History Literature / CaptainUnderpants

* BreakingTheFourthWall: All the time.
** "A huge cloud of mist filled the air, covering everything in sight, and making these two pages incredibly easy to draw."
* BreakoutCharacter: Professor Pippy P. Poopypants, later renamed to Tippy Tinkletrousers. Originally just the VillainOfTheWeek in Book 4, he later became the main villain of both Books 9 & 10, establishing himself as the franchise's most recurring villain. (Not to mention being the main antagonist of [[WesternAnimation/CaptainUnderpantsTheFirstEpicMovie the first movie]])

** In book 6, Harold and George change the sign in the bathroom to read "Please wash your hands in the toilet." Melvin Sneedly sees this and follows it. Later in the book, Melvin returns to the bathroom, and it's mentioned that he once again washed his hands in the toilet.
** In book9, during the WholeEpisodeFlashback, Mr. Krupp asks why none of the kindergarteners are having lunch. The real reason is that all their lunch money was stolen, but Harold lies and tells him that it's because they're on diets. Later, George and Harold order pizza for the kindergarteners, but Mr. Krupp catches the delivery man and tells him the kindergarteners can't have it because "those kids are on diets."

-->''Warden Schmorden was known far and wide for his cruelty and strictness. He once sentenced a prisoner to a year of solitary confinement just for ending a sentence with a preposition.''

-->''George and Harold are tied up, with a candle burning through a rope that when burnt through will launch an axe at them.''\\

''Suddenly the blade fell and sliced through the ropes, not harming George or Harold at all. The two boys looked at each other and decided it was best not to comment on the situation.''

-->'''Harold:''' "But that doesn't make sense!"

-->''"[[{{Memes/Advertising}} Silly rabbi, tricks are for kids!]]"''

-->''Not another sequel!''

* BadFuture: [[spoiler:As Tippy Tinkertrousers appeared before the already-traumatized Kipper and his gang with a giant pair of robotic pants, he inadvertently causes them to go insane from the terror, and Mr. Krupp was blamed for his crime. Mr. Krupp was then fired from being the principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School. As a result, Mr. Krupp didn't become Captain Underpants, and the first three villains from the first three novels succeeded in accomplishing their goals. This means that the moon was blown up, and there are two separate invasions of the earth- one by talking, flesh-eating toilets, and the other by giant zombies under the control of aliens. It's not pretty.]]
** [[spoiler:In the tenth book, George and Harold decide to swear off pranks and comic books and become model students after witnessing all of the chaos brought about by their time traveling. They meet themselves thirty years in the future, having become jerkass teachers themselves and working for an elderly Mr. Krupp. However, this becomes subverted when the young George and Harold finally defeat Slightly Younger Tippy Tinkletrousers by summoning the elderly Captain Underpants to assist his younger time-shifted self in the fight.]]

* AffectionateParody: Captain Underpants is very much one of Superman - he is first described in the same manner of Superman's own "More powerful than a locomotive..." way. His costume is a takeoff of Superman's [[SpandexLatexOrLeather spandex]] and BadassCape. Within his comics inside the universe, he shares Superman's FlyingBrick powers. Then, outside the comics, he actually gets the powers. For a bonus, he's also one of Batman -- inside his comics, he has a 'waistband utility belt' which is just as CrazyPrepared as Batman's. He even once says "To the underwear cave!", though he actually lacks such a place. As a bonus, his in-comic origin story is identical to Superman's -- doomed planet, only survivor, adopted by rural folk, father appearing in a dream sequence, et cetera.

* AlliterativeName: Harold Hutchins.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: In-universe - Captain Underpants' origin story is made to make him invulnerable to starching.

* SeriesFauxnale: The Tenth book was advertised as the last Captain Underpants book ever. [[ForegoneConclusion You can guess what happened]]. At the time it ''was'' intended to be the last book, but while writing it, Pilkey realized that there were still unresolved plot threads he had been unable to address, and thus wrote two more books to resolve all loose ends.

** Book 12 always blatantly makes fun of the Republican Party (AKA the Grand Old Party, which is often abbreviated to the GOP), by having a council of Grouchy Old People who all watch the Creator/FoxNewsChannel and want to get rid of all the violence in the Captain Underpants books...and their acronym is also GOP. Now, what kid would even ''get'' that?

* ParentsAsPeople: Melvin's parents are shown to be too busy to spend time with their son. Melvin is, however, shown to still love them. [[PetTheDog This is one of his redeeming qualities.]]
* PartiallyConcealedLabelGag: In George and Harold's comic about the lunch ladies, a teacher accidentally creates zombies by burying the dead lunch ladies on a hill with a sign saying "bury dead stuff here". After he leaves, lightning strikes a tree covering the sign, revealing it said: "Warning: this hill is haunted. Whatever you do, DON'T bury dead stuff here."

* PunnyName: The school teachers and staff -- Benny Krupp (bankrupt), Ms. Edith Anthrope (Eat it and throw up and misanthrope), Ms. Tara Ribble (miserable and terrible), Mrs. [=DePoint=] (misses the point), Miss Creant (miscreant), Mr. Rected (misdirected), Mr. Morty Fyde (mystified and mortified), Miss Singerbrains (missing her brains), Ms. Anita Calculator (miscalculator, I need a calculator), Mr. Kenny B. Meaner (misdemeanor, can he be meaner?), Miss Labeler (mislabeler), Ms. Guided (misguided), Miss Fitt (misfit), Ms. Zurry (misery), and Mr. Rustworthy (mistrustworthy).

* RealEventFictionalCause: Several examples in book 10.

* RevengeViaStorytelling: In ''Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy - Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets'', George and Harold get fed up with Melvin's constant tattling. So they create a ''Captain Underpants'' comic featuring Melvin as the villain: a tattletale kid who becomes the mayor and jails everyone for incredibly minor violations. After the jails get full, Melvin creates a hybrid giant robot suit/prison and imprisons people. Captain Underpants saves the day and defeats Melvin, sending him to his jail while freeing the others. Melvin himself gets angry after reading the comic and swears to get revenge on them both.

%%* RuleOfFunny: The series' name makes it perfectly obvious.

* SanDimasTime: The fifth and tenth books play this one completely straight. The entire plot of the tenth book depends upon at least ''three'' nested time loops [[spoiler:resulting in the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Ice Age, and the ''creation of the universe'' respectively!]]

** Book one ends with it being revealed for the first time that Mr. Krupp will turn back into Captain Underpants every time he hears finger snapping; meaning there are ''much'' more Captain Underpants adventures yet to come.
** Starting with book six, these happened every book:
*** ''Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: Nasty Nostril Nuggets'': Melvin and Mr. Krupp have their minds swapped, and the Robo-Boogers destroy the Combine-O-Tron 2000 and chase everyone.
*** ''Bionic Booger Boy Part 2: Ridiculous Robo-Boogers'': George and Harold attempt to travel in time for the second day in a row.
*** ''Purple Potty People'': Tippy Tinkletrousers returns seeking revenge.
*** ''Tippy Tinkletrousers'': [[spoiler:Tippy apparently dies.]]
*** ''Radioactive Robo-Boxers'': [[spoiler:Melvin Sneedly returns to bring the gang back to the present. The next book revealed he did this so George and Harold could deal with the Turbo Toilet 2000.]]
*** ''Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000'': Lampshaded big time. [[spoiler:While the Turbo Toilet 2000 was permanently stopped, there are still two Georges and Harolds as a result of time travel shenanigans, the town is in ruins from the rampage, the mutant babies of Sulu and Crackers have hatched, and think the boys are their parents and most if not all the teachers of their school have been sent to jail and or the loony bin.]]
--->"I guess there ''are'' a lot of loose ends in this story."\\

* SeriesFauxnale: The Tenth book was advertised as the last Captain Underpants book ever. [[ForegoneConclusion You can guess what happened]]. At the time it ''was'' intended to be the last book, but while writing it Pilkey realized that there were still unresolved plot threads he had been unable to address, and thus wrote two more books to resolve all loose ends.

** In the sixth book, Melvin calling his hamster Sulu and attempting to discipline him with a ping-pong paddle labelled “BAD SULU” is a reference to a sketch from ''Series/MrShow'' in which the Sulu in question is an iguana played by Creator/BobOdenkirk.

* SnapBack: At the end of book 5, George and Harold become bald, but by the next book their hair has fully grown back, even though it definitely hasn't been long enough for that to happen. This may also apply to Ms. Ribble, but she could still be wearing the wig she had on at the end of book 5.
* SneezeOfDoom: In book 6, Melvin tries to combine himself with a bionic robot, but accidentally sneezes during the five-second-preparation period, turning himself into the Bionic Booger Boy.

** At one point in ''Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy - Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets'', Melvin's parents are shown performing a top secret government experiment, which apparently involves pouring Pop Rocks into soda.
** In ''Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot'', Smart Earth—an identical counterpart of Earth made out of an [[GeniusSerum element that increases intellegence]]—explodes due to a science experiment involving the mixture of Smart Diet Coke, Smart Pop Rocks, and Smart Mentos. Later, [[BigBad Sir Stinks-A-Lot]] is destroyed by being forcefully fed our world's versions of said items.

* SpandexLatexOrLeather: This trope is played with by George and Harold while conceiving the concept of Captain Underpants - as such spandex wearers end up looking like they're in their underwear, they made Captain Underpants' costume ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

* SpitefulGluttony: In "The Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers", when Kipper and his gang of bullies steal pizza from the kindergarteners, George and Harold buy a new pizza - with ghost peppers. After the bullies steal the second pizza, Kipper and his pals eat in front of the kids, bragging about how they can't have any of it. And then they have to run for water for their burning mouths.

* SpoilerCover: In book 6. Before Melvin's Bionic Booger Boy form was shown, the page before it was straight up a ''warning'' about how unfathomably disgusting Melvin will look, and how the reader must prepare themselves before turning the page... except the warning is a tad bit redundant considering we already know exactly what Melvin's Bionic Booger form looks like, as it was shown on the cover.

** In the books themselves, ''The Terrifying Revenge of Tippy Tinkletrousers''. Captain Underpants and Tippy Tinkletrousers are important on the cover, and yet 90% of the book focuses on young George and Harold redeeming their school bully.
*** To put it in perspective, the first eight chapters focused on Tippy escaping from jail and discovering Captain Underpants's secret. Then, the focus switches to the bully story and Tippy doesn't return until the thirty-first chapter of this thirty-four-chapter book.

** When listing scientific institutions Pippy Poopypants has been laughed out of, the narration states he was "giggled out of Georgetown, howled out of Harvard, yuk-yukked out of Yale, snickered out of Stanford, and chuckled out of [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Chattanooga State Technical Community College]]."

* AerithAndBob: The three aliens in the third book: Zork, Klax, and Jennifer. Also, in the sixth and seventh books, Carl, Trixie, and [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Frankenbooger]].
* AffectionateParody: Captain Underpants is very much one of Superman - he is first described in the same manner of Superman's own "More powerful than a locomotive..." way. His costume is a takeoff of Superman's [[SpandexLatexOrLeather spandex]] and BadassCape. Within his comics inside the universe, he shares Superman's FlyingBrick powers. Then, outside the comics, he actually gets the powers. For a bonus, he's also one of Batman - inside his comics, he has a 'waistband utility belt' which is just as CrazyPrepared as Batman's. He even once says "To the underwear cave!", though he actually lacks such a place. As a bonus, his in-comic origin story is identical to Superman's--doomed planet, only survivor, adopted by rural folk, father appearing in a dream sequence, et cetera.

* AlliterativeList: Always the three R's: '''R'''eading, (w)'''R'''iting, and '''R'''ithmetic. When you're Ms. Ribble, however, there's also the three S's--"'''S'''it down, '''S'''hut your pie holes, and '''S'''top driving me crazy!"

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: The final fate of the original incarnations of George and Harold is them traveling through space and time in an attempt to rescue Crackers and Sulu.]]

** "[[LampshadeHanging The Anti-Climactic Chapter]]" in Book 8 has things all set up for an UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny between Captain Underpants and his BizarroUniverse EvilTwin Captain Blunderpants...then George snaps his fingers and Blunderpants immediately reverts to being the NiceGuy Bizarro Krupp. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Then a rainstorm happens, turning Nice Krupp back into Blunderpants and Captain Underpants back into Mean Krupp, setting the stage for the real climax.]]]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Sulu and Crackers are able to produce offspring, even though Crackers is a pterosaur and Sulu is a mammal. This is {{handwaved}} by saying that Sulu being part bionic robot may have affected his DNA. Also, in George's own words about this situation, there's really no need to think too hard about these books, because "whaddya think this is, ''Shakespeare''?"

** In book 11, after George and Harold realize that [[spoiler: Crackers and Sulu mated together, Harold wonders how that's possible, because different species can't interbreed.]] George then explicitly tells Harold there's no need to think too deeply about the logic behind these stories and that these books aren't exactly Shakespeare, with his response clearly being Pilkey's response to certain criticism.

* BizarroUniverse: George and Harold end up in one in ''Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People''. The good news is that the entire school staff are nice to students and the "villains" are nice guys performing community service. The bad news is that George and Harold are evil--and then there's [[EvilCounterpart Captain Blunderpants]].

-->'''Captain Underpants:''' [[TakeThat This would make anybody turn evil.]]

* CassandraTruth: [[OnceAnEpisode Once a book,]] a little boy tells his oblivious mother about what's happening and she brushes him off. In book ten, it's the mother who tells the kid that she saw something odd, and he too swears it off.
* CasualInterplanetaryTravel: Book 7 has a group of astronauts about to land on Uranus, but after seeing the Robo-Plunger there, they decide to cancel the trip last minute and head back to Earth. Even ignoring the fact that humans have never been any further than the Moon, Uranus is about 1.8 billion miles away. Going off the speed of Apollo 11 [[note]]49,000 miles a day[[/note]], hypothetically getting anyone there would take 130 years. However, the trip back to Earth apparently only took the astronauts a couple of days, as the Robo-Boogers are able to arrive in time for the climax.

** Prior to book 6, Melvin was nothing more than a character who had a minor role in book 2, but in books 3-5 he could usually be seen in the background as one of the students in George and Harold's class.

** At the end of Book two, George and Harold tell the robot they created to take the dead toilets out to Uranus. Then in book 4 if you notice a newspaper, they're apparently found on Uranus. This once again shows up in Book 7, when Major Tomski and his crew make an expedition to Uranus and find the dead toilets and the Robo-Plunger. Finally, Book 11 opens with the softball from Book 5 arriving at Uranus and decapitating the Robo-Plunger, [[SealedEvilInACan freeing the Turbo Toilet 2000]].

* DePower: [[spoiler: The final book has Mr. Krupp losing the Super Power Juice and the hypno spell, basically removing all traces of Captain Underpants.]]

** In the climax of the eleventh book, [[spoiler: the hamsterdactyls lift the Turbo Toilet 2000 half a mile into the air. When the TT 2000 tells them to let him go, guess what they do.]]

** In book 12, George and Harold go to the future and meet their future selves. Their adult selves question why they don't remember doing this. [[spoiler: It's revealed at the end that the adult versions of George and Harold that were shown were actually the adult versions of ''Yesterday'' George and Harold.]]

->''Faster than a speeding waistband! More powerful than boxer shorts! Able to leap tall buildings without getting a wedgie!''

* WholeEpisodeFlashback: ''The Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers.'' Most of the books showcases how George and Harold first met in preschool.

* BaitAndSwitchCompassion: A RunningGag in the [[ShowWithinAShow comics George and Harold make]]. When a disaster strikes that prompts the call for the titular superhero, oftentimes a bystander will recount that the monster destroyed some inanimate objects and brought harm to the gym teacher. Cue the "Oh no! Not the [inanimate objects]!"

* NoRespectGuy: A RunningGag in George and Harold's comics that overlaps with SkewedPriorities, where a kid tells an adult that the VillainOfTheWeek has done something horrible to a set of products and the gym teacher, and of course, the adults are more concerned about the products' well-being than the gym teacher. Likely meant to be a TakeThat towards George and Harold's ''own'' {{sadist|teacher}} gym teacher, Mr. Meaner.

** Also in George and Harold's comic books, when the MonsterOfTheWeek begins its rampage, a kid shows up to announce what terrible things just happened, with one of them always being the gym teacher being injured and the other some unimportant thing, such as knocking over a tray of cupcakes. An adult will always show concern for [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the less important one]].

'''Prinsiple:''' OH NO! We just planted that grass!

** In book 6, Melvin's parents are mentioned to be doing a top-secret government experiment. The illustration shows that this experiment is putting pop rocks into a bottle of soda.

* ButterflyOfDoom: "The Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers" has its own version of the butterfly effect called The Banana Cream Pie Paradox, which explains that time travel must be handled with caution, for one small change could alter the future. Unfortunately, Tippy does not heed this warning and travels five years in the past, [[spoiler:just as Kipper and his friends are running out of the school. They mistakenly think that Tippy's Robo-Pants are the haunted pants of Wedgie Magee and become insane. Kipper and his friends being sent to a mental health institute and the police to immediately suspect Mr. Krupp for what happened to the sixth graders (in both the original and changed timeline, Mr. Krupp was unintentionally beaten up by his own nephew, and his friends while escaping from the school due to a blackout). This eventually leads to Mr. Krupp being fired, meaning he will not be hypnotized by the 3D Hypno Ring into becoming Captain Underpants. This creates a BadFuture where the world is destroyed and overrun by giant evil zombie nerds caused by Doctor Diaper's Laser-Matic 2000.]]

* CannotSpitItOut: In ''the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman'', George and Harold prank Mr. Krupp by tricking him into singing a birthday for Ms. Ribble, which contains a ''marriage proposal''. He is so shocked and stupefied when she reads it out, ''an actual marriage happens'' until Ms. Ribble breaks it off just before the vows happen, ''and only then'' does Mr. Krupp say he didn't want to marry her either, the entire thing happening due to George and Harold tricking them.

* CatchPhrase:

* CerebusSyndrome: Surprisingly. After the first five books, the series slowly gets more continuity-intensive, and a bit DarkerAndEdgier too.

* HereWeGoAgain: The TropeCodifier. The first eleven books all end with George screaming "Oh no!" and Harold screaming this trope's name. The only exception is book 12, which makes sense as it's the last book in the series, ergo they're ''not'' going again.

* SeverelySpecializedStore: Inverted in ''Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman'': To help Captain Underpants regain his powers, George and Harold need to get some fabric softener to counteract the spray starch that took them away. They run to a new store that opened nearby, which turns out to be "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Everything BUT Fabric Softener]]".

* SuckySchool: Jerome Horwitz Elementary. It's badly funded, discourages individuality and creativity, and the staff are all idiots, jerks, or idiotic jerks.

* FMinusMinus: In the fifth book, Ms. Ribble, infuriated with George and Harold's prank that nearly got her married to Mr. Krupp, she gives them both "G" grades, a grade specially made just for them.

** In response to the ''Captain Underpants'' books being [[http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/2000_2009/index.cfm constantly challenged]] by self-appointed MoralGuardians, later books depict the school library as being almost completely devoid of books, with Ms. Singerbrains discouraging reading and posting anti-reading signs on the shelves encouraging mindless conformity. Furthermore, ''Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People'' features a trip to an [[AlternateHistory alternate universe]] where the school library is stocked with books and the librarian encourages creativity and non-conformity.

* AdvancedTech2000: Many machines in this series are named like this.

** In the first book, George and Harold decide to take a fake dog poop with them when going to search for the hypnotized Mr. Krupp. Later, George uses the poop to distract Dr. Diaper.

There are also three SpinOff titles: ''The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby'', ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfOokAndGlukKungFuCavemenFromTheFuture'', and the ''ComicBook/{{Dog Man|DavPilkey}}'' series. These books are presented as [[ShowWithinAShow graphic novels written by George and Harold]], with ''Super Diaper Baby'' featuring a CrossOver with their Captain Underpants comic.

''ComicBook/{{Dog Man|DavPilkey}}'', ''ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfSuperDiaperBaby'', ''[[ComicBook/TheAdventuresOfOokAndGlukKungFuCavemenFromTheFuture Ook and Gluk]]'' have their own pages.

** In book 8, Mr. Krupp (who is in Melvin's body) tries to sit at his desk, but he's now so short that he can barely see above it.
** Also in book 8, an angry crowd chases after Melvin when he returns to his body. Later, when George and Harold go to use the time machine, you can see Melvin still being chased by the crowd in the window.

* LongTitle: ''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)''. Lampshaded once by George when he points out that it had an "annoyingly long title".

* In Book 6, Mr. Snoddy, the owner of a tissue factory, gives Melvin-who has transformed into a giant snot monster-tissue samples, which causes him to grow three times his current size, and destroy the factory while screaming his head off, and Mr. Snoddy, for his troubles, gets glued to the floor with snot.