The Adventures of Captain Underpants

The Adventures of Captain Underpants is a 1997 children's novel written and illustrated by the American author Dav Pilkey. It follows George Beard and Harold Hutchins, two fourth-graders who hypnotise their principal, Mr Krupp, into becoming the character they have invented.

The boys attend Jerome Horwitz Elementary School in Piqua, and they are known for the comic books they make about Captain Underpants, a superhero of their own creation; those comics are reproduced inside the story, so the book contains them as well as the narrative about the boys. Their practical jokes ruin the school football game, and the principal catches them arranging the pranks on camera and threatens to hand the footage to the team unless they accept his list of rules, which leaves them with extra homework and chores.

The hypnotism is done with a novelty ring ordered by post, and the instructions they give their principal escalate from a chicken to a monkey before they reach the superhero. He then leaves the school to fight crime, which carries the three of them into the hands of Dr Diaper and his robots, and the book went on to sequels, spin-offs and adaptations.