Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People

Infobox Book
name = Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People


image_caption = First edition cover
author = Dav Pilkey
illustrator = Dav Pilkey
country = United States
language = English
genre = Children's novel
series = "Captain Underpants" series
publisher = Blue Sky (US),
Scholastic (US)
pub_date = 2006
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by = Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy
followed_by = Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers

"Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People" is the eighth book in the "Captain Underpants" series by Dav Pilkey.

Plot summary

George, Harold, Sulu, and Crackers end up in an alternate universe where the whole world is the opposite of their normal world. Good is bad, smart is not at all intelligent, and heroes are villains. For example, Melvin Sneedly is struggling to comprehend a simple children's book and Mr. Krupp is nice and has a sense of humor. There they meet Captain Underpants's evil twin, Captain Blunderpants (Mr. Krupp's super-villain identity) and evil versions George and Harold ( George and Harold's evil counterparts) Sulu and Crackers are kidnapped by George and Harold's evil counterparts and are hypnotized to be evil. Sulu becomes evil and attacks the good George and Harold but Crackers on the other hand, saves them.

The heroes finally get back to the normal dimension of the world, but end up bringing the Mr. Krupp of the alternate universe, Sulu, and the evil George and Harold with them. The evil George and Harold transform their Mr. Krupp into Captain Blunderpants by getting water on his head. It is Grandparents Day and George and Harold have to eat dinner with their grandparents at George's house. While there, the evil George and Harold find George and Harold's house, rummage through their personal belongings and find the "Goosy-Grow 4000" and transform Sulu into a giant monster. George and Harold fly over on Crackers' back, and decide that they have to drink the super power juice, but unfortunately, it is empty. They find Captain Underpants who defeats the "Giant-Evil Sulu". Captain Blunderpants is transformed back into the nice Mr. Krupp by the snap of the finger, and Captain Underpants ties them up, but when Harold states that nothing can go wrong, the worst thing is that something can go wrong, this causes a rain storm to turn the nice Mr. Krupp back into Captain Blunderpants and Captain Underpants is turned back into the mean Mr. Krupp and goes home.

Great Granny Girdle and Boxer Boy (George's great-grandmother and Harold's grandfather) are made super-heroes when they drink the super power juice and they defeat Captain Blunderpants. Sulu is shrunk and turned good again and Captain Blunderpants and the Evil George and Harold are shrunken and are taken back to their world.

Harold once again states that nothing can go wrong, but this causes police men to arrest them because they think they are the evil George and Harold, who robbed a bank while Captain Underpants was fighting Sulu. Harold again states that things cannot get any worse because they are going to jail for the rest of their lives. This time, however, Tippy Tinkletrousers (Professor Poopypants who changed his name at the end of the fourth book) comes and chases George and Harold. The book ends, once again, with George yelling "Oh no!" and Harold yelling "Here we go again!"

Trivia

*The gender of Crackers is brought into question, when he/she/it saves George and Harold despite getting hypnotized to be bad by the 3-D Hypno Ring (according to Book Five, the effects of the 3-D Hypno Ring are reversed on any women, such as Ms. Ribble/Wedgie Woman) and when all the "He's" were italicized in George and Harold's quotes. This is further confused by the fact that the narrator only refers to Crackers by name and species (Crackers, plucky pterodactyl etc). However, it is possible that Crackers simply does not understand English, and can only understand pterodacyl. However it also may mean Crackers is a female. This, however, could be contradictory if true, because since everything in the alternate universe is the opposite, this should mean that the effects of the 3-D Hypno Ring would be reversed on MEN in the alternate universe. However, if that holds true, then the ring might only have an opposite effect on males from that universe. It cannot be possible either because, in the comic book that the evil George and Harold made, it is clearly seen that they hypnotize their principal.
*Another reason for Crackers not being hypnotized is because the 3-D Hypno Ring probably does not work on prehistoric animals. Or maybe Crackers' time did not have the Hypno-Ring and since Crackers never saw it in his/her time, it is possible that the ring works only on present time creatures and people.
*The subtitle of this book, back when it and "Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers" were to be both parts of one story, was originally "The Clash of the Colossal Kung-Fu Monkeys from Beyond Infinity". However, no such characters appear in this book. However, in "Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers", there "will" be colossal kung-fu monkeys in the book.
*The book that the librarian offers the boys shortly after they arrive, "Mommy Has Two Heathers", is a parody of the 1989 book, Heather Has Two Mommies.
*Actually, considering that this takes place during (their) Banned Books Week, and Heather Has Two Mommies is banned in our universe, technically "Mommy Has Two Heathers" "shouldn't" be banned.
* At the 75th page of the book, the illustration depicts a sign saying: "'Schools is educationy' ; A message from our president." This might be an indirect way of criticising or parodying American president George W. Bush and his frequent grammar mistakes known by some as Bushisms.
*In the inside comic book about Captain Blunderpants, when Captain Blunderpants steals pizza, it is called "Grand Theft Pizza" which is a spoof to the popular "Grand Theft Auto" videogame series.
*If Melvin Sneedly does not have any intelligence in the Purple Potty universe, there should "not" be alternate versions of the Turbo Toilet 2000 and the Robo-Boogers, since they were created by his inventions.
*The title of chapter 19, "Whenhamstersattack.com", is a real website, first created to promote Bionic Booger Boy (Book 6). It might be possible that it was named after the website because Sulu is a hamster, and he is attacking and the attack is mentioned in the site.
*On page 72, a sign in the library shelf says, "Reading Might Offend You... Why Take a Chance?" This was first seen in the preceding book.
*In the double-page 46-47 illustration, Dr Diaper (Book 1) is a policeman, The Turbo Toilet 2000 (Book 2) a crossing guard, Zorx, Klax & Jennifer (Book 3) and Professor Poopypants/Tinkletrousers (Book 4) are firemen, and Trixie, Frankenbooger & Carl (Books 6-7) are road-workers and a postman respectively.
*The only villains not seen are Wicked Wedgie Woman and the Bionic Booger Boy. Presumably George and Harold haven't hypnotised Ms Ribble and Melvin has already been separated from the roboboogers.
*Captain Blunderpants is a parody of Venom and Bizarro.
*The cover of George and Harold's second comic has a subtitle of "An Epic Novella by George Beard and Harold Hutchins", mirroring the Captain Underpants subtitles of "The ___th/nd/st Epic Novel by Dav Pilkey".
*When the evil George and Harold find the Goosey Grow 4000, it is shown to fit in the evil George's palm, but in the 4th book when George and Harold returned to normal size it was smaller than a penny.

Differences between the two universes

External links

* [http://www.pilkey.com/nextbook.php Sketches and the book cover]
* [http://www.whenhamstersattack.com When Hamsters Attack!]