Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People

Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People is the eighth epic novel by Dav Pilkey.

Synopsis
George and Harold's time-travelling Purple Potty has landed them in a strange, backwards universe. The Purple Potty People--Evil George, Evil Harold, and Captain Blunderpants, are on a mission to take over our world, and nothing's going to stand in their way. Can George and Harold handle this mess on their own, or will they need Captain Underpants to save the day?

Summary
The book first starts off with a rant about how grown-ups (such as your parents) encourage something initially when you are very young and discourage it greatly as you grow older. Then it goes to the staff of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School who are anything but trustworthy are extremely cruel to children. However, George and Harold manage to outsmart them frequently since they aren't very bright.

Getting back to the main story, George Beard, Harold Hutchins, Sulu, and Crackers become skeletons as a result of using the Purple Potty Time Machine two days in a row. They become regular again when they end up in an alternate universe where the whole world is the opposite of their normal world (instead of being perched up in a tree in the Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era) as Melvin warned them about in the last book. Good is bad, smart is dumb, 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 (like Captain Underpants does).

After they realize these events taking place and then some, there they see evil versions of George and Harold (George and Harold's evil counterparts) and they learn through one of their evil twins' comics that they had turned their principal into an evil supervillain named Captain Blunderpants. Sulu and Crackers are kidnapped by Evil George and Evil Harold. They are hypnotized to be evil. Sulu becomes evil and attacks Good George and Good Harold but Crackers, on the other hand, saves them (which Good George and Good Harold can't understand why).

The heroes finally get back to their normal dimension of the multiverse but end up unintentionally bringing Nice Mr. Krupp, Sulu, and Evil George and Evil Harold with them. Evil George and Evil Harold transform Nice Mr. Krupp into Captain Blunderpants by getting water on his head and the 4 began to raise havoc into the town of Piqua. Good George and Good Harold take the 3D Hypno Ring so that they could dehypnotize Sulu and the Extra-Strength Super Power Juice just in case. However, Mr. Beard stops Good George and Good Harold from leaving the house and forces them to come inside as it is Grandparent's Day and Good George and Good Harold have to eat dinner with their grandparents at Good George's house. While Good George and Good Harold try to explain to Mr. Beard they need to leave, George and Harold's grandparents take the remainder of the Extra-Strength Super Power Juice and drink it.

Elsewhere, Evil George and Evil Harold find Good George and Good Harold's treehouse, rummage through their personal belongings and find the "Goosy-Grow 4000". They then use it to transform Sulu into a giant monster. Sulu charges at Good George and Good Harold But Crackers flies in and Good George and Good Harold flee from their home flying over on Crackers' back to be Chased by Evil Harold, Evil George, and Captain Blunderpants. The Good George and Harold decide that they have to drink the superpower juice to fight back, but unfortunately, they realize it is somehow empty despite there being a third amount of juice earlier. Since there was no more of the Super Power Juice left, Good George explains that there is only one plan left they can resort to now.

The duo and Crackers managed to escape the evil duo that was following them, They go to Nasty Mr. Krupp's house (which Good George and Good Harold covered in toilet paper at an earlier point) and knock on his door. Right after Nasty Mr. Krupp answers, Good George and Good Harold quickly snap their fingers to turn Nasty Mr. Krupp into Captain Underpants. The latter then defeats the "Giant-Evil Sulu,"also known as "Hamsterzilla". The evil trio notice this after robbing a bank, so Captain Underpants now must fight his evil counterpart, Captain Blunderpants. However before the epic battle begins, Captain Blunderpants is transformed back into Nice Mr. Krupp by the snap of Good George's finger. The duo reveals that they didn't forget about reading their evil counterparts' comic book on how Blunderpants and Nice Mr. Krupp can switch identities.

Captain Underpants ties the alternate counterparts up, but when Good Harold states that nothing can go wrong, the worst thing is that something can go wrong, this causes a rainstorm to turn Nice Mr. Krupp back into Captain Blunderpants and Captain Underpants is turned back into Nasty Mr. Krupp. Good George and Good Harold try snapping their fingers, but the snaps have no effect on either Nasty Mr. Krupp or Captain Blunderpants as the rain is pouring too hard on them. Nasty Mr. Krupp can't figure out how he got outside, so he goes back to his soggy toilet paper covered home to get back to bed not contributing to the plot of what is happening around him.

With Captain Underpants out of commission, Good George and Good Harold are forced to get away on Crackers while Captain Blunderpants flies after them with Evil George and Evil Harold in his hand. Good George soon finds the Shrinky Pig 2000 in the treehouse which the gang can use to make the evil twin counterparts no longer a threat. Unfortunately, it is too late as Captain Blunderpants grabs the duo by their shirts while the device falls into the hands of Evil George and Evil Harold. When all seemed lost at a point before Captain Blunderpants can finish off Good George and Good Harold due to Captain Underpants not being in commission to save them, someone's voice stops him from doing so.

George and Harold's grandparents have arrived and order Captain Blunderpants to put down their grandchildren, but he just tightens his grip on them, so George and Harold's grandparents become Great-Granny Girdle and Boxer Boy. They then place two curtains on them as capes before they defeat Captain Blunderpants and save their grandchildren. Good George notes he figured out what happened to the Super Power Juice that disappeared earlier.

However, Evil George and Evil Harold are prepared to use the Shrinky-Pig 2000 on their alternate twins, but Good Harold claims they can go right ahead as they are holding the device backward. The evil twins stupidly believe this and turn the device around before activating it, resulting in themselves being shrunk. After giving the evil twins the punishment they deserve and George and Harold's grandparents fly off for a romantic dinner, the duo dehypnotizes and shrink Sulu to normal. They then take Evil George, Evil Harold, and Captain Blunderpants back into the Purple Potty, and then they kick them back to their universe.

Good Harold states everything worked out perfectly, but this causes policemen to arrest them because they think they are the evil George and Harold, who robbed a bank while Captain Underpants was fighting Sulu, also known as Hamsterzilla. Good 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 Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants) comes and freezes the cops solid before he starts chasing Good George and Good Harold. The book ends, once again, with Good George yelling "Oh no!" and Good Harold yelling "Here we go again!"

Comics

 * The Often Told Untold story of Captain Underpants (Intro Comic)
 * The Preposterous Plight of Captain Blunderpants
 * The Adventures of Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle

Characters
George Beard Harold Hutchins Captain Underpants Benjamin Krupp Sulu Crackers Captain Blunderpants Nice Benjamin Krupp Evil George Beard Evil Harold Hutchins Giant-Evil Sulu Alternate Melvin Sneedly who has no intelligence Alternate Bad Guys Alternate Edith Anthrope Alternate Kenny B. Meaner Alternate Miss Singerbrains Moses Beard Barbara Beard Grace Hutchins Heidi Hutchins Great-Granny Girdle and Boxer Boy Officer Wiggly and the Police Chief Tippy Tinkletrousers

Trivia

 * The gender of Crackers is brought into question twice. The first time is when he/she/it saves Good George and Good 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 women, such as Ms. Ribble/Wedgie Woman). The second is when all the "He's" were italicized in Good George and Good 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). The tenth book later revealed that Crackers is indeed female, so this means that the 3-D Hypno Ring in Captain Blunderpants' universe works oppositely on women, just like the regular 3-D Hypno Ring.
 * It was originally stated that Boxer Boy and Great Granny Girdle were going to appear in the ninth book. However, Dav Pilkey changed his mind, most likely since they appeared in this book.
 * 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.
 * 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, which gained controversy upon its initial release for its depiction of lesbians.
 * 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" being a banned book makes no sense and 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 criticizing 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 Blunderpants steals pizza, it is called "Grand Theft Pizza," which is a spoof of the crime video game series, Grand Theft Auto.
 * If Melvin Sneedly does not have any intelligence in Captain Blunderpants' universe, then 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 Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy - Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets. It might be possible that it was named after the website because Sulu is a hamster, and he 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 is a policeman; The Turbo Toilet 2000 is a crossing guard; Zorx, Klax, Jennifer, and Tippy Tinkletrousers are firefighters; and Trixie, Frankenbooger, and Carl are road-workers and a postman respectively.
 * The only villains not seen are the Wicked Wedgie Woman and the Bionic Booger Boy. This might be because George and Harold haven't hypnotized Ms. Ribble in Captain Blunderpants' universe, and Melvin has already been separated from the Robo-Boogers.
 * Captain Blunderpants is a parody of Ultraman.
 * 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/rd Epic Novel by Dav Pilkey."
 * This is the first book where the intro comic is held by somebody rather than the comic being somewhat floating in mid air.
 * When Evil George and Evil Harold find the Goosy Grow 4000, it is shown to fit in the evil George's palm. But when Good George and Good Harold returned to normal size in the 4th book, it was smaller than a penny.
 * Ironically, Good George and Harold consider their counterparts' work terrible compared to their own.
 * Unless they are in denial about the fact that their work is terrible compared to their counterparts'.
 * This is the first time there are two "To Make a Long Story Short" chapters in a book. Usually there is only one per book.
 * The chapter about adult hypocrisy is probably a jab at adults who complained about the books.