Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman
Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman is the fifth book in the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey. It was published on August 29, 2001. It features the reformation of George and Harold's formerly cruel teacher, Ms. Ribble, at the end using the 3-D Hypno Ring (which is used to hypnotize Mr. Krupp, causing him to become Captain Underpants in the first book) through reverse psychology, because the ring causes females to do the opposite of what the bearers of the ring force them to do.
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Dav Pilkey |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Dav Pilkey |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Captain Underpants series |
| Genre | Children's novel, Humor, Science fiction |
| Publisher | Blue Sky (US), Scholastic (US) |
Publication date | August 29, 2001 (black-and-white), December 26, 2017 (color edition) |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Preceded by | Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants |
| Followed by | Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets |
Plot
Ms. Ribble announces that she is going to retire at the end of the school year and forces everyone to make happy retirement cards for her, while George and Harold make a Captain Underpants comic with her as "The Wicked Wedgie Woman" instead, and the boys pass out the "Friday Memo", with several humorous changes. They later convince Mr. Krupp to sign a blank card, but later, having found out about their comic, he puts them in detention. Harold defiantly refuses to give Ms. Ribble the card, while Mr. Krupp seizes it; Harold makes it look like a marriage proposal. Mr. Krupp remains indifferent to the following chaotic school week. (The week involves none of the kids showing up on Monday, all the kids wearing their pajamas to school and picking their noses on Tuesday, some of the kids looking very silly on Wednesday, kids having food fights in the lunchroom and the football team wrecking the teachers' lounge on Thursday and every single kid wearing bee costumes to school and making silly faces in yearbook photos on Friday.) At the wedding, just before they get married, Ms. Ribble breaks up with Mr. Krupp because he has a funny-looking nose (ironically, they both have the same nose shape). When they say it was George and Harold, the boys escape.
Ms. Ribble has dropped their B's and C's to F's and G's (which is the only grade lower than an F), which means that they'll have to repeat the fourth grade (although, in Harold's opinion, there is no such grade as a G). Harold reluctantly agrees to hypnotize her, but then a local newscast reveals the police are shutting down the Hypno-Ring company because when the Hypno-Rings are used on women, a mental blunder causes them do the opposite of what the bearer of the Hypno-Ring tells them to do. The boys, as an afterthought, tell Ms. Ribble that she will be the nicest teacher ever and will not become mean like The Wicked Wedgie Woman. That night, Ms. Ribble arrives as The Wicked Wedgie Woman, but accidentally spills super power juice into her hair, which forms several tiny hands. She kidnaps the boys and takes them to her house, where she builds robot copies of them. When Mr. Krupp snaps at Harold 2000, he turns himself into Captain Underpants and asks for help from the robots, whose Spray Starch defeats him. Meanwhile, The Wicked Wedgie Woman ties the boys to adjacent chairs with a candle and hatchet, but instead of hurting George and Harold, the hatchet simply cuts through the ropes.
George and Harold find the wedgied Captain Underpants, convinced that he lost his powers. The newest store sells everything but fabric softener, so they make a comic about Captain Underpants' origin. He reads it, eventually says the words on the back and defeats the robots. As Captain Underpants and The Wicked Wedgie Woman face off, George shouts to Harold that he'll get rid of his extra-strength starch, and she steals all the bottles and sprays them at Captain Underpants. Due to the counterfeited hair remover, everyone is bald (even Captain Underpants). Captain Underpants turns back into Mr. Krupp and the boys hypnotize Ms. Ribble to remember the last two weeks and not become the nicest teacher in the school's history, of course she does the opposite much to the kids' happiness.
Comic 1: Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman
Ms. Ribble gives the students each 41 book reports as holiday homework. After the holiday, the book reports fall on top of her, nearly killing her. She is transported to a hospital, where they rebuild her into a robot with a wedgie robo-claw inside. Captain Underpants appears, but loses against The Wicked Wedgie Woman because she arms herself with spray starch, then hangs him on a pole. Some children walk by and catapult him into a pool, pouring fabric softener in it. Underpants creates a loop underneath The Wicked Wedgie Woman, which the robo-claw follows her instead of Underpants, George and Harold hypnotize Ms. Ribble into giving them better grades.
Comic 2: The Origin of Captain Underpants
The second comic in the book starts with an introduction to Underpantyworld, Captain Underpants' fictional home world. Suddenly, the Wedgie Warlords aboard the Starch Ship Enterprize appear and spray starch on Underpantyworld. However, the leader, "Big Daddy Long Johns", creates an amulet that is able to protect the entire planet from the starch. However, it gets accidentally swallowed by his son, "Little Baby Underpants" (later revealed to be Captain Underpants), so the entire planet becomes doomed. Big Daddy Long Johns and his wife, "Princess Pantyhose", are forced to save their son, and not the planet. Stretching the underwear, Big Daddy Long Johns and Princess Pantyhose catapult Little Baby Underpants towards Earth, while Underpantyworld is destroyed. Little Baby Underpants is adopted by two old people, who name him "Captain", after their favorite cereal. As he grows up, Captain feels isolated from other children, since he only wears underwear. Captain has a dream, where he meets his parents, and because he has the amulet still inside, he is invulnerable to starch. All he has to do is shout the sentence "I summon the power of Undyworld!", and he will overcome the powers of starch. He becomes a superhero named Captain Underpants, and never becomes afraid of starch anymore. The comic ends and in the real world, Captain Underpants shouts out the sentence.
Characters
- George Beard – A student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School who is Harold’s best friend.
- Harold Hutchins – A student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School who is George's best friend.
- Mr. Krupp/Captain Underpants – The mean principal of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School and the superhero of the world.
- Ms. Ribble/Wedgie Woman – The formerly-mean teacher of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School and evil villain of Wedgieville.
- Miss Anthrope – The school secretary.
- Mr. Meaner – The gym teacher of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Mr. Rected – The guidance counselor.
- Ms. Guided – A teacher of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Miss Fitt – Another teacher of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Mr. Rustworthy – The music teacher (implied by his tie.)
- Ms. Dayken – Another teacher of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Melvin Sneedly – George and Harold's nemesis and Jerome Horwitz Elementary School nerd and tattletale.
- Ingrid Ashley – The newscaster of Channel 4 Eyewitness News.
- Larry Zarrow – The reporter of Channel 4 Eyewitness News.
- Aaron Mancini – A student of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Stephanie Yarkoff – A student of Jerome Horwitz Elementary School.
- Police Officer – A police man who is hung up by Wedgie Woman.
- Syd Macaroni – The lead policeman.