Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants

Infobox Book
name = Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Dav Pilkey
illustrator = Dav Pilkey
country = United States
language = English
series = "Captain Underpants" series
genre = Children's novel
publisher = Blue Sky (US),
Scholastic (US)
pub_date = 2000
media_type = Print (Paperback)
preceded_by = 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)
followed_by = Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman

"Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants" is the fourth book in the "Captain Underpants" series written by Dav Pilkey. It is the first book to have Captain Underpants to fully use his superpowers.

Plot summary

Professor Pippy P. Poopypants, a scientist from a country where everyone has a silly name, New Swissland, invents a shrinking machine, the Shrinky-Pig 2000 and an enlarging machine, the Goosy-Grow 4000. He goes to America so he can show these inventions to everyone and help the world by using his machines to shrink the world's garbage and increase the world's food supply. Unfortunately, everyone laughs at Professor Poopypants kaka name, instead of taking him seriously.

Meanwhile, the kids in Jerome Horwitz Elementary School are going on a field trip to a pizza store. While George and Harold were waiting to get on the bus, they decide to change the school sign, until Mr. Krupp caught them since he was hiding in the bushes next to the sign. As the boys' punishment, they are banned from the field trip and have to spend the whole afternoon cleaning up the school. While they were gone, the two boys were making their ultimate prank on the teachers. First, they taped the water nozzle of the sink, to make it on when the water runs, second they filled powder of paste on the wings of the ceiling fan. Finally, they placed millions of Styrofoam pellets in the fridge. When the students finally came back and went off home, the teachers spent their time taunting at George and Harold. One teacher said that they would bring them back a pizza, but he ate it on the bus. The boys only received an empty pizza box. When the teachers went into the lounge to relax, they fell on George and Harold's trap. The teachers ended up looking like abominable snowmen (they are covered with Styrofoam pellets) and they ran, screamed, and chased George and Harold down the hall.

Professor Poopypants is forced to take a job as a science teacher at George and Harold's school. (Their old science teacher, Morty Fyde, quit because he thought he had cracked up — first, a toilet ate him, then George and Harold imitated dogs and cats, then the school got flooded with sticky green goo, and finally, he saw the other teachers chase George and Harold down the hall as "abominable snowmen" — he wasn't one because he was on bus duty. He also insists that he saw some fat bald man in his underwear jump out a window — obviously Captain Underpants.) Professor Poopypants is convinced that the innocence and sweetness of children will let them pay attention to him, but they all laugh at his name instead.

Professor Poopypants manages to get the children interested in science by building a machine that allows gerbils to jog alongside their masters. However, this interest is short-lived, as he reveals his middle name to be Pee-Pee, causing the children to start laughing again. Ms. Ribble reads the story of The Pied Piper from Hamelin. This inspires George and Harold to make a comic book about the Professor inventing an army of gerbil joggers to destroy the world, which destroys the last of Professor Poopypants' credibility with the students and drives him crazy. The gerbils listen to music by Cher.

Using his enlarging machine, he makes the gerbil machine as large as a tall building and then gets inside. He shrinks the school and holds them hostage. He then unveils his plan to force everyone in the world to change their names so everyone will have a silly name instead of a normal one. Anyone who disagrees will be shrunk. Professor Poopypants does this first on Benny Krupp. Mr. Krupp becomes Lumpy Pottybiscuits. All the children found this funny, until Professor Poopypants forces them to use the chart to change their names as well.

George and Harold (now Fluffy and Cheeseball) get Captain Underpants (now Buttercup Chickenfanny, but Captain Underpants refuses to change his name.) to steal Professor Poopypants' enlarging machine, but unfortunately he and the machine are shrunk in the process.

The two of them try to enlarge the school back to normal size, but get flicked off the school. Cheeseball makes a paper airplane that Fluffy enlarged. The plane flew into many threats, yet Captain Underpants rescued them and they end up in an abandoned alley. They enlarge Captain Underpants (and Cheeseball's right hand) to the size of Professor Poopypants' gerbil machine. Captain Underpants then fights and defeats Professor Poopypants. Once Professor Poopypants is defeated, everyone got their names back. The boys use the shrinking and enlarging machines to get the school and Captain Underpants back to normal size, And gets soaked with water thus, turning back to Mr.Krupp.

Professor Poopypants is hauled off to jail. On the advice of George and Harold, he changes his name so no one will make fun of it anymore. Sadly, he chooses his grandfather's name (on his mother's side), Tippy Tinkletrousers, which the people at jail make fun of.

The moral of the story ("I think this is the first time one of our stories had a moral," notes George) is that it's not nice to make fun of people.

Comic: Captain Underpants and the Pied Pooper of Piqua

The comic in the book starts with an introduction of Professor Poopypants. By getting laughed at by the children, Poopypants builds an army of gerbil-jogger 2000s, which attack the school. Professor Poopypants then uses the children as slaves, but Captain Underpants appears and, along with the children (and even the gerbils), he laughs at Professor Poopypants's name. Professor Poopypants then presses a button on his bowtie, which transforms him into a robot. Captain Underpants then fights him, and Robo-Pippy takes him to a scrap yard. There, he uses a device (Known as the Big Crusher Thingy 2000) to crush Captain Underpants. Captain Underpants, however, uses a rather small toilet (Known as the Tiny Toilet of Truth) to rust Robo-Pippy. Captain Underpants also squashes a radio reading Cher's Greatist Hits, which was controlling the gerbils (as they were wearing headphones). Captain Underpants takes Professor Poopypants to jail as the comic ends.

At the end of the comic, there is a notice reading "All animal cruelty was simulated. No actual gerbils were forced to listen to Cher.

Characters

Characters who first appear in this book are:
*Chuckles Jingleberry McMonkeyburger Jr.
*Stinky McMonkeyburger
*Jiggles T. Chunkyskunks
*Tipper Q. Zipperdripper
*Ivana Goda De' Bafroom
*Professor Pippy P. Poopypants/Tippy Tinkletrousers
*Porkbelly Funkyskunk
*Connor Mancini/ Buttercup Bananalips
*Ingrid Ashley/ Chim Chim Diaperbrains
*Larry Zarrow/ Booger Stinkersquirt
*Stephanie Yarkoff/Snotty Gorillabreath
*Robbie Stienburg/Loopy Pizzapants
*Janet Warwick/Poopsie Chucklebutt
*Mr. Rected

Trivia

*There is an apology and a giveaway at the end of the book, aimed at people who were "traumatised" by the new names inflicted on them by Professor Poopypants.
*In the Spanish version of this book, the gerbils listen to music by Julio Iglesias.
*The two news reporters, Ingrid Ashley and Larry Zarrow, appeared in the fifth novel as well. They used the names that Professor Poopypants made for them, possibly getting used to it.
*On the inside of the cover it shows Professor Poopypants crossing out Dav Pilkey's name and writing the silly equivalent (Gidget Hamsterbrains).
*Dr. Diaper (the villain from the first book) can be seen in the penitentiary.
*Mr. Krupp's first name is Benny.
*The small print newspaper Professor Poopypants reads contains an article about robots and toilets on Uranus (a reference to the second book), and an article about how reading small print is bad for people's eyes which is probably telling the reader not to read the newspaper on the page or its just a bit of irony put in by Dav Pilkey.
*In reference to their names, the Shrinky-Pig 2000 looks like a pig, and the Goosy-Grow 4000 like a goose.
*When Professor Poopypants is extolling the kindness and innocence of children, a boy can be seen pouring salt into his tea.
*When the teachers (covered with styrofoam packets) chased George and Harold, Morty Fyde could be seen on the other side of the window. Fyde later hands in his resignition, stating facts that involved George and Harold's odd experiences that he believed himself to have imagined.
*Professor Poppypants has been literally laughed out of several famous colleges when he tried to present the Goosy-Grow and the Shrinky-Pig (some of those colleges include Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, Stanford, and Chattanooga State Tech Community College).
*A student named Robbie Staenburg is mentioned as a student whose name was changed; Robbie Staenburg is the son of Dav Pilkey's agent.
*When Professor PoopyPants gets in the big gerbil jogger he is bigger than he was before.
*Connor Mancini is the name of Dav Pilkey's nephew.
*Poutine is on the Canadian French Name Change-O-Chart.
*Names on the Name Change-O-Chart include Squeezit, Oprah, Zsa-Zsa and Humperdinck.
*This is the first time George is shown alone.

New Names

*Fluffy Toiletnose and Cheeseball Wafflefanny (George Beard and Harold Hutchins)
*Mr. Lumpy Pottybiscuits (Mr. Benny Krupp)
*Buttercup Chickenfanny (Captain Underpants-he refused to change his name because "he doesn't take orders from anybody", yet he said "Yes Sir!" as a response to George's request)
*Pinky Pizzabrains (Melvin Sneedly)
*Ms. Falafel Gizzardtush (Ms. Ribble)
*Miss Crusty Diapertush (Miss Edith Anthrope)
*Mr. Loopy Bananabuns (Mr. Meaner)
*Mr. Gizzardnose (Mr. Rected)
*Mr. Pinky Barfnose (Mr. Morty Fyde
*Miss Liverbuns (Miss Labler)
*Miss Gigglesniffer, Mrs. Bubblesniffer, and Miss/Mrs.______ (Miss Creant, Mrs. DePoint, and Miss/Mrs.______; The lunch ladies)
*Mr. Gizzardbrains (Mr. Rustworthy)
*Miss Bubblechunks (Miss Dayken)
*Miss Barfsniffer (Miss Fitt)
*Ms. Lizardnose (Ms. Guided)*'Buttercup Bananalips (Connor Mancini)
*Snotty Gorillabreath (Stephanie Yarkoff)
*Loopy Pizzapants (Robbie Staenburg))
*Poopsie Chucklebutt (Janet Warwick)
*Dr. Bubblebuns (Dr. Diaper)
*Tippy Tinkletrousers (Professor Pippy Pee-Pee Poopypants; he changed his name after he went to jail, not by the chart)
*Chim-Chim Diaperbrains and Booger Stinkersquirt (Ingrid Ashley and Larry Zarrow)
*(Crackers, Wedgie woman, Robo-George, Mecha-Melvin, The Harold 2000, The Bionic Booger Boy, Carl, Trixie, and Frankenbooger didn't exist at this time, so their names had not been changed and people's names from the alternate universe in "Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People" would be exactly the same)
*Gidget Hamsterbrains (Dav Pilkey) (As seen in the third page of the book.)