Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers is a 2012 American children's novel and the ninth book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey.^[1][2] It was published on August 28, 2012, six years and thirteen days after the publication of the previous book. This book explains how Tippy Tinkletrousers arrived at the end of the eighth book, as well as a prequel story of George and Harold in kindergarten explaining how their friendship began and setting the page for their life before Captain Underpants.

Plot

The story continues where the previous book left off, with George and Harold running away from Tippy Tinkletrousers. As they are running away, the book reveals that Tippy is actually from the future, and he had disrupted the timeline. The book goes on to explain something called 'The Banana Cream Pie Paradox', meaning that going back to the past and changing something will remain its changed way in the present.

Meanwhile, the story switches to the original timeline in which Tippy Tinkletrousers did not travel through time to attack George and Harold during their arrest. George and Harold are arrested for the crimes that their alternate versions did, and the two (as well as Mr. Krupp) are imprisoned. Meanwhile, at the Piqua State Penitentiary, Tippy (who was a prisoner since the fourth book) is tasked to build a statue of Warden Gordon Bordon Shmorden, who is chief jailer of the prison, Tippy does the task but instead builds "a giant robot suit". On the day Tippy presents his robot suit to Gordon Shmorden, he reveals his work (the same suit used at the very end of the eighth book), climbs into the suit and freezes everyone in his way. Tippy then takes Mr. Krupp and orders him to find George and Harold, wanting information about Captain Underpants. Tippy soon finds George and Harold and puts Mr. Krupp down. George and Harold snap their fingers which makes Mr. Krupp turn into Captain Underpants. Captain Underpants gets chased, while Tippy is unsuccessfully trying to freeze him, soon he accidentally freezes his robotic legs and as a last resort, time travels from five years ago.

The story rewinds to five years earlier, right before George and Harold met. George has recently moved to Piqua, and Harold is shy at school. Harold has a hard school life because of Kipper Krupp, Mr. Krupp's sixth grade nephew who abuses his uncle's authority to terrorize students. On George's first day of school (his mother makes him wear a tie to make a good impression), he notices Harold being attacked by Kipper and his group, with the owner of a gas station egging them on. George changes the owner's sign from "Free Brake Inspection" to Free Bra Inspection", resulting in a group of offended women to attack the owner. George then saves Harold by whipping the bullies with his tie, and the two become best friends. Mr. Krupp arrives and sends the two to detention for "bullying Kipper". To pass time, the two make their first comic book: The Adventures of Dog Man.

George and Harold plan to stop Kipper by exploiting his stupidity. They study Kipper for a week and then formulate a tale. They break into his locker by making him use one of their own locks, and take the $938 of lunch money Kipper stole, and put in girly things like friendship bracelets, dresses, and dolls, while sending strange texts to Kipper's goons to humiliate him, all while placing a note from "Wedgie Magee" with it. After Kipper and his gang steal the pizzas that George and Harold bought for the kindergartners, they order another with extremely spicy ghost peppers on it. They eventually create a comic book that tells the tale of Wedgie Magee and the signs of his curse, all of which match the pranks that George and Harold have done. After Kipper and his gang "see" the ghost of Wedgie Magee (George on stilts wearing a giant pair of pants), they run outside during a thunderstorm and power outage in terror. In the original timeline, they then apologize for their deeds, give the kindergartners compensation, and never bully anyone again. Unfortunately, Tippy arrives in the past at exactly the same time Kipper's gang runs outside. The four bullies go insane from fear as Tippy's robot closely resembles the ghost of Wedgie Magee.

This makes the police accuse Mr. Krupp of causing Kipper and his friends' insanity, causing him to lose his job. Tippy then time travels back to the present, thinking that kids five years ago were weird. However, as Mr. Krupp was hypnotized to become Captain Underpants when George and Harold were in the 4th grade, a paradox happens, and a universe is created where Captain Underpants never existed. Tippy arrives in the present only to find out all that remains of Earth is a flaming and devastated wasteland (caused by Dr. Diaper's Laser-Matic 2000) overrun by giant evil zombie nerds. At the end, Tippy seemingly gets squashed and killed by two zombie nerds who once were George and Harold (a reference to the third book). What is left of Tippy is a red squishy stain, which appears to be blood.

Comics

The Adventures Of Dog Man

The comic centers around an unnamed police officer whose partner is a specially trained police dog named Greg. The duo are professionals at catching criminals. One day, the cop and Greg spot a bomb, but they arrive too late to defuse it. The duo is critically injured by the bomb's explosion and are taken to the hospital. The doctor announces that Greg's body is dying and the Cop's head is dying. Fortunately, the nurse has a great idea: the surgical crew will cut off Greg's head and sew it on the Cop's body. The doctor accepts the idea and the hospital crew hold a big operation. The operation is successful and everyone calls the new dog/man hybrid "Dog Man." Dog Man catches criminals with his sensitive nose, hears crimes with his ears, and punches criminals with his fists. But Dog Man has one mortal fear: vacuum cleaners. Petey (of The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby 2), Rip Van Tinkle's former feline minion, sees Dog Man's weakness so he invents an evil vacuum robot. The vacuum robot steals all the money from the bank and Dog Man comes to stop it but the vacuum chases him. The robot chases Dog Man until he is cornered. Dog Man is certain he will die but fortunately, the vacuum robot, which is plugged in, unplugs, and shuts down. Dog Man then destroys the robot and follows the robot's cord, which leads to Petey's hideout and Dog Man arrests him. Dog Man celebrates his victory by drinking some alcohol-free wine with his fellow cops.

The Curse Of Wedgie Magee

The comic is about a boy called Wedgie Magee who is bullied up to the point where he can't bear it any longer. He visits a fortune teller who tells him she will concoct an anti-wedgie elixir. However, the fortune teller is short-sighted and grabs a voodoo elixir by mistake. The next day, Wedgie rubs the elixir onto his trousers, turning them into a ghost. He then dies of embarrassment. That evening, the trousers return for revenge and swallow up the bullies.

Signs of the curse:

1. The victim will begin to act weird
2. The victim wants to play with dollies, dresses and bracelets
3. The victim gets ectoplasm (ghost juice) and spiders on their belongings
4. Food like pizza is very spicy to the victim
5. The victim will feel a burning sensation in the armpits.

How to undo the curse:
The victim must undo their bad deeds and never pick on kindergarteners ever again.

Reception

Reception for the book was mostly positive,^[3][4] with Kidsreads.com praising the entry.^[5] Booklist gave a positive review, writing that it would have a definite appeal to kids.^[6] Kirkus Reviews gave an ambivalent review, stating that the book's jokes were typical but that there were signs that the "creative wells are running dry at last".^[7]

References

External links

• Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers at Scholastic.com