Steve Yamaguchi

"You won't hear this because no one listens to me"

- Steve "Gooch" Yamaguchi

Steve "Gooch" Yamaguchi is a supporting character in The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants.

The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants
Gooch is one of George and Harold's close friends. He usually ends up getting the short end of the stick and is not exactly good at school.

In "The Horrible Hostilities of the Homework Hydra", George mistakes him for Harold because they were both carrying a huge stack of books.

In "The Vexing Villainy of the Vile Vimpire", he chews George and Harold out for making fun of Erica. He is later attacked by Messica.

In "The Flustering Mindless Woe of the Flushable Memory Wipes," he appears as the first student George and Harold encounter after the memory wipes, where he appears confused and disoriented. Later, he leads a mob to chase George and Harold upon the orders of Mr. Murdsley. He is one of the first students to shout out the real identity of their new principal as Ted Turdsley. He laughs at the various Ted Turdsleys who appear. After having his memory restored, he states that he remembers everything, even things he did not want to remember, implying he has some sort of embarrassing or traumatic memories.

In "The Preposterous Pulverizing of the Pestering Poopacabra," he gets eaten by a python Melvinborg gave for the Advancimals project.

Gooch becomes one of Jessica's Sophies in "The Abysmal Altercation of the Abominable Altitooth." Even though he's a boy, he's called "Temporary Sophie" during the episode and "Permanent Sophie" at the end until he gets fired when her real Sophies return. He's also put under a rule that he's not allowed to talk; he tries respecting her rules, due to Sophie One and Other Sophie getting taken away.

In "The Confounding Concoction of the Crooked Combotato," George and Harold try to disguise him as Melvin to allow them to pass the ropes course. When Mr. Krupp questions him, he explains, "I'm actually not Melvin, but you won't hear this because no one listens to me," before Mr. Krupp cuts him off and makes fun of "Melvin" for having a bad haircut. When they come inside, he becomes confused as to his identity, and Dressy and Bo start drawing on him.

When his turn to tell a story comes, he asks whether he is supposed to be Melvin or himself. When told himself, he looks in the mirror before starting and says, "Hello stranger." George and Harold comment that they need to reboot Gooch before he tells his story.

He continues directly where Jessica left off, revealing that Captain Underpants and Combotato decided to join Popular High's gym decoration crew. This was a mistake, as through a giant slapstick accident, the pair destroy the gym and set off the scoreboard, causing Captain Underpants to shout "Touchdown." After his time is up, the group questions why he used slapstick, at which point he comments that he was surprised too, and that he must have more layers than he first thought.

The Heartbreaking Havoc of the Haunting Hack-A-Ween
Gooch is one of the kids that help George and Harold create Hack-A-Ween, even though he admits he is more of a Saint Patrick's Day guy in an earlier scene.

In a flashback, Gaylord and Cindy send Gooch to Melvin's house for a playdate. Melvin, uninterested, steals the five dollar bill Gooch was holding and leaves.

Appearance
Gooch is an 10-year-old Japanese-American boy. He wears his hair in a bowl cut and has blue glasses. His outfit consists of a pink shirt, blue shorts, and matching shoes.

Personality
Gooch is a very sweet kid but is also timid, insecure and pretty unfortunate when it comes to slapstick. Although he looks and acts dorky, he isn't a very good student and is not the brightest guy around, a contrast to the stereotype of Asian people being super intelligent. A running gag in season two and three is that animals often attack him. He has some trouble with his memory.

Trivia

 * He can play the mouth flute.
 * He has very little tech skills, as seen in Season 2 and beyond.
 * According to the Halloween special, Gooch prefers St. Patrick's Day, as opposed to Halloween.
 * He appears in all episodes except for "The Bombastic Blathering of Brainy Blabulous," being replaced by Choog.
 * The reason why Gooch is called "Gooch" is because his last name has the word "guch" in it, and the word is pronounced with the /oo/ sound. So, if you replace the "u" with "oo," you get "Gooch."