22 Mar 2015

The creation of Captain Underpants

From Sunday Morning, 11:06 am on 22 March 2015

Captain Underplants
Captain Underpants float in the Superheroes parade at Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 2015. Photo credit: Clare Gleeson.

Kids love Captain Underpants and here’s how author Dav Pilkey tells the story of how he came about: “I was sitting in my 2nd grade classroom when my teacher used the word “underwear”. Everyone around me started to laugh. My teacher got very angry and shouted, “UNDERWEAR IS NOT FUNNY!” We all laughed even harder. So I took out a piece of paper and drew a picture of a superhero with a red cape and underwear, and I named him Captain Underpants. He was a big hit with everybody in my classroom—except for my teacher, of course.”

Pilkey is heading to NZ for the Auckland Writers Festival and he joins Wallace Chapman to talk about turbo toilets, Ook and Gluk, George and Harold … and being banned.