Captain Underpants


Captain Underpants is an American illustrated children's novel series and multimedia franchise created by 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, who accidentally becomes real when George and Harold hypnotize their cruel, bossy, and ill-tempered principal, Mr. Krupp. From the third book onwards, Mr. Krupp also possesses superhuman strength, durability and flight as a result of drinking alien "Extra-Strength Super Power Juice".
Currently, the series includes 12 books, two activity books, colored versions, and 15 spin-offs. As of 2014, the series has been translated into more than 20 languages, with more than 80 million books sold worldwide, including over 50 million in the United States.
DreamWorks Animation acquired the rights to the series to make an animated feature film adaptation, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, which was released on June 2, 2017, to positive reviews, followed by a television series, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, which aired on Netflix from July 13, 2018, to December 4, 2020, also 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, a spin-off series titled Dog Man was released the following year in 2016. The spin-off series has 14 books so far, and a film adaptation of the series produced by DreamWorks Animation was released on January 31, 2025. A sequel to the film adaptation is in development.

Novels

The main series of novels has developed a pattern of alliteration from the fourth book on. The third book's "annoyingly long" title became a running joke in subsequent 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
  2. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets
  3. Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space
  4. Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants
  5. Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman
  6. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets
  7. Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers
  8. Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People
  9. Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers
  10. Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers
  11. Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000
  12. ''Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot''

    ''Captain Underpants'' activity books

  13. The Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun
  14. The All-New Captain Underpants Extra-Crunchy Book o' Fun 2
  15. The Captain Underpants Super Silly Sticker Studio
  16. The Extra Big 'N' Extra Crunchy Captain Underpants Book o' Fun
  17. The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants: Let's Roll! Sticker Activity Book
  18. ''Full Color The Captain Underpants Double Crunchy Book o' Fun''

    ''Captain Underpants'' spin-offs

  19. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby
  20. The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future
  21. ''Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers''

    ''Captain Underpants'' collectors' editions

  22. The Adventures of Captain Underpants: Collectors' Edition
  23. Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets: Collectors' Edition
  24. ''Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space : Collectors' Edition''

    ''Captain Underpants'' collections

  • The Tra-La-La Riffic Captain Underpants Collection/The First Captain Underpants Collection
  • Three More Wedgie-Powered Adventures in One
  • The Second Captain Underpants Collection/The Tra-La-Larious Captain Underpants
  • Captain Underpants: Three Pantastic Novels in One
  • The New Captain Underpants Collection
  • The Tra-La-La Tremendous Captain Underpants Collection
  • The Complete Captain Underpants Collection
  • ''The Captain Underpants Collectors' Edition Collection''

    ''Captain Underpants in Full Color''

  • The Adventures of Captain Underpants
  • Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets
  • Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space
  • Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants
  • Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman
  • Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets
  • Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2: the Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers
  • Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People
  • Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers
  • Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers
  • Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000
  • ''Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot''

    Characters

Overview

List indicators:
  • A dark gray cell indicates that the character was not in the property or that the character's presence in the property has yet to be announced.
  • A Main indicates a character had a starring role in the property.
  • A Supporting indicates the character appeared in two or more times within the property.
  • A Guest indicates the character appeared once in the property.

    Main characters

  • George Beard and Harold Hutchins – Two fourth grade pranksters, who are best friends, next-door neighbors, and the main protagonists of the series. They started a comic book company called "Treehouse Comix, Inc.", and sneak to the secretary's office at school to make copies of their latest comic book and sell on the playground. They are the class clowns in 4th grade at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, a school which discourages imagination and fun, located in Piqua, Ohio. They often get in trouble with Mr. Krupp. In the ninth epic novel, Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers, George wore his hair in a huge afro when he was 5¾ years old. After time travel antics, duplicates of them are created in the present, referred to as Yesterday George and Yesterday Harold. After the original duo travel to the future, they find their other selves to have become graphic novel creators. Future Yesterday George married a woman named Lisa and had two children named Meena and Nik. Future Yesterday Harold married a man named Billy and had adopted twin children named Owen and Kei. George's parents are named Moses and Barbara, while Harold's mother is named Grace. George's grandmother and Harold's grandfather appear in the eighth book, where they unknowingly drink the last of the superpower juice while reading a comic the boys created where they are the heroes. They later transform into the same heroes to defend George and Harold from Captain Blunderpants and profess their love to each other, much to the boys' disgust. In the adaptations, their personalities are mostly unchanged, but they now usually only prank to entertain their schoolmates and treat Captain Underpants more as a friend than a last resort. In the film, they are respectively voiced by Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch and by Ramone Hamilton and Jay Gragnani in the series, both respectively.
  • Mr. Benjamin "Benny" Krupp – The "cruel" and "mean-spirited" principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School and the antihero of the series. He is usually depicted as an overweight man. Mr. Krupp has a deep hatred of children and also tries to protect the students at Jerome Horwitz Elementary from George and Harold's pranks. He has a younger brother named Jasper, and his parents are named John and Bernice. When Mr. Krupp was little, he performed a hip-hop dance at a talent show, his mother passed out fruits and vegetables to the audience so they could throw them at him because he did not watch the cows from his family farm. This leads him to become "mean" and "cold-hearted" and vow to make all kids feel just as bad as he did. His last name is a pun of the word "corrupt". When he goes by his full name, it is a pun on "bankrupt". Mr. Krupp was based on Mr. Crutch from Shrimps for a Day and was originally named Mr. Crutch. In the film, it is revealed that he read George and Harold's comics when he confiscated them and felt they were a little funny, which explains how he knows what Captain Underpants acts like when he is hypnotized. In the film, he is voiced by Ed Helms and in the series, he is voiced by Nat Faxon.
  • Captain Underpants – The superhero counterpart and alter ego/split personality of Mr. Krupp. He only wears white briefs 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 water is poured on his head. Captain Underpants gains superpowers in the third book and possessed superhuman strength, durability, flight, and "wedgie power" where he can pull unlimited underwear from his utility waistband. As the book series went on, Captain Underpants had increasingly minor roles in each installment. In the 12th book, he lost his superpowers and was erased from existence, much to George and Harold's apathy. Captain Underpants is considered to be the "light side" of Mr. Krupp himself, as he is friendly to everyone. He is very protective of children, especially George and Harold since he believes that they're his sidekicks. In the film, he is voiced by Ed Helms and in the series, he is voiced by Nat Faxon.
  • Melvin Richard Sneedly – George and Harold's nerdy nemesis. He is an "annoying snitch", a "genius inventor", and the school's smartest student. His parents, Cindy and Gaylord, are professional scientists and are canonically neglectful. In the Netflix series, he is thought to have been inventing ever since he was a baby and has a bizarre sense of humor, laughing at videos of rotting fruit. In the movie, he is the only student who has no sense of humor because he thinks everything childish is not funny and only focuses on his studies so he can get extra credit. He is also said to have no brain stem. In the eleventh book, he becomes a superhero named Big Melvin after he defeats the Turbo Toilet 2000 after he drinks superpower juice he created from Mr. Krupp's dirty toenail clipping. He rescued people from emergencies, but later, people started to abuse the system by calling him to do menial tasks. He travels back in time to bring Captain Underpants to the present to defeat the Turbo Toilet 2000 so his life as a superhero would never become reality. In the film, he is voiced by Jordan Peele and in the series by Jorge Diaz.
  • Sulu and Crackers – George and Harold's pets. Sulu was Melvin's abandoned pet bionic hamster who 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. The pair then had three children together named Tony, Orlando, and Dawn.