...Melvin only had one rule guys!
Examples of What an Idiot!. It’s no surprise that the characters in this series can't think straight on top of all the gross-out humor.
- George and Harold always get bored easily in school and decide to pull pranks. They do this solely for their own amusement and don't want to hurt anyone.
You'd Expect: The boys to cover their butts if they suspect they're going to be caught and not cause a moral hazard. Pulling pranks might seem normal at first since they're kids, but you'd think that they would be Taught by Experience and try not to go too far.
Instead: The boys completely fail to notice when security cameras are put up, when someone may snitch on them, or when their pranks are downright dangerous.
The Result: The boys get caught. Every. Time. Mr. Krupp also gives them a "The Reason You Suck" Speech for sabotaging the football team in Book One because the football players legitimately did nothing to earn the duo's chaos. Ms. Ribble threatens to flunk them for life for the marriage card prank and nearly kills them while hypnotized. It's also their fault that most of the villains come into existence due to their thoughtlessness. - In book one, after fouling a sinister world domination plot, the pair are trying to get Mr. Krupp back to normal after redressing him, but they don't know how to do so with the Hypno-Ring. They do know they can snap Mr. Krupp out of it, but when he checks his pants pockets, George says he lost the instruction manual, and the boys can't find it, despite their constant searching.
You'd Expect: George would check his shirt pocket for the manual.
Instead: He doesn't, and ultimately resorts to pouring water on Mr. Krupp's head, which turns him back to normal. Only afterward does he check his shirt pocket and find the manual. They decide to throw it away, figuring that they'll never need it. Unbeknownst to the boys, though, there's an important notice inside the manual that says pouring water on the hypnotized person's head will cause them to slip back and forth between trance and reality whenever they hear the sound of fingers snapping. - In book two, George & Harold learn that they've been banned from entering the Invention Convention over an incident the previous year. To retaliate, they plan on sabotaging the other kids' inventions. So when they arrive at the gymnasium later the day, they spot Melvin. They contemplate on whether they should either wait for Melvin to leave or for them to stay due to their concern with Melvin staying at the school all night.
You'd Expect: For George & Harold to realize that Melvin shouldn't be trusted to keep any type of promises due to his reputation of being a snitch (snitches are usually untrustworthy).
Or: For George & Harold to at least attempt to sneak into the school earlier in the morning to be able to sabotage the inventions without any other student or staff members witnessing them do it.
Instead: They confidently ask Melvin to promise to not snitch on them to Mr. Krupp, and they later sabotage the other kids' inventions.
As A Result: The Invention Convention gets ruined due to the malfunctioning of the inventions. This influences Melvin to snitch on George & Harold to Krupp, which lands them in detention for the rest of the school year. - In the third book, George and Harold prepare for the lunch ladies a prank recipe involving mixing baking soda and vinegar. Disguising it as a cupcake recipe, they leave it at the cafeteria, claiming it's for Mr. Krupp's birthday, and the lunch ladies soon open it.
You'd Expect: The lunch ladies to know baking soda and vinegar don't mix and either throw away the recipe or report it to Mr. Krupp (everyone knows when their own birthday is).
Instead: They believe it, and decide to make cupcakes for the whole school.
As A Result: The prank goes horribly right, flooding the school with sticky green goop. The lunch ladies furiously quit their jobs, setting the book's plot in motion. - After the lunch ladies quit, three aliens, Zorx, Klax and Jennifer, disguise themselves as humans and apply for the vacancies. What no-one knows is that they are plotting to take over Earth by turning everyone in the school into 'zombie nerds', and then turning them into giant monsters.
You'd Expect: Mr. Krupp to see through their disguise and refuse to hire them. He could try to show a funny side and joke to them that they do not work with extraterrestrials. What could help is the fact that the aliens' disguises are very bad and look totally unconvincing. Not only that, but they have tentacles instead of hands or feet.
Instead: Mr. Krupp hires the three without knowing that they're aliens, allowing them to advance their plot.
Extra Points: The three offered no experience, no credentials and no references when they applied for the job. That should have given them away, but Mr. Krupp hired them anyway.
Luckily: George and Harold's trance-breaking error from the first book (described above) ensures that the plan does not progress very far beyond the 'zombie nerds' stage. - At the beginning of the fourth book, George and Harold's class are about to go on a field trip to Piqua Pizza Palace when the two decide to kill time waiting in line by rearranging letters on the sign into a crude phrase. Unfortunately, Mr. Krupp catches them in the act and orders them to clean the teachers' lounge as punishment.
You'd Expect: Mr. Krupp, knowing George and Harold are a notorious pair of troublemakers who cannot be trusted on their own, to stay behind and supervise the two boys in order to make sure they do their job correctly.
Instead: He shows them the supplies before ditching them to attend the trip, giving the boys ample time to arrange payback instead. Later on, when the teachers return to school and decide to unwind in the teacher's lounge after mercilessly teasing the duo, they fall victim to George and Harold's prank and end up drenched as well as covered in glue and Styrofoam packing pellets until they look like a horde of snowmen.
On Top Of That: Mr. Fyde witnesses this and resigns the following day, thinking he has gone crazy due to the events from previous books (unaware that they were actually George and Harold's doing), and leaving Mr. Krupp to muse about the need for a new science teacher. Luckily, Mr. Poopypants notices the school is hiring and decides to take on the job. - Professor Pippy Poopypants travels to America to show off two of his new inventions; a Shrink Ray and a Growth Ray. His intentions are altrustic, wanting to use the inventions to reduce waste and pollution (by shrinking garbage), end world hunger (by enlarging food), and allowing pets such as Gerbils to jog with their owners instead of staying in their cages all day (by creating a special tiny robot for them), respectively, and the inventions work perfectly.
You'd Expect: That everyone would get over his admittedly very silly name and take notice of his inventions, and how useful they could be.
Instead: They do nothing but laugh at the guy, ultimately causing him to snap, and as a result, a whole elementary school gets taken hostage, the potential of the inventions is wasted, and everyone on the planet is forced to change their name.
But You'd Also Expect: Poopypants to change his name, or else adopt a pseudonym, once he realized that no one would take him seriously because of it.
Instead: He only changes his name at the end of the book, on the suggestion of George and Harold.
By Then: He's already in prison, and most likely discredited.
And Then You'd Expect: The new name to be something no-one will laugh at.
Instead: His new name (Tippy Tinkletrousers) is just as silly as the old one, and changes nothing. - In the fifth book, George & Harold decide to pull a prank on Mr. Krupp and Ms. Ribble by creating a fake proposal card. Mr. Krupp snatches the card from the boys to deliver the card to Ms. Ribble.
You'd Expect: Mr. Krupp to remember the boys' tendency to trick people, and look in the card to check for any sort of prank.
Instead: He does not. In class, he reads the card out loud. On the front of the card, it says “You’re one hot mama.” The inside of the card says, “Will you marry me?” The kids in the class are disgusted, while the other staff members mistaken the card as a real proposal and think of planning a wedding.
You’d Then Expect: Ms. Ribble to just tell the other staff members that neither of them want to get married to each other.
And/Or: For her to tell the other staff members that the card was obviously a prank by George & Harold.
Instead: She says nothing, and they nearly get married to each other. It’s only at the actual wedding that they admit that they never had any romantic feelings for each other. - In book six...
- George and Harold demonstrate their latest prank to the class known as "squishies", in which one grabs two ketchup packs folded in half and places them under a toilet seat. The whole class is so amused that they (and Ms. Ribble, who had become a lot nicer by then via the Hypno-Ring) go off to make "squishies" of their own. Mr. Krupp, who had tried to use the faculty restroom only to end up with ketchup in his underwear and noticed many other kids upset by the prank indicts George and Harold both for it and Melvin Sneedly snitches on them. Infuriated, the two boys decide to humiliate him by drawing a comic book portraying Melvin as the antagonist which then becomes a hit with the students... who point and laugh at him.
You'd Expect: Melvin, an unapologetic tattletale and Teacher's Pet, to report that the hallways are swarmed with children reading a comic book and laughing, which are clearly against the rules, especially upon finding out it was about him.
Instead: He snatches a copy from a group of kids and retreats into the boys' room to read.
You'd Then Expect: Melvin, who is well aware of the "squishies" prank he ratted out George and Harold for earlier, to quickly check under the toilet seat first and toss the ketchup packs aside.
Instead: He neglects to do this and falls victim to another "squishy", fuming at George and Harold over his mistake.
You'd Also Expect: Melvin to take the comic to the principal's office and get George and Harold busted again.
Instead: He rips the comic in half, tosses it aside and plots to get back at the two boys by combining himself with a robot using the Combine-O-Tron 2000 he showed off in class earlier. Unfortunately, his attempt goes awry when he sneezes during the process. - By the next day, when Melvin shows up late to class, he has combined himself with a robot and snot. Upon explaining his plight to the class, George recommends that he place the batteries into the Combine-O-Tron backwards to reverse the effects.
You'd Expect: Melvin to bite his tongue and reluctantly agree to try it out just to see if it helps and ask to be briefly excused from class to test it. After all, silly as it is, George is actually being civil towards Melvin for once and offering him a suggestion.
Instead: He dismisses it as the stupidest thing he'd ever heard.
Then: Overtime, he has eventually gotten acclimated to this transformation... but cold and flu season arrives and he ends up going to school sick too. Every time he sneezes, the chalkboard gets covered in snot.
You'd Expect: Ms. Ribble to send Melvin home to prevent further messes or, alternately, have Melvin sit next to an open window so he can spray snot outside any time he has to sneeze.
Instead: Ms. Ribble calmly advises him to cover his mouth.
The Result: He has to sneeze again shortly after, but covering his mouth causes an explosion which sends mucus flying everywhere. Having gotten drenched in snot herself, Ms. Ribble is sick the next day. - Mr. Krupp sees everyone in Ms. Ribble's class and demands to know why the children have raincoats and umbrellas on. As if in reply, Melvin sneezes.
You'd Expect: Mr. Krupp to spare himself any potential messes and frustration and cancel school for the day.
Instead: Mr. Krupp announces that he and Ms. Anthrope are to take the class on a field trip to the local tissue factory, which sends Melvin into a panic. The tour goes uneventfully until the founder, named Mr. Snoddy, offers free samples of tissues to the children but Melvin frantically refuses. Snoddy tosses him a few samples anyway, causing him to scream and his body to grow. Melvin warns Snoddy how angry he'll get if this persists.
You'd Expect: Mr. Snoddy to take Melvin at his word and stop giving out free samples.
Instead: He insists on giving Melvin more tissues, which sends Melvin in a tizzy as he grows bigger.
You'd Then Expect: Snoddy to see the damage that his carelessness is leading to, drop the tissues and get the two adults supervising the trip to safely escort everyone (except Melvin) out of the factory.
Instead: Snoddy hands him some more tissues, which causes him to grow three times his current size and embark on a destructive rampage. For his troubles, Mr. Snoddy gets pinned to the floor with snot.
Luckily: Sulu (the cyborg hamster resulting from Melvin's earlier test of the Combine-O-Tron) comes to the rescue and singlehandedly defeats Melvin. Also, Melvin's parents show up to try and turn him back to normal... using George's suggestion of putting the batteries in backwards.
However: Not only do Melvin and Mr. Krupp have their bodies switched, but three booger cyborgs come to life as a result.
- George and Harold demonstrate their latest prank to the class known as "squishies", in which one grabs two ketchup packs folded in half and places them under a toilet seat. The whole class is so amused that they (and Ms. Ribble, who had become a lot nicer by then via the Hypno-Ring) go off to make "squishies" of their own. Mr. Krupp, who had tried to use the faculty restroom only to end up with ketchup in his underwear and noticed many other kids upset by the prank indicts George and Harold both for it and Melvin Sneedly snitches on them. Infuriated, the two boys decide to humiliate him by drawing a comic book portraying Melvin as the antagonist which then becomes a hit with the students... who point and laugh at him.
- In book seven, everything is finally back to normal, with the caveat that George and Harold still need to return Crackers to her own time period as promised. They plan to use Melvin's Purple Potty again to return back to the jurassic era, until they remember that Melvin warned them that not letting it cool off for one day will result in disastrous effects.
You'd Expect: George and Harold to keep Crackers for at least one more day, letting the Purple Potty cool off, especially considering that she's grown pretty fond of Harold.
Instead: Harold recognizes the dangers of not letting it cool off, but George coerces him into using it anyway, resulting in them being launched into a Bizarro Universe where everyone but themselves are nice.
The Result: Not only do they inadvertently kick off the events of book eight, but because they accidentally let their evil counterparts cause trouble in their own universe, the series undergoes Cerebus Syndrome, resulting in George, Harold, and Mr. Krupp becoming convicted felons and Tippy Tinkletrousers accidentally causing the apocalypse through time travel. Had George and Harold waited just one day to send Crackers back, they could've lived their lives peacefully again and just rely on Captain Underpants to ward off Tippy's eventual prison break and the Turbo Toilet 2000's untimely return.
