took the five thirty years in the future, but Captain Underpants and his older self defeated him. His intents to blow up the galaxy was ruined when Crackers and Sulu took him and his bomb 13 billion years ago, killing him, Crackers, and Sulu. This also created the universe as The Big Ka-Bloosh! Theory.
• Thirty-Nine-&-Three-Quarters-Year-Old George Beard & Forty-Year-Old Harold Hutchins - Adult versions of George and Harold, who are teachers at the future Jerome Horowitz Elementary School. They are good friends of Mr. Krupp and like him, enjoy terrorizing the children at the school. They are shown in a future where George and Harold vowed to be serious for the rest of their lives. Upon seeing this future, the present-day George and Harold vowed to undo their previous vow, removing their future selves from history.
• Sir Stinks A Lot - Mr. Meaner later becomes the alter-ego of Sir-Stinks-A-Lot, an evil hypnotist, in the twelfth book, Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot. He invented Rid-O-Kid 2000, a spray that allows children to be well-behaved and follow the instructions of adults. He first sprayed it on Yesterday George and Harold. Once George and Harold heard about this, they told all the children who had been sprayed, to mess up the teachers. Sir Stinks-A-Lot found out and went looking for the people who could have done this. He blamed Old George and Harold for this. Once Mr. Krupp turned into Captain Underpants he got defeated but turned into a blob of white goop who then destroyed Mr. Krupp's trance of Captain Underpants "a paradox because that way Old Captain Underpants 'mentioned in the tenth book' never could have existed" and gobbled up George and Harold. Tony, Orlando and Dawn heard the call and destroyed the goop but keeping George, Harold, Mr Meaner and themselves safe.

Maps Captain Underpants

Novels

The main series of novels has developed a pattern of alliteration from the second book on--with the exception of the third book, whose "annoyingly long" title becomes a running joke in future books.

Novels 6-12 in the main series form one unbroken story, in which the ending of each of such novel except the last is a cliffhanger, and the next novel in sequence immediately picks up where the last one left off.

Captain Underpants novels

1. The Adventures of Captain Underpants (1997)
2. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (1999)
3. 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) (1999)
4. Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (2000)
5. Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (2001)
6. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets (2003)
7. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (2003)
8. Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (2006)
9. Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers (2012)
10. Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (2013)
11. Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 (2014)
12. Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot (2015)

Captain Underpants activity books

1. The Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun (2001)
2. The All-New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun 2 (2002)
3. The Captain Underpants Super Silly Sticker Studio (2005)

Captain Underpants spin-offs

1. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (2002)
2. The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future (2010)
3. Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers (2011)
4. Dog Man (2016) (In full color)
5. Dog Man Unleashed (2017) (In full color)
6. Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties (2017) (In full color)
7. Dog Man and Cat Kid (2018) (In full color)

Captain Underpants collectors' editions

1. The Adventures of Captain Underpants: Collectors' Edition (2001)
2. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets: Collectors' Edition (2007)
3. 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): Collectors' Edition (2008)

Captain Underpants collections

• The Tra-La-La Riffic Captain Underpants Collection/The First Captain Underpants Collection (Books 1-4; 1997-2000)
• The Second Captain Underpants Collection/The Tra-La-Larious Captain Underpants (Books 5-7 & Super Diaper Baby; 2001-2003)
• Captain Underpants: Three Pantastic Novels in One (Books 1-3; 1997-99)
• The New Captain Underpants Collection (Books 1-5; 1997-200)
• The Tra-La-La Tremendous Captain Underpants Collection (Books 5-8; 2001-2006)
• The Complete Captain Underpants Collection (Books 1-8; 1997-2006)
• The Captain Underpants Collectors' Edition Collection (Books 1-3 + 3 CD-Roms; 1997-1999, 2005-2008)

Captain Underpants in Full Color

• The Adventures of Captain Underpants (2013)
• Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (2014)
• 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) (2014)
• Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (2015)
• Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (2017)
• Captain Underpants and The Big Bad Battle of The Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of The Nasty Nostril Nuggets (2018)
• Captain Underpants and The Big Bad Battle of The Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of The Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (2018)
• Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (2019)
• Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers (2020)
• Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (2021)
• Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 (2022)
• Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot (2023)

Super Diaper Baby and Ook and Gluk in Full Color

• The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby (2017) (in full color)
• The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future (2017) (in full color)
• Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of The Potty Snatchers (2018) (in full color)

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Controversy

Book bans

The Captain Underpants books were reported by the American Library Association to be the most frequently challenged books in the year 2012. Dav Pilkey also mentioned this in his website. According to the American Library Association, Pilkey's Captain Underpants series was explicitly banned in some schools for insensitivity and being unsuited to age group, as well as encouraging children to disobey authority.

The American Library Association stated in a release by the National Coalition Against Censorship that "This year's #1 banned book, Captain Underpants... is the gift that keeps on giving. Why? Because these popular, silly books are read by parents, with their children, all over the country. The toilet humor makes parents roll their eyes and kids giggle. The absurdity of banning books in order to attack perceived moral problems is exemplified by this year's winner."

In October 2015, the 12th book received controversy due to a reference to Harold being gay. Some elementary schools have banned the book for this reason.

Costumes

In 2006, Captain Underpants Halloween costumes created controversy at Long Beach High School in Long Island, New York. Three female students dressed up as Captain Underpants causing the principal, Nicholas Restivo, to enact a costume ban for all students. The three girls put on beige leotards and nude stockings under white briefs and red capes. According to Principal Restivo, "the appearance was that they were naked."

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Hiatus

Although the first few books came out on a regular basis, the ninth book, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers (advertised in a teaser at the end of the eighth book), wasn't released until 2012, after a six-year wait. During this time, Dav Pilkey was caring for his terminally ill father, who died in 2008. In 2009, he signed a deal with Scholastic for four new books, the first of which was The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, released August 10, 2010. The second was Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers, released June 28, 2011. The third book, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, was released August 28, 2012. The fourth book, Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers, was released January 16, 2013.

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Film adaptation

On October 20, 2011, it was reported that DreamWorks Animation had acquired rights to make an animated feature film based on the Captain Underpants series. On October 25, 2013, it was reported that Rob Letterman would direct the film, while Nicholas Stoller would write the script. It would have been the second film to have Letterman and Stoller working together, the first being Gulliver's Travels. On January 21, 2014, the cast was announced, with Ed Helms joining as Mr. Krupp/Captain Underpants; Kevin Hart as George Beard; Thomas Middleditch as Harold Hutchins; Nick Kroll as the insidious villain, Professor Poopypants; and Jordan Peele as Melvin, the nerdy nemesis of George and Harold. On June 12, 2014, the film was scheduled for release on January 13, 2017. Following DreamWorks Animation's reorganization in early 2015, the studio announced that the film will be produced outside of the studio's pipeline at a significantly lower cost. It will be instead animated at Mikros Image in Montreal, Canada, and it will look differently than most of DWA's films. A month later, Deadline reported that Letterman had left the project, and that David Soren, the director of Turbo, was in talks to direct the film, but Letterman returned to the project and serves as an executive producer with Dav Pilkey. The film was expected to be released on March 10, 2017, but in September 2015, DreamWorks Animation's The Boss Baby took over its date. The film was released on June 2, 2017.

It has received positive reviews and has grossed over $123 million.

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Reception

Censors in the United States have been targeting the Captain Underpants series after the first book was released in 1997. The Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association reported that Captain Underpants is the book series with the most complaints from libraries due to offensive content in the United States in 2012 and 2013. Several parents accused the book of having language inappropriate for the book's target audience, children enrolled in elementary schools.

Jessica Roake, in an article published in Slate, argued that the books are well suited for young readers. She wrote that "They're drawn to them because for the first time in their reading lives they are understood, entertained, and catered to all at once. It is theirs, not ours, and that feeling of exclusive ownership forges the kind of connection everyone should have with at least one book in their life. For that, most every English teacher of my acquaintance will be more than happy to take the shot to the ego the Captain provides."

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Distribution outside the US

• Canada, Argentina, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, India, Australia, New Zealand: Scholastic
• Catalan: Editorial Cruilla, a division of Ediciones SM, Barcelona
• China: Nanhai Publishing Company
• Hong Kong: Thinkingdom/New Buds
• Taiwan: Commonwealth
• Czech: Egmont
• Denmark: 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
• Israel: Kineret
• Italy: Piemme (Captain Underpants), Salani (Super Diaper Baby)
• Japan: Tokuma Shoten
  • Ry? Kisaka (???, Kisaka Ry?) is the Japanese translator of the book series.
• Korea: Gimm-Young Publishers, Inc.
• Norway: Schibsted Forlag (1st to 8th book), Vigmostad & Bjørke (from 9th book)
• Poland: Egmont, Jaguar
• Portugal: Gradiva
• Romania: Editura National
• Russia: Machiny Tvoreniya Publishing (title: ??????? ?????????? "Kapitan Podshtannik")
• Slovene: Zalozba Mladinska Knjiga
• Spain: Ediciones SM, Madrid
• Sweden: Egmont Richters
• Thai: Pearl Publishing
• Turkey: A.I. Iletisim/Altin Kitaplar
• United Kingdom: Scholastic, TedSmart

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References

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External links

• "Captain Underpants official site"
• "Captain Underpants on Dav Pilkey's official site"

Source of the article : Wikipedia