The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey
The Captain Underpants books used to be super popular in the 6-9 age range, and you can see why. A superhero that flies around in his underpants??? Sling-shotting other pairs of underpants at bad guys who have names like Dr. Diaper and the Turbo-Toilet 2000??? I mean, yeah, I would never read this for fun, but it’s obvious that, if you’re going through that phase where you think farts and underwear are the height of comedic prowess, these books have got your back. The story follows George and Harold, two fourth grade troublemakers, who create their own comic books about a hero called Captain Underpants. Then, due to a hypnosis accident, their mean school principal is fooled into believing that he is Captain Underpants and runs off into the city in his underwear to fight crime. Harold and George stop him from causing too many problems, and, due to not reading the directions on the hypno-ring, the principal is now forced to switch between his Mean Middle Aged Guy and Captain Underpants personas whenever he hears the sound of snapping fingers.
Fairly predictably, some people take umbrage with a book series where every page is basically “LOL UNDERWEAR” because what if it encourages your kids to say uncouth things, like “toilet breath”? Which they’re probably doing anyway, but whatever. Steven once told me that the movie ET was banned from his house because he wouldn’t stop gleefully shouting “penis breath”. Sadly, this intervention was too late to save him (he still shouts “penis breath” uncontrollably sometimes, it can be awkward at restaurants). So I can see why some people want to take no chances with Captain Underpants. Unfortunately, I don’t think banning all the books in the world would keep our sweet cherubs from going through a toilet humor phase, so maybe we all just need to chill and hope it passes quickly.
This series was first published in 1997, with a six year wait between books 8 (Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People) and 9 (Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers). So, yeah, Game of Thrones fans, it’s not like you have some copyright on agonizing waits for book sequels. Plus, George R. R. Martin knows that you will always love to read about lamprey pie and the uncertainty of your own mortality, but Pilkey has to worry about his audience graduating the fourth grade and getting interested in girls.
For Steven: