50 Fun Facts About Captain Underpants

Which other children's series about a mouse did Dav Pilkey create?

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot stars a small mouse who is picked on at school until a giant flying robot becomes his friend. Together they take on Dr. Stinky, an evil scientist out to rule the world.

George and Harold, the two fourth graders who create Captain Underpants, have which surnames?

Beard and Hutchins are made up, yet they are credited in real books: Dav Pilkey presents the Dog Man series as the work of George Beard and Harold Hutchins.

In which real Ohio town do George and Harold live?

The aliens Zorx, Klax and Jennifer try to invade it disguised as lunch ladies.

George and Harold's school, Jerome Horwitz Elementary, is named after which real person?

Jerome Horwitz was Curly's real name. The joke fits a series full of silly names.

What does Captain Underpants shout as he charges off to fight crime?

'Tra-La-Laaa!' is his battle cry, and a later villain turns it against him: she builds robots programmed to attack the moment they hear it.

What sound turns Mr. Krupp into Captain Underpants?

Fingers snapping does it every time, whoever is doing the snapping. Over the series a teacher, and even an alien clicking a tentacle, set him off by accident.

How do George and Harold change Captain Underpants back into Mr. Krupp?

Pour water on his head: the boys hit on it in the first book by emptying a flower vase over him. It works so reliably that even toilet water has turned the hero back into the principal.

Captain Underpants wears white briefs and a cape in which pattern?

Red with black polka dots, because the cape is really a curtain: the newly hypnotised principal tears it down from his office window and ties it round his neck.

What mail-order gadget do George and Harold use to hypnotise their principal in the first Captain Underpants book?

The 3-D Hypno-Ring takes four to six weeks to arrive from the Li'l Wiseguy Novelty Company. The boys order it because the principal has their pranks on videotape and is blackmailing them.

The villain of the very first book wants to destroy the Moon with a Laser-Matic 2000. What is his name?

George stops him with a slingshot loaded with fake dog poop.

From the third book on, how does Captain Underpants gain real powers such as flight?

He drinks the aliens' juice, a carton of Extra-Strength Super Power Juice the boys find on the invaders' spaceship. They give it to him as a last resort, when a giant dandelion is about to finish him off.

The three aliens who disguise themselves as cafeteria ladies are Zorx, Klax and who?

Jennifer is the joke: after two names straight out of science fiction, the third invader is just Jennifer. The trio take over the school kitchen and set about turning the pupils into Evil Zombie Nerds.

What turns the villain of the fourth Captain Underpants book against the world?

Jokes about his name mean nobody will take Professor Poopypants's inventions seriously. His revenge is to force everyone else to swap their own names for ridiculous ones.

After his defeat, Professor Poopypants changes his name to what?

Tippy Tinkletrousers was his grandfather's name, so the fresh start George suggested turned out to be no improvement at all. He returns under the new name in later books.

Which teacher is hypnotised into becoming Wedgie Woman in book five?

Ms. Ribble, the boys' homeroom teacher, becomes the villain of their own comic because their hypnosis works backwards on women: she does the opposite of whatever she is told.

Who is the super-smart classmate and inventor who is George and Harold's rival?

Melvin Sneedly is also the class tattletale, and his inventions have a way of backfiring: one failed experiment fuses him with a robot and his own boogers.

Sulu, the boys' pet, is what kind of animal?

A bionic hamster: Sulu was an ordinary pet until his first owner, a classmate of the boys, fused him with a robot in one of his machines. George and Harold adopted him afterwards.

The Turbo Toilet 2000, a giant toilet the boys drew, is brought to life by what?

A modified photocopier, a classmate's entry in the school's Invention Convention, turns any picture into the real thing. The boys' comic goes through it, and their toilet villains come out alive.

The gym teacher at Jerome Horwitz Elementary has what fitting name?

Mr. Meaner sounds like 'misdemeanor', and his full name, Kenny B. Meaner, asks the question out loud: can he be meaner?

What name do the Captain Underpants books give their page-flapping animation trick?

Flip-O-Rama gets a proud introduction in the books as the latest in cheesy animation technology. It takes over for the big fight, which readers animate by hand, two pages at a time.

Which series also began in 1997, alongside Captain Underpants?

Harry Potter first reached British bookshops in June 1997. The two series have something else in common: each went on to top the American Library Association's yearly list of the books people most often tried to have removed.

What is the title of the second Captain Underpants book?

Attack of the Talking Toilets has its monsters beaten by school food: the cafeteria's creamed chipped beef, fired from a slingshot made of underwear, is foul enough to finish them off.

Which villain is named in the title of the final Captain Underpants novel, published in 2015?

Sir Stinks-A-Lot is one of the school's own teachers, turned into a giant blob by an egg salad sandwich. To beat him the boys travel into the future and fetch their grown-up selves.

Which Dav Pilkey book did his publisher withdraw in 2021, saying it perpetuated passive racism?

Ook and Gluk, a Captain Underpants spin-off about two kung-fu cavemen, was pulled after a reader's petition. Pilkey apologised publicly and promised his earnings from the book to charity.

Captain Underpants topped America's 2012 list of most-challenged books, ahead of which adult bestseller?

Fifty Shades of Grey came fourth, drawing fewer complaints than a principal in his underpants, and the same thing happened in 2013.

Where did Dav Pilkey first invent Captain Underpants as a boy?

At a desk in the school hallway, where an exasperated teacher had put him for disrupting class. He says the desk moved down the hall with him each year, and he filled the time drawing comics.

Dav Pilkey's first name lost its final 'e' on a staff name tag when he worked at which restaurant chain?

Pizza Hut's label-maker jammed on the letter when his supervisor made the tag, and the misprint stuck for good. He still says it 'Dave'.

As a child, Dav Pilkey was diagnosed with dyslexia and which other condition?

ADHD made him a handful in class, and one teacher ripped up a comic of his, telling him he could not spend the rest of his days making silly books. He has done exactly that ever since.

Which studio made the 2017 film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie?

DreamWorks Animation made it for about $38 million, a fraction of its usual budgets, by having the animation done at outside studios in Canada and France.

Who voices George in the 2017 film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie?

Kevin Hart was 37 when the film came out, playing a fourth-grader. Thomas Middleditch plays Harold, and Ed Helms is the principal the two of them hypnotise.

In the 2017 Captain Underpants movie, Professor Poopypants comes from which made-up country?

New Swissland's professor arrives with a German accent and a ray that can shrink or enlarge anything. It is turned on him in the end, and he makes his escape riding on a bee.

Who wrote and sang the theme song for Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie?

"Weird Al" Yankovic was a fitting choice: in the very first book, one of George and Harold's pranks is to rig the school intercoms to blast his songs for six hours straight.

The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants TV series originally streamed on which service?

Netflix ran it for four seasons from 2018, sending the boys to summer camp and then into outer space. Dav Pilkey later agreed to a Dog Man film only on condition that the series' showrunner directed it.

What prank do George and Harold play on signs in the Captain Underpants books?

They rearrange the letters until the sign says something rude. In the first book a flower shop's 'Pick your own roses' becomes 'Pick our noses'.

In the Dog Man books, which villain calls himself 'the world's most evilest cat'?

Petey clones himself hoping for a partner in crime, but the kitten turns out pure-hearted. Raising Li'l Petey slowly turns the villain into a good father.

In Dog Man, what is the name of the police dog whose head is sewn onto Officer Knight?

Greg and his officer are hurt in the same explosion, and a nurse suggests the operation when the doctors cannot save both. The result has a policeman's skills and a dog's personality.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus voices the villainous cat in the 2025 Dog Man movie?

Pete Davidson plays the cat. The hero himself never speaks, so writer-director Peter Hastings, who had run the Captain Underpants TV series, supplies Dog Man's barks.

Banned by Mr. Krupp from writing another Captain Underpants comic, George and Harold invent which hero instead?

Super Diaper Baby was their loophole. Ordered to write a 100-page essay on good citizenship, and told not to make it a Captain Underpants comic, they handed in a comic about a brand-new hero.

In 2026 the first Captain Underpants book was re-released in which format?

A manga, redrawn by the Japanese artist Motojiro from a script Dav Pilkey adapted himself. Unlike most manga, it still reads left to right.

Which company publishes the Captain Underpants books?

Scholastic also sells the books at its school book fairs. In 2015 a Michigan school kept the twelfth one out of its fair because it shows a grown-up Harold with a husband.

Which comedian voices George and Harold's nerdy rival in the 2017 Captain Underpants film?

Jordan Peele signed on as the school tattletale in 2014. By the time the film opened he was better known for something else: Get Out, his horror hit of a few months earlier, which won him an Oscar for its screenplay.

The Robo-Boogers are living snot, so which cold-fighting food turns out to be their weakness?

Oranges, because of their vitamin C. One thrown by Captain Underpants fells the first Robo-Booger, and a shower of juice from crushed crates finishes off the other two.

A field trip to what kind of plant triggers the growth of the Bionic Booger Boy?

A tissue factory: offered a pack of tissues on the tour, the Booger Boy panics, swells to giant size and wrecks the place.

What is the name of George and Harold's homemade comic-book company?

Treehouse Comix, Inc. is named for its headquarters, the treehouse between the two boys' backyards where every issue is made. Copies sell at school for 50 cents.

Which comedian did Dav Pilkey once say he had pictured playing Captain Underpants?

Chris Farley died in 1997, the year the first book came out. When a film finally arrived twenty years later it was animated, which Pilkey had said was the only kind he wanted.

Kipper Krupp, the bully from the boys' kindergarten days, is the principal's what?

Nephew: Kipper calls for his uncle whenever he is caught, so nobody can punish him or his gang for long. It takes a prank by the kindergarten-age George and Harold to scare them straight.

Instead of the usual evil-twin goatee, what marks out Captain Blunderpants from the heroic Captain Underpants?

A toupee: in his mirror world everything runs backwards. The kindly principal there is bald, and the hairpiece appears only when he turns into the villain.

When George and Harold make their Captain Underpants comics, what is Harold's job?

Drawing the pictures is Harold's side of the partnership, while George writes the stories. They run off copies and sell them to schoolmates for 50 cents each.

In the 2017 Captain Underpants movie, how does Mr. Krupp plan to end George and Harold's friendship?

Put them in separate classes: the paperwork is ready to sign when the boys hypnotise him to stop it. When their plan falls apart, he signs it anyway.

Which of the boys' robots beats the Turbo Toilet 2000?

The Incredible Robo-Plunger rams itself into the giant toilet's mouth, then repairs the wrecked school and carries the defeated toilets off to Uranus.