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 |
| Language | English |
| Series | Captain Underpants series |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | Blue Sky (US), Scholastic (US) |
Publication date | August 29, 2001 (black-and-white), December 26, 2017 (color edition) |
| Publication place | United States |
| 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
editMs. 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 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. 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). Mr. Krupp is furious and explain the boys' trick, and Ms. Ribble tries to attack the boys, but they manage to escape.
To get back at them, Ms. Ribble has dropped their B's and C's to F's and G's, making them redo the fourth grade. Harold reluctantly agrees to let George hypnotize her, then a local newscast reveals the police are shutting down the company that made the Hypno-Rings because they are now considered dangerous. Additionally, when they are used on women, a mental blunder makes them do the opposite of what the bearer tells them to do. The boys, unaware of the newscast, tell Ms. Ribble that she will turn their grades back to normal and not become Wedgie Woman. That night, she arrives George’s treehouse 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 after he kicks a ball into space, 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 the hatchet simply cuts through the ropes.
George and Harold find the wedgied Captain Underpants, convinced that he lost his powers. They make a comic about Captain Underpants' origin, which he reads, 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 and the boys hypnotize Ms. Ribble to forget the last two weeks and become the nicest teacher in the school's history.
Reception
editKirkus Reviews wrote, "As in the previous four episodes, neither the pace nor the funky humor [...] lets up for a moment. Pilkey is still having entirely too much fun with this popular series, which continues to careen along with nary a whiff of staleness."[1] Publishers Weekly agreed that the novel is filled with "waistband-expanding comedy".[2]
References
edit- ^ "Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman". Kirkus Reviews. 2001-07-15. Archived from the original on 2016-03-16. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
- ^ "Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Women by Dav Pilkey". Publishers Weekly. 2001-09-01. Archived from the original on 2023-01-27. Retrieved 2024-02-15.
- ^ "Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman". Booklist. 2002-01-01. Archived from the original on 2011-11-26. Retrieved 2024-02-15.